Martin Keown has labelled Ozil the ‘most frustrating player’ he has ever seen play for Arsenal, but what do the fans think?
The German international has come under criticism on a number of occasions for seemingly failing to fight for the ball, and has been described as lazy, but we all know how good he can be as part of our attack.
When we lose, he can often be turned on, whereas when we win he is often the man to find those key passes, so it is difficult to gauge just how important he is within the side due to his ups n down.
Martin Keown has now come down on him this week following our defeat to Stoke City.
“Mesut Ozil is the most frustrating player I’ve seen wear an Arsenal shirt,” Keown told the Daily Mail.
“He is an icing-on-the-cake player — someone who is happy to create the chances to win matches but will not scrap and fight for the team.
“Ozil is an expensive luxury — but if he is not going to work hard out of possession then he must do so when he has the ball.
“Why isn’t he running at players with menace and asking questions of them? It’s not enough just to be out there — he needs to be controlling games.
“Ozil has not yet signed a contract so we must assume he does not want to be at the club.
“But if he is just trying to see out his time at Arsenal, that is going to be a long year for all involved. He must forget about himself, give his all for the fans and the club and then go gracefully.”
Trying to think of the long-run and not just the weekend’s loss, is Ozil more of a burden than he is a positive?
Mesut Ozil: Expensive luxury or defensive burden?
- Overbearing burden (40%, 198 Votes)
- Mostly luxury (30%, 147 Votes)
- 50-50 (30%, 146 Votes)
Total Voters: 491
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Thing with ozil is that he needs someone from midfield get the ball in the attack quickly. Cazorla was that guy. The most convincing arsenal performances in memory are Arsenal vs Man utd (3-0) Arsenal vs Chelsea (3-0) Arsenal vs Liverpool (4-1) City vs Arsenal (0-2) Where Cazorla was there to get the ball to ozil to do his magic. Without cazorla arsenal are not arsenal. We need some1 in the middle of part like Turan or Kovacic who could dribble and get the ball to Ozil. There is no1 like cazorla though.
I agree. We were so much better with Cazorla. Cazorla helped Ozil
Cazorla was a maestro. Very creative and brilliant passer. Would get the ball to Ozil for him to contribute well. I think we took Caz for granted. I miss him
We need another Top CM desperately. CM is where the magic happens. A solid spine is essential
Ozil got robbed a lot in the first two games, because he cannot possess the ball well under heavy pressures from the opponents. He is unselfish and has good eyes for spotting chances, but Arsenal need more than that.
Arsenal need real playmaker that can dictate the tempo and control the game. Currently Arsenal play without direction, because Cazorla and Sanchez are unavailable.
@ ArsenalGenes & Gotanida i total agree with , people like Martin Kleown are bitter for nothing, He always criticized the players anyway he does not get along with Wenger ,he must sort his drinking issues rather than single out only Ozil. Wenger was not happy about Steve G and Marthin ‘s comments. Ozil cannot do anything by himself ,he needs someone to supply him with the ball. So this dem people the only scapegoat they can see is Ozil. They cannot talk about Offiside goal and handballs occurred in that match or when other players elbowed arsenal players and referees still do not give them even a yellow card , Steven G must shut up and mind his own team as i do not see them on top four.
When did Martin Keown have a drinking problem? We need players like Keown now who have pride and are prepared to bleed for the badge.
Never. He was almost secluded from the group for not following what it was known the Tuesday Club at Highbury. Tony Adams was attending every week at the Bank of Friendship pub as Lee Dixon remembers so fondly. Keown was a very strong character.
Ozil is just…Ozil. He will not intercept passes, track back, win an aerial duel, tackle a player, muscle a player off the ball, block crosses or shots, or defend a set piece. Literally, the only time Ozil has the ball is when its passed right down on his feet. He barely scores and infact Cazorla scored a lot more as a CAM than Ozil has ever done. Ozil is without doubt, for a team like Arsenal that naturally struggles to defend, an overbearing burden.
Marthin Kleown does not get tired of been shut down by arsenal players , if he can remembered nicely may be he forgot because of his drinking issues how he criticized Mertesaker after the game he went to Mertesaker to compliment him , Per shut him down at the tunnel. People like him do not him them time or worry about them.
I think you mistake Adams or Parlour for Keown.
Or Merson more likely!
If people are really interested , they can watch this video of Henry discussing about Ozil.He hits the nail on the head.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poyUiX3z8zs
Ozil’s performance have been subpar for almost 6 months now .But Wenger is not ready to acknowledge and they keep throwing facts like assists and chances created. Problem with Ozil is that he doesn’t do anything when opposition has the ball. He just stands in a corner doing nothing.He doesn’t track back and defend nor he tackles.
Ozil pros:
Few through balls, short passes, 1 drop of the shoulder, a few assists, a brilliant pass out of nowhere etc
Cons:
Negligible goal threat, poor 1v1, easily dispossessed, can’t close down quickly & effectively, liability when he plays with players, not the go to man if your team is losing, loses almost all 50:50 challenges, is hardly a match winner etc
*liability when not surrounded by WC players
Sh!t poll. He is neither a luxury nor a defensive burden. He is one of the best players we have in our team.
Özil? The Michael Jackson of football. Many people like him and many don’t like him.
People talk about Ozil because he is easy to pick on. I watch football with my own eyes rather than listen to bitter ex players and pundits. Ozil is all at fault for every thing so blame him. Blame him for Xhaka mistake, blame him for Cech inability to save that goal, blame for putting Ramsey taking too much touches on the ball instead of making a simple passes. Blame him for welbeck ineffectiveness in front of the goal. Blame him for Wenger’s delusion and poor team selection.
There is no doubting that on his day Ozil is awesome, with or without Carzola, when he is hot is on fire.. but it doesn’t happen often, in my opinion he needs to be started and subbed more, or just started off, or used as a super sub. But that won’t happen as Arsene thinks he should stay on, things will change with Alexis back in the team, as they seem to have a better understanding on the pitch. I like you Ozil, if you read this, sub yourself off when you are not feeling right, don’t worry you will be guaranteed a full game the following week.
Here is something in defence of Ozil. Ozil had made 117 appearances for the Gunners. With 61% wins. 23 goals and 42 assists. He has taken 149 shots with 46% accuracy. Makes about 64 passes per game. Has created 49 big chances, 36% cross accuracy, 172 accurate long balls and 94 through balls. Since joining the PL, he has created the most chances and has the most assists of any player in theleague. So where is he nicking a living?Defence you say, then lets check the defence stats. 113 tackles at 74% success rate, 54 interceptions, 527 recoveries. And most impressive, his errors leading to goal. Only 2. Now pretty impressive for a passenger. I would take this passenger in my team any day. Ozil is about efficiency. Everything he does has purpose. He doesn’t run around to please you. He does to create space for himself and his team mates, dragging defenders around.
The way we fans, ex players, pundits, blame and criticize our players I’m afraid we won’t be able to attract good players in future. players are human not robot so it is natural for them to make mistake. I’m not saying it is not ok to blame but excessive and unwarranted blame is not good. People like Keown should know that fans listen to them and should watch what they say in order not sow dissension and negativity. Chelsea has lost a match in which their players collected red card for dangerous play. We didn’t read any bad stuffs about those players and the club. Liverpool, spurs and the darling of the media Manchester city have being nothing but convincing nothing bad had been written about any of those clubs . Why It is only arsenal that get all these negative s**t
To Mobella!!! What a great response i wish all of us can be like you, If our own E-ARSENAL PLAYERS do this what about the idiot pundits, Other fans do not do this for their players those teams you mentioned are not doing well but their fans and Ex players do not criticized them like
arsenal do, Doing this to Ozil is real fair, He works hard for the team,
There is nobody he created any chances compare to him but still getting all this S*** T COMMENTS FROM our Ex players and fans,
Mesut Özil is the Idol of the Muslim world. He brings the money back that’s for sure. In football he is not my hero. When you play against every defense team he is good because he have the time for the nice Pass
i actual do not care about Marthin Kleown’s stupid comments about ozil. He can go and kill himself, Does he ever think that doing all this comments is breaking player’s spirit down. Anyway Wenger and club told the players not to bother themselves about listening to bad comments for Jim & Jack ,one thing i like is that they listen to their Manager. Why Ozil has to be blames for everyone’s mistake ? How many times Welbeck and Giroud missed clear goals? All is Ozil dem all of you who blame Ozil . Arsenal did not win any trophy for his 1st year we won FA Cups INFACT ON his belt we won two FA CUPS stuff all haters of Ozil. I heard enough of people who criticized Ozil for other’s people’s mistake.
Against a good team with offensiv power and you have to fight for every inch he is the wrong man. Özil is good for Germany because Germany dominate every time
As Keown right said, Ozil is a frustrating player. On his day, he is unplayable. The problem is that his cons are way higher than his pros. Players in his position like hazard and modric are more effective, more direct to opposition 18 yard, better in 50:50 challenges and actually do jump for aerial balls. In my opinion, Ozil should not be playing 90 mins especially when he is having a bad day. But for whatever reason, Wenger with the assumption that he can create a chance for goal scoring hardly change him in games, even when it’s obvious to all that he is struggling. The problem with such assumption is that the midfield becomes weaker, placing more burden on the defense and eventually leading to the defense buckling.
ozil is our most consistently high quality player who almost always makes the right choice. (Certainly more often than Sanchez) he makes a lot of runs as well without the ball always offering himself, crafting chances for others consistently which they usually waste. (Talking about you Danny)
He’s not a luxury. He’s our heartbeat, but other players let him down. Martin Keown. ??
What makes a player world/top class is a consistently high level performance. One good game against 4 bad/below average/average games isn’t cool.
Trust me, every player has had a few games of great performance, but you can’t be a top class player by performing greatly in few games.
As far as the current Arsenal is concerned, I haven’t seen players performing consistently well except for players like Sanchez, Carzola, Kosienly, who else? Ozil? Certainly not. That’s why Arsenal can’t go the distance, because there are more average and consistently inconsistent players.
Whenever Arsenal can boast of 8 or even 7 players out of 11, who can consistently put in top performances, the EPL crown will find a home at the Emirates.
He ranges from asset to luxury to liability depending on his form and level of commitment for the given match, and how things are going for the team generally in the given match, that’s what makes him both so potentially promising and so frustrating!
It’s funny though, as soon as I find myself ragging on him for a run of games with mediocre performances (at least relative to what he could be doing with his exceptional skills), he eventually does something truly brilliant and artistic and I’m not really sure what to think overall.