It’s been one of the biggest talking points in world football in recent months. Arsenal manager Unai Emery has been effectively freezing out top-earner Mesut Ozil from matchday squads for the past few months, with no explanation other than “for tactical reasons”.
He is a player that divides opinion like no other. Some say he’s lazy and uninterested, and others think of him as one of the greatest playmakers to ever grace the beautiful game. No matter what you think about Mesut Ozil, it’s clear that something has gone wrong between him and Unai Emery. This issue has grown so much over the last few months that Ozil is not even a starting XI player for Arsenal anymore, and sometimes isn’t even in their matchday squad. It’s a strange situation for a player who many see as the talisman of Arsenal FC.
Ozil started the season, well, as a starter. He was in the starting XI for 10 of Arsenal’s opening 12 Premier League matches, but was not producing up to standard. Despite bagging 3 goals in that time, just the 1 assist for Ozil is disappointing, especially with £110 million worth of talent up-front. Still, Ozil remains Arsenal’s most creative figure by a mile, and should be playing at least a role of relevance in the team.
Since that opening stint however, the German has been in and out of the matchday squad, sometimes missing matches due to a recurring back problem, or “illness”, which seems to fall upon him suspiciously often. However, once Ozil started training fully and was still left out of the squad, Unai Emery stated that it was for “tactical reasons”.
The Gunners have been struggling to create chances of late, but Ozil looks no closer to making the matchday squad.
Whether you like Ozil or not, there is absolutely no dispute over the quality of his playmaking. This is a player who has recorded the 2nd most assists ever since they started recording the statistic in the 1990’s, only behind Lionel Messi. He is a player who is bred to create chances and that is what he does. Even with a striker who is nowhere near the world-class level in Olivier Giroud, Ozil was able to break multiple assist records and nearly break many more.
It’s no secret that Arsenal are struggling to create chances at the moment, and this has become a growing concern in recent weeks. With 2 top strikers leading the line, the Gunners have to find a way to get the ball to them in dangerous areas, and they simply haven’t done that whatsoever. This makes the whole Ozil situation even more bizarre, as the team would benefit greatly from instilling him back into the starting XI, at least against lesser opponents.
It seems Ozil’s massive £350k-per-week contract is a large reason for this issue, as the club wishes to part with him as their financial situation worsens. However, freezing him out of the team completely whilst you could still use his skills, is not the best way to go about doing this.
Seeing as he is Arsenal’s highest earner, you wonder why Emery hasn’t attempted to utilize Ozil more and mold his team around him. It does seem like this will come to a sticky end, with one or the other coming out on top. With Emery struggling to get results and Ozil’s contract crippling Arsenal though, it’s difficult to predict who the casualty will be.