GDeep™
League is very weak
Auba did his job, 1 in 2 scorer, what more could he do? Declined at the end and was moved.Auba was my favourite player of that era. Top goalscorer and I went to bat for him quite a lot on here when he was going through rough spells.
In hindsight though it was right to move him on, that's clear to me now. The timing less so though.
We would not be able to play the style of football we do now with Auba up top. Doesn't have the technical ability or stamina to play the role Jesus does.
It's also partially the reason why he got moved on quickly at Barca even though he was scoring goals and hasn't really had a sniff under Potter. Games moved on, you can't just be a goalscorer at the top, top level anymore.
Özil the game had passed him by too. No-one could seriously imagine Mesut in the Ødegaard role in this side. He'd have a heart attack just trying to keep up with the workrate.
I'm not knocking Auba, maybe I am Özil to a degree due to his attitude and social media stuff but it's just a question of the game evolving past players. Doesn't mean they weren't great in their prime.
Neither would fit in a side Arteta side. We know how he wants to play now.
Your Özil/Ode comparison is more on different generations of football. Kaka and Riquelme are saying they couldn’t play in this generation, that’s says more about the decline of the pure footballer in favour of runners basically.