Unai Emery gives a lifeline to Mesut Ozil
It is clear that Unai Emery has an issue with Mesut Ozil and it was thought the German’s future at Arsenal was bleak. However, manager Emery has publicly stated that there is still a role for the 30-year-old to play.
There have been rumours of a loan deal in January but Ozil has dismissed them out of hand, He has made it clear he is seeing his contract out and will not be leaving in the winter.
Now, Emery has come out with an olive branch and given the German hope of inclusion in the team going forward.
Discussing Ozil and whether he has previously been made a scapegoat for past failings Emery said,
“We live in the present.
“In this present we are looking for the best way to be competitive and to be a strong team, playing each match with our best quality of available skills and our best mentality.
“Mesut Ozil, for us, is important. Sometimes one player could be important playing or could be important being on the bench or could be important preparing for the next match. This is our mentality and this is the way we want to create with 25 players in the squad.
“I told you now for the last three weeks Mesut is working and improving and being better in training and if we need him, we are going use him because with his skills in some matches we are going to need him.”
Not sure that Emery could be any clearer. He says that Ozil is important, that he can make a difference and if needed will be used.
It is now down to Ozil to respond positively, Emery will give him another chance as long as the German plays ball.
Sounds like Emery is backtracking to what he has said in the past because Ozil as finally broken his silence .
Fair enough if Emery does not want him in the team but he needs tostop talking in riddles and give it us straight not go running off to someone on the board and getting them to do the dirty work for you .
*for him
Our way, our capacity, our mentality, our…..
Emery is just saying, what almost any other manager would say. It’s very rare that a manager would lambaste a player publicly.
Strange point of view you have: “It’s very rare that a manager would lambaste a player publicly.” What world do you live in? From the minute Emery arrived he has never stopped lambasting Ozil!
He’s changed his tune now because Ozil came out and publicly defended himself, not for any other reason. He’s scared Ozil will come out and spill the beans even more about how he’s been treated. Emery’s probably been told by Sanllehi to try to smooth things over.
I am not sure why you’re making out that Ozil is some kind of saint, when we know for a fact how disrespectful he has been to Emery. Look at Ozil’s behaviour in the Europa League final towards Emery. I also find it hard to believe that Emery would pick on a player. It does happen (Mourinho with Pogba), but again, this is very rare. Ozil is lucky to be getting any chances after that, especially given his woeful performances as well.
I think it’s more of a case that Ozil hasn’t been pulling his weight in training, and on match days. None of know the effort Ozil is putting into training, but we can certainly all see the lack of it on match days.
My question would be why does Ozil get an endless amount of opportunities?
TMJW – Ozil disrespectful to Emery!!!!??? Not the exact opposite then? You should be a politician.
You find it hard to believe that Emery would pick on a player? HE’S PICKED ON OZIL FROM THE MOMENT HE TOOK CHARGE!
Do you make a habit of twisting the truth 180 degrees every time you see it?
BTW, for me Ozil is OK without being a world beater these days but I really hate the way he’s been abused. I now get the strong impression Ozil just doesn’t want to play in the defensive formations Emery comes up with week in, week out – in fact he probably doesn’t want to play for Emery full stop. He probably sees what some of us on here have been seeing for ages – that Emery is to all intents and purposes absolutely freakin’ useless. He doesn’t even know who his best players are and he’s got absolutely no idea at all of his best formation.
We should have hammered Man U and Bournemouth! But no, let’s play defensively and try not to lose eh? That’s the mark of a bold thinking, attack minded manager isn’t it? You know, the one who told us all he’d rather go out and win 4-3 than 1-0 on his arrival here.
And it’s all so easy – drop Sokratis, Kolasinac and Xhaka and play absolutely ANYONE ELSE. Once the Greek Lunatic, Kopassitback and the Handbrake are not in the squad we would be left with a great team NO MATTER WHO PLAYS. But will Emery dare to pick such a team and then tell the players to “Go out there, play to your full ability and wreck Sheffield United?” No, I don’t think so either.
If he does not want to play for his manager cause of according to you awful tactics and game play then let him get out of my club.. Enough of your blatant defence of ozil.. You and admin mart are becoming boring..
If Emery hates Ozil so much, then why did he pick him 35 times last season? You claim we badly need Ozil, but what exactly has he done to prove his worth over the last 2/3 seasons?
Please explain how he has picked on Ozil? And please explain to me how Ozil hasn’t disrespected Emery?
Really Dan? So it’s Emery backtracking and not even remotely possible that being dropped and publicly criticised has made Ozil put in the effort required?
Either way why criticise? – Ozil has the chance to play again so Ozil fans should be happy, Emery says Ozil is putting in the effort he expects so those who don’t like Ozil can’t complain unless he fails to deliver when he gets played.
This constant moaning/criticising when it’s not needed is what creates the depressing atmosphere around our fan base imo.
It’s not moaning mate it’s my opinion of how I see the situation at our club ,to me Emery is ruining everything that we stood for and I’m not going to say any different else I would be lying ,if your happy with his prehistoric football fair play ,but I’m not .
Can you honestly say you enjoy watching our football under him ?
Its not only on here you only have to look on other media outlets or fan groups to see there is a growing number of fans who are not happy with the way he coaches this team .
For me he will do more harm than good in the long run .
When you think of new fans all over the world ,do you think they will be looking at Arsenal as there 1st club to start supporting ,the club as been in decline for a few seasons now and it was obvious Emery was bought in as the cheap safe option to be grabbing a CL place ,but for me that is not enough ,it wasn’t under Arsene and it hasn’t changed now .
Will you be moaning at the end of the season if we don’t make top 4 ?i would suggest you will ,it’s just that I have a head start on you to how I see things .
Your free to your opinion bud that’s not what I mean though. Your comment was basically calling Emery a liar, wilfully ignoring the part that explains why his opinion has altered – “I told you now for the last three weeks Mesut is working and improving and being better in training”. That’s not backtracking my friend that’s stating that Ozil has done what he wanted all along and put more effort in – he never said he was without talent 🤷♂️
As for my opinion on our football – nope haven’t enjoyed the league performances at all, who has? I have enjoyed our UEL/Cup performances though and as I’ve explained many times can see a valid reason why we haven’t been able to play like that in the league. That reason is just about over though so I’m expecting to see similar performances in every competition. If we don’t get top 4 minimum I will be p*ssed and want Emery out too but until then he has my support to show us what he can do.
👍 As I have stated earlier, Emery, Mertesacher and Sanheili made the same comments on Ozil’s fitness level 3 weeks ago; Ozil has apparently applied himself and met his required fitness level in the intervening period and Emery has commented accordingly.
Unfortunately, some people see this as some sort of conspiracy to either undermine Emery as coach, or lift up their favourite player, Ozil.
… and as I have stated earlier Ozil has not increased his work rate one iota in the last three weeks or any other time period Emery wants to come up with. Ozil said clearly, only this week I think, that he puts as much effort into training NOW as he has always done since joining Arsenal. In other words NOTHING HAS CHANGED.
Sanllehi goes to London Colney does he? He never fails to watch training eh? And all by himself he comes up with ‘Ozil needs to train harder’ does he? Not a freakin’ chance! He’s been asked to say that by Emery, as in “Please support me as I’m completely lost now Ozil has decided to fight back.”
Mertesacker is now in charge of the Academy so I wouldn’t think he’s been involved in first team training so what the hell does he know?
So, Ozil has NOT applied himself and met his required fitness level in the intervening period at all. Nothing has changed – well except for Emery and Sanllehi getting worried about what Ozil might come out with next.
You are so right.
Too many here try to use Özil in their “Emery out” agenda, instead of looking at the Özil enigma as a separate issue.
Ozziegunner, three weeks ago, UE, according to you, selected an unfit player to captain his side, stating it was to give him confidence.
Now, after thinking about it, do you still have the same opinion? Or would you think it was, at the very least, a reckless move to select an unfit player, who , again following your thread, could not have possibly gained any confidence if he couldn’t perform?
The question must then follow…why was he selected? Any ideas? I have mine!!!
don’t bother with biased ozil lovers like dan, they would rather watch ozil play every match and arsenal get relegated than we win the league without ozil playing “boring football”.
Thing is though Ackshay ,when have I ever said I was an Ozil lover ?
That’s right I haven’t ,i wasn’t even his biggest fan when we signed him ,but he’s better than what we have in this squad if the manager played offensively ,instead of coming out with your Idol and Ozillover every time to make yourself look like your 10 years old ,bring something to the table and write a grown up post .
You dan make yourself look like a one year old with your constant defence of the man we are all wanting to buckle up..
Good one Munster ,how long did that take to think of ?
I’m speechless now ,I have no comeback well done 👍
Really Madhatter? Please have a word with TMJW and get your stories straight. You say Ozil has been publicly criticised and TMJW says that no manager would ‘lambast a player publicly.’ What a pair of prawns!
To answer your question NO, it is NOT even remotely possible that being dropped and publicly critised has made Ozil put in the slightest bit more effort. Ozil says he hasn’t changed the effort he puts into training since he joined Arsenal. Furthermore when he played he was always in the top third of our players who covered the most ground.
So yes, it IS EMERY BACKTRACKING, probably because of orders from above.
What the hell you on about chap?
My opinions are my own and don’t need to fall in line with anyone else’s so not sure why you feel the need to come out with pathetic insults. Nor did I actually say who has been publicly criticising him, Emery hasn’t said much apart from more effort needed, as did Raul, Mertesacker had some pretty big criticisms though.
Ozil also says that he is not injured/ill so I guess both Emery and Wenger were lying when they used that excuse many times over recent seasons and just neither of them wanted to play him yeah?
Wenger has admitted that Ozil was allowed to skip training to keep him at peak fitness so I’m guessing Emery must be letting him do the same as he hasn’t changed his level of effort?
Top third of distance covered but how much of that was usually jogging round doing nothing when we were without the ball. Under Emery he has been closing people down more etc so obviously he has changed his level of effort somewhere along the line 🤷♂️
But you know the beauty of it – I don’t care which way round it actually is. I don’t rate Ozil much because he has always appeared lazy to me and by doing so sells himself short, he has amazing creative vision and if he applied himself could have been spoken in same terms as people speak about Messi and Ronaldo.
If he now returns with a new sense of purpose then I’m happy because Ozil on his day can be pure magic, if he returns and still underperforms then he has no excuses when he gets dropped again in place of a youngster who is hungry to succeed and people can stop moaning, win win you see
@GunnerJack
Firstly, I did not say a manager would never lambaste a player publicly. I said it is very rare, which is true.
Secondly, can you, and others, please stop using the ridiculous “ground covered” stat, for defending Ozil. It’s like saying, if a team has lots of possession, then they must be a great side. Which is completely false, as Arsenal have proved more than anyone! It’s about what you’re doing with the possession that counts. Ozil may cover ground, but is it effective? Does he ever sprint to get back into formation, track a runner, or to press? No! I have rarely seen him sprint full stop. Does he open defences up at will? No! Does he score lots of goals? No! Anyone can run around all day (I use the word “run” in the loosest of terms), it’s about what are you producing.
Mesut Ozil, for us, is important. Sometimes one player could be important playing or could be important being on the bench or could be important preparing for the next match”. That’s a diplomatic answer, i think Ozil falls in the last category,” he could be important preparing for the next match “.
My interpretation, Ozil is working hard and will be on the pitch when I think he’s ready. I think Unai has been very consistent with his message. Work hard in training, get in the match day squad.
Hmmm…… now I see why Xhaka starts no matter what
Ozil works as hard in training as everyone else. It’s just that now, Emery and Sanllehi are running scared in case Ozil comes out and really dishes the dirt about what goes on at the club. So probably Sanllehi has told Emery to change his worn-out tune (a.k.a pack of lies) about Ozil and start telling the truth.
Ozil seems like he’s telling the club to push off trying to push him around. You can’t move me the way you like, I have a contract kind of stance.
Emery too is looking like, yeah, okay, I know.., I know…
Ozil can still come good and Arsenal will only be better for it. Imagine a scenario of assist upon assist upon assist, week in week out. That means goals upon goals upon goals.
Oh my goodness! That would be nice…
Unfortunately Ozil would most likely not be able to create assists consistently, if he keeps playing as a no 10
It’s difficult to create perfect through balls from that position nowadays in EPL. Which means Ozil has to drift to the side frequently to create crosses and take all set pieces, as what he did in his first season at Arsenal
To fully utilize Ozil’s, Ceballos’ or other CAM’s flair and creativity, Emery should follow what Guardiola did to De Bruyne and Silva. Both Man City creative midfielders tend to swap places with the wide players to cross the ball and we can see it from their high assists/ crosses tally in EPL
To set that up, Emery has to start using 4-3-3, but not like the one Klopp is using. De Bruyne used to be a mediocre winger under Mourinho’s tenure at Chelsea, before Guardiola changed his position into a half-winger. I believe Ozil and Ceballos can play with the same role
You are absolutely right gotanidea. But U.Emery needs a stronger physical Central midfielder better than Xaka. May be Torrreira?
Wouldn’t it be great, if Özil would come back and produce something just close to, what he did 4-5 years ago, and maybe put in an effort, when we loose the ball?
It would be huge gain for our team.
I have my doubts, it will happen, but if it does, great.
The club lost 200 million in Wengers last 2 years.
Ozils 350 k p/w is one part of the financial mess.
It was complete madness to increase Ozil’s salary from 170k to 350 k p/w.
What was Wenger thinking?
Sanchez wanted out and City offered 60 mill but Wenger acted tough and said no.
Sanchez then refused to perform and laughed when Arsenal suffered embarrassing defeats.
Then the club had to let him go in Jan for free and got Mkhitarian in a swap deal.
Now Mkhitarian is in Rome!!!
Ramsey saw what was happening and refused a new contract and left on a free
to get 400k p/w at Juve. Another 60m lost.
Arsenal missed CL 2 seasons in a row so another 75m lost.
A bunch of senior players suddenly retired or moved on with no transfer fee like
Cech Mertesacker Koscielny Monreal Cazorla Debuchi.
They all had to be replaced but the club was low on funds so they looked for el cheapo players like Mavro 2m Guendouzie 7m Luiz 7m Kolo + Lichsteiner free, and loaning Ceballos
or converting players like AMN.
Wenger left an ugly dogs breakfast of a squad and Ozils ridiculous salary
is one of the last stinking pieces left. Emery inherited this mess and has done
incredibly well to keep the club in the top 10 let alone top 6.
Fair play Agu you talk aload of 💩.
Please give us some facts to your post I would love to see some links regarding what you have said to see if I’m being harsh on you .
Am sorry Dan but tell me what rubbish exactly are you talking about, didn’t man city bid 60million for Sanchez or was it not Wenger time the club gave Ozil that huge pay, or is it not true that Arsenal missed CL two seasons in a row during Wenger time and missed out on Champions league money, so please my brother tell me what rubbish exactly are you talking about.
Agu Emen,
let, s destroy your post item by item:
1. If we lost £200,000,000 in two years because of missing out on the CL and following your logic – 20 years of CL qualification brought in £2000,000,000 (retrospectively of course) – so are you acknowledging that the club made an enormous amount of profit during his time and please give me details of where you sourced this loss from.
2. When Ozil signed the contract, it was gazidis and kronkie who had the final say on giving the go ahead, especially as it was kronkies money that was being used, no doubt aware of the baclash that awaited them if Ozil hadn’t signed a new contract – of course AW had input but to put it ll down toWengers thinking is absolute madness.
3. Sanchez wanted out agreed – Wenger didn’t want him to go, took a stand and refused to be bullied- the situation became poisonous within the dressing room – we got Myk, who started like a house on fire by the way, before being loaned out.
Following Sanchez since then and how things have panned out, would you say we missed out in any way? Utd paying a reported £500,000 a week, him being injured, playing terrible football, being loaned out and now injured yet again?
Wenger deserves a medal for saving us in that instance.
4. Ramsey was offered a new contract, but the new regime (rightly or wrongly) took it off the table…UE let the contract run down and we lost a player worth a reported £40-50,000,000 for nothing…the only difference with the sanchez situation that you blame AW for, was that UE let a player who desperately wanted to stay, let go for nothing –but somehow you put that in the list of AW’ s mistakes??? Pure and utter BS.
5.The players who moved on were supposed deadwood, injury prone or old, so tell me, who would you have kept (apart from Cazola who some say should have gone anyway because of his long term injury)?
6. The club were on low funds??? We have just committed over£215,000,000 in transfer fees, increased the contract salaries of over seven players, one of whom we then sold to everton for a reported £40,000,000…short of money???
Tell that to the likes of spuds etc.
7. The stinking mess that AW left has seen six young players, under freddies superb trainig skills, enter the first team squad – aubaand lacs were waiting for him to form a lethal attack, his captain courageous xhaka was promoted to captain and we couldn’t judge UE until his best players came back from long term injuries….those players being part of the stinking mess he inherited – what a joker you are.
8. After 12 new players, six great new youngsters and a forward line second to none, plus those stinking players he has promoted, we are being told he did well to finish sixth – get knocked out at home in the two domestic cups by spuds and manure – humiliated by chelsea in a european final – get one point from eighteen out of his last six premier league fixtures- produce the most awful football since the 1950, s- encourage more and more empty seats at the emirates – spend millions on bringing in loan players who were either injured to begin with and/or were shipped of because they were useless – yeah he has done incredibly well…just can’t think of one positive at the moment – unless we count Ozils remarkable fight back to first team fitness from just over four days ago, when he was reported as being below the standard expected!!!
@Gunner_Jack
In your opinion nothing has changed. You don’t KNOW anymore than the rest of us though.
You mention Ozil’s interview as though it’s gospel but I have already mentioned a few flaws in it in the comments above.
Do I believe that Sanhelli and Mertesacker may have been present at training? Every week? No certainly not, but on enough occasions to form their own opinions? Sure why not its not actually as strange as you seem to believe and let’s not forget that Mertesacker played and trained alongside Ozil on a regular basis too.
All we as fans can go on is what information we are given. Personally three members of the clubs management saying the same thing, being then updated with a message telling us that Ozil is now putting in more work, carries more weight than a player giving an interview perfectly coached to try and save face, especially when I can see flaws in said interview replies – but that’s just my opinion 🤷♂️
I still recall Mert scolding Ozil on the field after a certain match. You can search Google for ‘mertesaker shouts at Ozil’ should pop up
@PxN-it was against Citeh at The Etihad after a 6-3 hiding.BFG had a go at Ozil for not acknowledging the fans,not his performance.If anything it was the defence and midfield that was ripped to shreds by Citeh that day not the forwards and creative players, proven by the facts that not too many teams score 3 at that ground.So let’s get the facts right before jumping on the Ozil bandwagon shall we
WTF are you on about now @GERRY BERK.What I have said is correct.I was actually there PAL.
Ozil went off at the end of the game and did not come over to the Away support.THATS what BFG had a go at him for. Try going to a few games here and there PAL.You might actually learn something.
MadHatter, isn’t it a little strange though, that since the clubs announcement last week and Ozil’s first ever public response to the situation, we are suddenly told that he has responded to whatever was required?
One can only push another so far and I believe this was the final straw and I find it amazing that the backtracking going on by UE has suddenly appeared -why didnt he say there was an improvement before now if that was the case AND more importantly this improvement must have taken place while he was selected as captain, only to then be dropped completely from the squad….would like your thoughts on that scenario.
When was Emery ever asked if Ozil was making improvements Ken? Or when indeed has he ever said that he wasn’t making improvements?
All he has said is that Ozil hasn’t been doing enough but they are working with him 🤷♂️
As for the Captaincy role – I explained that in a previous thread I believe it was to help motivate him and seemingly worked when he led the young Cup squad and did well.
Since then he hasn’t featured in the PL because the squad was not suitable for him (Ozil and defense ain’t best friends) as for UEL, well a lot of youngsters need game time too and if Ozil was still dragging his heels a bit in training then dropping him again could have been what got that last bit Emery was looking for out of him.
The good thing is that if Ozil is doing enough to please Emery then the PL squad can now be set up to suit Ozil. So just like Emery with the squad in general, Ozil has the opportunity to go out and prove he is the man for the job – could be exciting times ahead my friend.
MadHatter, he was asked why Ozil wasn’t being selected and he gave the reason as not being fit and training to the levels expected.
Yes, I agreed with your view regarding the captaincy being given to him, a good logical explanation…but following on fro that, we have seen Ozils response and I have to ask you again, if he wasn’t fit was that a wise move to make?
Not only for the player, but for the outcome of the game itself?
I certainly take your positivity about the situation on board, it can only benefit the club, but don’t you get even a little feeling that it was only Ozils response that sparked this incredible response from UE?
Well the timing of all this is very convenient to say the least .
We have Emery and board saying one thing then Ozil coming out to defend himself then Emery backtracking to what he had previously said .
I have read all that as been written and that is pretty much what I’ve come up with unless I have missed something or I’m just being plain stupid .
What he said wasn’t wrong though – he was never asked between weeks if any improvement had happened, just the same question over and over – why wasn’t Ozil played/on the bench.
By the time he was played I would imagine fitness levels would have been up to level and it was just his work ethic they were still worried about. So he gets played because he’s fit enough, and to try and encourage that bit extra from him. Only has a partial success and Ozil’s not quite putting in enough still so he gets benched for the UEL. Now Ozil is putting in that little bit extra, hell maybe he doesn’t even realise he’s doing so he’s just pissed at Emery and that’s giving him that extra spark, either way Emery is now seeing what he wants and comes out and says so.
Could all be a load of pish, how would I know, but goes to show there is a possible, reasonable explanation that doesn’t involve anyone lying, having agendas etc etc that fits with what we have been told 🤷♂️
I see your Scottish madhatter
Pish 👍😂
Plus Ken, that car jacking ordeal may have affected him more than he let on, or even realised.
Im a schizophrenic so know only too well that sometimes we think we are being honest with others about how things are affecting us, only because we aren’t being honest with ourselves about how it’s affecting us 🤷♂️
@Dan….. Haha no I’m English, just too many Scots for friends I’ve picked up the jargon 🤣🤣
Yea I’ve got a couple and they all say pish ..nothing better than hearing it straight out of a Scots mouth😂
I took my peach since Ozil came out, spoke for himself and Emery responded positive. No one is more powerful in this case than YOU!! Well done Mesut for speaking so respectful but powerfully for yourself, well done for standing tall in a situation that only belongs to you and no matter what Emery and anyone think of you, you deserve your pay because you did not put a knife to anybody’s throat before you were given the contract. Anyone can eat their hearts out including Unai Emery!!!! Emery and Sanllehi withdrew the BS we were told last week. I will always support any Arsenal player until they no-longer plays for the club.