Do people miss Ozil? Carzola has played instead of him in the middle (well, now a days they are all over the place). Personally, I miss his passes a lot - we seem a lot more in control when he is on the pitch. Lately we have misplaced passes, been a bit all over the place when it comes to attacking. I havent missed his non-defensive skillz thou. There I like Carzola more and more...not afraid to get stuck in!
I think its a little too early to tell tbh. But from what I've seen so far I've not been impressed with Cazorla's efforts, he's misplaced passes and his shooting is getting worse. We were always going to miss a player or Ozil's class, and he does create more space. But we're probably equally hamstrung by having so many players out, so we haven't been able to change the system round too much. And Ramsey, Wilshere and Flamini have been injured/out of form, which causes problems as well.
He keeps the ball very well, and his passing is always calm. Lately we have been rushed in our passing, but mainly because nobody moves. Was watching the game vs Sunderland, and when people start to move around, they work so well as a team. But most of the time everyone wants the ball to feet, exactly where they are.
I agree it's so frustrating that everyone wants the ball standing still and to their feet, it has even infected Welbeck, who seems to join the crowd of players lurking on the edge of the box who want the ball at feet so they can run sideways 5 yards before passing to someone else standing still.
Yeah I think the team is already missing him. Even though he is yet to hit his best form for Arsenal he is still our most creative force. Im still waiting to see Walcott and Ozil really get the chance to link up.
Let's not start a witch hunt with Ozil. Let's face it, we can count on one hand the amount of our players playing at the desired level. Our new boys - Sanchez, Chambers and Welbeck have deserved to be in our starting 11, more so than our regulars. Even one of our best players, Ramsey, has been under performing this season.
Yep agree with this, we've had so many players out injured and then trying to regain form. I don't think we should single out Ozil. He still has another level to get to at Arsenal and he's going to take a while to get back to fitness and form, but he is world class and once he's back to his best we will have one hell of a player on our hands, especially as mentioned when he links up with Walcott and Sanchez
Yep, definitively miss ozil, he's world class and even when the team aren't playing well he makes chances.
I'm hoping that we have we can cling on to the coat tails of the leading pack. If by Feb/March some of these under performing players start doing the business and injury situation improves, a mirror opposite to previous season, maybe we can improve fourth spot as a result?
To be honest I don't really see a leading pack yet, all I see is Chelsea charging away with the title, while Man C's form fluctuates and everyone else is pretty close. That's assuming that Southampton and the Hammers won't keep up their current form.
A positive to take is that we are grinding out the results and still keeping in sight. Other than Sanchez, no other player (attacking wise) has been stand out this season, so inevitably, we will have a few more players (including Ozil), hitting a level that will propel us forward. But we need to hit some serious form very soon, as Smirnoff has pointed out, Chelsea seem to be pulling away at some rapid pace. Chelsea will fit some patchy form sooner or later, so we need to be able to make significant distance should the moment arise. Only real concern is a defensive cover/injuries one. This is the main issue that can really derail our season. We are teetering at the moment and i'm hoping we don't get pulled over the edge...
That's a nice positive look. Looking at it like that, then we always have a good strong run of form for at least 3 months of every season. So if that happens now, and with a lot of players due to come back in the next 2 months, then it'll take us to January, hopefully we'll sign some defensive cover which is more Chambers than Squillaci and then we may be able to cope without a DM (which is killing us) until the summer, and still have a good crack at the FA Cup, league and semi's of the CL.
I suppose anything can happen and we do have some serious quality in our squad that is yet to show off their true worth. The Man U game will show how far we've gone in my opinion. I've got it down as a draw but it is a very winnable game in my opinion. Even without Ozil, we have enough creativity in Wilshere, Cazorla and Ramsey to create goals for our forward players. Walcott is yet to come back and we know how good he was last season, albeit for a short period of time. But we have to keep our injuries down, as it is starting to have an adverse effect on our team. Players need a good run of games and as we saw Ramsey last season, he was terrific after having a long run. Wilshere is starting to look better and the same will happen with the classy Cazorla. But as you and many of us have stated, we need some defensive reinforcements to make in midfield and defence. We can have all the attacking quality we want, but without the defensive functional side of the game, we will continue to struggle when teams give it to us.
This for me too. Man Utd game is going to be a real barometer for this season. It's definitely a winnable game, but the same was true of the home fixture last year and we were unbelievably flat...... But this time around we have Sanchez
