Mesut Özil: Think This Might Be It For Me(sut)

[Blood on the Tracks]

Just for context, a lot of us get tarred as Özil haters.

Ozils remains my favourite signing of all time. I adored him as a player. I loved the flair and thought him the ideal Arsenal and Wenger signing. He was in a lot of ways. I'd defend him over any criticism that came his way for the majority of his career here.

About 18 months to 2 years ago I realised that I wasn't defending him for the current performances he was putting in anymore, I was defending him out of adoration for his style of play, and what he used to be as a player and my stubbornness.

People can call me an Özil hater or whatever, I don't think it's true. I just took the blinkers off and started judging his performances how they were rather than how I wanted them to be, or how they were in the past.

 

[Jury]

Just for context, a lot of us get tarred as Özil haters.

Ozils signing remains my favourite signing of all time. I adored him as a player. I loved the flair and thought him the ideal Arsenal and Wenger. He was in a lot of ways. I'd defend him over any criticism that came his way for the majority of his career here.

About 18 months to 2 years ago I realised that I wasn't defending him for the current performances he was putting in anymore, I was defending him out of adoration for his style of play, and what he used to be as a player.

People can call me an Özil hater or whatever, I don't think it's true. I just took the blinkers off and started judging his performances how they were rather than how I wanted them to be, or how they were in the past.

Never validate a bullshit allegation with a defence. Let the allegation ring out.

 

[Red London]

Just for context, a lot of us get tarred as Özil haters.

Ozils signing remains my favourite signing of all time. I adored him as a player. I loved the flair and thought him the ideal Arsenal and Wenger. He was in a lot of ways. I'd defend him over any criticism that came his way for the majority of his career here.

About 18 months to 2 years ago I realised that I wasn't defending him for the current performances he was putting in anymore, I was defending him out of adoration for his style of play, and what he used to be as a player.

People can call me an Özil hater or whatever, I don't think it's true. I just took the blinkers off and started judging his performances how they were rather than how I wanted them to be, or how they were in the past.

This is exactly me.

 

[Macho]

This is exactly me.

Many of us tbh.

Özil was best no.10 in the world when we signed him, nobody saw this coming. In terms of excitement, statement and hope, Özil comes 2nd after Bergkamp in my opinion.

If anything, Özil is the bigger star as the 90's was different.

 

[Football Manager]

Happy Birthday Mesut Özil!! Thank you for the joy you brought us. The last of the Wengerballers and an artist on the pitch. Thanks for making us believe once again and the boost that you gave us by your move to Arsenal and your loyalty to the club by staying on at a really vitriolic bitter time. You were instrumental in ensuring that kroenke, Emery, Raul and the bum squad did not succeed in destroying the clubs style and values.

Özil never has the ability to play wengerball.
He doesn’t involve in a lot of general play.
He focus on counter, not possession football.
He doesn’t have any dribbling skills.
sanchez, van Persie, fabregas, Hleb, cazorla, nasri, rosicky, arshavin.....they are Wengerballers.

 

[Red London]

Many of us tbh.

Özil was best no.10 in the world when we signed him, nobody saw this coming. In terms of excitement, statement and hope, Özil comes 2nd after Bergkamp in my opinion.

If anything, Özil is the bigger star as the 90's was different.

Cus I'm 23 Özil was the biggest by far for me. Alexis was also amazing too, I loved him at the WC before we signed him.

With Özil though it just felt magical, I remember it like it was yesterday. I rememeber the way the whole day panned out.

 

[Football Manager]

It wasn't even a poster on the forum. It was the title for a video on twitter fgs.

Also it's not delusional, as a pure playmaker he was up there with anyone at his peak, you won't find many who disagreed if you called him the best playmaker in the world when he was at Madrid. He also sits in the top 5 all time for assists since they started being counted in the year 2000.

I believe Messi is the greatest playmaker of all time but there's no need to come in laughing and calling random compilation makers delusional. You just wanted to laugh at Özil...again.

Özil is great with that “final play”, when he make the last pass. But in terms of playmaking during the whole 90mins, Özil would contribute nothing, literally nothing. This is his huge flaw that you have ignored. He is a huge liability to the team because of this.

 

[Football Manager]

Many of us tbh.

Özil was best no.10 in the world when we signed him, nobody saw this coming. In terms of excitement, statement and hope, Özil comes 2nd after Bergkamp in my opinion.

If anything, Özil is the bigger star as the 90's was different.

I acknowledged his weaknesses way before he joined. And I was against the signing of Özil.

 

[Jury]

I acknowledged his weaknesses way before he joined. And I was against the signing of Özil.

Was you a member here when he signed?

 

[Football Manager]

Was you a member here when he signed?

No. I know there aren’t any prove. But honestly I was against the signing of him. Always thought he was not great in possession and not skillful enough.

 

[Football Manager]

Can some of the Özil fans explain why you would ignore all of his limitations and weaknesses listed as below?

He is a great final passer. I’m not going to doubt that. I rate this part of his game as much as wenger and mourinho. And they certainly rate him because of this ability.

However, Özil has a lot of weaknesses that makes him an inconsistent player.

1) He doesn’t like to have the ball much/doesn’t want to involved a lot in the general play. Unlike other attacking midfielders, he doesn’t create supply for others. He need supply from others so that he can make his final pass. For this reason he looked very uninvolved in games, unless he has the chance to make those final passes. This lack of involvement in general play really hurt our possession game.

2) He doesn’t do much defensively

3) He can’t take on players/dribble past defenders like other attacking midfielders to create play for others.

In Madrid, all other players are :

1) good with general play (they have Benzema who will always drop deeper to help their build up, instead of a auba type who detached himself from the general play), so just have one uninvolved player like Özil is fine.

2) they are all pretty good at tracking back and defending, which covers for Özil weaknesses in this area.

3) they have the world top dribblers and skills masters to break opponent defence. Özil could just let others to do what he couldn’t.

In Madrid, he can just focus on making the final pass, which is the only thing he is good at.

At Arsenal, his weaknesses are exposed and he is inconsistent. Because if he gets no supply, he wouldn’t make his own supply. He couldn’t dribble his way out. So he did look invisible in quite a lot of games.

Madrid are setup with world class players to hide all of his many weaknesses and limitations. If you have that overpowering setup, you don’t really need Özil. But if you don’t have that setup then Özil will look invisible. Do you see how useless of a player he is?

@Trilly

 

[Football Manager]

Other #10 are not being called lazy despite also doing minimal defensive work. So why only Özil gets the criticism? Because Özil’s main problem is not even in defending/tracking back. Other #10 would heavily involved in the build up phase, and create the difference in the final third phase. They do hell lots of other stuff when they are not defending. Özil would be invisible in attack, just focus on the last pass in the final third. So if he doesn’t make those pass, he is absolutely nothing on the pitch.

I never rate players who can only operate well in one phase, but being a tactical liability in other phases.

For all of the above (including the last few posts), I am not talking about the “declining” Özil. I am taking about the Özil who he always was. From day one he was here, he has all these flaws in his game.

 

[Macho]

Jesus Christ. Ok you've made me like Özil again.

Sorry to his fans who I have offended.

 

[Oxeki]

Cus I'm 23 Özil was the biggest by far for me. Alexis was also amazing too, I loved him at the WC before we signed him.

With Özil though it just felt magical, I remember it like it was yesterday. I rememeber the way the whole day panned out.

Tbh, I was happy too. I remember hearing we were signing him and I thought it was one of those media hogwash. But then, we did finally sign him.
I thought was going to elevate us to elite level.
I was over the moon.
Looking back in hindsight, I'll have to say it was the wrong signing.

 

[Trilly]

You're right though. Even if we create an Özil appreciation thread, the Özil acolytes will still come to camp out here.

I could almost guarantee you that the Özil ‘fans’ would leave you lot to it.

If the mods are up for it we could find out right now.

 

[Trilly]

I still remember where I was for that Ludogorets goal. My IG/Snapchat feed was full of Arsenal fans recording it. Me and my bro screamed the house down.

 

[Trilly]

Just for context, a lot of us get tarred as Özil haters.

Ozils remains my favourite signing of all time. I adored him as a player. I loved the flair and thought him the ideal Arsenal and Wenger signing. He was in a lot of ways. I'd defend him over any criticism that came his way for the majority of his career here.

About 18 months to 2 years ago I realised that I wasn't defending him for the current performances he was putting in anymore, I was defending him out of adoration for his style of play, and what he used to be as a player and my stubbornness.

People can call me an Özil hater or whatever, I don't think it's true. I just took the blinkers off and started judging his performances how they were rather than how I wanted them to be, or how they were in the past.

There are only 2/3 people in this thread who seem to hate Özil for some reason. They’re going to hide behind this post and say ‘yeah same man’ but they know who they are.

 

[freeglennhelder2]

Just for context, a lot of us get tarred as Özil haters.

Ozils remains my favourite signing of all time. I adored him as a player. I loved the flair and thought him the ideal Arsenal and Wenger signing. He was in a lot of ways. I'd defend him over any criticism that came his way for the majority of his career here.

About 18 months to 2 years ago I realised that I wasn't defending him for the current performances he was putting in anymore, I was defending him out of adoration for his style of play, and what he used to be as a player and my stubbornness.

People can call me an Özil hater or whatever, I don't think it's true. I just took the blinkers off and started judging his performances how they were rather than how I wanted them to be, or how they were in the past.

Yeah, same man.

 

[Paddy from Sweden]

for me this is the definitive post on Özil, and absolutely echoes my own feelings - what the worshippers don't get is that we who once admired him feel genuine sadness that he hasn't given us anything to admire for such a long time now

Thanks!

Been carrying these thoughts and a lot more inside for a while and the feeling to post something has grown for every time I read this thread.

 

[CaseUteinberger]

Why are some people so keen to identify Özil as German anyway? Everybody knows how he feels and it’s obviously not German. Pretty obvious he chose Germany for financial reasons as well as feeling like he owed the land something. That’s cool though. It’s cool to be honest.

I think he feels both German and Turkish would be my bet. At least from his attitudes and value system he will be the product of Germany and Turkey.

I am a child of parents from different countries and I think you carry that duality with you through life. Nothing wrong with that.