Arsenal: Mesut Ozil Must Relearn His Major Breakthrough

Arsenal saw at least three fast break chances go askew because Mesut Ozil didn’t know what to do with the ball. Time to relearn the same lesson.

Arsenal’s new counter attacking set-up has plenty of room for attackers to strut their stuff, and a lot of them are taking advantage. Mesut Ozil, however, seemed to think himself into corners, especially against Manchester City.

There are always going to be quiet, crafty things that Ozil does that don’t always get noticed. Given his skill level and the capacity that he is used, it just goes without saying. But that doesn’t mean that he gets a free pass not to do the big things right a healthy majority of the time.

Against City, we saw surprising pace from Ozil, as well as his token tricky feet and his passing expertise. We even saw him tracking back more times than not.

But the one thing that we didn’t see shined the brightest and hottest and left me wondering when Ozil had taken such a huge step back.

There were three obvious times where Mesut Ozil had himself a breakaway (after showcasing surprising pace) and found himself in a threatening position with defenders clawing to catch up. Rather than putting the finishing touches on the ball and putting it on goal for Arsenal, he tried to cut back and each time, he was dispossessed, threw up his arms and the play went the other way.

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Those are three mistakes among a sea of solid play, but they are huge, obvious mistakes that everyone saw. And you may say that it’s part of Ozil’s game to do this or to give him credit for what he did accomplish, but I say fie!

Ozil, at the beginning of this year, showed a newfound, killer instinct. He was taking shots on goal, dangerous shots on goal, after years of seeming being afraid to shoot. In his early years, he played into that decade-long frustration of thinking you had the pass the ball into the net.

Finally, this year, he started scoring goals, which is great, because at his own admission, as well as Arsene Wenger‘s, there was a general understanding that goals were the next step towards making him a bonafide world beater.

That seems to have dissipated after such a promising start. The point of a counter attack is to strike quickly, before the defense has time to collect itself, but Ozil’s cutbacks give the defense time to catch up. And they did on ever occasion.

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He needs to relearn his most important breakthrough – that it’s okay to cut a shot loose. Especially because at this point in his career, I think most people expect him to pass.