After getting it in the neck from certain quarters after his performance and penalty miss against Bayern Munich on Wednesday night, Per Mertesacker has called for support and understand for Mesut Ozil.
The German’s penalty was saved too easily by Manuel Neuer and the BFG backed up Arsene Wenger’s claim that it affected him negatively throughout the game.
“Against Bayern you must be ice-cold, otherwise you have no chance with a penalty,” Mertesacker is quoted saying in the Telegraph.
“This should not be a reproach to Mesut, he will be angry. We tried during the game to interact with him, so he forgets quickly but it was eating away at him. You could see that.
“It is up to everybody to encourage each other. It is not only up to Mesut. He will come back even stronger. He is a massive player and we need him at his best. It is obvious that when you miss a penalty you are disappointed but you have to get over it quickly. That is the main thing.”
And having been written off as too slow, too clumsy and unsuited for English football in his first Premier League campaign, the now universal favourite Mertesacker has urged patience and understanding.
“It is not normal to come here and perform well in the first season over 50 games,” he said.
He was backed up by fellow German Lukas Podolski who said, “Trust in Mesut, he will give it back twice in return and make all of us happy. Friends stand together. Let’s go AFC!”
If only we could think of other players who haven’t exactly set the world on fire when they first arrived …
Eboue?
Always loved that guy, you knew what you were going to get from him all the time. Similar to Sagna, but not on his level.
We have a new Eboue in the form of Nacho Monreal…minus the dancing.
Couldn’t agree with this BFG anymore!! MÖ still has the time to adjust with our league and our club.. £43.5M does not equal immediate succes COYG!!!
£43.5? who is this new record buy? certainly not Mesut
*M
I remember being at Wembley for Champions League game against Solna when Henry was still finding his feet. He was getting slaughtered and I always remember one miserable old bastard calling him the “new Glenn Helder”
Glenn Helder – still sends shivers down my spine. As an 11-year-old, I thought I was being terribly clever getting ‘Helder 32’ on the back of my home shirt. That feeling didn’t last long. As for Özil, BFG is spot on. More and more fans are getting on his back which is an utter farce. We should be closing around him and protecting him from the media/sniping fans of other clubs. It’s our club; they’re our players; we need to make him feel part of something. Özil needs the team to be built around him which it currently isn’t (owing… Read more »
perfectly put forward sir..
There is no disputing Ozil is a world class player. Arguably the best number 10 in the world for the last 3 Seasons. But Ozil needs clever runners to make the most of his key passing skill. Having strikers that just stand with their back to the goal holding up the ball aint doing him any favours. I remember one game where Ozil ran forward with the ball, but his only passing option was an idle Giroud with a defender at his back just standing there asking for the ball. Ozil passed him the ball and Giroud just stood there… Read more »
The issue is the way he carries himself. Looks pretty uninterested at times. I don’t think he is, but it’s not helping with the criticism aimed at him. I’m sure he’ll come good, but its always going to take a while to get used to passing to Giroud and – now Sanogo – compared to Ronaldo and Benzema.
If you judge a players quality based on his laid-back style then.. well.. you won’t be hired as a scout any time soon. Maybe you should watch sports like figure skating or gymnastics where posture and body language actually matters
Lets stand together AFC,looki foward against sunderland
I think mr blog was referring to players like the original handsome French bastard, bobby pires. Thierry Henry also maybe?
And the original “Big-Spend-Turned-Waste-Of-Money-Turned-Legend”, DB10
Think that.. its time for Ozil to go.. he doesn’t seems interested in Arsenal any more..
Back to your bridge, troll
I have known since his early years…Mesut Özil is NOT lazy, is NOT disinterested in Arsenal and sure as hell is NOT shit, as some call him. He will shine and put a cap on all those friggin doubters. Give him a break FFS.
Mesut seni seviyoruz!
In terms of the distance covered in a match, he was 3rd. Hardly lazy
What a daft unintelligent thing to say… Half our team were decided as inadequate … Now we are contenders for the title.
Dennis Bergkamp took a while to settle in.
Thierry Henry took a while to settle in, and longer still to turn into the forward we all remember.
Aaron Ramsey wasn’t helped by injuries of course, but took a while to turn into the player we’ve seen this season.
Per Mertesacker took a while to settle in.
Robert Pires took a while to settle in.
Keeping all that in mind, are you still sure it’s time for ozil to go, before he’s even had one season?
Arsenal after Matchday 26, 2012-2013 season: 44pts
Arsenal after Matchday 26, 2013-2014 season: 56pts
Enough said.
What Poldi said! First sentence was music to my ears.
I love Poldis Team Spirit. What an awesome personality! 🙂
What a crap statement that oezil isnt interested in Arsenal. You must be a spud.
Spud!! That’s some kind of a disease, right? Quick! Spread the news..we need to protect ourselves.
A true fan will support and back their own players, be it good or bad times. This is the age of plastic fans and as long as they are around, no player will be given time to prove himself
Pires, Henry, koz, mert etc etc it takes a while for players to settle, but when they do!! Boom! Ozil is world class – and it’s only a matter of time till it is shown again
Think Poldi has been signed simply to be a motivational speaker in the squad… the use of him recently makes me think so, in anycase.
The moment i saw poldi’s post on facebook, I almost cried. He is really passionate about the club, it’s a pity that he doesn’t get chances. I feel really really sorry for him.
Find it really shambolic that players like Mertesacker and Podolski have to come forward and defend a player like Ozil against the FANS. Let me just put this in this way: Mesut Ozil is a world class player. Arsenal fans were CRYING out and asking for the manager’s head for a big name signing. Now that we’ve got one, the new problem is he isn’t living up to his worth? Oh give it a rest ffs. Everyone fucks up penalties. Even world class players. Ask Pires. Ask Beckham. Sometime’s I find Arsenal fans to be hypocritical. First you ask for… Read more »
I’d also like to point out to the fact that Madrid and Arsenal have very different styles of play so it has been tough for Ozil too. He has had to play alongside so many different players that he just hasn’t gelled with them as he’d like. Madrid had one constant element which suited Ozil wonderfully: Pace on the wings. It was easy for Ozil to put through Ronaldo-Di Maria with ease because that’s what he’s good at. It was all fast with those two players and Benzema up front. Here, we use a different approach. We’ve had Wilshere, Walcott,… Read more »
Exactly. A creator cannot create without people to help him do it. He’s done a couple of soloraids lately though. The Ox took one run deep against Liverpool and he got the ball, if more of our players could make the runs Bayern-, Liverpool-, Real- and Cityplayers do he’d have 2 times the amount of chances created. Thing is we play with our backs against the goal trying to pass it in. Giroud in his first year did alot of runs, now he ONLY goes for the great flick. The few times Walcott and Özil played each other we all… Read more »
Spot on Guy. The levels of whineyness that our fans reach depresses me at times. It’s as if you’d expect the same set of fans who wrote Ramsey off last year and Oli, Kos and Mert the year before would learn a lesson or two. The biggest issue I see, however, is that the guy is quite obviously an exquisite footballer, if we’re going to drive Ozil out of town then I really don’t know what we’ll do to satisfy the Gunner massive…
What is with everyone at arsenal suddenly using the word, reproach all the time?
Don’t reproach us for that.
Well said that man – ozil ozil ozil
We won’t see the best of him until we give him a the mobile forward line his talent deserves.
He is getting stick from the press that comes with his price tag.
The fans will stick by him and the club will encourage him. He will be fine. Just needs to ignore the ignorant English media and hope that Arsène will invest in the the talent that will compliment his game.
Ozil looks uninterested at times.. I get that. he also looks lazy. But we all know he’s a world class player. Missing a penalty against the best in the biz aint easy.he’s morale was low.. But that’s soccer. He needs time to adapt.. We all need to stay behind him not criticize his lazy ass.
Well said GUYGIVESAFAWKES….
For those with no patience or understanding of today’s game fuck off to sp*rs bitches!!!
Ozil is shit at battleships… do i go off the cliff blogs?
The critizism directed towards Özil is ridiculous. He has the sort of game that doesn’t always make him look involved. I remember watching the Man City-game and my friends and I all agreed that he looked invisible at times, but watching the highlight the day after he was involved in everything going forward, and he often is. But he has a discrete style of play, creating space out of nothing, giving him self time when there is none ans setting up passes that look easy as hell, but actually takes a lot of effort and not getting credit. Againt Man… Read more »
Exactly! Thats the main reason of the about M1Ö criticism. No matter if he plays in madrid, for Germany or Arsenal. Everytime, everybody including the media complains, that he is invisible. But if you look at his stats in Madrid aswell as in the German National Team, you will see his class. His class is beeing invisible and creating chances out of nothing. He only needs a good players/recievers in front off him. The reason for his invisibility is that he is opening spaces while attacking and closes them while defending. He does not work against the ball, whilst defending,… Read more »
If you think Ozil should go then you too should go join SPUDS or MAUREEN!
Had enough of all this Ozil hate, give the guy a break DAMN!
Missing the penalty kick is normal but the way and manner he took it was the most annoying part of it all cos he did the same thing this season so he should have learnt. At least he should have played the ball with force. Secondly arsene wenger is the cause of it all, because he bought a player for over 40 million does not mean he should be left on the pitch even when he struggles. We needed someone like santi who could defend instead he took santi off the pitch and left a player who is looking for… Read more »
He took santi from the pitch at a point where özil and Arsenal were still in good shape (right after the red card). After that Wenger had only one remaining substitute, so he waited, cause you never know when somebody will get injured. As far as i know the oz certainly was struggling in the second half because of an small Injury so he took him off instead of özil. It makes sense to me. And after all nobody can say that Özil wasn’t fighting. Just take a look at this: http://i.imgur.com/yagNFqd.jpg
Let’s not forget that Özil was coached under Maureen. It takes time to cleanse him of his past. But comments like “he’s shit” or “time for Özil to go” are embarrassing and daft. I’m not even half-convinced he’s doing poorly. No doubt he hasn’t been spectacular all of the time, but he has been a reliable, hard-working asset all of the time with mistakes here and there. Wenger is grooming one of the greatest talents of the game to be what he can be, great. The only way to do that is to give the player a lot of responsibility.… Read more »
We as fans seem to fall into the same fucking trap every time. Aaron was unbelievably promising before the leg break, he then broke his leg, came back, and people labeled him as not good enough/garbage etc. Those of us who believed in him would use a legit defense in saying that it was the horrific injury compounded with the treatment he got which was affecting his performances, and making him try too hard. then there were those who said “be patient” and “he’ll be world class.” Unfortunately, if I don’t think that the mustard in my ham and cheese… Read more »
I agree, and you’ve helped us practise patience with the length of that post, thanks.
Lol believe me, it felt like I spent half my life writing it. If I could grow a beard, I’d surely have one by now.
I started thinking about boobs after line 2.
May I remind you that, before the penalty, Özil played at his best ?
Yes, what you saw was Özil on form. After that he dropped.
Now replay those 10 minutes, imagine Ozil that with confidence he can reproduce those 10 minutes over 90…and you get a better idea of his real level.
Maybe it’s just the unique nature of his occular region, but doesn’t anyone else think that Ozil looks like a rabbit in headlights most of the time. I’m not about to slag him off, far from it, he’s an exceptional footballer who needs time to get used to not only this league, but playing 90mins up to twice a week for an entire season without a winter break. I vaguely remember reading that he didn’t even get a full pre-season at Madrid before his move… But I do think that the senior members of the squad are very protective of… Read more »
Wanting people to become something they are not suited to be is perhaps the biggest possible managerial mistake. You should play to people’s strengths and listen to bs about how he should be ‘dictating’ the games etc. If someone can’t see his contribution, it doesn’t mean it’s not there.
You’re probably right; I’m thinking more in terms of his own confidence, maybe if he threw in the odd stepover or heel flick (such as the gorgeous touch that won the penalty), a few cheers from the crowd might help him out.
His touch, passing and dribbling are sublime, but these are the things you only really notice when you make a mistake.
Why isn’t Wilshere getting slated as much as Ozil? He’s been worse recently.
He didn’t cost £40m, and Ramsey’s early season form meant Jack has flown under the radar for a while.
If he’s going to be a deep lying midfielder he needs to position himself more intelligently. Personally I’d like to see him on the right flank for a while, I think he has similar attributes to Nasri who’s best run (6 whole months!) was from the right while Theo was out.
Ozil has changed us from top four challenges to title challenges so people want to stop whinging and get behind him .
for all Ozils great skills a penalty taker he is not, it was the manner in which he’s body language just didnt look right on either of the 2 pens he has missed. He is world class give him time to adapt we will reap the benifits. Maureen of all his antidotes rates him as the best number 10 in the world and would love him at the chafs but he is here and im sure will become written in Arsenal folk lore.
In order to understand the critisism of Özil you first need to try, difficult as it may be, to think like 99% of the football journalists that for some unfathomable reason demand so many column inches and TV/Radio air time. These are a breed with a shall we say somewhat challenged intellect. They have to produce a certain amount of content everyday to satisfy the demands of their bosses otherwise, I’m sorry to break this to you and here’s the catch, they don’t get paid. Now if you take a moron and say give me a story you will get… Read more »
That Poldoski’s statement is not complete tho. Where are they #hashtags
#aha
Ozil’s qualities are the positions he takes up and his ability to shield the ball and lay it off at the correct time. Very simple stuff really. He’s a very intelligent player. The problem is football fans don’t understand the importance of the simple things and how effective it is. It takes not only ability, but a quick mind to study the pitch and see the movement before it happens, while under pressure. Most players don’t have this ability, therefore it might not be simple, after all. Ozil’s star quality is his passing. We’ll never see that on a reqular… Read more »
Even Fabregas received a ton of flack at Barcelona in his first season, he was too direct in a possession-based side… sound familiar to Ozil anyone?
Look at him now.
I’d say the opposite, if Fabregas’ impact was far easier to spot in that Arsenal side, it’s what we (I) loved about him, whereas Ozil’s style (currently) is less tangible. You’re right about him needing time though, of course.
Just remember the spunts paid 100 million to be no where near as effective in the premier league as Özil. I think on any given day with our best players we would thrash Bayern Munich, we where just very unlucky, in life sometimes you’re the bird and sometimes you’re the statue. For a first season Özil has been a notable success !
Much as we all have to support him he needs to show passion. the moment he steped up to take that penalty his body language said it all I saw a guy soo low in spirit and didnt have anything to lose. this is the second crapy penalty he is taking. he reminds me a little of Arshavin a player we all knew his qualities but he was fucking lazy. but then again what is with Wenger playing him all the games 90 mins even Coventry during the FA cup he played 90 maybe even the manager is to blame.
Guys, wth with this 42.5 million thing? It was paid to madrid. He only commands 100+k a week salary. Many man shitty shitty players command that amount and sit at home, not even on bench.
He is world class but i think he has stamina issues. I beleive this is probably why he didn’t pay the full 90 minutes at Real Madrid.
I think we will see the best of him next season
if only our support could be as classy as our team.
If you want to see what a really disinterested player looks like then watch half of West Ham – Ozil doesn’t look remotely disinterested even if you squint through a game
Irrespective of whether he’s settled or whether he will turn it around on the pitch he does sulk a lot, think the mertesacker telling off after the United game I think and then the flamini telling off against bayern, he doesn’t really accept criticism which makes me wonder if he even thinks about rectifying those mistakes or just plough on his way
Judging by the statements, most of the people criticising Ozil never played football, or any other sport on a competitive level at that. Football is way more than what an average fan sees. If a player in Champions League has had a bad night, you should know that he ran at least 10km- many of which he sprinted, as well as passed, tackled and dribbled through all of 90 minutes. Now, if you play in a Premiership club, that is what you call a Saturday afternoon. Coming from Spain, where you have no more than eight tough matches the whole… Read more »
‘Fans’ professing AFC loyalty and questioning our MO’s mojo should be summarily shot with a few point-blank Podolski missiles.
Personally, i love it that there are so many people criticizing Mesut. With the track record these idiots have of regularly ending up with their face in a pile of cowdung, it only increases the probability of Mesut becoming our best player.
Voldermort makes a good point above, which is that Ozil needs pacey forwards and midfielders to get the most out of his exceptional passing. The tappy tappy style doesn’t really utilize his great skills.
Ozil is not shit, he is a very good player, but he looks a bit lost at the moment. I just wonder how well he has settled in socially at the club. Maybe he is finding it difficult to make friends there.
By the way: he’s not very good at taking penalties and should be kept away from them.
We have to be very careful as fans that we aren’t part of the problem. We are now into our 9th year without silverware and that is pressure in itself for the current team. If we keep clamouring for a Messiah to save us, then damning him for being a false prophet after half a season, we are in danger of being part of the problem. The history is there where clubs went long periods without winning titles – Utd, LFC etc and often it wasn’t due to lack of money but the weight of history. Let’s be ‘supporters’ –… Read more »
Nice post, you fore-runner, you!
To put things in perspective: Manu went without a trophy for 37 years Liverpool and Everton have both gone 24 years without a trophy. Spurs went 30 years. City went 35. Arsenal 44. Things go in cycles. We are approaching good times for Arsenal but hampered by almost unlimited budgets of some other teams. Not much anyone can do here and just because we support Arsenal doesn’t give us the right to expect a trophy with any regularity. Money sadly does all the talking these days in the game and its only going to get worse. What’s even worse is… Read more »
You have to remember özil is used to playing the game at his own pace at madrid, he used to dictate games there, unfortunately you can’t do that in the premier league but he will adjust his game for the better. I mean look at hazard, his first season was average for a player of his calibre, now look at him, that has happened because he has adapted and özil will adapt and be one of the best players this club and the league has ever seen. We as fans need to support each and every player and not give… Read more »
The best way to respond is to play.
The best thing for Ozil’s confidence is to continue to play hard.
I get the feeling he’s the sort who looks at a cup half empty. he needs to get over the miss (alaba missed too) and remedy the situation/make amends through providing more assists.
That said, if he feels he needs a rest, then we have enough to rotate against Sunderland. But taking him off the roster should not end up preying on his psyche. I expect he should come in at some stage to remain competitive.
…and of course, Metersecker will set him straight.