You would think that the critics would have learned their lessons about the Arsenal and Germany international star Mesut Ozil by now, especially after last season when despite still being accused of being lazy and not having enough influence our number 11 covered more miles than most and had the best creative stats in all of the big leagues around Europe.
Obviously not though, as I have seen lots of articles in the football media questioning the German’s form, mainly because the king of the assists has yet to provide one this season. Time to panic and wonder whether Ozil has lost it? Not quite Gooners.
In fact a closer look at his stats on the squawka.com website show you that he is actually performing pretty well for the Gunners. No assists maybe, but he does already have two Premier League goals to his name. He also has the best passing accuracy (91 percent) in the Arsenal team and has created more scoring chances (13) than any of his team mates.
Alex Iwobi is the top assister with three but he has only created seven chances so you can see that the finishing of the chances can play a big part in a player’s creative stats. And we should remember that stats do not tell the whole story.
The fact is that Ozil’s ability and vision are massive for the fluent type of football Arsenal play and most things go through the German. So let’s not be suckered in by his critics and just enjoy Mesut Ozil doing his thing shall we?
Bob.
Ozil will always divide opinions throughout his career,that’s the kind of player he is..
Last season,Giroud helped him to get many assists so it could be down to that also,OR he is not yet used to our new formation..
Against Basel,(who gave us space)Ozil still wasn’t effective despite having space to work with,Sanchez was doing job and it was like we played with 10 men..and he played just behind Sanchez in a 4..4..2.. set up..
We still have a lot of variations we can use BUT the problem is Wenger can’t bench Ozil…
Let’s check out this formation against Basel..
. Cech….
Bell….Musti….Kos…..Mon
Walcott..Xhaka..Cazorla..Iwobi..
……………………Ozil
…….Sanchez….
We can just replace Ozil with Sanchez and bring in Perez
Sanchez
……………………Perez…..
Cazorla and Xhaka can pass well from deep as we saw Cazorla’s pass to Sanchez against Basel which led to our first goal…
For me, we are not playing our best 11 yet and am not worried about Ozil..
Giroud never helps Ozil to get anytin, if any1 helps, it’s Ozil that helps Giroud to look manageable.
if you followed Arsenal games and statistically from the season Giroud joined and also the season Ozil joined till last season you ll discover Giroud never improved it was in fact Ozil’s creativity that improved.
in his first 2years he created above 150 chances, last season alone whoscored.com recorded his chances created at an European-highest 144chances.
same applies to the clearcut chance created ratio.
this is what Giroud profited from that’s aside the many he still missed and the historic goal drought of the 2nd half of the season which made Ozil unable to to break Henry’s assist-record and more importantly made us lose the title.
about Ozil’s lack of assist it has more to do with the presence of Iwobi. Iwobi is like a false 10 so Ozil has to drop deeper than usual.
you can see that when Iwobi was subbed off for a more orthodox winger-AOC, Ozil advanced and became the creative hub again.
Alexis upfront so far also operates as a deeplyingforward which ll choke the CAM area If Ozil remains there with Iwobi n Alexis.
but I feel it won’t take long before Iwobi and Ozil learn to balance each other’s roles out and also Alexis become more “obsessed” with scoring which ll free up the CAM more n the assists starts pouring in again, this time at a faster rate considering the pace of the attack.
Here we go again, it is always someone else’s fault whenever Ozil is playing badly.never his fault!
What do we say when Sanchez is on a bad form,or anyone for that matter???
Do we blame another player??
First it was Walcott,Wenger,Giroud and now Iwobi….
Against Burnley Sanchez was doing what Ozil is meant to do and at the end Sanchez delivered the cross that led to the goal, against PSG, Ozil did nothing,I will stop at that…
The truth you don’t wanna admit is Ozil is overrated,inconsistent,and also very limited….
I will prefer Cazorla and even Iwobi to play his role…
No one is blaming Iwobi. It’s just a tactical point about his style. Also your point about the PSG game is wrong. Ozil did do something. When a team sets up defensively it is hardest to play as a CAM as there is often very little ahead of you. Ozil isn’t the kind of player who will dribble through the whole opposition team. He passes through the opposition team but if there’s no one to pass to you can’t pass. All CAMs drift in and out of this kind of game but when they are in the game they have to provide chances. Ozil played a lovely reverse ball and Iwobi’s shot rebounded to Sanchez. It’s called a key pass. Don’t look at goals and assist stats and then say Ozil did nothing. He had a bad game but delivered when it mattered. Class is permanent
Ozil asisted Giroud in 5 or7 consecutive matches last season
And for all the abuse Giroud gets,he does more than your precious and overrated Ozil
even if you u dnt wanna admit what u see on the pitch, the stats dnt lie.
it’s an insult to even mention Ozil’s name beside the model, excuse of a striker.
..and no1 is blaming Iwobi here, what I’m saying is Ozil is still influential in buildup play, he is just not the one that gives the final pass cos Iwobi does that as he moves into the CAM during games