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