Arsenal: Denis Suarez is absolutely here because of Mesut Ozil

Unai Emery claimed that he did not bring Denis Suarez to Arsenal to play Mesut Ozil’s position. Maybe not, but he will do Mesut Ozil’s job, won’t he?

Arsenal manager Unai Emery took to the podium to speak about Denis Suarez, and, when asked about the relation to Mesut Ozil, he said that there would be “no change” to Ozil, and that Suarez is here because the club needed help on the wings.

I hope I’m not the only one with a “yeaaaah, but…” look on my face. Because, while what Emery said is undoubtedly true out of context, if you read between the lines, there is much more correlation between the arrival of Suarez and the effect it will have on Ozil.

For starters, saying that there will be “no change” with Ozil is like saying that there will be “no change” to the empty gas tank of a car when you change the worn out tires. No, changing the tires won’t affect the gas tank, but that doesn’t hide the fact that the gas tank is still empty.

Mesut Ozil was already not being used, because he hasn’t been good enough. So if that isn’t going to change, then he still isn’t going to be used for tactical purposes, and he still isn’t good enough.

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Meanwhile, saying that Suarez isn’t going to play Ozil’s position doesn’t change the reason that Suarez is being brought in in the first place – it’s because Ozil wans’t able to uphold his responsibilities at the club – the responsibility of creating chances.

If Ozil would have been able to reliably create chances like he has in years past, I don’t think the need for Suarez would have been as prevalent.

This club is suddenly starved of players who can create chances. I would have through that a set-up with Ozil as the No. 10, and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette as the striking partnership, would be the perfect, unstoppable attack.

It wasn’t. Had it been, we could have relied on that and planned around that. But it didn’t work, so Emery had to pursue other solutions to the chance drought.

That’s why Suarez is here – because Ozil didn’t do his job.

So while everything that Emery said is technically true, “no change” to Ozil still means no/very little Ozil. And Suarez supposedly not playing Ozil’s position doesn’t mean that Suarez isn’t here to do Ozil’s job.