Does Ozil REALLY expect Arsenal to benefit from Bayern bashing?

It would be nice for Arsenal fans if our German international midfield star was right in what he says about this season’s record two legged defeat in the Champions League knockout phase inflicted on us by many of his fellow countrymen.

Mesut Ozil has revealed that the 5-1 beating at the hands of Bayern Munich that sent the Gunners crashing out of Europe’s elite club competition at the same stage as the previous six years was among the most painful and humbling parts of his football career, which is hardly surprising to be frank.

What is a bit more surprising, to me at least, is that our playmaker seems convinced that some good will come of this for Arsenal in the long run, Sky Sports have reported. The German claims that all the other low points have been followed by a bouncing back to success and he says that the current Arsenal squad must also do this and learn from the experience in Munich.

Ozil said, “The devastating loss at Bayern Munich this season is undoubtedly one of the darkest hours of my footballing career. It’s in the top five of the most humiliating defeats I’ve suffered.

“We were positively prepared for the game. Arsene Wenger had revealed to us his game plan. He was very clear about his ideas – and they were good ones.

“Our intention was to go all out for Bayern’s central defender Mats Hummels; to prevent him from opening up the game which he does so brilliantly. We wanted to force him to play the ball to Javi Martinez, who’s also a fine central defender but who isn’t great at opening up the game.

“In this way we hoped we’d be able to stop Bayern from building up the play at an early stage and disrupt their rhythm.

“Of course I could go on about why our game plan didn’t work. I could look for excuses. But I’m not going to. What went on between us in the dressing room after the match is nobody’s business, nor is what Wenger considered our failures to be in his post-match analysis.

“The fact is, we all failed. We were all bad! We played a game that held a mirror up to our faces.

“It was a performance we can’t just brush aside. No, we have to learn our lessons from it. We all have to ask searching questions of ourselves and accept responsibility for the defeat. All the players, all the trainers, even the management. Because this fiasco also represents a great opportunity!

“In my footballing life I’ve often fallen flat on my face and been knocked to the ground. But I’ve always got up again and won victories and titles following the defeat.

“This defeat by Bayern will produce something good at the end too.”

Really Mesut? I am not so sure, because the very next time we played Bayern Arsenal lost by the exact same score, suggesting that absolutely nothing was learned. Plus we have also failed to learn from the UCL exits dealt to us by Monaco, Barcelona and Bayern Munich in the past, so why on earth does he think this time will be any different?

Bob.

15 Comments

  1. “We were positively prepared for the game. Arsene Wenger had revealed to us his game plan. He was very clear about his ideas – and they were good ones.
    “Our intention was to go all out for Bayern’s central defender Mats Hummels; to prevent him from opening up the game which he does so brilliantly. We wanted to force him to play the ball to Javi Martinez, who’s also a fine central defender but who isn’t great at opening up the game.
    “In this way we hoped we’d be able to stop Bayern from building up the play at an early stage and disrupt their rhythm.

    WENGER’S PLAN HEH?? Stop defenders from creating build ups but leave the main threats hanging cus the ball wont get to them if u stop d defenders right?
    .
    bloooooooody genius!!

    1. If he was a boxer he’d be planning to hang onto his opponents strong right arm,while getting battered with the left ???

  2. How very nice.. learning from defeat to make you stronger the next time.

    Except with Arsenal it doesn’t. It’s the same mistakes and mentality year on year. We Were spanked by exactly the same team by the same result last year-what did we learn exactly?

  3. This is the first time any player or
    manager has said any thing publicly
    about tactics. Wow. I enjoyed that.
    Ok it was after the game but still interesting.

  4. The learning going really well. They are now restricting defeats to a max of 3 goals.

    I can definitely see the improvement

  5. “Ozil has the best pedigree out of any Arsenal player. 2010 World Cup nominated for player of the tournament. 2014 World Cup winner with mos t goals for Germany in Qualifiers.
    German player of the year 2011 2013 2013 2015 2016. UEFA Champions league top assists 2010-11. La luga top assists 2011-12. Champions league top assists 2012 UEFA team of the year 2012. 2013. Premier league top assists 2015-2016 and Arsenal player of the year. Has always played with the same languid style. Started this season well but went off the boil. Why?”… Wenger out

  6. It’s good that he expects such thing from Arsenal. Just don’t expect any major change happening soon. And I wouldn’t call Ozil our playmaker, because despite having sharp eyes for creating chances and a very unselfish player, he cannot dictate the tempo and cannot do other things. But I think he would be a great manager in the future, because he is smart, can read the game and a team player. He cannot expect too much with Arsenal’s current system, he had better move to another team that is more suitable to his style of play.

  7. I think its good he thinks this way and that is how a winner should be. When you loss you take it with all the pain and work hard to make sure what made you loss is fixed and that you can be better and get your revenge next time. The problem with us we never learn how many defeats hve we suffered? Shows the team lacks a winning mentality or the manager. I remember going to a friendly match and we got hammered 4 nil. We were all mad and angry and some of us even asked ourselves wow and we said we know how to play football. We talked to the coach and told him to organise the friendly rematch next week. So we worked hard and cme that week we hammered that team 4-1 hehe it was a joy arsenal needs this type of quality of paying back we cant just be taking beatings and be happy and move on

  8. Sorry to say this but to me this is all lip service. Football isn’t rocket science, the defeats to Bayern happened a long time ago and there is no sign Arsene or any player learned anything from this defeat. If anything they got worse and stopped playing for Wenger.

    Can you disagree with Henry when he questions why a top-top player would want to come to Arsenal? If you want to win trophies, and many top players are super ambitious, don’t come to Arsenal.

    (No Arsene, they don’t consider a top 4 finish as a trophy)

  9. Ozil needs to be given the freedom he gets for Germany.

    Personally I would like to see us change formation against boro.
    Cech
    mustafi koscielny monreal
    Bellerin xhaka chamberlain gibbs
    Ozil
    Giroud alexis

    Bench – martinez Debuchy Mertesacker coquelin ramsey walcott welbeck

    If everyone was fit, cazorla in for chamberlain who drops to the bench to replace debuchy

    1. I like your idea of playing Giroud and Sanchez upfront with Ozil supporting them, also with the three central defenders. It would be even better if Arsenal leaves their slow tempo tactic behind, and try to increase the flow like what Chelsea and Tottenham did. I feel that Bellerin and Gibbs could be more threatening than other wingbacks in Premiere League. Or they can try Barcelona’s 3-3-1-3 instead, since we have many midfielders.

      Unfortunately we will not see this in the current season as I think Wenger will not take any risk changing the current 4-2-3-1 formation. I think Wenger should do experiments in this season, as the basis for the next season, because Arsenal will not get the Premiere League title anyway.

  10. Ozil will bounce back to success at his next destination, he was talking about himself and not Arsenal ?

  11. Ozil is an idiot. His stupid book and now these dumb comments in the media are just embarrassing. Why are you even releasing a book when your career isn’t over? He needs to shut up because he hasn’t even been performing. He’s been terrible!

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