I will always defend Ozil because I think he had a thankless task. He came in at a time the fans were exasperated. The teams he played in were dead, we had a dead defence, at DM we had a combination of muppets, Arteta, Coquelin, **** Flamini, Xhaka and Elneny, up front was a bloody joke (Giroud, Sanogo, Bendtner) Walcott was hit n miss and Podolski was a shadow of his former self. After his (Ozil's) first season Welbeck and Sanchez were added, Sanchez of course being world class, Welbeck .. well .. nuff said. When Wenger left we saw the decline of Ozil, subsequent managers trying to play Billy Big Bollocks with him. He was marginalised by Emery and then by Arteta, but, considering what Ozil had to work with under Wenger I think he did bloody well, no player in the league created more chances than Ozil during his time under Wenger. https://x.com/Squawka/status/849688337468338185
My main issue with Ozil he was a bit of a coward. (harsh but fair). I can't remember him ever having great performance in a game where the pressure was on. For me it's the fact the was good enough to win us games on his own.. but he never did. Sometimes it would look as if he really didn't give a ****. He played for us during a period we would routinely get thrashed by our rivals in the EPL and the big sides like Barca/Bayern in the UCL. When Sanchez arrived he was a breath of fresh air because the little guy would fight for every ball and win us matches on his own. Ozil never did that for us. You look at our side now, we may not play quite soo attacking football but no teams are going to bend us over and spank us. Plus there's absolutely no hiding from the physical battles.Every player in the starting 11 puts a real shift in.
Wasn't just Ozil in that era - many of our players didn't care enough. That is what Arteta sorted out and why - more or less - the entire squad had to be overhauled. My biggest issue with Arteta is that he gave the players another chance when he joined and tried to work with them. He wasted a year. The very first transfer window should have been a clear out. That Arsenal squad was one of the most shameful in the clubs history - despite Ozil being one of the best players to ever play for Arsenal and others having much raw talent.
Yeah, it didn't help that Wenger kept signing tiny centrebacks and fullbacks. It's funny because I rang up Talksport like a week ago to talk about Amorim. Arteta always wanted to play a 4-3-3 but he adapted to a 5 at the back in the first 1-2 years because we didn't have the players to do it. On one hand you could argue he waisted that time but on the other hand we could have had a similar situation to United and just stubbornly stuck to a system the players couldn't adapt to.
He could have done both TBH - played the 5 at the back but made sure he was replacing players ASAP. He wanted to give the players another chance when the whole world could see they were coasters that didn't really give a f***. I think it was a rookie manager mistake, so I do cut him some slack. Can't have been easy as a first job.
Right. When was it? I'm sometimes intrigued to visualise what posters would be like behind the name and badge icon. Did you get on? Always wondered how easy it is to actually get on, or if actually very few people really ring up. Was it Bent and Goldstein? They're probably the the only two I can tolerate and are funny. Stelling is good but McCoist and Brazil are both pretty dull so the mornings are always a bit dry. And those two before Goldstein and Bent are just appalling.
But we knew that when we signed him. Real Madrid knew that when they signed him, Germany knew that when they picked him. He was scintillating and him not being a fighter didn't stop Germany from winning the World Cup and it didn't stop Real Madrid from winning La Liga, not to mention all of his personal accolades (endless top assists provider awards and numerous National Team Player of the Year awards). This is because those managers gave him the platform he needed, he wasn't required to track back, why would you want him to ?! He had Khedira doing his donkey work, I saw a video of Rio Ferdinand on a podcast saying he and his Man U teammates had to do extra work to cover for CR7 but they didn't mind because he was so good at what he does. Ozil didn't have a single decent DM at Arsenal and our defence was **** so that puts unnecessary pressure on Ozil to have to come back and defend. Give me an Ozil in full flow any day over a battler, as Wenger said, its easier to destroy than it is to create. Had Ozil had a Partey or Declan Rice in midfield he would've been unstoppable for us.
Well it's all well and good performing when all your teammates are World Class. Ultimately for me he's not a 'Arsenal great' because he never performed when the pressure was on. We needed him to elevate us but he didn't have the mentality.
That is like saying the likes of Matt Le Tissier were not great players, though. He was - he was a fantastic footballer. He won ZERO trophies because he alone could not lift the team around him to success. It didn't make him any less great a footballer.
