Arsenal: Mesut Ozil can’t resurrect the death of the No. 10

Juan Mata is right, the No. 10 position is dying, and Mesut Ozil isn’t enough to undo that with his limited time remaining at Arsenal.

Arsenal and Mesut Ozil and the feud that is isn’t really that surprising when you look at how it all played out. A luxury player plying his trade with a manager who values complete players. It was never going to work out.

But bigger than that, there is a much larger transition happening in the world of football and Ozil doesn’t seem to be willing to accept it. Actually, that may be the problem. Maybe he has accepted it and is just around for the paycheck. Hard to say.

The point is, while Ozil is struggling with the current landscape of the footballing world, his counterpart over at Manchester United has nailed it right on the head.

Struggling with his own, similar circumstance down the road at Old Trafford, Mata observed, quite astutely, that No. 10’s are gone. They’re extinct. There’s no place for them anymore. That’s the hard truth that has been lurking around the corner for half a decade.

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Look at the options that Arsenal have had around Ozil. Aaron Ramsey, Joe Willock, Santi Cazorla, Dani Ceballos. This is going back even before Ozil. And what do they all have in common? They aren’t just No. 10’s. They can play traditional central mid, they can play defensive mid. They all did. Cazorla played deep, he played forward. Willock played deep, he played forward.

You see where I’m going with this. They were versatile. Multidimensional. They did a lot of things. Ozil doesn’t. And he never will. And as I’ve said before, that isn’t a condemnation of his character, that’s just an assessment of his career as a No. 10.

In fact, he may well be the last No. 10 that the game has to offer. Ironically, he’s also been one of the best. Which is why it’s a shame that this is how it’s going to end. As T.S. Eliot said, “This is how [the No. 10 position] ends. Not with a bang, but with a whimper.” It’s been a long road, but the trajectory has been glaringly negative, and that’s how it’s going to go from here on out.

Ozil may be damn good. And he is. But no one is damn good enough to resurrect an entire position. It’s not like the velociraptor could resurrect the dinosaurs either.