Arsenal: Is this just who Mesut Ozil is now?

Arsenal used to see Mesut Ozil as their central cog, but he has fallen off since then. Is this just who he is now? Is he a support player?

When Arsenal signed Mesut Ozil, the expectations were that he was going to change things. He was the superstar, the man who everything was going to flow through, just like he did, for the most part, for Real Madrid.

It’s safe to say he hasn’t changed everything, unless you count ending the debt days as his big change, which he did do, but on the pitch, he has been unreliable. Not bad, and certainly worth it, but not reliable.

His 19 assist season is suddenly looking the odd ball out, because he hasn’t had double digit Premier League assists since then, though he did follow his 19 assist season with a season totaling eight goals and nine assists, as he tried, with some success, to score more goals and stop the “pass first” mentality.

Ozil has constantly been changing at the Emirates. When he got injured early on, he came back bigger and stronger physically. When he tallied 19 goals, he came back and scored more goals than he ever had with the Gunners.

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Going into this year, no one knew for certain what to expect out of Ozil and the new system with Unai Emery. The high-octane, high pressure attack that Emery required didn’t jive with the style that Ozil had established at the Emirates.

And it hasn’t been the season he would have wanted, having just landed a massive new deal back in January. Ozil has just two goals to his name, no assists, and ranks 29th on the Premier League chance creation charts. He hasn’t been his “typical self.”

That said, maybe he is still changing. Maybe, for the sake of fitting in in the Emery system, he has been forced to change himself more and this is who he is now. All things considered, I don’t think this is worst thing in the world, as long as we realize it and stop expecting the world out of him.

He’s a peripheral attacker, not an indispensable star. He’ll contribute to the attack, not lead it. And again, that is perfectly okay.

The only problem you may run into is what he is being paid to not be a bigger deal than he currently is. But let’s talk more about this when we see how his changes pan out later in the season.