Arsenal: Jermaine Jenas has Mesut Ozil down to a tee

Jermaine Jenas and Martin Keown debated the role and use of Mesut Ozil. The latter was harsh on the Arsenal midfielder; the former had him down to a tee.

Whenever a team loses in a high-profile manner, as Arsenal tend to do quite frequently, the blame game immediately begins. It is always someone’s fault. The player who made the mistake for the goal. The manager for selecting the wrong team. The striker who missed that great chance at the end. The referee for some faulty decisions.

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As this game unfolds, it becomes clear that one individual in particular will have to shoulder the responsibility for the collective failures of the team. It happens every time. And this time, in the aftermath of the Gunners’ 2-1 aggregate loss to Atletico Madrid in the semi-final of the Europa League, it is Mesut Ozil’s turn.

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Here is Martin Keown, a well-respected pundit who has a steel and bite that used to pervade the Highbury pitch, dishing out his strongest criticism on the German:

"“I don’t know how many illnesses he has had this season, but the fella is not kidding me. That is not a proper performance. He wasn’t fit to wear the shirt tonight. He needs to be dug out. We expect better from him. He’s not conning me. He’s not giving enough for Arsenal Football Club.”"

His punditry partner that night, Jermaine Jenas, had a slightly more nuanced opinion on the subject:

"“We almost highlight Ozil because we’re asking him to do things that he doesn’t do. He’s not a player that gets the game by the scruff of the neck. He’s not going to track back. That’s not what his job is. That’s not the player they bought.”"

You can see the whole clip just below.

I accept that Keown’s vilification of Ozil has some accuracy. Certainly, Ozil is not the most industrious, battling character in the team, and there are times when his laziness and his slipping-into-the-shadows hurts the Arsenal side drastically. But I do believe that it is Jenas who provides a far truer representation of the Ozil problem.

Ozil is a passenger in a team until that team provides the foundation for him to be the conductor. He will never be the driving force at the heart of every sinew of a side’s play. He simply isn’t that type of player. But he does have the unique creativity, quality, and ingenuity to provide that spark as he flits in and out of the cracks of the game.

That style demands that he goes quiet in games, sometimes for rather extended periods, only to then pop up in a pocket of space on the opposite flank and pierce the opposing defence with a slicing cross into the six-yard box. He is not an all-action, heart-of-the-battle warrior that Keown demands.

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Now, does that excuse his lumbering body language, his plodding on the pitch, his apparent disinterest in the result? Absolutely not. But it does provide a context, a context that says that Arsenal and Arsene Wenger are not using Ozil correctly. Ozil does have problems that need addressing, but first, his team need to provide him with the opportunity to find the solution. That is what Jenas gets and Keown misses.