Arsenal coach should have ripped into Ozil critic by Sam P
I think that Arsene Wenger could have gone a lot further than he did in standing up for the Arsenal and Germany international midfielder Mesut Ozil today. The manager was of course well within his rights to defend his player from what Paul Scholes had suggested and the things the Frenchman pointed out seemed perfectly fair to me.
Wenger could have gone further, however, and said more about why Scholes was making the criticism as well as pointing out that it was unfair, as reported by The Mirror. Scholes had claimed in his article in The Independent that Ozil had taken an easy option by coming to the Emirates and pointed to the fact that a lot of our best players in the last 10 years have gone the other way.
The former Man Unite man said, “Those players have realised that if they want to win championships then they have to move elsewhere. It’s why I think Mesut Özil took the easy option joining Arsenal. Since he has been there you cannot doubt his quality but at times he looks like he is going through the motions, however much ground he covers. He needs a leader around him to get him going. At Real Madrid he had a chance of winning league titles. At Arsenal that is not on the cards.”
Wenger replied, “It is not fair. A player like Paul Scholes would have loved to play with Mesut Ozil.
“Having said that, I believe about Ozil it’s a wrong statement [from Scholes]. He works very hard and he’s a great player.
“He has something to prove and he knows that. We are all in a job where in every single game we have to prove a point.
“I believe he has the quality, he puts a lot of effort in to help the team and he works much harder than his style shows.
“You can be cheated a little bit by his style of play, because he is fluent, easy, subtle and he does not look like he puts the effort in, but he does.
“I knew he had a good physical potential, but did not know how good he was physically. He has a huge physical potential.”
All good points and the stats on Ozil’s work rate as well as his rate of providing assists, creating chances and even scoring goals backs Wenger up. What the Arsenal boss could have said, though, is how hypocritical Scholes’ attack was.
Maybe he could have pointed out that Scholes said Ozil took the easy option out but also that it is now harder for him to win things than at Real Madrid. So why not stay where he was? Is it not true, Scholesy, that you just like having a go at our club and players? Yeah thought so!
Seems like more of an attack at Wenger.
Danny Rose seems to be a guy that gets slagged-off quite a bit here but he is a stronger Kieran Gibbs with less of a brain. Not to mention he has pace and not afraid to attack narrow, which tends to leave players like Welbeck and of course Walcott thinking that they really don´t have to track him.
Your squad above to me as well is the best though I would give Chamberlain a rest bringing him and Rosicky on late; but start Akpom (I think Welbeck will likely be playing against his old squad though…expect big things either way) instead…he will, in my mind with Sanchez on the other side coming in attracting a lot of attention will give Chuba all the space he needs. Not to mention running at a likely non-three-in-da back pairing of Smalling and Rojo…real questions need to be asked of those two, nor should we be the team giving away ANY corners. I see set-pieces becoming a cashcow for us down the stretch.
So it’s as “easy” as picking an eleven is it?
Per needs no more written about him
Gibbs exposes the LB spot wayyy too much. Monreal a huge miss.
Coq still gets found out by good opposition
Rambo is hot and cold this season to put it mildly
Chambo’s end product is suspect.
Plenty of potential ways United can win this one. Not the formality you suggest by any stretch. Got the makings of Monaco all over again with arrogant attitudes like this coming out. United have been dogpi$$ all season, but still are only a point behind us in the league and have beaten us once already.
Going to be a nervy one. 11 good performances needed.
Scholes and Neville should mind their own issues over at Manure. IF Ozil has been an flop, then I wonder how they rate Ramadel Falcao and the sliding form of Di Maria? genuinely expensive flops
A diplomatic silence would be preferable Arsene. No.need to respond. let your players respond on the pitch. the ex player hacks should be writing for a comic anyway.
A decade ago, I played against a player like Ozil.
He was effortless, languid, never in a hurry and could thread a pass through a pinhole.
We could never get the ball off him. He cut us to pieces for two seasons.
Scholes and the others who like the English style – hard tackle and break legs – can’t understand that style. They should wonder why English teams suffer in CL football.
Ozil is playing F1 football in a a bumper car league.
Decade? I meant generation. Damn !
In scholes’ defense he is the only english player i can think of to come close to the technically masterful players of which you’re referring. But as proven by his comments, the ability you may have once had makes no difference to how you can call the game.
Just more bitter nonsense from a player who had Arsenal as his main rival in his career and is now in a position to nationally criticize. Intelligence can counter bias, it would seem Scholes isn’t the sharpest.
I’ve also noticed that because he doesn’t scream, shout and wave his hands in the air, people think that he’s got an attitude problem or that he doesn’t care. And therefore hold that against him as well.
He’s probably one of the calmest players I’ve ever seen, which IMO, is a good thing to have in the team.
Agreed, and I think a bit of the bias extends to the officials as well. Guys clearly fouling him to get the ball off of him and they don´t look bothered, yet would give a clown like a Cattermole, in a pickle too far up the pitch a lay-down.
Considering he was known for being particularly media-shy, I’m not really sure how we ended up with Scholes feeling the need to be negative towards just about everything. Brilliant player, boring pundit, tends to be best to just ignore him
Gary Neville is the only person worth the time of day.
I saw him explain a game where Arsenal left Flamini stranded, then he compared to the support that Le Coq got in his game.
Most Arsenal just slated Flamini without understanding the difference.
What scholes should really be doing, which he isnt is question L V G team selection every week! Rumour has it that the players dont like it neither does the man u fans, ask falcao and di maria! It is said that they arent very happy campers these days!
Serves them right, blindly move into a dodgy neighborhood for 40k more a week, serves them right…Even Falcao´s former manager more or less told him he was a fool for going to United. DiMaria is about the same…
we all know.man utd is gona win…
unless Wenger change his tactics and approach….
if not its a utd win for sure
How would you play against that team, everyone and their mama knows they are playing some of the shittiest football on this earth…stylistically, yet still seem to be winning. They have no real pace up front, I submit we keep the ball and don´t look to counter…
This is similar to what mourinho did before the Monaco game. Hope these sleazy tactics don’t work