The Wizard of Özil

[Angelito]

Context. n.

the parts of a written or spoken statement that precede or follow a specific word or passage, usually influencing its meaning or effect:
You have misinterpreted my remark because you took it out of context.

Hypocrisy. n.

a pretense of having a virtuous character, moral or religious beliefs or principles, etc., that one does not really possess.
Spending much of your forum time in criticizing Mesut Ozil/openly admitting that facts wouldn't change opinion, thereby willingly accepting that no debate or statistics could aid in changing of one's stance on the situation, acting all virtuous, and calling someone else a hypocrite.

[Power n Glory]

Funny. That’s out of context. Look at the whole quote.

Please don't. I've made my point and whatever you have you have to say won't change my mind. Let Ozil's performances do the talking.

Question – So when posters come up with stats comparing Emery’s season with Wenger’s worst, is that going to change you’re stance on the matter? Of course not.

As said to Crimson, let Ozil’s performances do the talking and the same logic applies to Unai. Stats from past performances won’t suddenly make me want to revise how I’ve viewed his time at Arsenal and I guess that’s the same for you guys. But if Ozil starts performing at the level we all know he can and he’s consistent, I’ll give praise where it’s due. It’s that simple. He’s still an Arsenal player, I still think Unai should start him so it’s not a closed case. I just don’t put much stock in the statistics being used to make out as if he hasn’t been inconsistent.

[Marsbar100]

Emery is doing well when he plays a simple system that the players understand and chooses/has our better players available and plays them correct position,, t'sat simple.

He has come up stuck when he has tried overcomplicating things, most players in the squad probably havntt grown up playing 3atb to often, no surprises they struggled, it can work, conte made it work but he is a fantastic tactical manager and got the players to udnerstand it, they and better players to tbf.

Sure we have a better squad now than when Wenger was in charge but if it was down to Wenger we would probably still be playing. Giroud, he was holding us back in the market.

[Power n Glory]

Emery has done ok but at the moment I’m unconvinced that he’ll be able to win us major trophies like the Prem and Champs League.

The change in formation makes no sense because it’s not his usual formation and it’s not ours either. We also don’t have the players suited for it so no idea what he was thinking.

I think this Ozil benching situation had a major effect on the mood around the camp. It’s been handled poorly. Ramsey going is another one but that’s out of his control. But I also think he’s tried to find a solution to playing both Lacazette and Aubameyang upfront. Since Auba said he wants to play up front, he hasn’t been starting games on the wing. He hasn’t worked that one out just yet.

[NovaGB]

I like Ozil, but he does not work with Emery so i think one has to go, from what i gather Emery likes high work rate players who can defend and attack and he sees Ozil as a luxury, great at what he does, but is not efficient elsewhere, i gather from what i have read and videos i have watched that Ozil is a bit of a diva also.

So really as much as i like having him, hes a expensive problem, and it would make sense to offload and try and sign a player who maybe has less vision, but can do the other jobs on the pitch when we need to tighten up.

I suppose if we are playing 4231 and fielding say Ozil, Ramsey, Laca, Auba, Mkhy etc, then having poor defensive players like Xhaka, Kolasinac, Mustafi, Bellerin etc etc, as much as it looks great going forward, we are always going to get smashed at teh other end and concede cheap goals.

Banega is certainly not the long term answer as a replacement, but he would give us what ozil lacks, as hes a work horse in defence (from what i saw in the world cup, he never stops chasing the ball) and in attack as a short term option whilst we are skint.

There is also that problem that no big club other than Bayern (that i can think of) plays a 4231 regularly, and even then they tend to use a b2b type player in Goretzka who is equally as good at playmaking as he is defending, and have much more reliable defensive players elsewhere.

What i get from watching how we move, extend when attacking and collapse into a unit defensively, Ozi is not the man for the job and he wants a player who can drop deeper when we tighten up with our designated DM, moving deeper into defensive positions.

Obviously its not the root of our problems, but it is one of them, its a shame though because Ozil really is world class at what he does, just the number 10 advanced playmaker seems outdated nowadays, especially in England, he has a lot of other problems also, like playing Auba interchanging everywhere in the front 3 spending most of his time out wide, but he has no 'hold the ball' kind of striker either, as much as Laca is a fun player to watch, and a natural goalscorer, Auba would do best paired wit ha false 9 style forward like Benzema or Firmino or a target man like Giroud that can do a similar job (probably a super unpopular opinion here) like how he used to play with Sanchez and with Griezmann in the national team and that Laca should be rotated with Auba to do the same job.

Whatever the problem is, even if i'm way off in what i think i see, there is definitely a function problem overall with the gap between defence and attack.

[theHotHead]

As I have stated, Ozil is not the reason we defend like complete dickheads, when he doesn't play we are defensively just as bad. So can we all stop scapegoating Ozil please.

[NovaGB]

As I have stated, Ozil is not the reason we defend like complete dickheads, when he doesn't play we are defensively just as bad. So can we all stop scapegoating Ozil please.

I'm not scapegoating him, i think there is a problem all round, i did try to say that and explain why i think that.

But there is no getting away from...great player, but does not fit in the way Emery wants to play because fielding him means one less player who can defend or at least chase effectively, even when he gives it his all, he does not have the right physicals or attributes for the job for the way we play currently.

Just because you 'state it' means nothing, its just a opinion, not a statement of fact.

[Rockape]

Anyway, back to the crisps!

[NovaGB]

You could put a prime Pele in a non league team and he would probably be a hindrance goal hanging rather than being functional.

Ok that opinion is a bit exaggerated, but even if the opinion is unpopular, great individual player, not suitable for us currently, there is no reason why the boss would not play him otherwise.

It was always the case that over the years he would do nothing for about 15 games then do something like Bergkamp, then vanish again for another 15 games, he has never been consistent for us and hes what? the 6th highest paid player in the world?

I'm not against him, and my comments may be a tad stretched, but outside of bias and into reality, but i can see why the boss is making a stand with him.

You have a player like Torreira who works his ass off week in and week out for the shirt and plays the way Emery wants on what? 70k then Ozil who rarely shows up and can't adapt, and even when he is playing regularly on 350k a week, i can see why that would be disruptive.

If anything Ozil probably deserves a new challenge because his talent is being wasted here because he cannot use it effectively in the way we play.

[Power n Glory]

Loved him when we were on that run, unsure now, which is bound to happen.

When Merse made that statement during our 23 game run about us being like a top boxer with no chin waiting to be hit (something like that), although negative, was really what everyone was thinking if we are being realistic, we could see it when Cardiff were tearing us apart etc (even though we ended up winning), we were scraping wins but looked super beatable because of how bad we were defending.

He needs a good summer, the board needs to pay out, he needs to reshape to his vision and offload the players who do not fit his way of playing, even great ones, if they cannot function the way he wants *cough cough Ozil*.

If we are no better off this time next season and still conceding the way we do, then he needs to be replaced with somebody more suitable to the job.

If he does nick that 4th spot then improve next season, getting players off the wage bill that do not fit his vision, then he is definitely what we need.

If he does offload said players, which will be a big gamble, and still fails, then he has to go.

The way i see it right now is....is Ozil the problem? or is Emery the problem? but its definitely a problem either way, and Emery does say convincing stuff, so i tend to believe him, and personally i always had these hang ups on Ozil, fantastic gifted player, but totally out of place with the way we play because of his work rate and physicals and poor mental game.

Right now Ozil looks like a fighter who turns up to get knocked out and pick up the pay check, but every now and then does something unbelievable.

The game changes and players have to adapt to the conditions or they get left behind. Saw your other post and you're right about other teams not really using a number 10 in the same way we've used Ozil. If we were to sack Unai Emery end of the season, that doesn't save Ozil's position. Not many teams were keen to take him off our hands for free last year and Unai's not the only manager to struggle with his position.

I wouldn't mind seeing Ozil in a deeper more central role and see if he can reinvent himself. We've seen it with Pirlo, we've seen it with Cazorla, Arteta and even Bergkamp. Players start to get older and adjust their game but remain effective. If he'd work a bit harder on his defending and upped the intensity, he'd solve that Xhaka problem. It would solve the distribution problem, he has a variety of passes on him so I'm sure he'd still get assists. He just has to be willing defend harder and that's my only concern. Way to laid back and jogs at one temp instead of sprinting to close down the opponent. But even with that flaw, I still wouldn't mind seeing if it could work because it's not as if we're getting much defensive goodness out of Xhaka.

[ag6789]

No body plays super day in and day out. And there are players whom Emery put on the field every day, play poorly almost every day. That's why we conceded these huge number of goals and get beat by competitive teams.
If Emery wants headless work horses, we would be like Newcastle or Burnley, mid-table masters.
If you want trophies, you need prima Donna game changers , with a mind of their own, who will not fall in the category of robots.
If your manager is smart enough, he would be able to devise a way to use his strong points.
Mediocre managers are likely to manhandle them and screw up ; examples abound.

[Power n Glory]

No body plays super day in and day out. And there are players whom Emery put on the field every day, play poorly almost every day. That's why we conceded these huge number of goals and get beat by competitive teams.
If Emery wants headless work horses, we would be like Newcastle or Burnley, mid-table masters.
If you want trophies, you need prima Donna game changers , with a mind of their own, who will not fall in the category of robots.
If your manager is smart enough, he would be able to devise a way to use his strong points.
Mediocre managers are likely to manhandle them and screw up ; examples abound.

Who are the game changers in this squad? At a stretch, I'm going with Ramsey and Lacazette. When the chips are down and the rest of the team are playing poorly, they're the two I'd rate the most likely to pull something off. But they don't come close to what Sanchez, RVP and Cesc could pull off.

I wouldn't put Ozil in that category because he needs the right system and support around. Emery has to try and find that balance. I really have no idea what he was thinking with this 3-4-3 system. Wrong sort of players all over the shop for that formation.

[NovaGB]

No body plays super day in and day out. And there are players whom Emery put on the field every day, play poorly almost every day. That's why we conceded these huge number of goals and get beat by competitive teams.
If Emery wants headless work horses, we would be like Newcastle or Burnley, mid-table masters.
If you want trophies, you need prima Donna game changers , with a mind of their own, who will not fall in the category of robots.
If your manager is smart enough, he would be able to devise a way to use his strong points.
Mediocre managers are likely to manhandle them and screw up ; examples abound.

Come on mate, if you are paid 350k a week you would be expected more than 1 or 2 good games a season.

I'd rather a guy who fits our needs who is consistently above average all of the time, rather than non existent then out of the blue 'world class' for a game once or twice a season.

If you weigh up who is good/bad, take in to consideration the injury's to defensive players, there is very few other players who are that consistently poor other than the other problem areas like Xhaka/Mustafi/Lichtsteiner, we are not a struggling team, we are a team that's on the edge of champions league qualification who only really loses to the top 5 sides and for some reason Southampton at least once every year.

Its not really a case of that he plays 'well' but doesn't do anything 'special', he literally does not turn up to 90% of our games and hes paid double of players like Auba who is doing his job well, or 4x the amount someone like Torreira is being paid who leaves his heart and soul on the pitch every game.

Is it worth paying him 4 or 5 decent players wages for him to do something extraordinary in a random game against a lower half of the table team?

I mean if he is at least going to do it, then in the big games would be nice.

Hes fun to watch, he had a good patch a few seasons ago, but he really is a bit of a failed experiment and he is a financial problem on the squad and does not fit tactically, so he is a selection headache, plus hes 31, does not get on with the boss and from what i have read a bit of a diva.

[theHotHead]

Please don't. I've made my point and whatever you have you have to say won't change my mind. Let Ozil's performances do the talking.

Lol, running from it because Crimson already took a big chunk out of your wotless argument and was about to tombstone it

I don't blame you.

You was in here talking about crisps! The nerve of you.

Crimson can share his data if he actually had something but most gave up the debate. Don't hang from another man's nuts. Have some self respect.

Mate I killed your argument yonks ago by proving you are a hypocrite. You choose to place more value over a stat that makes your argument look better and you dismiss a perfectly valid stat because it makes your argument look worse.

I on the other hand acknowledged both stats. You had no argument to the third stat, the xA stat where Ozil is doing fine. You have nothing at all apart from "Ozil cant create tap ins to open goals" stats

Wotless argument, like they are the only chances a player can create. Discussing crisps is far more fun, your argument has been dead since the start, plus you refuse to acknowledge a valid stat. So I see no point in arguing with a coward.

[Power n Glory]

Post up those xA stats again.

Ozil isn't doesn't lead in that field either so all this talk of him being the best in the world is misguided.

You see no point in arguing with a 'coward' but you're jumping on to other posters comments and playing the male cheerleader because you're incapable of articulating an intelligent point. It's so bad you've even resorted to slinging mud in other threads where I've said nothing and has zero to do with Ozil. Grow up a little.