Mesut Özil: 2019/20 Performances

[GDeep™]

That all died during Wenger's last 2 seasons..... stop pretending Wenger didn't oversea our downfall.

We declined at the end under him, can’t blame him for our “downfall” though.

The club has been restructured, we’ve spent more on transfers this summer than ever before in our history, have had 3 different managers. We were in the EL final and should’ve got 4th last season.

Maybe you stop pretending the current regime hasn’t made consistently poor moves the last two years.

 

[OnlyOne]

We declined at the end under him, can’t blame him for our “downfall” though.

The club has been restructured, we’ve spent more on transfers this summer than ever before in our history, have had 3 different managers. We were in the EL final and should’ve got 4th last season.

Maybe you stop pretending the current regime hasn’t made consistently poor moves the last two years.

Current regime has had one window? Correct me if I'm wrong but Gazidis was still in charge when we signed, Leno, Sokratis and Lich etc?

Raul had little to no influence during that as well right?

 

[GDeep™]

Raul had little to no influence during that as well right?

Ivan wouldn’t be identifying and targeting players etc, that would’ve been on guys like Raul and Sven etc.

Still, we finished 5th last year and spent more on transfers this summer than ever before in our history and are mid table.

 

[OnlyOne]

Ivan wouldn’t be identifying and targeting players etc, that would’ve been on guys like Raul and Sven etc.

Still, we finished 5th last year and spent more on transfers this summer than ever before in our history and are mid table.

Sven and Ivan, look how he's done at Milan, similar story, poor transfers and they're having a dreadful season.

Many saw last season that Emery was only going one way with the squad he had, we got worse and worse, we then backed him and saw some improvement, then again he got worse and worse until he was sacked. Mikel comes in and we see a decent improvement with the same players.

 

[GDeep™]

Sven and Ivan, look how he's done at Milan, similar story, poor transfers and they're having a dreadful season.

Many saw last season that Emery was only going one way with the squad he had, we got worse and worse, we then backed him and saw some improvement, then again he got worse and worse until he was sacked. Mikel comes in and we see a decent improvement with the same players.

Milan have been terrible for 10 years, probably the worst top club in Europe - Ivan has been there 1 year. Ivan is a clown though, I’ll never defend him.

Im optimistic actually with Arteta here now, apparently he will guide the club on transfers from now on according to the Athletic, so we’ll see some good kids join I think,

Back to my original point though, when you’re changing the manager 3 times and spending record numbers on transfers to strengthen a team that finished 5th, you can’t keep blaming Wenger if it goes wrong.

 

[OnlyOne]

Milan have been terrible for 10 years, probably the worst top club in Europe - Ivan has been there 1 year. Ivan is a clown though, I’ll never defend him.

Im optimistic actually with Arteta here now, apparently he will guide the club on transfers from now on according to the Athletic, so we’ll see some good kids join I think,

Back to my original point though, when you’re changing the manager 3 times and spending record numbers on transfers to strengthen a team that finished 5th, you can’t keep blaming Wenger if it goes wrong.

Yeah I agree with you there, I don’t blame Wenger for anything really, apart from maybe his love for Arsenal caused him to stay on too long but it is what it is. What I do blame is the old regime killing us for years and we are still seeing the effects of it.

Now I finally believe we have a team in charge that are at least identifying our weaknesses. I’m optimistic for the future but I believe we’ll only find the truth, this window maybe, but definitely next summer.

 

[truth_hurts]

I've never been more excited for an Arsenal transfer than when we announced Özil. What a statement signing that was. Sol Campbell was obviously brilliant and third was probably Reyes as he was destined to go right to the top.

Özil was another level though. I can't think of an equivalent signing that we could make to put this in context. Griezmann? Pogba? Bernardo Silva? Sterling? Lewandowski? Players at big clubs who are arguably the star (not Silva) of their national team.

That sort of level, but Özil then was far more of a bigger coup then any of these players now.

 

[musoke]

These players were an upgrade from what we had during the barren years of the Emirates era, Van Persie aside we managed to upgrade in every position. CF and depth let us down when it came to mounting a serious title challenge, maybe even goalkeeper wasn't as strong as it could have been.

Upgrade from what we had?
Can't remember us finishing outside the Top 4 for 4 seaosns in a row before those players you listed turned up.
Can't remember us being spanked by 6-3, 5-1, 5-2, 6-0 etc on a consistent basis like when we signed those players. We have accepted being thrashed by those margins with this current group of wimpers..

The RVP, Cesc era players were a better fit, more talented and a joy to watch.

 

[Riou]

I've never been more excited for an Arsenal transfer than when we announced Özil. What a statement signing that was. Sol Campbell was obviously brilliant and third was probably Reyes as he was destined to go right to the top.

Özil was another level though. I can't think of an equivalent signing that we could make to put this in context. Griezmann? Pogba? Bernardo Silva? Sterling? Lewandowski? Players at big clubs who are arguably the star (not Silva) of their national team.

That sort of level, but Özil then was far more of a bigger coup then any of these players now.

That picture of all the Arsenal fans outside the Emirates in their Özil shirts is fantastic.

After losing Cesc and Robin two summers in a row, it felt so good to make a big signing again, last one was probably Arshavin before Mes...saying that Caz and Sanchez, just before and after Özil were great too...but we really needed that Özil signing at the time.

It's ending very badly with Mesut unfortuntaley, but still 100 percent behind getting him in 2013.

 

[Aussie_gunner123]

We can't just blame Özil for our current downfall, it is after all a team game. Yes I'll accept he's a bit lazy in defence, everyone has their issues. 350 is a fair bit over the top but that wasn't on him, it was Gazidis I think that did the wage. Don't forget aswell he's probably not being played in his proper position & he doesn't have the current freedom to roam around up front, he'd still be a world class player I'd say if he did & had more top players around him. Arteta I think though is obviously open to giving him more chances & perhaps slowly giving him more game time to get him back to his best. It's going to be tough in the future what to do with him, not many clubs will want to take him in on that wage unfortunately. I guess we'll just have to wait & see what happens with him.

 

[say yes]

Exciting signing, but in hindsight it clearly represented a false dawn, rather than a bright new start.

Has flattered to deceive more often than not, and will be remembered by most PL observers as a flop.

 

[GDeep™]

Exciting signing, but in hindsight it clearly represented a false dawn, rather than a bright new start.

Has flattered to deceive more often than not, and will be remembered by most PL observers as a flop.

Cant be a flop when most Arsenal fans wanted him to extend, even at these massive wages. He must’ve been doing something good, quite often, for us to widely demand his extension.

I know you’re trolling, poorly, but still I’ll indulge you.

 

[say yes]

Cant be a flop when most Arsenal fans wanted him to extend, even at these massive wages. He must’ve been doing something good, quite often, for us to widely demand his extension.

I know you’re trolling, poorly, but still I’ll indulge you.

I deliberately said “most PL observers”, rather than Arsenal fans, because we’ve always rated him more highly. Probably because we saw more to Mesut than the body-language issues and lacklustre performances in big games, and there’s definitely an emotional connection to the first big-money signing in our club’s history. Having a great social media team and chant also helps of course.

So I definitely think “flop” is a bit harsh. He’s been better than that, just nowhere near as consistently good as we’d hoped for. More of an underwhelming signing than an outright bad one.

 

[Fewtch]

Let’s hope our next creative midfielder doesn’t flop this badly (pre Bûmery):

 

[truth_hurts]

We were on a trophy drought before he signed. In the six seasons he has been here, we have won 3 FA cups, came 2nd in the league, lost finals in the Europa and Carabao. Small margins have stopped Özil going from a very good signing (unbelievable bracket at the time) to club legend.

Although Özil divides opinion, if you are going to blame him for the clubs downfall, you should at least recognise his contributions towards success.

I think he's lost the hunger.

 

[say yes]

Let’s hope our next creative midfielder doesn’t flop this badly (pre Bûmery):

I don’t really want to get drawn into an argument with Özil’s ultras, but that’s an awful use of stats. Not a fair comparison with anyone who joined the league after Mesut did (e.g. Fabregas or KdB), or anyone who left before that ‘snapshot’ ended.

And Unai Emery Etxegoien didn’t make him awful. His dreadful form started in Wenger’s last season, continued at the World Cup for Germany, and hasn’t improved under Emery, Ljungberg and now Arteta.

 

[say yes]

I don’t know how anybody could have watched Özil for Germany / Real / Bremen pre-joining us, and then come to the conclusion that his time here has been anything but underwhelming.

 

[UpTheGunnerz]

I don’t know how anybody could have watched Özil for Germany / Real / Bremen pre-joining us, and then come to the conclusion that his time here has been anything but underwhelming.

Careful now, soon youll be branded an Özil-hater that despises Wengerball!

 

[Riou]

I don’t know how anybody could have watched Özil for Germany / Real / Bremen pre-joining us, and then come to the conclusion that his time here has been anything but underwhelming.

This is probably fair, though the club never made it easy on him to succeed tbf.

At Bremen he was very rounded as a young player, Mourinho kind of turned him into a perfect, if a little one dimensional, final ball man to feed Ronaldo.

When he joined us we needed a Bergkamp/Fabregas type, a real dominant personality on the pitch, Mes isn't this, especially after his time with Madrid...more on the club for not identifying the right target really.

At the beginning of summer 2013, we needed a machine gun...but by the end of it we only bought a sniper rifle...you can't really yell at the sniper rifle for not being a machine gun, it's not it's fault

Saying that though he has been very up and down here as a player, even during his best period of 2013-2017, he still went through poor runs of form now and then...still very glad we got him though.

 

[Tir Na Nog]

15-16 and then much of the 16-17 season Özil was as good if not better than his Real Madrid period. I mean of course the Real Madrid period is gonna stand out when you think of the calibre of player he was playing with Ronaldo, Di Maria, Benzema, Higuain, Kaka, Alonso, Marcelo. Of course he's gonna shine more, of course he's gonna rack up more assists than when playing with Giroud, the selfish dog molester, Walcott, Coquelin and the likes starting regularly. It's completely different.

Looking at his time here. 13-14 good start, team slows down with Walcott/Ramsey injuries, team lacks mobility/pace/movement, Özil's form obviously declines and I believe he got an injury at some point. 14-15, poor start, got injured came back and was much better during the latter part of that season. 15-16 best season we all know about that one. 16-17, was absolutely brilliant for the first few months, slowed down a bit, was great for the run in and the FA Cup run. 17-18 is where it starts to get a bit disappointing, it wasn't till the winter period where he really showed up, was disappointing in league like the whole team for the most part but contributed a lot to our EL run. 18-19 started the season reasonably well, Emery stopped picking him, we improved when he came back into the team. 19-20 not getting picked at all, was ages before he got back in, team was dreadful. Arteta comes in and he puts in a few good performances. COVID-19 happens.

For the most part he's been largely successful, he's pretty much our most successful player in the Emirates era aside from Ramsey and Mertesacker in terms of what he's contributed to. All three started the Cup Finals. Has he carried us on his back, no. Has he shown his class, ability and contributed a lot. Absolutely he has. He helped end our trophy drought, he helped us to two further FA Cup wins. He helped us massively in two EL campaigns where we got to semi-finals and a final. He was very close to matching Henry's assist record one season.

At times he's underwhelmed, as much as the team has. At times he's actually been even better than I thought he'd be, considering the teammates he's had at Real in comparison to Arsenal.