Arsenal: Mesut Ozil Will Never Find Consistency As A No. 10

Arsenal’s inability to put anything together even remotely resembling consistency is incarnate in Mesut Ozil and that will remain so long as he is used as a No. 10.

We that the pit that was his first year and we had the high that was his third year, but now it is becoming clearer than ever before that Mesut Ozil will never find consistency at Arsenal so long as so much is depending on him.

No one will ever question how much talent he has. That doesn’t factor into the debate. What does factor into the debate is in what capacity he can impact a game and what sort of role he should be playing. Because unfortunately, this is a conversation that we need to have. We can’t just keep thinking that 2015/16 was the real Mesut Ozil, seeing as how he has far more time being ineffective.

The massive contrast between his ability to string together games and Alexis Sanchez’s is what really sets the German maestro back. When he is bad, he is detrimental. When Alexis is off, he is still factoring into things with his effort alone.

Placing the most responsibility of anyone else on the team squarely on the inconsistencies of Ozil is a terrible idea. He is the lynch pin at the No. 10. Everything flows through him and when he is stopped up, so is the attack.

He wonders why he is always singled out. Well, that’s why. Because of how much his role requires from him and how infrequently he fully delivers on it.

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Just look at the stark difference between West Ham and Crystal Palace. Against Palace he didn’t take a single shot or manage a single created chance. That is inexcusable.

Ozil has a place in just about any team, but there has to be a better capacity to use him. And there are options. Unless he changes, which is why I say he will “never find consistency” because Ozil has made it clear what kind of player he is and clearly he has no intention of changing.

The two solution are to move Ozil or to challenge him, neither of which have even been considered. The German maestro has a tendency to move out wide anyway, so I don’t see why it would be so ridiculous to start him out wide and makes use of a 4-4-2, giving the top of the formation more targets to fire towards.

Or, challenging him and treating him like a mere mortal. It is perfectly acceptable to bench Ozil, or let someone have a go in front of him, but Wenger lets him play the full 90 minutes every single time.

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Maximizing the talent that is already here doesn’t seem to be Wenger’s strong suit and you don’t have to look much father than Ozil to see it. It’s just a shame that this talent is being wasted trying to do the same thing over and over. Even as it is consistently proven inadequate.

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