I share the opinion of those saying we are wasting him out on left, we are practically defeating the whole purpose of having him in the team, and risk turning him into Arshavin. Ozil is not a winger, he is a number 10, his role is not to track back as is required on the wings, but in the number 10 role, that doesn't matter and so this 'lazy' play doesn't come into the equation. Wenger said he didn't bring Fabregas (who's on fire) because he had Ozil, so why the **** is he not playing him in the middle then, and instead is wasting him out wide, and also hurting his confidence? It's sad to see such talent being wasted, play the man in his bloody position.
Totally agree that Ozil should be playing in the central role pulling the strings. We have OXO who can play on the wings so why is he pulling one of our best players and playmakers out wide. We also have Pod on the bench who can do a job on the left too.
The thing is, Wenger seems to like this 4-1-4-1 formation atm. You can see it clearly when we are defending, the two lines of 4 with the DM in between. Its a very useful formation for limiting the oppositions forward play through the middle. But I doubt Ozil could play in the middle in it. The 2 CMs start quite far back when we get the ball, and it is them running forwards and past the striker that gets lots of opportunites. Ozil would be too far back to have an impact, and dislikes running with the ball for too long. We'd have to go back to a 4-2-3-1 to accomodate him in the middle, something Wenger seems unwilling to do.
This new formation so far has shown no real defensive improvements from the middle, so don't see the problem in reverting to 4-2-3-1.
Hopefully Walcott will come back firing soon as that should push Sanchez to the left and Ozil to the middle. I think it would be harsh to really judge Ozil at the moment as he clearly isn't suited to playing on the wing in the premier league. I agree he could put in a bit more effort but he naturally has a very languid style, I wouldn't say he is overly lazy. I'm sure with Welbeck in front of him and Walcott and Sanchez either side of him he will get plenty of assists- he needs to score more though too. It'll be interesting to see what Wenger does with Ramsey and Wilshere if Ozil does get moved back to the middle.
I'm of the opinion that Ozil has been a massive waste of money and doesn't deserve a place in the starting XI. There are always convenient excuses trotted out after his latest ****e performance. Last season it was apparently because he had no one making runs for him and this season it's going to be because he's playing on the wing, never mind the fact that he rarely stays on the wing and always drifts inside.
I think Wenger thought Ramsey's development would stop if he brought in Fabregas, not ozil. Having said that, I was one of the people who would rather have Fabregas than any of our currenty players. This guy is a master. Anyway, I am longing for us to have two TRUE wingers....cant wait for walcott to come back cuz that will force wenger to play Sanchez, Welbeck and Walcott. That will be amazing! I am sure Wenger will be stubborn with Ozil (and I guess he should be after spending 42million on him) and therefore drop Wilshere or Ramsey.
He wasn't at his best today, but still way better than several on the other side and better than any other option we had.
I rate Ozil highly and think he will be much more successful once he is moved into the middle but I think we had several other options on the bench who could have replaced him after 60-70 mins and done a good job e.g the ox, podolski, cazorla.
Ozil is one of the best 10s in the world. He's also a poor winger and awful defensively. He offered no cover for Monreal - not a great LB. Ox, Pod or Caz would have provided better defensive cover, while Ozil should be playing central, where he can pull the strings.
He wasn't on the left for most of the game. Wenger switched him with Sanchez pretty early on in the game to do precisely that ... cover Monreal better.
Even though he's not being played in his best position, there's no excuse for not trying. If you watch the replay of the Wilshere goal, moments before Ozil stuck out a leg on a City defender and just flopped over. He was lying on the floor for a good 30 seconds until Ramsey restarted the move. I also partially blame him for Demichelis' equaliser. Again, if you watch a replay, Demichelis and two other City players stroll past Ozil as the corner is taken, leaving him stood just within the penalty area, watching on. He wasn't trying at all in the second half. He was actually letting his team down, which is unacceptable.
Lampard and Nasri were awful I didn't think Silva was very good either. Statistically he was better, but I didn't think he was as dangerous, or did as well off the ball, either in defence or attack.
I didn't see that not trying in the second half, in fact he raced back and stalled a counter attack, on several occasions when players gave up the ball cheaply. I think he clearly tired by the end, but he ran himself into the ground. This not trying thing is such a load of hogwash. How can people be so blatantly dishonest. They were saying the thing about him at the world cup, only to find out afterwards, when the stats came in, that Ozil had run further than anyone else on the pitch. Now Arsenal fans are saying the same thing. His work rate has proven to be one of the highest, so if he looks lazy to you, it is your point of view that is "Unacceptable".
Whether or not you think his work rate is acceptable, his performances this season have not been top quality. I appreciate Ozil is not the type of player to be harrying and hassling like some others but what he does need to be contributing is assists and 10-15 goals a season. I'm still confident he will have a good season but he needs to be moved to the number 10 position (see your signature for the reason why). Also, if he was clearly tiring why not substitute him?
Were you watching the game with your eyes closed? You must honestly be the most myopic Arsenal fan I've encountered on the internet. Just off the top of my head I can recall 2 clear cut chances Silva created (lobbed pass to Dzeko which Koscielny attempted to clear and hit the post/the offside goal Nasri scored. Silva was surrounded by about 5 Arsenal players but still managed to somehow pick out Dzeko who had his shot brilliantly saved by Woj) but I'm struggling to think of any positive Arsenal moves that Ozil was involved in. Silva is the best number 10 in the world, Ozil doesn't even deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence as him based on last season's performances.
Please show me which game at the world cup Ozil covered more distance than any other player on the pitch.
