He plays between the lines and is still the best player in the squad at doing so. The reason we struggle so much going forward is because we have Lacazette dropping in there who can't pass and we now have Auba who is even worse at that. Pepe is on the right trying to dribble and looking lost in all but the simplest build up play, Saka can beat a man, but again his combination play is poor. The result of this is that not a single midfielder is encouraged or permitted to run beyond the strikers or actually receive a ball in that half space because the ball comes back 9/10 times. Emery knows this which is why he plays a flat midfield and the result is the dour football we witness.
Ozil played well against Forest not because they were poor, and they were poor, but because he had Reiss-Nelson, Willock and to a lesser extent Smith-Rowe to play with. He's also the smartest player we have on the counter attack, which time and time again breaks down because of what I said in the first paragraph. Ozil is not the answer, but out of the resources at hand, he is certainly part of it.
