Arsenal: ‘Scapegoat’ Mesut Ozil Is Deserving Of Title

Mesut Ozil believes that he is a scapegoat for Arsenal’s bad results, per his agent. However, while that may be true, he is deserving of such a title.

The 5-1 loss to Bayern Munich on Wednesday evening was damning. Arsene Wenger has come under intense criticism, Alexis Sanchez has hopped on a plane to Spain to escape the furore and many questions circle regarding both the short-term and long-term future of Arsenal football club.

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Few can be answered. However, while the future still offers much uncertainty, the past is still revelling in the blame game. And boy is there a lot to go around. Francis Coquelin failed to make a tackle. Shkodran Mustafi was communicating with Hector Bellerin as Thiago Alcantara slipped in to score. Alex Iwobi seemingly forgot how to play football.

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However, none has received more blame for Arsenal’s lacklustre display than one Mesut Ozil. Nonetheless, Ozil himself claims that he doesn’t deserve to be levelled with the blame that he has been, stating that he is a scapegoat for his team’s poor results. That is what his agent said, when speaking with BBC Sport:

"“Criticism is normal if a player plays badly. But Mesut feels people are not focusing on his performance; they are using him as a scapegoat for the team after bad results. Bayern had 74% possession. How can someone in the No.10 position create chances if you don’t have the ball? In these games people usually target a player who cost a lot of money and earns a lot of money – that is Mesut. But he can’t always be the scapegoat. That’s not fair.”"

While it may be so that Ozil is the scapegoat for Arsenal’s poor run of form, especially in the big games – the 3-1 loss to Chelsea and the 5-1 demolition by Bayern -, he is deserving of that label. It is a team sport and a player of his style does not excel when his side relinquishes possession as they did on Wednesday night. But that does not excuse a lack of effort.

When the Germans had the ball in the middle third, Ozil expressed no desire to close them down. Xabi Alonso and Arturo Vidal had ample time and space to look up and pick a pass. Contrast that to the difficulties that both Francis Coquelin and Granit Xhaka had with their distribution under pressure, and it was clear to see why Arsenal were so vulnerable defensively.

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Apportioning all of the blame onto Ozil is clearly not fair and perhaps he is a scapegoat of sorts for his side’s troubles. However, his lethargic displays, his lack of effort and his laziness have plagued this team. He is the deserving scapegoat, no matter what he himself may believe.