Mesut Özil: Över and Öut

[Macho]

Joe Cole

I rated him as well but those lists are a joke laced with recency and other biases.

On the Wilshere subject, I'd argue he's probably the best the academy has every produced to date in my lifetime. His career at the highest level was fleeting so it's hard to say with full chest, I will whisper it with one pectoral instead.

motm performance at the nou camp though
did his thing at international level

 

[Riou]

On the Wilshere subject, I'd argue he's probably the best the academy has every produced to date in my lifetime.

This right here, is why you were a 2 time WWF world champion!

 

[Riou]

...I love how the photo they used, looks like Mesut is also just hearing Emery say this

 

[Jury]

Beautiful solo Özil goal in the Istanbul Derby just now.

On 5G/A (or 6, I've lost count) in the league now.
Yet he's dusted. @Jury enjoying samba football from Ødegaard, tears in my eyes

You alright lad?

I’ve been out of the loop, what’s the latest on your boy?

 

[Jury]

I went to war with Jury, James Bond and others for years in that thread.

And in the end, you and all the others have no choice but to admit you all got it horribly wrong

Not often you can wait long enough to find out without doubt, but everything we’ve seen and heard from all his managers past and present, right up until his very last at Fener, have confirmed he was unmanageable. It was always his fault. Nobody here will hold their hands up but if ever that wasn’t needed…

 

[A_G]

And in the end, you and all the others have no choice but to admit you all got it horribly wrong

Not often you can wait long enough to find out without doubt, but everything we’ve seen and heard from all his managers past and present, right up until his very last at Fener, have confirmed he was unmanageable. It was always his fault. Nobody here will hold their hands up but if ever that wasn’t needed…

Everything I’ve said about Özil was correct at the time.

 

[Jury]

Everything I’ve said about Özil was correct at the time.

Unless you were calling him a money grabbing, disruptive **** house, then you you were probably incorrect It’s clear that he was unmanageable for the last part of Wenger’s tenure, all the way through to his exit, and people defended him throughout, opting to blame others rather than him despite the shed load of evidence. We know what was behind it most of the time anyway, and it had little to do with his contribution or worth. He was some sort of martyr of which nothing of its like had been seen at any other club by any minority of a fan base.

 

[A_G]

Unless you were calling him a money grabbing, disruptive **** house, then you you were probably incorrect It’s clear that he was unmanageable for the last part of Wenger’s tenure, all the way through to his exit, and people defended him throughout, opting to blame others rather than him despite the shed load of evidence. We know what was behind it most of the time anyway, and it had little to do with his contribution or worth. He was some sort of martyr of which nothing of its like had been seen at any other club by any minority of a fan base.

I backed him when he was playing well and said it was time for him to go by the end for the sake of everyone. Nothing wrong with that.

 

[CaseUteinberger]

Unless you were calling him a money grabbing, disruptive **** house, then you you were probably incorrect It’s clear that he was unmanageable for the last part of Wenger’s tenure, all the way through to his exit, and people defended him throughout, opting to blame others rather than him despite the shed load of evidence. We know what was behind it most of the time anyway, and it had little to do with his contribution or worth. He was some sort of martyr of which nothing of its like had been seen at any other club by any minority of a fan base.

Jury telling some hard truths! ****s the ****ing lot of them!

 

[freeglennhelder2]

Looks like this new Fener manager doesn’t know how to handle big players

 

[Jury]

I backed him when he was playing well and said it was time for him to go by the end for the sake of everyone. Nothing wrong with that.

I backed him when he was playing well as well. I was even an advocate of giving him his last improved deal. That was more or less when it went completely south though. That was when it got weird. The less he did, the more he was defended. I just wish our fans were more no-nonsense like Feners. He’s now trying to do the same to them as he tried to do to us with literally the same rhetoric. Mans shameless. Such a rotten end to a great career, and he chose it.

 

[Riou]

Shame what's become of Mes, he's a parody at this point.

Will just remember everything, up until all the nonsense of 2018 onwards happened.

What a player/career up until then though!

 

[Bloodbather]

Looks like this new Fener manager doesn’t know how to handle big players

Unai Emery, Mikel Arteta, İsmail Kartal, and now Jorge Jesus. Four managers who have exiled Özil from the team, with Vitor Pereira only being excluded because he was basically forced to play him against his wishes by the "powers that be" at Fenerbahçe.

 

[Macho]

Spoiler: Best Premier League performances: No 48, Mesut Özil for Arsenal v Leicester

Art de Roché
Jun 16, 2022

To celebrate 30 years of the Premier League, The Athletic is paying tribute to the 50 greatest individual performances in its history, as voted for by our writers. You can read Oliver Kay’s introduction to our Golden Games series (and the selection rules) here.

Picking 50 from 309,949 options is an impossible task. You might not agree with their choices, you won’t agree with the order. They didn’t. It’s not intended as a definitive list. It’s a bit of fun, but hopefully a bit of fun you’ll enjoy between now and August.

---

Mesut Özil’s Arsenal career was littered with contrasts. This was a world-class matchwinner but also a player whose shortcomings managers often struggled to accept — both on and off the pitch. Those contrasts were particularly prevalent during Unai Emery’s time in charge.

Such a sharp change in environment after Arsène Wenger’s reign brought teething problems, but for 90 minutes in October 2018, all parties seemed to be harmonious.

The midfielder had just turned 30 and Arsenal were on a nine-game winning run in all competitions, welcoming Claude Puel’s Leicester City. Özil had made a turbulent start to life under Emery after being dragged off 68 minutes into the 3-2 defeat at Chelsea in August — to which he made his frustrations public with his reaction — but responded by scoring three goals in four games at the end of September.

His influence was growing. He was given the captain’s armband in games against Watford and Qarabag by the substituted Petr Cech and Nacho Monreal respectively. With neither starting against Leicester, he captained Arsenal from the start and gave a performance worthy not just of the armband, but the new No 10 shirt he inherited that summer too.

This is what made Özil’s performance that night so special — or “sexy”, as he would put it after — and worthy of a place on our list of the best individual Premier League performances.

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Freedom as a No 10

Football has become so controlled in recent years that it has become common to hear of the “death of the No 10”, as coaches dictate how and when their players move and congest the areas where any creative opponents would like to occupy.

Cesc Fabregas highlighted this in March after a clip of a well-worked goal of his, assisted by Samir Nasri, gained traction on Twitter. He later clarified “they” referred to modern football and modern coaches.



Özil flourished when given that freedom as the No 10. Although he did drift into particular areas of the pitch, he was able to vary that over the course of a game and decide where he was needed most, which he did throughout the 3-1 win over Leicester.

Looking at his touch map over the 90 minutes, he has a high number of touches across the width of the pitch in that No 10 zone.



Özil’s presence on the pitch changed throughout the game. For the first half-hour of what at that point was a tight contest, Özil spent most of his time in the left half-space (as the first-half touch map below shows) near Alex Iwobi — who also performed well on the night. Özil ended the game with 11 passes to the Nigeria international, with Iwobi sending 14 to the German, as the pair worked closely together.



The main aim at this point was to combine quickly with Iwobi to disrupt Leicester’s defensive shape before finding a runner in behind. At other times, he would drop deep to get away from markers and help keep the ball moving.

Arsenal went behind on 31 minutes and whether it was due to Emery’s instructions or Özil’s intuition, he began drifting across to the right half-space more. That is when the real show began.

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Identifying and exploiting space

Knowing how to identify and exploit space is what made Özil special in an Arsenal shirt. While most will cling to his passing ability, standing at 6ft with a fairly lean physique, he was able to drive forward with the ball in quick bursts, and he showed both these attributes against Leicester.

Step one was identifying that right half-space, where his second-half touches were far more concentrated than in the first half.



Step two was knowing how to exploit that space, which he did in his first game-changing moment of the night.

Özil had already started floating to the right as half-time was approaching. On 44 minutes, he was well positioned to press Jonny Evans, forcing the centre-back to hoof the ball back to Arsenal. After about 30 seconds of Arsenal possession, Leicester tried to win the ball back and spaces opened up.

With eyes on the ball, you see Alexandre Lacazette setting it back to Granit Xhaka in midfield. Just to the right of that, Henrikh Mkhitaryan (who starts behind Özil) is making a forward run into space as Özil holds his position.



Mkhitaryan takes the attention of Ben Chilwell at left-back and by the time Özil receives the ball, both he and Hector Bellerin have massive spaces ahead of them. Özil decides to attack it himself this time.

https://cdn.theathletic.com/app/uploads/2022/06/08105218/Mesut-Özil-goal-vs-Leicester-3-1024x576.png

Özil’s pass out to Bellerin and the return cross are fairly standard, but the quality that follows is another instance of what separated Özil from others in red and white.

With the ball coming across their body ankle-high, some may decide to smash it on the full without thinking. Özil’s bounce shot technique — when he hits the top of the ball into the ground so it travels quicker to the goal — is mostly used with the ball on the floor, but here too, he punches the ball into the ground for it to fly in off the post. A top technician had just dragged Arsenal back into the game at the best time possible.


The momentum from the goal carried through after the break, but for the first 15 minutes of the second half Arsenal had possession without being incisive.

Early substitutions changing games was a theme of this period under Emery — they had scored more Premier League goals (14) than any other team in the second half of games going into the Leicester match — and Matteo Guendouzi coming on with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang on 61 minutes aided Özil further.

Aubameyang, who replaced Mkhitaryan, went to the left-wing, while Guendouzi came on for Stephan Lichtsteiner (Xhaka dropped to left-back, with the young Frenchman taking his place in midfield). Lacazette and Lucas Torreira joined them in playing just left of the middle of the pitch, which did two things.

First, Leicester began moving more players over to deal with the numbers. Here, they have six players to the right of the penalty spot, so have decent control of the blue highlighted space.



It also shifted focus from Özil and the right flank. When the ball is switched, he receives it in ample space and has the weaker side of the Leicester defence ahead of him.



Those who attended the Emirates had become accustomed to Özil’s passes between centre-back and full-back by the end of his first season in 2013-14. Rather than taking two players out of the game, this time the tally was four with another perfectly weighted through ball for Bellerin to set up Aubameyang just two minutes after coming on.



Despite being most effective in that right half-space, Özil began roaming again once Arsenal were 3-1 up. At times he’d drop deep, trading passes with Guendouzi to slow the pace of the game down.

When the opportunity arose, he still burst forward to connect with Iwobi on the left, and was unlucky not to add another assist to his tally. Playing a one-two, he was able to get into the highlighted space below with relative ease.



Squaring the ball for Lacazette, the Frenchman was unable to open his body in time to direct it past Kasper Schmeichel.

---

 

[Macho]

Spoiler: Part 2

Freestyling

This is arguably the most important theme from the night. As well as having freedom to roam the pitch, Özil freestyled on the ball throughout his Arsenal career. The street element of his play that could not be taught by a coach kept defenders guessing and was key to the magic he often graced games with.

That night against Leicester, he was experimenting throughout.

He tried a few first-time passes that failed to connect early in the first half and nutmegged Nampalys Mendy with a backheel to find Iwobi at the close of the half. Early in the second half he tried another first-time backheel between the lines, but it was cut out.

The first real glimpse of magic from him came just before his equaliser, however.

Torreira had passed the ball up the line to Özil, but he dummies, continuing his forward run and catching Evans out.



The ball ran on to Lacazette, who played it back into Özil’s path. Another body feint follows and Wilfred Ndidi commits, giving the German an extra yard to pick out Iwobi’s run further forward.



Playing off the cuff and with so few touches is essential for creative players.

It keeps defences guessing, doesn’t allow them to settle and makes it easier to pick them apart. All of that was clear the moment it all clicked for Özil against Leicester.

Coming just minutes after the second goal, Arsenal did similar in overloading the left side of the pitch to draw Leicester out before switching right to Özil and co. This time, they had a deeper starting position inside their own half, with Torreira playing the forward pass.



The first gasp of the move comes from Özil’s midfield backheel into Guendouzi and Arsenal are in motion. Bellerin takes the outside channel, Iwobi is through the inside and Özil is just behind to support their runs.



Iwobi changes his run from inside to out which leaves Özil in more space to do what he does best: freestyle.

Dummying Bellerin’s pass takes Harry Maguire out the game and gives Özil the chance to run into the space behind him — and provides the second gasp of the move.



Sprinting full pelt into the box, Özil produces a delicate clip with the outside of the boot to finish the move with an assist for Aubameyang which typified the class of the goal, the performance and the player.

In total, that move consisted of 15 passes between 10 Arsenal players. It started with a free kick in midfield, took 36 seconds to manufacture and left Leicester chasing shadows for the entire passage of play. If there was a moment that encapsulated the grace of Özil in an Arsenal shirt, it is this.

Goals and assists should not be the be-all and end-all for creative players, but this was Özil at his best in the No 10.

He drove forward with the ball before equalising at a crucial moment, played an inch-perfect pass to cut a defence apart and gift Arsenal their second. To top it all off, he had the imagination to prove to everyone watching sometimes it is the skills that aren’t taught that make for the most memorable moments.



Brought off after 80 minutes, the difference in energy from him being taken off at Chelsea two months earlier was a clear indicator of the mood. The Emirates crowd had already begun the rounds of their “We’ve got Özil” song as Leicester kicked off after the third goal, and by the time he was replaced by Aaron Ramsey they were all on their feet again to give him an ovation as he left the pitch.

Moments like those became less frequent in the time before his eventual departure in January 2021, but were always a pleasure to behold when they came during Özil’s eight seasons at Arsenal. Sexy football indeed.

Had to split cause of picture limit.

This performance was voted within the top 50 prem performances by the readers, nothing more nothing less so please refrain from being a d*ck if you didn't like him - this isn't for you.

 

[BigPoppaPump]

Joe Cole

I rated him as well but those lists are a joke laced with recency and other biases.

On the Wilshere subject, I'd argue he's probably the best the academy has every produced to date in my lifetime. His career at the highest level was fleeting so it's hard to say with full chest, I will whisper it with one pectoral instead.

motm performance at the nou camp though
did his thing at international level

Ashley Cole is clear if we're being honest.

 

[Macho]

Ashley Cole is clear if we're being honest.

He was referred to a man and taken for a prick mostly so I forget he was academy.

Usually when they break through it's like they are little boys forever.

 

[BigPoppaPump]

He was referred to a man and taken for a prick mostly so I forget he was academy.

Usually when they break through it's like they are little boys forever.

We can hate him all we want but he saw the writing on the wall lol, he left the same time all the other invincibles left he was just much more snakey about it. But his reps knew Arsenal weren't able to compete with that Abramovich money.

I was never that big of a fan of the Wilshere's and Ramsey's tbh, they just weren't guys like Fabregas, Özil or Cazorla.

 

[Macho]

We can hate him all we want but he saw the writing on the wall lol, he left the same time all the other invincibles left he was just much more snakey about it. But his reps knew Arsenal weren't able to compete with that Abramovich money.

I was never that big of a fan of the Wilshere's and Ramsey's tbh, they just weren't guys like Fabregas, Özil or Cazorla.

He came across as an idiot but I never bought into the Cole smear campaign too tough.

 

[Riou]

He was referred to a man and taken for a prick mostly so I forget he was academy.

Usually when they break through it's like they are little boys forever.

Would be quite funny to get you to watch an Arsenal match, with my aunt.

She speaks about Saka, like he is genuinely a new born baby