Former Arsenal player and interim manager Freddie Ljungberg has stated that Mesut Ozil should still be staring for Arsenal.
The former Swedish winger, who was speaking to The Athletic said that a solution could still be found for Mesut Ozil’s situation at Arsenal.
The former German international has been out in the cold at Arsenal this season as he has not been included in both the Premier League and Europa League squads for the club.
Despite being the club’s top earner, the former Real Madrid playmaker remains a spectator without a minute of football in any competition this season.
And now Ljungberg, who coached the player in his brief stint as the interim coach has offered his assessment of the situation.
Ljungberg believes that both club and player, who he says is still a great talent, need to come to a compromise to find a solution to the situation.
“Mesut is a great football player, we know that,”
“We all have different opinions and everybody needs to accept that people have different opinions.
“For me, maybe the way football has gone now sometimes he’s not as athletic defensively. Let’s say when you play Man City you don’t have the ball and need to just run after them, maybe you need more athletic players.
“What I tried to do, what I believed in, was that when you play teams who, on paper, you’re a bigger club than or you think they’ll have a low block and you need someone to unlock it, Mesut has the total quality to do that. I think there is a space for a player like that in those kinds of games.
“But then as well you need to have a communication with the player — not just Mesut, every player. There are different games that suit certain players and other games suit others. The days of playing every single minute of every game maybe are just not happening that often anymore.
“When I left in the summer he was in the squads and now he’s not. What’s happened there, I can’t answer. I don’t know if something else has happened, I have no clue. But if you look at pure football qualities, I think my answer is quite obvious.
“When I was interim coach, I would play him in the games when I thought he could unlock defences, even if I knew his defensive job was not as good as some other players. So that’s my opinion; there should be a space in certain games.”