The Arsenal midfielder Mesut Ozil is famous the world over as the assist king of the Premier League, and has always worked just behind the striker(s), but today Unai Emery has made it clear that he intends to use the German as a right-winger as well as his usual position in the centre.
“I like the possibility to have the player play different positions on the pitch and then it depends each match for us and for the opposition,” Emery said. “For that, Mesut played with me on the right wing and also as No.10, and we are going to continue to do that.
“Mesut in his career, he played as a ten and on the right — when he was playing at Real Madrid, I remember a lot of matches on the right.
“His quality is for playing between the lines. But I spoke with him for his best position on the pitch and I know he can play right and as a ten. And he wants that I can use him for two positions.
“Every player in the squad plays in the position we need. Our demands are very high, very great, but I want to ask every player every day to give us more — not just Mesut, the team, the squad. We need to push, we need to have ambition, we need to have desire to improve every day.
“This is my message for the team, for the squad and for every player.”
The Spanish coach is obviously stamping his authority on his team and making sure they know who is boss, but it has often been said that Ozil is wasted on the wing when all his success has come as a Number Ten.
Is Emery changing Ozil to a winger just a tinker to much?
Darren N
NO .. The frog tried it … In the hope of squeezing in his favorites … and failed .. I hope emery has a short learning curve that’s all
He’s the best number 10 at Arsenal…play him there.if he’s to play on the wings,he does better on the left.
Best No10 that averages about 9 assists and 5 goals a season.
The bashing has started again…………
Unai Emery is the coach, so he will rise or fall on his selections.
I am more concerned about Arsenal’s defense, which would be stronger with Lichtsteiner at RB and Torreira at DM. Why did Arsenal buy these players and not play them, particularly when Bellerin is a defensive liability?
I bet Lichtsteiner would start once Bellerin’s attacking form worsens and Torreira would start once Xhaka makes fatal errors
But I don’t see them start ahead of Bellerin and Xhaka in Cardiff
Do you not remember Wenger easing in players. Almost all players are eased in to every team in the league. Unless they are record signings for clubs, then theres pressure to play them in every game. Wait until Christmas then we will see who Unai’s best 11 is, if there’s no injuries
What about young Guendouzi and Sokratis? They have been thrust into the team from day one.
Sokratis thrust? No no noooo
Jaydawg, I don’t recall Emery easing in Guendozie and Sokratis. So why is he applying a different rule for Torrreira?
Emery, so far, did not show that he knows perfectly what to do with players he got. Forcing in likes of Cech, Bellerin, Xhaka and Ramsey, and moving Ozil around the pitch did not help anything, yet!
Ozil has failed many times as a winger at Arsenal, yet his first 50 assists were mostly crosses and set-pieces
Ozil is hailed as one of the best no 10 in the world, yet he very rarely made assists from through balls
The verdict is start Ozil in home games as a no 10 to please his fans, but keep him out of the away games. Unless Emery is willing to do experiments by playing Ozil in a deeper position
Gotanidea, you’re aleay mentioning starting ozil as a no 10 in home but not away games, what difference does that make?
Away games tend to be tougher than the home games, therefore it is better if Arsenal have another CM to control the midfield, instead of using a no 10
But maybe Ozil could be tried in a deeper midfield position. Who knows, maybe he would be more successful there like Cazorla and Pirlo?
More difficult? So you think we lost against stoke,Newcastle,Watford at their homes and beat Tottenham at the emirates cos playing Tottenham was easier?
Lemme tell you something, its the mindset that you have that determines you winning wherever you play
We didn’t lose so much away games last season cos they were more difficult than playing Tottenham at home, it’s a matter of your mindset and determination
agree
The King of Assists averages about 9 assists per season. He had that outlier season where he made 19 assist which were mostly from corners, free kicks etc.
I just realised that apart from that outlier season Ozil has never made more than 9 assists a season.
ARSENAL / OZIL
2013 / 14 = 8 Assists
2014 / 15 = 5 Assists
2015 / 16 = 19 Assists
2016 / 17 = 9 Assists
2017 / 18 = 8 Assists
King of Assists?
Stat alone proves anything… only if you want to troll real facts, and those are that this guy with proper management and team around him can do miracles even on his average day!
Emery, so far, did not show that he knows perfectly what to do with players he got. Forcing in likes of Cech, Bellerin, Xhaka and Ramsey, and moving Ozil around the pitch did not help anything, yet!
Sorry, not anything – nothing… thats when I type riding ferris wheel. 😉
Why do people always say when he has good players around him, Why can’t he be the good player around other players???
Did you ever play football?
Most foolish Arsenal “fans” have not clue about football.
It is not assists that matter, but the chances created. For a creative player needs quality finishers. Not, only that a defense that does not leak more goals than are created.
The simple task for Emery was to fix the defense (something Wenger was trying to do) and get into the top four.
Emery has to far failed. Will he learn? Depends in part on the management, who should Emery to make best use of Ozil, or get fired.
The best use of Ozil is not make him chase the ball. Emery should know this, as at Real, Ozil played between the lines creating for the strikers, and linking them to the middle.
Ozil is still quickest to 50 assists in the history of the premier league and i totally disagree about the theory of only crosses and set pieces. I have seen many goals created by defence splitting passes and likewise seen many defence splitting passes fluffed by team mates.
Other players in the league must be pretty poor if they haven’t come close to that.
Emery starting the wrong players and I don’t know why?! Torriera, Lichtensteiner, Laca, even Welbeck should be starting but instead Ramsey, Xhaka and to an extent Auba are starting which makes me doubt Emery after so much fan fare. I hope he changes his ways as its still early days!
People have been making fan of Welbeck until his little cameo last week.
Now he is the right player to start? Until he has a bad game against Cardiff and the same people will be saying “Why did Emery start this donkey Welbeck?”.
Lol
I am loving Emery. Not taking bullsh!t. No more cotton-wooling our over pampered primadonna players. It’s time for our overly sensitive and full pf excuses players to start adapting to the club, team, manager and fans instead of everything having to adapt to them.
No more nonsense. We have become a joke club recently and if we don’t come back to reality and start demanding more from all our players then we will keep sinking as a club.
Crack on Emery.
When Ozil was bought it was said
that all the best strikers
would race to join Arsenal,
cue titles.
But Arsenal had a 4th place sustainable model.
He basically wasted his time coming to Arsenal.
Now he has secured his last major pension contract
so can cruise comfortable into retirement.
No more internationals so he has 5-6 fortnight
holiday breaks, all summer off and plays when he is “well”
collecting a cool 1/4 mill per week.
We should have sold Ozil in the summer and replaced him with
some one dynamic, pacy highly skilled like Ramsey 🙂
Cannot sell him if nobody wants him and most Arsenal fans would be angry if Arsenal could not extend Ozil’s contract at that time, because they just lost Sanchez
I hope Emery can make Ramsey and Iwobi compete with Ozil, because we have seen the good effect of a strong internal competition on Cech, Xhaka and Mustafi
UTD would have bought him
for 30m and sold Mata for 20m
Chelsea would have bought him
for 30m and sold Willian for 25m.
Spurs would have bought him for 30 m
and sold Erickson for 70m.
barryglik, your inside knowledge of other clubs is frightening to behold!
Just where do you get these facts from?
Back to the real world and the question being asked.
I have always believed that, apart from GK of course, that a professional footballer should be adapt at playing in different positions.
But players with the vision that Ozil has are meant to create, not defend.
Until Emery has worked out his defensive plans, some fans will continue to see him as a luxury we cannot afford.
Ozil is not a “water carrier” he is a “thorughbred” and we will not be able to see the true artistry and value of Ozil, until he can play the way he was meant to do.
Once Emery gets the defensive side of his strategy right and allows Ozil to perform as the artist he most certainly is, opinions will change.
Nice talk
Hey gotanidea! Your ideas sucks!
Maybe you can make Iwobi and ramsey compete with Ozil… in the FIFA you play more then you watch real football!
Ha ha ha that s a good one! 🙂
if i were emery, i would put ozil wherever he wanted and demand him to complete a number of dribbles, crosses and press for the ball upfront without having him take much defensive roles, if he can deliver, he plays on that way, if not he plays my way…
If I were Emery I would play Ozil in a free role with instructions to play his natural game.I don’t want him closing down players and being given a wide position just to fit him in the team.He is NOT defensively minded.He is NOT a winger.He produces when in a free role with movement in front of him.The saying is you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.This is totally relevant when it comes to Mesut Ozil.He should be the first name on the team sheet with the others adapting to his game and not the other way round
Rubbish…
so he should be exempted from closing down spaces and pressing…..
how do you get the ball if you don’t want your attacking players to close down opponents and recover the ball…..
A team with great intensity to recover possession and maintain it consistently have higher rate of winning a match……
You have no football knowledge, just go and watch your cricket…..
Ozil fanboys are shit
Yep, have your artist carry chase the ball. Nice “idea.”
Emery is the manager…he decides who plays and where they play…
If I recall, most of the time he played left wing for Germany, so he can play from there.
But he can always play on the wing and come into the centre
But his best is CAM.
2016 Premier League: 19 Assists and 6 goals
Nearly got Henry’s assist record
Wish he could replicate that
I agree. Problem on this forum is that some fans play FIFA more then they watch real football. With proper management and team around him, Ozil can do miracles even on his average day!
exactly…all the fifa managers
wondering if anyone in the forum has put their name forward for the manager position a few months back…
Yes, they are… in FIFA! 🙂
He has never been good enough for us. He belongs to the bench and if reports are true, then Emery has already realized that the guy is so weak to handle the pressure of a no. 10. Look at his stats and apart from that one season( just like Ramsey) he has been useless. I can’t believe how deluded some of you are with all this “best no 10” BS. Last season you blamed Giroud so now you can start blaming Auba and Laca. FYI he was the most subbed player at Real Madrid in his last season there and they sold him because he was not good enough. Dude can’t dribble, can’t tackle, can’t hold the ball, vision is no more, no fight. He is just useless. Ramsey is 2 times the player Ozil is and I don’t even rate Ramsey
I disagree that Emery is ACTUALLY using Ozil as a winger at all ( I say it is not in fact HAPPENING). HE MAY WELL BE A WIDISH FORWARD BUT THAT IS NOT A WINGER, and all sensible fans well know the difference. Overmars was a proper winger; Pires was a winger come wide striker type. OZIL IS A NO 10, PERHAPS PLAYED WIDER AT TIMES, WHO WILL ROAM. THAT NO MORE MAKES HIM A WINGER THAN IT MAKES ME Mr. Universe! PERSPECTIVE AND REALISM PLEASE AND NO MORE SILLY HYPED NONSENSE FROM ARTICLE WRITERS! What actually matte5rs is that we see him working at his hardest. Wherever ANYONE plays, if they don’t work flat out, week in , week out, they are conning their wages in true Walcott style, as that con man did for fully 12 years.
he played on d right against City he was poor, played in #10 against Chelsea, he was worse…
Ozils problem is more about hunger/passion than position.
Mkhitaryan is also a #10 but has played majority of his Arsenal career as a winger but he has done better than Ozil so far.
DavidSilva, Debruyne, etc av also played on d wings n even CM.
Ozil has zero passion n plays like is a job instead of a priviledge.
Emery is right to be firm on him.
Square peg round holes.
We have a front three of Auba, Laca and ozil can fit behind. Why don’t build our attack around the players we have rather than try and force the attacking players into a system that doesn’t suit them.
Currently we have seen Ozil ineffectively shoved out wide, Laca benched for Iwobi and Auba struggle as a loan striker with limited service from the players behind him.
Just seems silly not to play the three of them together in their best positions. We don’t have wide players so are wasting our time shoving our central players wide. If we need width then allow our full backs to roam like Bellerin and Nacho are known to do lets just work on having our more deep lying midfielders cover the space they leave.
This is not rocket science. I like Emery and am fully supportive of him and what he is trying to do with our team but right now I think it is more important to get the most out of the players we have than force a formation on them that doesn’t suit them. Once he has his own attacking players them we can move to the 4-3-3 he is looking to play. For now something like a 4-2-2-2 fits us much better.
Cech/Leno
Bellerin – Mus – Sokratis – Monreal
Torreira – Guen
Ozil Ramsey/Iwobi/Mikhi
Laca – Auba
Is how I would line up. give the two more advance midfielders license to switch and roam same with Auba and Laca. Plenty of movement and fluidity from them. I’d probably play Guendozi over Xhaka as he is more mobile and I think is much better from a defensive point of you and still have the ability to build attacks from the back. I am also excited for him and Torreira to have some game time together as I feel they will really compliment each other.
@will ,real talk
That is the problem I see myself .seems emery hasn’t learnt off wenger that playing people at of position dosent work .i would also say to play them 3 uptop but maybe a 4312 formation .he played AMN 1st game out of position when he had a perfectly good cover in litenstien who could of played there ,and now he’s. Injured .auba is struggling with being lone top man so why not play him with laca and he can drift out left with ozil playing that free role which is the only position he should be playing ,then you have your solid back 4 with the 3 mids controlling the game behind the 3 forwards who should be left to do what they do best ,and if 7players can’t keep a tight defence then either they shouldn’t be playing or emery is getting in something seriously wrong with this tactics
“I like the possibility to have the player play different positions on the pitch and then it depends each match for us and for the opposition,” Emery said. “For that, Mesut played with me on the right wing and also as No.10, and we are going to continue to do that.
“Mesut in his career, he played as a 10 and on the right — when he was playing at Real Madrid, I remember a lot of matches on the right.
“His quality is for playing between the lines. But I spoke with him for his best position on the pitch and I know he can play right and as a 10. And he wants that I can use him for two positions.
“Every player in the squad plays in the position we need. Our demands are very high, very great, but I want to ask every player every day to give us more — not just Mesut, the team, the squad. We need to push, we need to have ambition, we need to have desire to improve every day.
I think Emery has a clear picture of where he wants to go with this team. Its going to take some time to get there., and there will be trials along the way
No Emery has no clue. If he watched Real, then he should know that Ozil is supplier of the final ball, not a chaser of the ball.
@Phil, look where that hands-off approach got him, he loses d ball often, no dribbles, no shots, no fight, no “cojones”, no influence in games playing as a #10 unlike KDB, D. Silva, Hazard, Coutinho. The team have also adapted to him by losing, no?
shouldnt even start to begin with
@Phil, U said he’s an old dog, he can’t learn new tricks, but you want him to be the first name on the team sheet and have the team to adapt to him, (to teach the new dogs old, dated tricks). Nobody would love that kind of show, they would all fail badly.
wait until he’s frustrated out and he begins to enjoy his game again in another club where he is respected and appreciated, without armchair critics who have never run the length and breadth of a football pitch their entire lives and who feels they know more than every certified coach .
payers and the team as a whole needs our support morin good times and bad times, that’s why we are supporters and fans. You cant be my fan and be wishing for my fall or demotion, if you are an aresnal fan, then be a fan of all that is Arsenals and wish for the best , including all players having a difficult time. Football is not as easy to play as we talk in on blogs and TV. Go and ask Neville ?
Was reading an article where Ronaldo said when Ozil was about to make a pass the rest of his concentration would be on goal as passes were perfect what ever happened to Giroud whilst he turned Sanchez into a superstar ??