Arsenal’s biggest ever signing Mesut Ozil has been called lazy and accused of going missing during games due to his laid back attitude on the pitch, but the German international has no interest in listening to anyone outside the club.
“If you look at my statistics, I am one of the players who covers the most distance,” Ozil told TalkSport. “Also, if you look at the stats in terms of assists and creating chances, they are all pretty good. I know some people might want me to make X-number of passes – but people often miss what goes on off the ball.
“I’m not really bothered what critics say. What’s important is what the manager and coaching staff think. I am a team player, I just care about always giving 100 per cent for the team.”
Since Ozil was out injured, he looks much stronger and fitter, He really looks like he is much more capable of fending off the physical Premiership defenders, and he admits that the Gunners are looking much more like a title winning unit, although it may be a bit late for this season.
“It would be wrong to talk about winning the title, because it is not in our hands,” he says. “Our goal is to win every game until the end of the season, whether it be in the FA Cup or Premier League. It is a bit frustrating really, because we have to hope Chelsea slip up, but all we can do is focus on our game.”
“We have the quality of players,” he says. “We had a lot of injury problems at the start of the season, but now that just about everyone has recovered, you can see our quality. Just look at the performance we displayed against Liverpool [in April’s 4-1 win]. When we have a fit squad, we are capable of beating anyone and are a genuine title contender. We have just been a bit unlucky in terms of injuries.”
With a stronger Ozil, and all our injured players back, we can really look forward to a much more succesful season next time around, but first off all we have to finish this season strongly to give us extra confidence for the next campaign….
hear hear
That free-kick…!!!
I am one of Ozil critics, nothing personal at all, just I’m a fan of hard working players that is not only about distance covered but the effectiveness because you might just roam the pitch with no any significant effect (defense or attack). Saying that, I can see Ozil did have a slight improvement this season but it is still way less than expected, hope for next year…
Your opinion about Ozil makes no sense as if you look at stats from his first season with us (last season), he had top assists and also had top chances created by far (76 in 26 appearances). Cazorla was next in line with 66 chances created in 31 appearances, yet I don’t see him getting any flak? Wilshere’s and Ramsey’s stats are far worse, Wilshere had 33 chances in 24 appearances and Ramsey 32 chances created in 23 appearances (although he scored 10 goals so that makes up for it.)
On top of that, Ozil is playing better than he did last season so please stop all the criticism – the guys end product is good and that’s what counts end of the day so please get off his back.
Shut it, pal! You are not Ozil’s dad and everybody has the right to criticise any player. Good of u to argue with stats, but that does not make u Captain America.
By the way, indeed Ozil is becoming indispensable to the team AND HIS WORK RATE HAS IMPROVEVED TREMENDOUSLY.
I’m surprised you have the nerve to show your face on here KickassFan, the no1 AOB who wanted Wenger fired half way through the season! Well the jokes on you bud. Stats are fact and paint a pretty good picture of what is actually happening, like Wenger actually being a major asset to this club over the last decade, contrary to what short sighted fans like yourself think. I bet you cannot wait for us to lose again so you can spout your nonsense on here again.
Um um who is number 1 AOB
@No Giroud, I’m happy
Sorry dude, just have to ask, What’s your opinion on Giroud?
Not only is ozil covering the most ground but it is not headless chicken or worthless running, his movement and running creates spaces for our other players while dragging out defenders.
I hope arsenal fans fully understand the kind of special talent we have in ozil. Players of his ability don’t come around often and he is a classy player. I hope his rich vein of form continues while adding more goals to his game. Keep it up avatar eyes
your criticism would be a lot more valid if you cared to back it up with… maybe anything at all??
‘Roam the pitch with no significant effect..’ seems to be the only area you mention but are you not at all curious why pretty much everyone else sees his movement as first-class??
One other thing.. You mention hard-working players.. Your name suggests a dislike for one of the most hard-working strikers in the league?? Not only that, he’s been scoring at a world-class frequency this season. Kinda makes your appreciation of ‘hard working players’ a tad dubious…
you are awesomely insane..why can’t we just appreciate what we have rather than fuss and fuss..not as expected?? Ozil is currently in his best form now ever since he signed for us..and you still have problems with him..Give Ozil to mourinho and he’ll gladly accept him and with his talent destroy any team… Ozil was bought a playmaker, i dont know why we want him to be an all rounder..its not his fault…if you have good midfielders and defenders doing the job cleanly Ozil’s main target would be to create chances and destroy defences with his killer passes.. I have mever looked down on Ozil…we all should stay behind him and stop fussing about his workrate!!! Appreciate and see d good side of his gane not his weakness!!! am sure if he listens to fans like you he wouldnt have improved… Mesut we love you,don’t pay attention to sum of us who doesnt know your value..just keep being yourself and keep making assists since thats what your perfect at….
and oh!! am the new guy next door
^^^^^ this.
Thumbs up from me sir
Greatly appreciate it…sire
Let’s not get carried away, Mourinho would not entertain Ozil in the EPL. He got rid of De Bruyne, Mata and Schurrle. His reason being they were lazy players.. He had the chance to sign Ozil and would have been in pole position to sign him last season as he was his Madrid manager. But he passed him on. Mourinho was complaining about Hazard needing to defend and track back better last season. He blamed his best attacking player for not staying switched on defensively against Atletico Madrid.
“Mesut I know well from our time together at Real Madrid. He’s a very sensitive boy. He needs the confidence of the others. The need to believe in him.”
“He’s a phenomenal player. He’s one of those players that you buy and you complete the puzzle of your team.”
“Ozil is unique, there is no copy of him, not even a bad one”.
“He is the best No. 10 in the world. He made things easier for me and his team-mates with his vision of the game and the decisions that he made”.
“Everybody loves him and you can see a bit of [Luis] Figo and [Zinedine] Zidane in him.”
Jose Mourinho.
I wouldn’t be too sure of your assessment Goonster. He took Cesc and he is no work-horse.
Nice to see a well organized, thought substantiated comnent, rather than the beat the drum, anti Ozil rallying cry GOONSTER has been spewing since the moment Mesut signed with the Gunners.
Well…..being criticized is actually a good thing…..it keeps you on your toes….any good player or extraordinary player you see today was once criticized, what I don’t just get is the way Ozil is being criticized…..the same way he played at Madrid has been the same way he plays for us…..the difference being that Madrid has better attacking players that converts mosy of the numerous chances he create….even now he works more, does marking, play freekicks and lots more….it is high-time we appreciated what we’ve got in our hands #COYG
Ozil has been better since he came back from injury. And if any club that had only gone as high as £16 million being their record transfer for a player, but then triple that on a £42 million and £150,000 a week player, what do you think will be expected of that player? That is our record signing in history and record wages. So I think people should be expectant.
Transfer fee irrelevant – not Ozil’s asking price or demand. Wages fair enough. What do you expect? Well, to be our most creative player is a start. Check. Terry, Fabregas, Hazard, Rooney, Toure, Aguero, Van Persie, Falcao, Di Maria etc all on more, some much, much more – check out their fans, you won’t hear them bang on about these guy’s salaries as much as some Arsenal fans. Mata, Silva, Nasri, Kompany, Lampard, Sturridge, Gerrard all on similar money. We are still playing catch up. We sound like a twee small-town outfit to be constantly bringing it up as if it was our money.
Just think Ozil is just improving with time at Arsenal….best part is he is only going to get better and so will Arsenal.
Look guys, the reason people are/were calling Ozil flop is all down to the mentality of the English. Sorry English lads, but I do really feel there is something wrong in how you guys view a player. It seems in EPL people who run like crazy and dribble are the only one’s appreciated in the attack line and those who tackle hard and break bones are credited (refer Phil comment) in defense.
Guys who control the tempo, ability on the ball are sniffed as inferior. This is not the case in La Liga, BundesLiga and even at some case Ligue 1, Serie A. And I guess thats the reason English national team is doing poorly. Cause the only 2 good technical players in England seem to be Carrick and Wilshere (yes he is technical). And I guess thats why Jack is struggling, cause he wants to be at the standards at what are being set by English (hopeless) pundits and media. You have to wonder why Barca were after him? because they know the technical ability of Jack. If Jack focuses on that, he will be a great player for Arsenal, instead of trying to dribble etc.
And lastly, why do players and Managers/coaches of other leagues talk so highly of Arsenal? cause they Know what Arsene does. Has any other manager ever critisized Arsene regarding his trophy failure? NO. Cuase they understand the workload he undertook. EXCEPT of course Moan-rhino.
Mate, don’t insult people’s intelligence. Look at Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern. Tell me of a lazy low work rate player in those teams. Modern football keeps evolving season after season. Football now days is of high energy and intensity. If you have passengers in your team then you are in trouble. Look at the high intensity at the top 3 clubs in the world ( Madrid, Bayern and Batcelona). If you can’t match that you ain’t going to go that far. Even Atletico Madrid are doing well recently beause if their high work rate.
we need players ready to make an instant impact and not another improving or learning player….we hav to many of these type of players
thats why we struggle to win
One thing with Ozil is that he can make players around him and play well. With coquelin now, he has the freedom to move around and control the attacking play of our team. Making others play well is a very nice quality to have. Iniesta, Xavi have it, Bergkamp had it. I always wanted to see Ozil and walcott link with each other but unfortunately that has not happened so far. Hope walcott will return from injury and start firing on all cylinders. With Ozil in the middle and walcott and Sanchez on either flank will tear up any defence.
The arguments against Ozil are just dumb. He created the most chances at Arsenal last year, the most of any player at the WC (from wide) and is on top form again this season.
There are quite literally a handful of players in this world that could have made that pass to Ramsey. Ozil is on a different level when it comes to his play.
When asked who he would vote for other than any of his own players, Wenger said: “Hazard…. Sterling…. Maybe I forget some. Maybe Hazard.”
I have a feeling that Wenger is flirting with the possibility of buying sterling with an intention
I think Ozil will become a better player at Arsenal than he was at Real Madrid if he listens to Arsenal fans/pundits criticism, and accepts it and do something positive on it to improve his game. There is no smoke without fire. If there is nothing to criticize Ozil for, no one will criticize him for criticism sake. I am not an Ozil critic. But I read the criticisms of him. And for him to now say he doesn’t bother or care of his critics criticisms, is a lie. I believe those criticisms have help him as due to those criticisms, he has basically improved on his game than he was playing lackadaisically for Arsenal. The Gunners need sublime performance on regular basis from him. That’s why they pay £42.5 to Real Madrid to buy his services which he is yet to fully give Arsenal. He was swapping tops at Monaco in our must qualify UCL game, instead of him to score that our much needed 3rd goal or at least gives the assist to score it.
well mate you had to put on the price tag heh?!..i bet ur d type who gets a swiss wrist watch n whrn sumone mistakenly scratch it u’d scream loud my k45 wrist watch!! u’ll pay fr it!…grow bruh d price tsg shudnt hv anythin to do with hz performance..dz z footvall nt technology..Ozil z a footballer not a gizmo… i guess if wenger were to buy pogba for £70 million your type would want him to be a CR7 or Lionel Messi cuz of d price tag…you are lost mate! *shakes head* sumone give him a map to recover himself please
Oh get over it, who cares if he swapped tops at monaco? in what way would this stop him from performing? It’s not like he came out in the second half topless.
Huge Ozil fan and glad to see him adapting necessarily to the demands of the league. Still short of imposing himself time and again in the important games IMO.
Harsh maybe, but there’s aburden of expectation with the money paid for him and his insane talent. Can’t knock his improvement though, hope he continues to show more of what he’s about.
I am one of Ozils biggest critic and my criticism had been justified 100% in my opinion. I kept pointing out to his lazy, lathergic and moany style of attitude, I have been underwhelmed by his performances since singing him last season, but since he has come back he has done alright, nothing special but he is much much better in his overall involvement in games.
He used to go missing for basically 80% of the time in most games, he would appear for about 25-30 minutes per game and the rest of the 60 minutes he was in hiding. People keep saying he is not the type to dominate games etc, but why not? Look at the Liverpool and Monaco game in France, Ozil looked dominant to me, so that excuse is not on.
I am more happy now that he is putting in more team effort, his distance covered stats can now be backed up, you can see the meaningful distance he is covering, it has purpose to it than before.
As long as he can keep improving his work rate and more involvement in games like he has been doing since he has been back then my criticism ends. I would rather a more rounded Ozil like the one in the Liverpool game than the one people have been giving MOTM before his injury this season. I prefer this type of Ozil who has more purpose in his attacking, defending and running of games. The old excuse riddled Ozil I can’t stand..
we are so obsessed with statistics that we ignore the things our players do purely on the field…2004 year of invincibles nobody gave a f*ck bout statistics other than possession,corners,fouls and shots taken as long as we were winning…Nwakwo Kanu wasnt a worker yet he was among the best…even adebayor nobody cares bout his heat map or how many times he ran up the pitch as long as he was doing his job which is scoring snd now suddenly we are intreseted in how many times a player stood on the pitch,how many times he didnt run and other shits..very soon we’ll start watching their boots and complaining bout it .. Ozil was bought as the best no 10 in the world..and now we want him to score,run like a headless chickrn, slide, defend cus of hz price tag… I dont see MESSI N CR7 running around the pitch and forcing theirselvs to defend and nobody complains bout it cus they’re best whrn it comes to attack. they are appreciated for things they do..Ozil is best when he does what he does not what we want him to do…name one playmaker better than Ozil in the EPL now..before you mention Fabregas be sure you know the number of games each has played…