It is Tuesday so it is time for the weekly Arsenal bashing guff that is produced by the hack Adrian Durham and once again his target is Mesut Ozil, and the manager, team and club in general of course, with a side dish of dismissal and disrespect to us Gooners that are stupid enough to actually support our great club.
Durham is never one to let the truth or the facts get in the way of a story but I am going to give his opinion on our German international midfielder some credence and answer the points he tries to make in a Daily Mail report.
His main criticism of our number 11 is that he failed to do enough in the big game against Chelsea and win the game for Arsenal. It is true that Ozil did not provide an assist and he did miss that chance in the final minutes, but he was involved in all our attacking play and was the player in the box closest to converting. Players miss, it happens and at the end of a long and tiring game it is even more understandable.
Actually, Adrian me old pal, the stats show that Ozil was the best midfielder on the pitch for either side. He created more chances than Fabregas, Hazard, Oscar, Cazorla, Giroud, Alexis and all. His passing accuracy of over 92 percent was bettered only by Coquelin among all the midfielders on show and obviously Ozil´s were more adventurous. All three of the chances created led to a shot and so with better finishing he would have got an assist.
It is easy to point out the great record of assists by Fabregas but they all came when Chelsea were totally dominating and Costa was scoring for fun. I could have got a few assists in that side. The fact is that the game against Chelsea on Sunday was tough and any player would have struggled to break their defence down.
Ozil has been excellent since returning from the injury he picked up in our last game against Chelsea but obviously we don´t want to dwell on that do we Adrian? Let´s accuse him of being the new Juan Sebastian Veron instead eh? That should win us Gooners up a treat and that seems to be his intent every week. Maybe him and Michael Owen should form a club…
The only reason they hate mesut so much is because he put an end to the wenger stingy, won’t spend hate campaign
Hahahaha!!! Bozo!!! So wrong!!! Mesut is just someone whose performances fluctuates. He is good, but I prefer Santi to him. Santi gives us assists and goals, Mesut only provides assists once or twice, but dumboz here think he does that more than the magical Santi.
For the luv of Mother Theresa, don’t thumb this down, ok?
Ok, Mesut has scored one or two goals, but that’s just it, Santi is better.
Oh, come on!!! Don’t I have fans on this site anymore???
It seems as if at arsenal we rate players according to price tags. lol I think Cazorla is clearly a better player than Ozil. that doesn’t make ozil bad though. Ozil is still worldclass and top top quality. But offensively and defensively cazorla is complete. the fact that he is comfortable on both legs make it easier to swith direction. read what some of his team mates are saying about him in game and training.
Joel campbell said “‘I must say that Santi Cazorla has some exceptional technical skills. He can take corners or free-kicks equally with his right or left foot.’That’s some technique! That is a very unusual thing to see and it has left me astonished he is definitely the best player I have played with”
jack wilshere said ” cazorla is easily the best and the easiest player to play with at arsenal beacuse he understands the game so well”
sanchez said on when asked about who he singles out at Arsenal.” “Santi Cazorla is a spectacular player. You never know whether he will kick the ball with his right or left foot.
“Also, he moves with short but quick strides, which is a remarkable trademark too.
“Although I knew about his quality, playing alongside him makes me very happy.”
ozil will IMPROVE. He is still very young. Cazorla has been playing with some midfield maestro like marco senna Guti xavi iniesta Alonso etc he must have learned his trade well.
Who rates players by price tags?
Arsenal fans are the least likely to do such a thing, we have rarely been able to beat other top teams in price tags and as such it kinda inbred a perspective of performance over pricetag…
To make such a claim is kinda moronic, only fans who judge by price tag alone are the ones who never watch and only know what the media tells them…
For me Cazorla and Ozil are different players who can complement each other rather than who is better than who. Cazorla has turned into an unbelievable B2B CM with Coquelin alongside him, he does that role better than Ozil could and he is in form. For the ACM… they are different types, Ozil has greater vision and better passing while Cazorla can make space by tiptoeing around a player easier for his creativity.
Before Ozil got injured he had played out on the left a fiar bit and his performances wasn’t great there, neither was Cazorlas when he played there though!
Cazorla has been in form for longer than Ozil but then Ozil had different issues at the start of the season and since coming back from injury and playing in the ACM consistantly he has maintained form, that is all we can ask of him.
Personally I would say they are on par with each other, Cazorla does make mistakes as well… Just look at some of his shots from outside the box.
Once again KickAssFan is demonstrating his lack of football knowledge. There’s more to midfield than just goals and assists, you can ask Xavi and Iniesta.
Adrian Durham is a Cnunt of the first order who makes his lining baiting gooners, everytime any of us rise to his provocation he’s got a reason to carry on doing what he does ignore the talentless ginger anus and don’t even discuss the drivel that comes out of his mouth.
Oh thou football guru, if there’s more to football than just goals and assists, what more can you say Mesut brings to the table? @Goonerlad
I mean “midfield” play, like u said.
Ball retention, movement, creating space for others, dictating the play, slipping his marker, constantly draws a second defender, creates overloads on the wings, supporting runs, great free-kicks (Corners could use some work though)
Pretty much everything a midfielder should do bar tackle and score a heap of goals.
It also put an end to the “Arsenal are a selling club” campaign, “can’t attract big names” campaign, and the “no trophies in 10years” campaign
I think the comparism between the number of assist Ozil has and the number fabregers has is a little unfair. I was explaining yesterday that enough is enough with the medical staff. they owe us and explanation. Ozil has missed 7-8 months fo football with injuries. having suffered atleast a 3- 4 months injury ever since he joined Arsenal. That is why he has only 14 assist in 2 seasons.
Cesc has played every game this season rapping up 16 assist in 1 season.If you add the time ozil has been it is almost 1 season of football injured.
Why is Ozil always injured
rambo muscle problems
Ox cannot play 2 games on a row without hamstring
Jack is now mates with the physio
Paulista just came and he gets injured all the time.
I want to ask this question again. If Cesc was at Arsenal will he had been fit all season? I bet he would miss atleast 2 – 3 months bn injured.
Enough is enough the Club DR and sport since people owe us and explanation. We can spend 200 million next season but we shall not win any major trophy if our players are in the clinic.
I go to the bayern forum all the time and Arsene needs to question the dr at Arsenal.
pep Guadiola asked why is boatang always getting injured around the 70th minute? I can’t be changing a CB in every game.
Why is frank rebery late in his recovery? he was suppose to be back 2 weeks ago. Guadiola asked. the dr later resigned from his position. But that is what a manager should be doing. he should be questioning his staff.
Arsene is tooo loyal to some incompetent folks who have clearly proven to be not good enough.
See the medical people at arsenal are wose and its high time they explain. the biggest problem at arsenal is injury. That is what we must fix. That is what we must talk about. that should be the priority this summer.
That doctor was totally scapegoated, his reputation was excellent.
Didn’t arsenal get in a new fitness coach and he said it will take some month before injury problems would be resolved.
So far it seems to have worked.
The truth is Durham is not a footballer. He doesn’t know what it takes, or what a good performance is. In every analysis of his I have read, he completely overlooks numbers and statistics, it wasn’t so long ago he was criticising Ozil for not running enough despite him having one of the largest distance travelled statistics in the league. The only opinions that matter are those of the manager, the coaching team and Mesut himself.
Ozil is quality and has adapted his game to fit the English style. It is bugging me like crazy these critics just want to attack him for being good. When he was playing shit I said it, but he really isn’t at the moment. Against Chelsea he was great, was tracking back and creating more then anyone on the pitch. Our problem was lack of width and a brick wall in front of us. He’d have even scored if it wasn’t for a luckily placed hand. Anyone want to bother discussing the silent diving dick that is Fabregas? No? Cos he was not good in our game at all and yet, he cost a fair bit…or how about focusing on the Man Utd side getting walloped 3-0 by everton. Didn’t they just spend 150m? No? Not good enough headline material? Fine fine…Durham is a hack. We should just ignore him.
Well said.
I wasn’t blind to Ozils issues last season and I am glad he has picked up this season.
Chelsea game having no width was something I noticed as well, I thought Ramsey made it too narrow and then too easy to defend, I was screaming at the TV wanting Wenger to put Theo on sooner as he would of kept more width and also punished the old Terry when theo cuts in with his pace.
Walcott can drift in though. Welbeck could produce more width but the best option was injuries or still recovering. Oxlade would produce width.
But arsenal normally produce their width from the full backs.
Walcott has arguably the best movement in our entire team. If you watch him his movement inside is done only to create space and he starts wide. Welbeck is as bad as Ramsey for cutting inside – I remember specifically in the Monaco game he was an absolute nightmare. Alexis does it too though – he cuts inside like crazy and even ignores overlap balls to try and drive the ball inside. VERY frustrating.
My only complaint was that Welbeck was brought on before Theo in that game. Had we had Theo and Giroud on at the same time we’d have had two players getting into the box when the ball was wide and alot more runs through good channels (exactly what Welbeck lacks). Bellerin got so much more joy when Theo was on because he was drawing the defender and spinning and making that defender work. Welbeck was cutting into another defenders zone and leaving the defender clear to mark Bellerin instead. Tis a shame but it happens – I don’t fault Wenger for it because Welbeck has shown he CAN do that role…he just is beyond frustrating at how often he doesn’t live up to potential.
The manner with which Terry celebrated the draw, speaks for itself on the Chelsea intent to make sure we don’t score even if it means they don’t either. Its difficult to create chances when a team is defending in such a manner..so I wouldn’t just criticise our midfielders so easily….so why iznt he criticising the No 1 team on the log for failing to score against us…
What aggravated me just as much was the fact that they didn’t even bother to set up for set pieces in the final minutes. They were always going for a draw, winning was just a luxury.
I have disclosed the reasoning behind Durham ‘s venom towards Tnie Arsenal.
I believe his biological father was a gooner and when he saw that red nut pop out he up and left the family home,hence the hatred..His father joined the foreign legion fell in some camel dung and hasn’t been seen since.
what the f*** is a Durham?!
My biggest criticism of Ozil last year was the way he shied away from games, had moments of strong influence then disappeared completely.
Against Chelsea he wanted the ball the entire game. You could see it!! I think that’s the biggest change in his game this season, he wants to be a dominant player.
All our players are starting to want the ball more I think… well Apart from Coquelin(Collumbo anyone?) who is happy to pass onto someone else and protect, but even he wants the ball massivly when Chelsea have it ^.^
I think Alexis has been the biggest influence in the determination area, he gives me the impression that we would need to chain him to the bench if he wasn’t starting lol, just seeing that passion every day must inspire others to also become just as passionate.
Ozils improvement this year is also a source of hope for Wilshere, if Wilshere comes back from injury like Ozil has then how great would that be for us fans and Wenger?
I blame Wenger for the Sunday draw, not Ozil. I don’t know any manager that would play one of our slowest players on the wings.
I would go as far as saying sell Santi to Atletico to make room for Isco. Our team is getting older and we need to regroup again.
Anyone but Santi
Why would real madrid want to sell Isco? And even if they want to sell isco why should we go for isco? isco is clearly not a priority. This is not a sweet shop. Its a well run football club. Lets get what we need first then we can start buying sweets and ganger. Whats we need now is a DM and back up striker.
If we buy Morgan Schiniderlin and lacazette we can sign 24 isco’s later and i won’t give a shit. But Isco is clearly not a priority. We had ramsey playing out wide just a few days ago. there is absolutely no reason as to why we should buy Isco.
They are only a few players in the world who can match his talent and Ramsey is far from being one of them. It would make sense, i know what kind of players Wenger wants at Arsenal and for what purpose .
Yes, more then anything we need a striker and Dm. Real does such things bec they more then a football club. I love Santi but i would be not be surprised if we trully end up selling him.
I don’t see Isco leaving anytime soon. He gets quality playing time at Real Madrid who got a double last year and can still get a double this year. And he’s still fairly young. And the fans actually like him. He doesn’t have an excuse to leave… yet….
@vijagunner
DURHAM is a talk sport radio presenter who hates the Arsenal
think @vijagunner was being sarcastic there
1. Özil is a very bad defense player. 2. You cant play pressing with him. 3. He is only good vs bad teams (the germans says he is a player who makes the 5:0 and the 6:0.). 4. His good games are too less. 5. He is to expensive.
1. Not really – he has an engine and will press players and doesn’t tend to lose out terribly in 50-50 situations thanks to having quick feet.
2. We play pressing all the time with him. He takes his lead to press off of Alexis. Often we don’t play a high press because we don’t want to leave space behind where Mert could get shown up.
3. He’s been consistently good against all teams since he came back from injury including against Utd and Liverpool.
4. He’s probably been the best AM in the league since Christmas so no…
5. Too expensive for who? His wages are not as high as any of the Man Utd strike force so you know…could be worse. He’s a luxury.
Okay..now that’s taking it too far….özil has not been the best AM since Christmas…many have been much better like Mata,Coutinho and Silva
Let’s not be silly here. Mate had one good game against loserpool n been sitting average besides that, coutinho yeah he’s scores some good goals but he hasn’t done much (look at Liverpool’s struggles), and Silva hasn’t been that good either soo plizz watch some games first not just highlights but actually sit down and watch all pl games
Ozil improved this season and next season he will be an uncontrollable beast
Don’t worry about him.