Arsenal: Mesut Ozil squad omittance turns light on

Mesut Ozil will not be in Germany’s squad to face Brazil on Tuesday night. His omittance turned a light on: Given the number of games that he has played and the fact that he will play in a World Cup in the summer, Arsenal should be doing the exact same to preserve him for the future.

Mesut Ozil is now 29 years of age. By the time the end of 2018 rolls around, he will have hit the dreaded 30-year mark. For any footballer, it is an age that hints at the coming age of their prime. It is often the start of their physical deterioration and their performance level begins to droop.

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It also signals the beginning of smarter, more acute management, preserving the fitness levels and physical sharpness of the player for a whole season, not burning them out by overworking them early in the year. For Arsenal and Ozil, it could be the case that Arsene Wenger begins to implement such a rotational policy.

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He is also coming off a series of seasons in which he has played a huge number of minutes. This is now his fifth season in North London. In the Premier League alone, he has played less than 2000 minutes only once, the 2014/15 season in which he played 1860 minutes. In the last two full Premier League seasons, he has played 3049 minutes and 2848 minutes. In those same seasons, he has played 720 minutes and 627 minutes in the Champions League. That totals more 5000 minutes in the last two full years. That does not include the FA Cup, the EFL Cup, or any international fixtures.

Speaking of those international fixtures, in 2014 he featured heavily in Germany’s World Cup-winning campaign, playing 655 minutes. Two years later, in the 2016 European Championships, he then played 570 minutes — those 570 minutes, incidentally, came across six games, in which he played every minute of every game including the 30 minutes extra-time in the win over Italy.

And this season, Ozil has again had another strenuous season playing north of 2500 minutes across all competitions for both Arsenal and Germany. That physical effort will only be compounded this summer as he and his German look to defend their World Cup crown. He is pushing himself hard.

So it should come as a welcome relief to see that he has been omitted from Germany’s squad to face Brazil on Tuesday night. He will now go nine days without a game and will be afforded a small period of rest before the climax of the season. But for Arsenal, the climax of their season is only a maximum of five Europa League games.

And so, Germany’s decision to rest Ozil got me thinking: Would it not be wise of Wenger to only use Ozil in the Europa League between now and the end of the season, limiting the number of minutes that he plays, ensuring that he is fresh for next season even after having competed in a World Cup?

Not only is Ozil is the heart of this team this season, but he is the creative cornerstone on which much will rest next season and the seasons beyond. If his body begins to wear down, he starts to miss more games, and his match-sharpness, and thereby effectiveness, lessens, Arsenal could be in a spot of bother. There isn’t really another player in the squad capable of the things that Ozil is capable of.

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I do not expect Wenger to implement this manner of thinking. He has always prided himself on his results in the Premier League, even when the title and top four are deemed out of reach. But it is something that I would strongly consider. Ozil is not getting younger and rest is important.