Taking Off Ozil – Bad Management by Dan Smith
During Arsenal’s 22-game unbeaten run many Gooners were patting Unai Emery on the back for freezing Ozil out of the team while supporting the decision not to offer Ramsey a new deal. If you criticised our new manager, you were told to look at the table and be told how Unai Emery was doing what Arsene Wenger didn’t have the guts to do. The theory here is the Frenchmen was too loyal to his players, with Ozil in particular always picked no matter his form. This was seen as weakness by some.
Yet could it not be as simple as the greatest manager in our history (who therefore must know something) simply recognised that Ozil is by far the most creative individual we have. Equally the reason why he was happy for Ramsey to get a pay rise was his understanding that; take the Welshmen away and where do the goals come from in midfield?
When your winning it’s hard to argue but our new boss is either trying too hard or is running out of ideas. I’m sorry I much rather those two starting each week compared to 3 defensive midfielders. By doing that it put extra pressure on Ozil to be our sole creative spark. When that didn’t happen enough after 45 minutes at Brighton, he was subbed for Iwobi. Not for one of the sitting/holding midfielders but a straight swap. I’m sorry I don’t care if you think he hasn’t run enough or don’t like his body language you don’t take off someone with the most assists in Europe for Iwobi.
The Nigeria lacks confidence most of the time, what makes anyone think he has the mentality to carry the sole burden of making chances?
Was Ozil any worse than his peers? Why not change the people responsible for the soft equaliser? Having coached at PSG Emery knows that common sense suggests you keep your best talent on the pitch. Ozil is not perfect, far from it, but while Emery is worrying what the German can and can’t do, he’s ignoring the fact that the alternatives are so much worse. Enough now. He shouldn’t be immune from criticism. Today he started without Ramsey and took off Ozil, and it didn’t work. Maybe that’s why Wenger played those two all the time?
Today was simply bad management.
Dan