Arsenal: Arsene Wenger Must Learn To Substitute Mesut Ozil

Mesut Ozil is in the top echelon of players in world football. But is he held in such high regard at Arsenal that Wenger can’t substitute him?

It has been a testing week for Arsenal and the Gooners. Having familiarly drawn Bayern in the last 16 of the Champions League, the Gunners have proceeded to two defeats in the space of five days. One player in particular who has probably symbolised our drop in performance levels is Mesut Ozil.

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Let me clear this up first. I am not one of those people that will slate Mesut Ozil on social media blaming him for our problems. Ozil is a mercurial talent that Arsenal are lucky to have. He puts in poor performances like anyone else and shouldn’t be blamed more than the rest of the side.

Yet despite this, a lingering question remained in the back of my mind after this week’s defeats. Is Ozil un-substitutable?

Ozil has not been his best of late. Far from it. While he scored a magical goal in our last home game against Stoke. He has been off the pace in the past two games. The problem with Ozil is that, as Josh stated here at Pain in the Arsenal, when he is not up to speed, he is shadow of his usual self. While Sanchez remains hungry and intense even when off form, Mesut seems to drift out the game.

Against Everton, Ozil was blamed for his role in the Toffee’s winner. While he could have made more of an effort to win the ball, I blame Wenger’s zonal marking tactics. He should never be marking a player of Williams’ aerial ability. However, I do put him partly at fault for a slack attacking performance.

Walcott and Oxlade-Chamberlain may have also been culprits but that’s less unusual. Ozil lost the ball so often that is seemed like it wasn’t even him on the pitch. This pattern seemed to continue against Manchester City on Sunday.

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The German was anonymous again and had little to no impact on the game. While de Bruyne sparkled, Ozil barely even flickered in such an important match. Despite all this, we have to remember that Ozil is human (although his touch sometimes says otherwise). He is, like every other player, going to go through a poor patch of form.

While I can understand this, I can’t understand why Wenger won’t substitute him when he’s having a bad day at the office. Against both Everton and City, Ozil played the full 90 while players like Iwobi, Oxlade-Chamberlain and Walcott were taken off.

On Sunday I felt Iwobi had a decent first half and deserved to stay on the pitch more than Ozil did. Sure Mesut is the superior player, but if he is not up to scratch on a given day then he shouldn’t receive special treatment. Does Wenger not have the courage to take off his star player?

In some cases I can see where Wenger is coming from. Mesut is so talented that even when he isn’t on it, he can come up with a moment of brilliance. But on Sunday that never seemed likely. The benefit of having a deep squad like Arsenal’s is that underperforming players can be replaced. That should be no different for our German Maestro.

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I obviously have a very passionate view on the subject but what do you think? Should Ozil be substituted like everyone else when he is playing poorly? Or does his talent deserve to be on the pitch for the duration of the 90 minutes? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.