The German midfielder Mesut Ozil has been on the treatment table for the last three months, but it seems that he has used the opportunity to build up some muscles and has come back to the squad looking bigger and definitely more beefy. This has been so noticeable that Arsene Wenger has decided to give his thoughts on the matter, and he is not too certain that the effects of a lot of time in the gym can be all good for a quick midfielder.
“He has worked hard, I think he has taken to the fact that he wants to be stronger,” Wenger said on Arsenal.com. “You have more time to focus on it when you are injured. Every day he is in the gym and he can work on it and as well you don’t have the fatigue of the games. And it’s better when you look in the mirror!
“It is not only down to pure strength when you play football. It is down to when to switch your strength on and the timing of your switch on.
“I know players like Claude Makelele, for instance, were not monsters, but when he went for a challenge he had the technique to use his strength in a very efficient way. It is a technique more than a power.
“A guy who spends a bit of time in the gym kills his co-ordination and becomes more rigid. Winning a challenge is down to flexibility and co-ordination, switching on all the muscles on at the same, right, time. That is not down to lifting weights.”
So basically Wenger is saying that you can have too much of a good thing. The extra power will definitely help him to cope with big Premiership defenders trying to push him off the ball, but will it slow him down when he tries to burst past the same defenders to set up his next assist?
Wenger seems to have his reservations, but hopefully we will see the positive side effects when Arsenal take on Brighton tomorrow….