Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Ozil’s fate is a victory for the ditch-diggers .. but a sad loss to the beautiful game
IF you do not enjoy, or did not enjoy, watching Mesut Ozil play football, you do not like football. Simple as that.
If you do not enjoy, or did not enjoy, watching Mesut Ozil play football, you have been brainwashed by the high-pressing, tracking-back, tacticalfouling, distance-covered brigade.
If you do not enjoy, or did not enjoy, watching Mesut Ozil play football, you love the functional game more than the beautiful game.
If you do not enjoy, or did not enjoy, watching Mesut Ozil play football, you probably buy into all that “mentality monster” nonsense.
If you had been a cricket fan, you would probably have frowned at David Gower.
Jose Mourinho, perceived as the doyen of practical management, has a memory of his time coaching Ozil at Real Madrid.
He would organise a full-scale practice match and then turn his back on it.
Mourinho would know when Ozil was striking a pass because it made a different noise, like the soft, pure, powder-exploding thud of a perfectlystruck iron shot. Those of you who have ever played golf know the once-in-a-round sound he is on about. But just as Gower’s along-the-deck elegance became obsolete, so, it seems, has Ozil’s languid ingenuity.
In a game full of ditch-diggers, craftsmen have become relics.
If Ozil really wanted to, he could probably engage in a statistical duel with those obsessed by figures.
Assist totals, kilometres ran, that sort of stuff. The sort of stuff that strips the art out of the game.
But the naked truth is that he has looked increasingly like a forlorn waif in a land of highly-powered automatons.
It says something when we have become a nation as obsessed with the muscularity of Jack Grealish’s calves as we are with his sublime talent.
So, what a challenge it would have been for a young manager making his way at the top level.
What a challenge it would have been to maximise the talent of a player who can see passes not a single other member of Arsenal’s outfield squad can dream of.
“I’ve got vision,” said Butch Cassidy, “and the rest of the world wears bifocals.”
A tough challenge but what a challenge, and what a shame Mikel
Arteta has shirked it. For Arsenal, for the Premier League.
It has been a challenge beyond, to some extent, Arsene Wenger, and certainly beyond Unai Emery.
As long ago as 2014, I suggested Ozil (with Arteta, celebrating victory over Manchester United back in January, below) was destined to be some type of beautiful failure.
And don’t forget, while Mourinho remains an ardent admirer of a special footballer, he was never interested in recruiting Ozil for one of his Premier League teams. It is also difficult to believe Pep Guardiola or Jurgen Klopp have even given a second thought to trying to recruit him for their Premier League endeavours.
But that should have made the challenge even more compelling for
Arteta. Those who back Arteta’s decision would suggest it is ruthless and based on Ozil’s body of work in the second half of last season after the Spaniard took over.
Arteta has seen enough and has backed his own judgement.
But of the 10 Premier League matches Ozil has started for Arteta, only one ended in defeat for Arsenal.
In that game, the Gunners were leading Chelsea by a single goal when Ozil was replaced by Joe Willock with a quarter of an hour remaining. Chelsea won 2-1.
In his last appearance for Arteta, Ozil set up Alexandre Lacazette’s late winner against West Ham.
Maybe 10 matches and months on the training ground is enough to make such a drastic decision but, really, if it is to be believed no other factors are at play here, Arteta has given up without having a serious crack at it.
He wants Arsenal to be functional. That is his prerogative and it might well win him a good few games.
But, for Arsenal supporters and fans of the beautiful game in general, that is still fundamentally disheartening.
Because if you do not enjoy, or did not enjoy, watching Mesut Ozil play football, you do not like football.