We have all seen how Unai Emery has been tinkering with using Mesut Ozil for Arsenal’s ‘smaller’ League games, with the German being rested (or ‘injured’) for games like Tottenham and Liverpool, so does this look like a ploy by Emery to get the best out of our highest paid player? According to the German sports journalist Raphael Honigstein who has worked for the BBC, Sky, ESPN and Setanta, he has inside knowledge of the real reasons why the Spaniard picks and chooses when Ozil plays. “The last time I spoke to someone who should know, they insisted it was nothing personal,” he told Sky’s Sunday Supplement.
“Whenever he has not been played it is because the manager did not fancy him for whatever game.
“Even in the club there’s an acceptance that you need Mesut Ozil to beat those 20 smaller teams to get the 60 points to build the platform.
“But when it comes to the bigger games, against the more attacking teams, it’s very problematic playing with him.
“Especially when you want Aaron Ramsey in your team.”
The stories coming out of the club is that Ozil has had backache or a sore knee or somesuch, but is that just Emery massaging Ozil’s ego, so it isn’t publicised that Emery simply doesn’t think he does enough in some games to warrant an automatic starting place?
It is certainly an interesting theory, but could it be true?
Darren N