Mesut Özil

He also played in lots of other games like the FA Cup final where we came from behind to win.

Aye, against Hull. Awesome stuff.

For me, the big question mark over Ozil is whether he can make the difference against the best teams around. Arsenal have developed into the ultimate flat track bullies between your last two FA Cups. You really didn't need to break your transfer record for a player who runs amok against poor defenders but disappears when he's up against the very best. Arsene's been getting his team to do that for years anyway.
 
Aye, against Hull. Awesome stuff.

For me, the big question mark over Ozil is whether he can make the difference against the best teams around. Arsenal have developed into the ultimate flat track bullies between your last two FA Cups. You really didn't need to break your transfer record for a player who runs amok against poor defenders but disappears when he's up against the very best. Arsene's been getting his team to do that for years anyway.

So you're declaring him shit after his first EPL season? A season when his team led the league for a long period, came close to winning it and won an FA Cup?

I suppose all these managers who keep paying all this money for him and picking him to play just can't see what you see. Pogue from the internet...football genius.
 
So you're declaring him shit after his first EPL season? A season when his team led the league for a long period, came close to winning it and won an FA Cup?

I suppose all these managers who keep paying all this money for him and picking him to play just can't see what you see. Pogue from the internet...football genius.

Righto. So any footballer who managers have paid a lot of money for and keep picking is beyond criticism? Grinner from the internet... redcafe genius.

And no, I'm not declaring him shit. I'm declaring him a flat track bully. There's a difference. This might change in the future, of course. I can only judge him on what I've seen of him so far. Funnily enough.
 
So you're declaring him shit after his first EPL season? A season when his team led the league for a long period, came close to winning it and won an FA Cup?

I suppose all these managers who keep paying all this money for him and picking him to play just can't see what you see. Pogue from the internet...football genius.

There's quite a broad gap between saying a player hasn't performed well in big games and saying that he is shit. Pogue said the former, you somehow concluded the latter. Ozil is obviously a quality player, and he is receiving some criticism because he hasn't performed well in most big games last season. He can shut all the doubters up if he performs well in them next season like a player of his quality should.
 
Wasn't he taken off against Hull in the final too?

I don't think anyone is saying Ozil is total crap or useless. Just that he's been pretty anonymous in the big games. I think he's been pretty poor for most of 2014 as well to be honest.
 
I think we'll learn a lot about him this year. With some pace in the side - Walcott, Ox...Sanchez:drool: - I think he'll be considerably more effective. Giroud is slow and a pretty poor finisher, two flaws that are going to blunt Ozils effectiveness.
 
I think we'll learn a lot about him this year. With some pace in the side - Walcott, Ox...Sanchez:drool: - I think he'll be considerably more effective. Giroud is slow and a pretty poor finisher, two flaws that are going to blunt Ozils effectiveness.

He's hardly been great for Germany too.

And before Grinner inevitably accuses me of the very valid Anti-Arsenal bias, Germany based journalists have said the same.
 
It's a bit of a witch-hunt, to be fair. He got slammed for his performance in Munich for not trying when he did his hamstring after three minutes and bravely carried on until half time.
 
He was excellent against Liverpool and Napoli last season. He was bad in our big losses because he was in shit form, he was poor in the smaller matches too in that period.

Also against Everton in the FA Cup. He completely bossed that game.
 
He's hardly been great for Germany too.

And before Grinner inevitably accuses me of the very valid Anti-Arsenal bias, Germany based journalists have said the same.

Top scorer in WQ Qualifying, along with being voted German player of the year says otherwise.
 
Yeah, it's pretty much a popularity thing, voted by the fans. He was one of our best players in qualifying though, no one can deny that. I don't think that means, we should build the team around him, because it clearly lead to problems that did hold the team back in important games against top teams. Getting the best out of Özil doesn't necessarily mean getting the best out of the team. However, it's a bit difficult to argue that case with the way the team is set up and plays at the moment. We have to wait until after the World Cup or at least see how it all works out in the upcoming important games against better teams.
 
How much does your lack of a top striker affect players like Ozil and Gotze?
Personally I think Müller is a brilliant striker. I've no idea why people call him a false 9 or something like that. He's playing as a brilliant number 9 at the moment and is clearly the stand out player in the team. Excellent movement, good hold up play, smart runs to get on through balls. You can link up with him in and around the box and of course a great finisher as well. Just because he started his professional career playing as a 2nd striker or wide forward doesn't mean he's not an excellent striker and he's playing exactly that. If that's affecting Özil and Götze, then they should go home. I don't see a better number 9 at the world cup so far. You could argue that they miss an additional runner from wide, like Reus, Müller or Schürrle are when they play the wide role. Then the game could run through them a lot more and they would have more options to pass to in the final third.
 
It's unreal. The guy had a good game and was at the heart of most of the German's good play and you get that article written before the match took place which they decide to publish anyway, whilst adding a few photos/words in at the end.

Disgusting.
 

The fact that Breitner and most of the German media were calling for him to be dropped shows that the media agenda isn't limited to the British media which is something, I guess.

He had only the 8th most touches on the pitch and WhoScored ranked him as the worst player in the German team outside of the defenders. If we're talking about agendas then yours is surely equally as strong.
 
It's unreal. The guy had a good game and was at the heart of most of the German's good play and you get that article written before the match took place which they decide to publish anyway, whilst adding a few photos/words in at the end.

Disgusting.

Steady on. He was nothing special tonight.
 
It's unreal. The guy had a good game and was at the heart of most of the German's good play and you get that article written before the match took place which they decide to publish anyway, whilst adding a few photos/words in at the end.

Disgusting.

He definitely didn't have a good game though. He was at best average and was outshone by the Germans other attacking threats again, can't really see how he is getting games over Schürrle still.

The timing of the article is weird though.
 
He had a good game as they all did. He can't score for toffee though.

It's not a media agenda calling for him to be dropped. That's fair comment. That article is just ludicrous though.