From what a lot of so-called football experts have been saying about this Arsenal star, even this season when he has arguably been better than he was for Real Madrid and Werder Bremen and in the form of his life, you could be forgiven for thinking that Mesut Ozil was struggling to live up to the transfer price the Gunners paid for him.
One look at his stats, though, and the direct effect the German international has had on Arsenal flying high in the Premier League, qualifying for the next round of the Champions League and defending the FA cup and you get a much different story.
The problem that some have with Ozil is that his stats are excellent in almost every category of the game such as work rate, passes made, passing accuracy, chance creation and of course providing assists, except one key area. He does not score enough goals they say and that stops him from being a truly world class number 10.
Just five goals from 32 games in all competitions last season and just five so far this time is certainly not a great return compared to some of the other top players in that position. But according to a Daily Mail report, Ozil could not give a monkey’s, as long as he is helping whatever team he is in to win matches. In fact he thinks changing his style and being more focused on scoring could actually take away from what he brings to the team.
The midfield star said, “At the end of the day, I try to be as successful as possible in every single game – to win the match.
“It doesn’t really matter if I’m scoring or assisting, as long as we win. I don’t think I will be doing myself any favours if I focus on scoring more, or becoming more arrogant in front of goal – and certainly not my teammates.
“I hope to fight for a title with both Arsenal and Germany [in 2016] – no question.”
If Ozil keeps up his form he will break the Premier League assist record and Arsenal will win the Premier League and if he takes that on to Euro 2016 and provides a few assists but no goals and Germany win it, will people still criticise his lack of goals? And will he even care?