Arsenal: Henrikh Mkhitaryan brings key trait Mesut Ozil lacks

Arsenal deployed their footballing brain against Ostersunds FK and while it wasn’t a rout, we did get more material for Henrikh Mkhitaryan theories.

I found myself in the minority, perhaps all by my lonesome, when I rated Henrikh Mkhitaryan‘s performance against Ostersunds FK as “could have been much better.” He won Arsenal.com’s man of the match and, statistically, he was a one-man wrecking crew.

Six shots with three on target compared to seven shots with two on target from the other three attacking players combined. It begged to be reconsidered, so I watched the match again (with the use of fast forward, because damn it was boring at times).

Sure enough, I found that I may have been a bit harsh on Mkhitaryan. Mostly because, while he was a bit reckless with his attacking at times, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

I think about how slow Arsenal build up their attack sometimes and I think of all those creative minds waiting for someone else to make the move that they can pick out, while they themselves are more keen to sit back and see how things unfold.

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Mkhitaryan isn’t about that life. He can be, sure. He can sit back and pick out a pass with the best of them, but he brings something different to the attack, something that he may share with Aaron Ramsey but few others – he brings a sense of urgency.

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To me, that is the biggest thing Mesut Ozil lacks. No matter how good Ozil is, he is handcuffed by his lack of pace and, I’m afraid to say, a certain lack of urgency in the build up. He is always looking for something to happen so that he can pick it out, but he is rarely the guy to make that something happen.

That’s not a bad thing, necessarily, it’s not the type of player he is. But it is the type of player Mkhitaryan is and against Ostersunds, he was expressing that urgency among a throng of less-than-urgent team mates. Which, in turn, made him look like a bit of a rogue firecracker.

But what this means is that, when you put Mkhitaryan and Ozil together, you have the perfect creative duo, as we saw all-too briefly when they combined for Ozil’s goal. These are two creative masters that have two very distinct styles that, ideally, will compliment each other to perfection.

Next: Arsenal vs Ostersunds FK Player Ratings

And maybe, just maybe, Mkhitaryan’s urgency will start to spread to his team mates, so that seemingly reckless abandon style that he often exhibits can achieve more than just an incorrectly average player rating from me.

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