Laurent Koscielny has called on Mesut Ozil to deliver more show-stopping performances for Arsenal after his ‘incredible’ man-of-the-match showing against Leicester.
The German earned plaudits for his involvement in all three goals when the Gunners beat the Foxes 3-1 in October, scoring the equaliser, making the ‘best ball’ of the season in the build-up to the second and assisting Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang for the killer third.
Even Ozil’s critics, of which there are many, were left purring. His captain now wants him to repeat the trick consistently.
“Mesut’s deserved all the plaudits he got after his performance against the Foxes,” said the Frenchman.
“He was incredible. His goal bailed us out before the break and then his pass for Hector on our second goal is the best ball you will see all season. And he added an assist for Auba after a great dummy and understanding with [Alexandre] Laca[zette].
“When Mesut is in this form, he is unstoppable and makes us win. He has extraordinary qualities. There are not many players like him in the world right now capable of producing a pass the like for Hector, beating four opposition players with just one ball.
“His display on that night will stay in people’s minds for a very long time. It is a case of ‘I was there when Ozil had that performance against Leicester.’
“However, he needs to be at this level as much as possible this season. Great players are the ones playing at their best the whole season.”
Ozil followed his performance at Leicester with an ineffective showing against Crystal Palace which led to Unai Emery substituting him in the second half. The player was not impressed and reacted by throwing his gloves on the floor in annoyance.
He has a chance to get back on track tomorrow night when the Gunners take on Liverpool at the Emirates; their sternest test since the defeats to Manchester City and Chelsea in August.
Ozil seems to have bought into this as well, plus no internationals to worry about.
Looking forward to seeing him do it.
wouldn,t we all, but as of yet we are ALL still waitng but theres more chance of hell freezing over.
Consistency.
In patches ?
Kos channelling Emery’s fighting spirit here, good is not good enough! Hopefully the main man can come back and shore things up at the back.
I’d just like some solid 7.5/10 performances out of him on a consistent basis, the performance against Leicester had me drooling, but the reality of Mesut Ozil is that he’s been delivering 5/10 performances since the ink dried on his new deal. We all know he has wonderful ability, but he’s the definition of a luxury player that we can rarely afford to accommodate. The moments of magic really don’t make up for his continuous disappearing acts and below average performances. My personal opinion is we will ship him off at the earliest opportunity, he’s really fighting for his future… Read more »
I know this shouldn’t be a thing, but I suspect the Arsenal Adidas deal will have some impact on what we can do with Ozil – one of their biggest brand star types.
I’m not buying into that, there’s no way we should be accommodating any player in our team, Emery has shown he’s willing to be ruthless. I think he’s got until the end of the season to save his Arsenal career, but in the unlikely event someone came sniffing in January? I think he’d be on his bike. Sanllehi has said we need to be more efficient, spending £15mill a year on a player who’s not performing is the mirror opposite of being efficient, the ink on the Adidas deal has dried, I certainly don’t see that being an obstacle in… Read more »
I don’t think there’s any chance whatever that Ozil will leave, happily. Let me quote what Devlin posted yesterday: “206 games played. 41 goals scored. 72 assists made. Arsenal average of 1 key pass every 34 minutes. Fastest player to 50 assists in premier league history. Most prolific chance creator in the premier league when played at #10. Most consecutive games with an assist at 7 games in a row. All of this without a world class goalscorer at Arsenal playing ahead of him for the majority of his time here.” If he is a luxury player, then football must… Read more »
I don’t know what luxury player means. If it means world class then, yes, Ozil is the arguably the only one we have. Getting the best out of him should be priority no.1 for the manager. Not getting rid of him.
Cristiano Ronaldo is a luxury player, you might sometimes pay a price for his inclusion, and even modify your team selection specifically to accommodate him in your starting lineup. But he’s worth the hassle. Ozil is also a luxury player, we pay a price for his inclusion, we have to modify our team selection to fit him into our starting lineup, he’s generally not worth the hassle. Or we play him out of position where he is largely ineffective, just to shoehorn him into a dysfunctional lineup, again he’s not worth the hassle. Ozil isn’t world class, world class players… Read more »
He has won the World Cup, La Liga, Spanish Cup, German Cup and 3 FA Cups. In all of these sides he was a key player and one whose skill made a big difference. I think that’s world class.
very true, well said rich
Özil was not the worst at Palace… Replacing him was a very weird choice especially for Danny.
I’m all for taking Ozil off when he’s under-performing and injecting a bit of meritocracy back into the team, but taking a midfielder off when we were sorely lacking in midfield was an uncharacteristically bad sub from Emery.
Ozil can’t give 10/10 performances week in and week out. I hoped that his Leicester performance wouldn’t be used as a stick to beat him with, but it already is. For anyone to play like he did against Leicester over a period of a season is impossible. Ozil is good, but nobody on earth performs like that over a period of even 10 games. Ozil will do what he does best and create chances, whether his teammates convert those is not up to him. Last season we lost against Man Utd at home, we broke the record for most chances… Read more »
Yes let’s judge him on his game rather than this pre-determined notion that he is world class. Most games (about 50%) he absolutely blows & that is nothing to do with other players, it’s on him. He just can’t be bothered some days.
206 games played. 41 goals scored. 72 assists made. Arsenal average of 1 key pass every 34 minutes. Fastest player to 50 assists in premier league history. Most prolific chance creator in the premier league when played at #10. Most consecutive games with an assist at 7 games in a row. In the last five seasons Ozil has created 414 chances in the premier league, for context, Sanchez is second for Arsenal with 272 and Ramsey is third with 147. Oh… he has also scored more goals than Ramsey in the past 5 seasons. All of this without a world… Read more »
You just think that by finding out lots of pertinent stats that that will make us think Ozil is a great player…
Fortunately I did already. Great analysis btw.
I should have read down here before reposting most of this for you.
It’s one thing playing well while on the ball, and another relying on teammates making intelligent movements.
what utter rubbish, ozil,s man of the match against Leicester, ok so he had an ok game for a change, but anyone could see that iwobi was the REAL man of the match by a country mile, ozil was soon back to normal at palace wasn,t he, but no one mentions that, honestly it makes me sick when people jump on the band wagon for no good reason, oh cos he said he was a good player he must be, NO it doesn,t, ozil is NOT as good as some people think.
Ozil has always been an issue of sustaining effort and impact. No doubt about his abilities going forward when things are clicking but he tends to let his head drop too much when the going gets tough. AND defensively, if he can be more committed when putting in a tackle, we will reap better benefit overall as a team. The problem is he does put in the effort in terms of ground covered but his tackling tends to lack self belief and he often gives up very quickly thereafter when he loses the first tackle. We need a big performance… Read more »
They have :Mane- Firmino-Shaqiri-Salah
We have :Auba- Laca- Ozil- Iwobi
We score goals too.
Question is the backline and help from midfield.
Salah Shaqiri from their right will be dangerous.
I think if Monreal or Kolasinac are barely back fit, prob better to have AMN with Granit close on hand.
I just hope we dont repeat what Germany did to him before.