The Arteta embrace of Ozil.
After that magnificent draw versus Chelsea last Tuesday I listened to a a certain Arsenal post-match podcast and was gobsmacked by the virtual orgy of Ozil bashing. According to these self-proclaimed experts Ozil was ineffective in this match and in previous games (the same Arsenal player who is usually top in passes completed and chances created). All three presenters were unanimous that the club must prepare to move him on as soon as possible. I kid thee not.
Contrast this nonsense with the disclosure by Frank Lampard in his post-match presser, when asked why Chelsea had problems controlling the game against X men vs XI. Below is a quote:
“….for 15 minutes in the first half it did. We were probably of the mindset of them having XI and Ozil pulling to the side and giving us some problems and us being in some sort of middle ground.”
– Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bN6UF0Dmo-4 (Minute 2:20 of the video)
Contrast Frank Lampard admitting Ozil creates problems for the opposition versus our own Arsenal podcasters, YouTubers and bloggers for years trying to ram a narrative down our throat that Ozil is some sort of luxury player who must be rid of as soon as possible.
These are the same people who for years maintained that “Ozil and Ramsey can’t play together”. No wonder Don Raul felt empowered to let one of the finest box-to-box midfielders in the world leave Arsenal on a free. This is the same management who also let Santi and Jack go for nothing and sent both Elneny and Mikhitaryan out on loan completely decimating the Arsenal midfield.
In return Dennis Suarez and Ceballos were brought in on loan, none of whom demonstrated anything remotely close to Santi, Jack or Rambo. Yet these people expect Ozil to be superman and put Arsenal on his back to not only create but to run all over the field trying to win back the ball.
Thinking Ozil has to be superman is delusional. Unlike our sole technician, a team like City has a platoon of skilled midfielders that include Debruyne, Sane, David Silva, Bernardo Silva, Gundogan, Mahrez, Rodrigo et al. The nonsense I heard on that podcast tells me we have a long way to go before many Arsenal fans realize how important it is to rebuild the midfield that Don Raul and Unai Emery jointly destroyed.
In conclusion I wish to highlight a comment at this blog on this topic by Finsbury, a long time critic of the ‘Ozil and Rambo can’t play together’ narrative:
In light of Lampard’s comments on Ozil’s movement inside out towards the right until he ran himself into the ground what can you say?
No need to debate that Ozil is a perfect Footballer, or if his best football is before him at his age Etc. Etc. Etc.
Frank Lampard may have been a completely different style of high level attacking midfielder/ten but that doesn’t mean he can’t appreciate other styles. Evidentially.
Whilst understanding that Lampard was trying to explain his response to the challenge from the Arsenal coach and players I appreciated the opposing coach publicly acknowledging the bravery of Arteta’s call.
Ozil may confuse the opposition but it is unforgivable that most Arsenal fans remain confused.
Was it Arsenalvision? If so I admire your fortitude, because it’s absolute dross and goes on forever.
But they have thousands of followers PG who hang on to their every word and even pay via Patreon to have the presenters tell them Arsenal must get rid of Ozil as soon as possible. They couldn’t be chatting absolute tripe, could they?
Even if you are not Ozil’s biggest fan i think he’s started every match even since Freddy was in charge? Certainly in need of a rest but thanks to the Don the only players available as cover are the kids, and Nelson is injured whilst Saka is at LB and Martinelli is already playing.
Shotts I hope you’re not getting too excited with the rumours about Lemar! Given the players he played with, and was coaching at City:
i think that Arteta intends to have at least a season and a half with Ozil, and it’s his opinion that counts. Heh.
Shotts given the positions Iwobi has started in at times for Everton you can add him to outgoings list in addition to the players you mention.
BTW, every chance I get, I make the point that at 31 Ozil cannot be expected to play every game for the rest of the season and when he plays rarely will he last the full 90 mins despite the absolute lack of comparable creativity any where else in the squad.
Plus The Jeff, now at Lyon.
I can still barely believe we wasted 2 years of Ozil due to an idiot, fraudulent coach, and an inept but smarmy agent and marketing rep acting as DoF.
As for asking him to carry the entire creative burden. I’m sure it’s the same geniuses who maintained that we never needed to buy him in the first place because we had Santi. It is true that we also needed a striker, but carrying the creative demands of Arsenal was too much to do for Santi as well. Both players together complimented each other so well because of how intelligent they are.
And then when we finally did get the strike force needed to unlock their potential, we ended up letting Santi go for free (I’m happy it worked out well for him after his injuries), and freezing Ozil out or playing him in a weird half wing back type role while Sead played primary creator.
As Finsbury points out, we also sold Jeff, for 1 million euros, telling him he had no role to play. Within a year his value went up 2000%. Lol, talk about smart business. Of course, the geniuses didn’t stop there either.
All of this is to say, with geniuses like these running the club, who can blame the geniuses running podcasts. Meanwhile they fail to recognise the genius of Ozil. It is left to opposition managers to appreciate what Mesut brings.
Hear, Hear!