There are still doubts, apparently, over the fitness of the Arsenal and Germany international midfield star Mesut Ozil, who has been ill with some bug and has not played for the Gunners since the 5-1 drubbing by Bayern Munich in Germany on February 15th.
As reported by Arsenal.com this week the manager has suggested that he may still not be ready to face the National League side Lincoln City as they look to continue their amazing FA cup dream with the biggest giant killing yet against the Arsenal.
The boss said, “I haven’t decided yet, he still felt not too well after the game. I will see in training how he feels and I haven’t decided on the team that will start the game on Saturday.”
Even assuming that the German is fit enough to feature against the Imps this weekend I would not be too sure that the manager would pick him, as it could turn out to be a physical contest and that does not really suit Ozil at the best of times, never mind when he is in the sort of form that we have seen recently.
I guess a lot of it will go down to whether Wenger thinks his play maker is up for it, because a sharp and focused Ozil could help to ensure that Arsenal make the visitors look like a side many divisions below Arsenal in the football rankings.
The manager also revealed that Alex Iwobi and Danny Welbeck were much bigger doubts for this quarter-final clash so we could do with as much attacking threat as possible available, but would you risk Ozil or give someone else like Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain the nod?
Bob.
No point in risking Ozil for Lincoln at home, if we can’t win at home without Ozil(who is totally off form right now) then the problem is bigger than we thought…
Ozil and iwobi were both in full training. I thought ozil actually come on on Tuesday night.
I see no risk in playing him, he has not beenniniured he has imply been unwell. The best way to come out of bad form is to play your way out. I would play ozil and alexis I would have walcott and perez on the flanks, with xhaka and chamberlain in the middle. I would play bellerin, mustafi, koscielny and Gibbs with ospina in goal. Bench Cech, Gabriel Monreal ramsey coquelin iwobi Giroud.
However, I think wenger will involve more of the squad with adelaide, Niles, holding, Mertesacker, martinez, Debuchy, sanogo and jenkinson all involved. In the 18
If we have the ball the entire match well then Ozil and his odd touch/flick/pass could come in handy. Sometimes, though, our first teams stars/players will find it difficult to get themselves up for these type of games, last thing we need is to be downed by Lincoln. Some would like to see the club fall further so to get Arsene out, myself, I would fear digging to big a hole, so will never subscribe to that. Lincoln are gonna try and put us off our game, that is easily done with Ozil. Speaking of which, remember Walcott and his interviews when he tried putting it about for over a handful of games. Talking like he just arrived and he was in it to win it, get him and Ozil out of this club.