The Daily Arsenal

Everton and Manchester City are both keen on a summer move for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, with the 23-year-old Arsenal midfielder considering his options because of a lack of playing time. (Daily Mirror)

It seems like, every day, HMS Arsenal is taking on more and more water.

 

Arsenal have warned forward Alexis Sanchez and midfielder Mesut Ozil, both 28, they will not bow to their contract demands despite having cash reserves of more than £100m. (Daily Mail)

To my Gooner friends: is any of this true?

What are your feelings on this?

 

Arsenal's number one target to replace Arsene Wenger is Juventus manager Massimiliano Allegri, but Barcelona have entered the race to sign him. (Daily Express)

If this story is true, who do you think will get Allegri, Arsenal or Barcelona?

Personally, I hope that the story isn't true, and that Arsenal do get Allegri, because a manager of his quality would be superb in the Prem.

 

Alexis Sanchez, 28, should leave Arsenal and join Inter Milan according to Chile team-mate Gary Medel. (Daily Mail)

What a dreadful thing for Medel to say!

Us Spurs fans had to put up with all of this **** with Bale.

 

Arsenal let Ozil down​

Germany general manager Oliver Bierhoff feels Mesut Ozil was let down by his Arsenal team-mates in the 5-1 Champions League defeat at the hands of Bayern Munich. The attacking midfielder was heavily criticised in the wake of his side's loss at the Allianz Arena in the first leg of their last-16 match last month, with fans and pundits alike questioning his ineffective performance. Nevertheless, Bierhoff feels Ozil was suffering due to a lack of support, making it hard for the Germany international to have much of an influence on the game.

"If I look at Ozil, who was singled out following the 5-1 loss to Bayern, in that match there was not much support for a player like Mesut, who lives on his footballing qualities," Bierhoff told Sport Bild. "The team let him down a bit."

The 28-year-old's future at Arsenal remains in doubt, with his existing contract at Emirates Stadium due to expire in 2018 and talks over a renewal yet to bear fruit.

Despite recent criticism, Ozil has been a key figure at Arsenal this term, netting nine goals in 29 appearances in all competitions.

(From an article in Goal.com)


Personally, I think Bierhoff is being a little bit harsh.

Ozil is as much a part of the solution as he is the problem.

The implication appears to be that Wenger has to set the team up around Ozil in order to make Ozil look good. That cannot be right, can it?

Would someone like Simeone come in and do that? Or would he try to create a team where every player fights for one another?

I am interested in what you lads have to say about this.

 

That isn't the implication at all, but Bierhoff is right that the players let the team down. They did okay in the first half, but collapsed in the second half.

As for Ozil, he is a world class talent but he is not a grafter. He's the type of player you want in your team to open up creative play and do things that other players cannot, but if you need somebody to dig you out of a hole in a game, then Ozil is not that player.

 

Pix, Biefhoff isn't saying that the players let Arsenal down, he's saying that the players let Ozil down!

That's how I am reading it, anyway.

If that is what he's saying, it's a shocking thing to say.

I'd certainly agree with you that the players, including Ozil, let your team down. As I said above, Ozil is as much a part of the problem as he is part of any possible solution, or he shouldn't be in the team.

What do you reckon about Simeone? Do you think he'd pander to Bierhoff's delusion, that Arsenal should be built around Ozil in order to make Ozil look good?

 

You're missing the point, you said that the implication was that the team needs to be built around Ozil, it doesn't. Ozil is a creative part of the team, but unlike Spurs who rely on one player like Kane, Arsenal last season had the highest number of different scorers, so our goals are spread throughout the team.

Bierhoff was right about the team letting themselves down, but he was wrong about the team letting Ozil down.

 

This is a contradiction in your argument, Pix.

I am not missing the point, at all. Biefhoff has slammed Arsenal, saying that the players let Ozil down. He goes on to state, quite clearly, that Arsenal do not play to Ozil's strengths. The very clear implication, in Bierhoff's stern criticism, is that Arsenal's team should be built around Ozil.

That is how I see it. You see it differently.

What we both agree on is that Arsenal should not be built around one player.

 

Where is the contradiction ?

The team let themselves down, including Ozil. My point was that he's not the player you look for when the team need dragging out of a hole by the scruffs of their neck.

 

I agree with you on that, Pix.

But that isn't what Biefhoff is saying. I'm focussed on what Biefhoff is saying.

Biefhoff - certainly from how I have read it - is claiming that Arsenal are letting Ozil down by not playing to his strengths. To me, that implies that Biefhoff believes that Arsenal should build their play around Ozil.

You don't think that, and we are in disagreement, which is okay.

The contradiction in your argument is that you say I am missing the point, but then go on to agree with me that Biefhoff is wrong to say that Arsenal let Ozil down by failing to play to his strengths.

Ozil should learn how to play to the team's strengths, in my opinion. Ozil's failings are the team's failings, and vice versa; that how it ought to work.

 

There's no contradiction, because initially you were asking for opinions on the the fact that Bierhoff was saying that the team let Ozil down, I argued that they players, including Ozil, let themselves down, which you now seem to be agreeing with me on

 

I'm not agreeing with you, Pix; we happen to be agreeing with each other.

 

If that makes you feel a bit better

 

It isn't a matter of my feeling better, it's all about being right.

 

Except you started out by saying that the implication was that Wenger sets his team up to make Ozil look good, until I told you that that isn't the case, and that Bierhoff was wrong to say that the team let Ozil down, which you then agreed with me on

 

I have to stop you there, Pix, mainly on account of you being wrong.

What I wrote - and this is easy enough to check by going back and reading what I actually wrote - is that Bierhoff has implied that Wenger ought to set up the team around Ozil, not that Wenger does set his team up that way.

What you wrote after those words are irrelevant, given that the conclusion drawn is based on your error.

 

That's why I used the word 'implication' HIAG

 

No, no, Pix, sorry but you have to be corrected on this.

You wrote: "...you started out by saying that the implication was that Wenger sets his team up to make Ozil look good..." but that emphatically is not what I said.

Pix, you make the mistake of confusing me with the old HIAG. I am not interested in wumming; I genuinely want to engage you in footy discussion. However, if we are to do that, it is important that we do not misrepresent what the other asserts.

 

That's exactly what you said :

The quote is at the top of the page for everybody to read http://www.not606.com/threads/the-daily-arsenal.305998/page-161#post-10293004

If you genuinely want footie discussion, then you need to remember what you have just said, because at the moment you are simply contradicting yourself.