Against Hull on Saturday Mesut Ozil spurned a fantastic chance in the first half to score his first goal since December 10th, when he looped home a header against Stoke.
Since then he has failed to find the target, and looked a shadow of the player who had been so effective and scored 8 times previously during the campaign.
He definitely looks less able to impose himself on the games at the moment, and with Bayern Munich away from home on Wednesday, that’s something even Arsene Wenger admits is a bit of an issue.
“I felt he was not completely confident technically today,” he said of the German’s performance against Hull.
“That’s a problem because you think he can deliver something special. It’s true that technically he did things today that he is not used to doing.
“I don’t know. It can happen. I can’t think of a specific reason. I had a chat with him yesterday and he looked all right. Maybe it’s time for him to score a goal.
“He needs to find confidence again. He misses chances that don’t look infeasible for him.”
It must be something that’s giving Wenger pause for thought, but he’s still viewing Wednesday night’s game as a chance for his side to get a good result.
“We’ve had bad experiences against Bayern but we have already won there as well,” he said.
“We play the first game away from home – so it’s important that we protect the second game. I feel to have a chance to qualify in the second leg that will be very important.
“So we must go there, not hide but defend well as a team.”
Whether Ozil is part of that team remains to be seen.
Comment:COYG! Lets get behind the team and behind Ozil! Together we can do this. Bring on Bayern!!
Drop him. He is currently contributing next to nothing and is already weak defensively. We cannothen carry anybody between now and the end of the season. Put Perez or Welbeck on the left and play Iwobi or Ox in the hole. Xhaka and Elneny can return to central midfield.
Although I rate Özil highly I can’t help but be amazed at comments like this. How much a week does he want? And he’s not feeling confident? Get a grip man and show the world just how good you really are. #ya gunners ya
Contracts and Arsenal. Something wrong in the stars.
completely agree! Welbeck for sure puts in an amazing defensive shift.
0-0 or 1-1 would be a decent result in the first leg. I feel we do need an away goal, but I hope we don’t open ourselves to be easily hit on the counter.
Welbeck shouldn’t be playing full game after almost 20 months out. Him not getting injured again is more important.
I agree whole heartedly. At this point Ozil is a defensive liability. Unfortunately I think Wenger will play his typical lineup in midfield: coquelin, xhaka/elneny, Walcott, Ozil, imwobi. I would love to see welbeck come in along with Perez, and bring on the ox in place of Ozil. Could even see imwobi in the 10 spot. Let’s just leave it all on the field for once and really go after it. COYG
Really hope this shirker doesn’t get his fat new contract and goes out the door with Wenger.
I wish Mesut will leave too, be sure, but surely not for the same reason as you.
Hurrah to the era of Big Sam and Joey Barton!
Every time you post a comment it’s 95% certain that it will be negative…have you got anything positive to offer or are you just trolling? …
My previous post is directed at @xpriest….
He’s using what’s known as “The Fat Gooner Method” to get attention.
Fats did go a bit quiet once he started getting more green thumbs than red, so maybe that’s the answer. : )
DB10 help us all if you don’t play a blinder against Bayern, Öz, since the knives are out from most sides right now and your frail waif-like frame will be the easiest of all available places to slide a critical blade. Arsenal fans are like the predators of the Zambesi, going after the frail (Öz) and the elderly (AW) for their Modern Day Twiiter Flesh.
A poet among us! 🙂
Look at all those downwards thumbs. The Wenger-Out Twitter Brat Generation is full of Monday morning fire, disappointed in themselves for pissing away their hard-earned salary on low quality lager and a fat bird.
Fight me.
Troll
I too think that the club needs to plan for Wenger’s succession but I just can’t understand these people who spew venom before a critical match. Criticise the performance if it’s bad but just get behind your team when they’re playing. I don’t understand the hatred towards certain players like Ozil, OG, Coq etc, they’re not bad at all – yes they’ve their bad days but doesn’t we show them the door. OZ & OG were so critical for us to finish 2nd last year and not long ago Alexis was everybody’s darling, suddenly ppl hate him. Can’t there be… Read more »
Don’t bench the laser guided lazy passer …
Ozil for my mind is still a a gifted player and passer of the ball and a vital part of any Arsenal team that wants to be successful. To a degree he is the victim of his own success. Teams look to neutralize him. Not helped that those who normally ensure he is supplied have been out due to red cards, injury and African Cup of Nations duties.
You’re right that he is a victim of his own success and if anything, I feel we should buy another player similar to him (though better at defending) cos opposition knows he is critical to our fluidity and I had written in another post how they were positioning themselves against him. If OZ plays with OG then they channel him to the middle as OG isn’t going to run behind the defence a lot and if combined with Sanchez they’ve worked out that (took sometime hence the initial success) they need to push OZ out wide so he can’t deliver… Read more »
Needs more runners I’d say – too often he is the runner and Sanchez the passer.
I think him and Welbeck can work well.
He did look thoroughly pissed off when trudging off against Hull and he knows he is far from his best.A chance for a rest after Bayern will benefit him as he has been overplayed perhaps.
Personally, I think he should play against Sutton and try to get some form back. There is a big gap after that match until Liverpool away, in which he can rest.
I know it’s probably not a popular opinion, or one the manager will share, but I don’t see how he’s going to suddenly come into form against Bayern and/or Liverpool away. If anything, the added pressure may make him play worse.
I have this funny feeling about us in the Champions League this year, perhaps it’s the Cardiff final that is calling, we have a bit of a history with that city after all. It’s the first time in a very long time that I’ve genuinely been excited about the Champions League rather than looking at it as a hindrance that will ruin our title challenge. I think we can scrape through this one even if we don’t get the perfect result this week. COYG!!
Hinder what title challenge lol I agree though maybe this is the year when Arsenal push on in Europe circa Chelski when they won it
He’s Arsene Wenger’s man. We got Mesut Ozil
I would be inclined to drop him for Bayern and have a midfield of Ox, Xhaka and Coq, or alternatively move Iwobi into CAM, and bring in Lucas/Welbeck for one of the aforementioned trio.
His quality remains. Clearly he looks physically inferior with his team mates, and that is responsability of him and the physical staffs.
Agree. Hasn’t been his bustling early-season self since his illness over the New Year. I’m sure he will hit another rich vein of form soon enough. He has great chemistry with Iwobi and Sanchez. Misses Cazorla in the middle…
Or his mum and dad for not being big strapping fuckers, surely?
Ever heard of working out?
It must be the weather at Arsenal… Frosty! COYG!!!
As the Boss said “Sometimes it’s not about how, but to win your confidence back you have to win the game.” Ozil needs to get mad and fight! Someone said something about your boots or eyes or something that really pisses you off at bayern! Yeah get mad at them trying to kill your confidence by wanting your teacher kicked out!! Get hella mad!
https://tinyurl.com/gm3xeww
He’s confident enough to post on social media after every game. With his performances I don’t think I’d be confident enough to do that
When you don’t meet targets at work do you stop speaking to your mates??
His social media team posts on twitter, remember the Gondogan mixup
It’s a good thing. He’s not running and hiding. He knows he’s under pressure. FfS he played at Real so this is nothing new to him at all. That taught him full well how to ignore hysteria.
We have to be tight against bayern and also be a goal threat,lets try this team….
Cheq
Bellerin kos mustafi monreal
Xakai elney
Ox
Walcott Sanchez wellbeck
4.3.3
I think Osp will play.
My team would be
Osp
Belly, Kos, Mus, Nacho
Ox, Xhaka, Ozil
Alexis, Danny, Lucas
Don’t think that will be AW’s
team though as it is a bit risky
defensively i must admit. I think
AW will play Le Coq and Giroud
but we’ll see.
Personally I would play:
Ospina
Bellerin Mustafi Kos Monreal
Xhaka Coq
Ox Welbeck
Ozil
Sanchez
Pace to play on the counter attack and a midfield that will work hard. We need Ozil for his passing ability!!! COYG….
Just needs to replicate the ludogorets solo goal against Bayern but with 15 more touches and 5 additional Bayern players on their bums.
Piece of cake. He’ll do it twice.
Elneny and Xhaka both need to be playing.. I know Arsene considers some players indispensable and will always start them if they are available, but they are situations when ozil is a liability.. he is a great player, but a luxury player.. when we are chasing possession or involved in a real fight, it’s times like these that he should not be in there.. he can give you that great quality ball to kill the game (which is why he is always left on) but its risky.. Arsene really needs to take out risk from our approach and make us… Read more »
I agree with this but you will get downvoted.
I disagree to be honest, in the big games you have to play your great players.
I see your point but i can’t see us suddenly becoming solid even with Xhaka/Elneny. We will be under pressure at times no matter what we do, and we’ll need Ozil playing well to hurt Bayern when we have the chance.
Ozil wasn’t a luxury player for Germany or Real Madrid. But… both sides did have players in positions who owned their places. What Arsenal need is for everyone, not just Ozil, to step up. I don’t buy this luxury player argument one bit. He hasn’t been magical lately, but he hasn’t been poor enough to be dropped. He isn’t holding the team back single-handedly, it’s collective failure.
I’ve been interested in the PL for 4 seasons now and i have NEVER seen a player attracting so many critics from all sides! He didn’t cost more than many other players, he doesn’t earn more than many other players (12th rank). So WHY? Why each day there is one or several reports against him from fans, pundits and media? I cannot believe that this isn’t going in his mind ! His records at Arsenal are very good and sorry, blogs, but his chance on satursay was very diffcult to take, the ball arrived to high for a header, too… Read more »
I know this will get downvoted,nonetheless. Finally Ozil’s lack of performance gets noted. This is often the case with Ozil. He has one wonderful game with 3 – 4 average games following it. It is not good enough for a 42million pound, “Word Class”,”the best #10″ player. I don’t expect him to score or assist every other game but he just doesn’t impose himself on the game with moments of genuine quality. The arsenal fans and blogs have been too soft on him. Blogs often speaks about the number of chances he creates after some games, but many of these… Read more »
Last season his chances created and assists numbers were boosted by taking all the corners to OG.
Ozil the magician has been moved further up because he has no defensive duties – i.e. useless defensively. Offensively he is one of the best. The “problem” is that on the counter we always are cought with both our fulbacks and too often also both our cm´s chasing the counter attack. Leaving Mustafi and Kos to deal with the threat. Good teams punish us for that – and on occasions shitty teams too. I think we shoul seriously consider 3 – 5 – 2 or 5-3-2 The style of attacking football we play gives us admiritaion but very few big… Read more »
I think our fullbacks have been not at their best (much like the rest of them really) defensively. The biggest problem is the link up play. I lose my head when I see our CBs passing the ball to each other than watching it go back to Cech a million times every game. That’s like the first step in the algorithm is wrong! Mostly it’s the need to be quick (or clever) that’s our downfall. We aren’t bossing with the ball and without the ball we are too meek. I hope Xhaka’s presence in the middle helps Ozil get some… Read more »
Sod’s law is that ozil would have a blinding game in both legs.
But arsenal being arsenal we will lose the Sutton game!
Oh I’m dying to see Maitland-Niles and The Jeff play again!
I’m going to be at that match. I don’t really care who plays as long as they’ve got red and white jerseys on. I expect it will be a lot like the line-up against Southampton, and we’ll tie our own record for double-barrelled surnames. But it would sure be nice to see one or two of the really major stars play! I didn’t think it was possible for the two clubs I support to play each other, but it happened. And I didn’t think it would be possible to get a ticket, but it happened. I’ll be until Christmas paying… Read more »
It’s time to show up and put a decent shift in,as long as they start the game switched on and not in that slow
Let’s go a few goals behind before we start playing way, then we’re in with a chance.
We realy need a good hard working team performance, every one pulling their weight. No passengers. Coyg
The media hasn’t been quite fair to him no one would be confident after all the bashing he has received from the so called pundits. It’s time for us as the fans to get behind Ozil and the team sing his name louder than ever before and show a big fat middle finger to the arsenal hating media and pundits showing them we don’t give a damn about their opinion. Year in year out they are always bashing the club and picking on our players waiting for our downfall like the sadistic prophets of doom they really are
It is up to the fans to know when and how to support one’s own. Media is/was equally harsh on other high profile players: Hazard, Pogba, Costa, etc. You can’t control the likes of Owen and Nevilles and Savages but you DO hold your voice in the stadium and on social media. It’s as if Arsenal fans have forgotten the power they have to lift the team.
In my ideal world this is how we would express our frustration and indignance. Against the true cunts and real opposition. Not by attacking the club and cutting into the players, manager, and each other. Yes, some shit goes wrong, and it’s fair to say someone’s off form, but this ‘you don’t know me so I’m burning your fucking house down’ and ‘sell all the players because each one takes their turn being absolute shit’ stuff doesn’t seem to be working or doing anyone any good. It just encourages the ‘Pool-Manchester-Spuds punditry (and an unfortunate number of money chasing ex… Read more »
Any change Theo could show Mesut his contract negotiations playbook?
I’m not fussed what we end up paying him. I just want the suddenly improved performances to justify what he’s asking for.
While I love to see Mesut Özil scoring goals, I wonder whether the pressure to score more often has been to the detriment of his creative game. By this stage last season, he’d made 16 assists (and at a time when we were missing so many chances); so far he’s made just 7 in 2015-17. Or is it just the general level of expectation, or the almost continuous criticism by sections of the media and of the more vocal “fans”, or the lack of a proper pre-season leading to a late start, that has affected his confidence? Whatever the reason,… Read more »
Özil ÖUT. I think he protesting to force his way out. He wants Bayern…..I’d help him pack.
I think he started playing after New Year before he was truly fit and well, got lambasted by everyone, and it’s gone negative from there. I really love Mesut and I don’t like seeing nastiness like this, he’s a brilliant footballer and a good person, and he’ll come right, because class is permanent and he’s pure class.
I really don’t mind if we lose the game. All I want to see is us giving a good fight to bayern and not just wither away like we generally tend to. I just can’t remember us giving a good game to tougher opposition. I just can’t. That is all I want to see on Wednesday.
For those Özil haters. You will eat your words after Bayern game…each and every word!!
He will certainly play (100% sure) and he will be our MOM.
Give the lad a break.
He’s got a new stunner…..minds not on the footy!