Arsenal: With nothing to lose, it’s time to turn to Mesut Ozil

Arsenal have a problem, no matter how you spin it, and seeing as how we have nothing else to lose, it’s time to call on Mesut Ozil again.

Damn. You know things are getting desperate when in the span of two days, I have advocated for the benching of Granit Xhaka and the starting of Mesut Ozil. But following Arsenal‘s spineless 1-0 loss at Sheffield United, I can see no other way.

What I said in my pro-benching-Xhaka article was simple—you can’t stick to the same things. I’m not a panic-button pusher. But I do see when something has been wrong for over a year and getting progressively worse and I’m tired of nothing being done about it. It’s reached that point where you just have to try new things, because what else are we going to do?

There were a ton of problems against Sheffield, obviously, but lo and behold, one of the biggest was a complete lack of cutting edge in the attack. Unai Emery gave Joe Willock the start at the No. 10 role ahead of Dani Ceballos and it didn’t work.

When Ceballos came on, there was a bit of a burst, but if the scoreline didn’t give it away, I will—it didn’t work. This whole thing isn’t working. We’ve been having trouble creating consistent chances for a year now.

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So what do you do?

You try something new. And despite my belief that Mesut Ozil is not the answer, no one else seems to be the answer either. So why not backtrack and try someone who was once the answer instead of a couple of guys who have never really been the answer?

This requires some finagling though. We all know what Ozil’s limitations are. It’s obvious. He’s a passer, that’s all he does. He needs protection. Meaning that if we want to turn to Ozil, we also have to protect him with the likes of Guendouzi and Torreira, guys that have intense work rates and can fill the space that Ozil doesn’t.

But really what this all comes down to is… what could go wrong? We don’t create any chances? We already aren’t. Maybe we struggle to compensate in the midfield? We are already struggling in that theater.

Ozil is here, he’s making a ton of money and the team is sucking it up. See if he can’t earn some of those wages. What’s there to lose? Another away match against a mid-table side? Whoopdee-doo.