Thierry Henry has claimed that Mesut Ozil has Alexis Sanchez to thank for his Arsenal goals this season.
The German international celebrated his first ever competitive hat-trick last week, in the 6-0 demolition of Ludogorets, which brought his tally for the term up to six in all competitions at this early point in the season, two under his tally of the previous year.
Last year however, the German’s contribution was in the shape of a huge number of assists, but his role in the side seems to have changed due to the new system in place, which has Alexis Sanchez playing in a centre-forward role instead of out on the left.
Theirry Henry has now claimed that the Chilean deserves credit for Ozil’s goals, due to his clever work off the ball which created the space for Mesut to grab his goals.
He said: “When you have a guy who as a No. 9, the way he puts pressure, the way he moves, his vision for the ball, that creates a lot of holes for Ozil. That’s why Ozil is scoring a lot of goals — off the movement of Alexis Sanchez.”
Henry also claims to have previously stated that Sanchez would be suited to playing in a central role over the space of the last years, having done so for Udinese and Chile respectively.
He added: “I always said in the past two years that Sanchez could be used as an option as a centre-forward. He’s finally playing as a centre-forward. He does it for Chile, so it’s not something that he doesn’t know how to do. He did it for Udinese also in Italy and does it ever so well.”
Is Alexis’ new role bringing out the best in the team? Is his role helping others but hindering Ozil?
Pat J
I dont think it matters to be honest, last season was the same, except Giroud movement allows our wingers, mainly Sanchez. This season, weve seen more goals from the right, mainly Ox and Theo.
Giroud has no ‘movement’ he stand on one spot and kills the tempo of our game, making us very predictable
The jury is still out for me. Sanchez was found out against Middlesbrough.
Haven’t ya heard, Aguero’s been found out too, imagine it, one game without doing his thing and people dared to say he was a top player. Everyone knows top players do it in every! game.
I don’t think you could say it’s hindering Ozil, is the article not saying Ozils form is helped by Alexis. Ozil wants to add goals to his game, he gets carried away with this how may I assist you thing, but I know it will hurt him when people say he needs to add goals to his game. You can see how disappointed he is when he miss hits a shot. Also I never seen Ozil as happy with a goal when it is he who scored it, how many times would he celebrate an assist in the same way. Now it’s about getting the right balance, he’ll need to suss out Alexis’s movement in his new role, get used to Iwobi, or even tell Iwobi he needs runners not passers. Ozil hopefully will keep up this goal scoring knack, and I expect him to get a good number of assists, if he can do this then their aren’t many players who can touch him.
The whole team was tired and frustrated against Boro, but we will see them back and rested this weekend. I feel sorry for Sunderland. It appears to me that Ozil and Alexis are swapping positions during the game, with Ozil acting more as centre-forward!
Ozil deserves the credit for getting his goals, not Sanchez!