Nacho Monreal says suggestions that Mesut Ozil had a falling out with new coach Unai Emery were invented by the midfielder’s detractors and dismissed criticism of the German’s on-pitch body language as ‘unfair’.
An ill-judged meeting with Turkey’s President Erdogan, his country’s disastrous performance at the World Cup, his decision to retire from international football – brought about by what he claimed to be unfair discrimination – an average start to the new season with Arsenal and a rumoured bust-up with Emery have led to unrelenting coverage about Ozil in the media.
It’s tiring just reading about it, let alone being the focus of it and you get the feeling the Ozil-bashing is starting to irk his Gunners teammates.
“People have been a bit unfair with him,” reflected Monreal. “He is a very famous player and obviously people love talking about him. Recently, it is always bad things. Like last time, he was sick and that’s why he didn’t play.
“People started to invent that he had a problem with the manager. It wasn’t like that. He got a cold, he was sick, that’s it. That’s why he didn’t play.”
Monreal also made clear that Ozil, 29, is not about to become an overtly animated figure just to appease those who claim he doesn’t show enough passion during games.
“People must understand that every player is completely different,” said the Spaniard.
“He is like that [quiet] and 10 years ago he was the same. So you can’t expect on the pitch that he starts to fight, to talk with the referee because he never did it. He is not going to change in this case.
“The important thing is he plays at his highest level, gives a lot of assists, scores a lot of goals and basically helps the team. That’s what he knows. He doesn’t know how to go up to a player and grab him by the throat.”
I love Nacho for his crazy, unhinged, wild-eyed goal celebrations.
And I love Ozil and his smooth, panther-like grace.
That is all.
And I love that your icon, which presumably is randomly generated, looks a exactly like a cock and balls.
Most of them seem to look like cocks actually if you scroll down the page
Nacho in the picture looks like he has come good.
At fault for both goals against Cardiff.
Too easily turned by Camarasa for first.
Too far from Ward for second.
PLEASE.
It was a joke.
Nacho Monreal… Easily one one of the leaders at Arsenal
It’s refreshing to finally hear someone come out and back Ozil publicly and I’m glad that person is Nacho. He’s really come of age in this last few seasons to be the new age Mr. Arsenal
Long live Nacho!
Has he backed him up or dug him further? He said he is not a player who fights and that he cannot change. Well to me it is pretty negative.
I love the way you described everything about them too ?
Speaking like a captain and a friend
Good god I love you nacho
I see Sane is the new Ozil
http://www.skysports.com/football/news/12023/11491039/leroy-sane-must-improve-body-language-says-toni-kroos
Toni Kroos has a lot to say on everyone doesn’t he? Since when was his opinion suddenly so important?
Kroos had an abysmal WC apart from THAT free kick.Now he is calling out other players of his team for poor form.The cheek of that guy…..
Having tried to scapegoat Ozil for Germany’s performance at the World Cup (though Ozil was probably Germany’s best player in the South Korea match), they are moving on to Sane. Admittedly, Sane did very little to impress at the World Cup. It’s almost like he wasn’t there at all.
I wonder what Sane and Ozil have in common?
They both dislike Ataturk?
The German coach will have to think up a very convincing excuse for dropping an in-form match fit Sane from now on.
Sane is probably going to be a very important player for Germany very soon. And yes he sometimes looks like he is not interested. Berbatov, Bergkamp and Kanu didn’t look that interested either (except Sane’s much faster) that’s the joy of being prodigiously talented no need trying to hack every opponent.
I’m guessing its such a nightmare for teammates trying to get the ball off him in training!!!!
But Bergkamp was Bergkamp. It didnt matter if he seemed anything.
Glad I’m not the only one one wondering what’s up with this Kroos fella, I can’t think of another player openly slamming his teammates. Calls one a liar and claims the other has an attitude problem.
Teammates pay glowing tributes to one another whatever the circumstance and encourage younger players and try to teach them a thing or two …. and Allow only the manager to talk about individual players to the media.
Maybe he thinks Germany should become more Dutch .
He’s going to become another shit pundit when his career is over isn’t he?
Kroos is a xenophobe. He mocked the “Argentinian gauchos” in Berlin the day after the finale in 2014 when dancing to celebrate the win, he celebrated the new year 2017 with the Brasilian and German flags remembering of the semi-finale of that same WC, he said Mesut’s words are bull***. Now it’s Sané…
racism isn’t xenophobia. but yeah, he is a twat.
There’s a very very thin line between the two!
Yeah, i’m completely shocked that the next german to be lambasted for his “body language” is a person of color after their turkish punching bag retired. Must be a coincidence.
Lauren Etame Mayer
I’m not gonna lie, I’d rather enjoy seeing Özil grab another player by the throat! But in a jovial manner, of course, nothing malicious.
Like Lauren getting to know Phil
Or Vieira getting to know Keane.
I don’t believe he would do anything to hurt the team, but for all the shit he has gone through the last few months, I would definitely give him a pass for slinging some guy across the pitch.
“The important thing is he plays at his highest level, gives a lot of assists, scores a lot of goals and basically helps the team.”
I totally agree. Just haven’t seen him play at his highest level, giving a lot of assists and scoring goals for quite a while
Grab by the throat is very specific. Was Martin Keown one of Özil’s critics?
I thought maybe he was saying he’s not going to turn in to a Costa type player I.e. a
…i.e. a c***
Ozil doesn’t fight for the team apparently.
https://youtu.be/Ugmh6TCJrwA
Glad that someone is sticking up for Ozil. The story was obviously complete media BS. He was great in the second half against Cardiff and I think we’ll see even better performances in upcoming games.
Wow,so there is a smear campaign going on against Ozil?
*Pretends to be shocked.
Ah yes the good old throat grab and squeeze much better than the head butt or chest push and more manly than the foot stamp and more acceptable than the 2 footed lunge, but needs a good strong forearm. I do miss us having a good old enforcer who could sort out any shit and bollock those around him to do better.
Just reminded me then of Ozils shoulder barge …….. not….. that sent the Cardiff player FLYING. Foul clearly. Ffs even the City fans were cringing.
What next? Is someone going to come forward and say that he’s not going to be selected for the national team anymore? Oh, wait……
Now that Wenger is gone, Ozil has been selected as the scapegoat for Arsenal by the press. It’s unfortunate how Arsenal is treated by these hacks
Unfortunate? Fucking Pathological.
There appears to be a distinct lack of awareness from the German NT and sad to see, our beloved BFG, is also on the same boat 🙁
I think the press know that Arsenal fans are the easiest to rile up. And most times, they have been successful. And a successful formula calls for emulation. So everybody writes about Arsenal. We got our first win of the season, but guess what trended; Ozil’s bust up. But a week later, Iwobi couldn’t make the team for exactly the reason Ozil didn’t in the previous week, guess what happened? the press BELIEVED it. I know that if Ozil were not an Arsenal player, he would be given his due respect. Involved in 108 goals in 198 matches, played most… Read more »
Believe the press do it because there are just so many of us bad ass Gooners out there!!
Up Mesut Ozil and up the Arsenal!!
On line gooners for sure.
Was a couple of years ago the motd wankers were moaning about all the online gooners skewing the result away from the rightful winner of their biased already , wank of the month award. Not mentioning the revenue said hits and clicks had made the BBC of course. Bunch of hypocrite Cs
The problem is that we are a top club who have become an easy target for not doing so well lately. New manager to find basis of stick to use on him yet, so go for an experienced player instead. Maybe because of the existing criticism, Kroos thinks it’s an easy way to satisfy his racist tendencies and get away with it. The Media will always seek the easy option for lazy journalism but consider their alternatives: Amazing how Liverpool survive given they’ve never won the PL, perhaps CL victories cover that (don’t get me on Hillsborough v Heysel!). Another… Read more »
??
Without doubt. Too easy to god Arsenal fans. The media pundits love to invent crisis or spew red herrings. No doubt as well Ozil can do better considering he is now in a leadership role (salary aside) but his faults are always exaggerated. As are Mustafi’s (who is the Tom character writing on the blog?) Like Flamini, people are easily convinced by the media, looking for faults and they amplify things. Flamini was a way better midfielder than many imagine. And if you bother to watch the matches again (as oppose to ‘highlights’…the lazy man’s way), you’d see Mustafi puts… Read more »
I have to say, I’ve never seen a long comment on this site go positive on votes, just a useless observation I’m pointing out lol.
Dunno how people can complain about Granit for first goal to Cardiff.
Granted he miscued his pass, we had numbers back.
MONREAL lost his man Camarasa and was turned too easy.
WATCH THE GAME AGAIN PROPERLY.
Ozil has somehow been the focus concerning which players would not be able to fit into a pressing system. As if pressing is reliant on body language. It’s more about football intelligence than anything else, being able to read the opportunities when to press and when to sit back. He, to me, is the player best suited for a pressing system. His intelligence and ability to take advantage of broken play are very important for such a system. If pressing was all about running around, these bottom half table teams would be the best at it, they have the most… Read more »
This is good, wise words from Nacho. And its good to see teammates publicly standing by their fellow colleague. Something to alleviate Ozil’s situation, which has been shit for the last few months. We can’t expect him to be at his best if the situation remains like that. Arsene is someone who understood this about Ozil very well. After all, he was the one who could convince Ozil, someone at his peak and playing for Madrid, to come to an Arsenal team that was by far not the best team in England. Ozil is someone who needs support from close… Read more »
This was my contention all along. Why couldn’t a player just be sick? The stories came from rumour mongers and had the intended effect. Some fans genuinely started believing there was a bust up. I guess that’s just the state of football these days.
“Some fans genuinely started believing there was a bust up. I guess that’s just the state of football these days.” Hmmn…so one of my teammates had a little scuffle with the coach, which he refutes. I’m asked about it and I’m supposed to say “Oh yeah, they had a really good go at each other in training and that’s why he didn’t play the other day”? ANYTHING COULD HAVE HAPPENED… but I really do not care, in all honesty. Just stop acting like you know for a fact that it didn’t. For all we know, there’s a tacit agreement at… Read more »
My favorite part of this response is how it positions people who believe Emery and Monreal as deluded even as it spins a conspiracy theory to justify not believing them.
“He makes a lot of assists, scores a lot of goals and helps the team. That’s what he knows!”
yup nacho’s right. ozil’s not gonna start grabbing people by the throat. he can start grabbing some shirts for technical fouls though. we’ll leave the throat grabbing to auba. wait, he has a smiley face. how about Danny? nope. ok let’s train torreira to grab throats.
Torreira? They’d snap him in half
“An ill-judged meeting with Turkey’s President…” Why was/is it ill-judged?
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