Now let me begin by saying that I like Arteta and he is a good player. The game against West Brom was a difficult one by all measures. I still think it is a game we could have won had we had taken them as seriously as we did Napoli, especially in the first 15 minutes. We were in complete control but looked like we were toying with them, rather than trying to score, unlike against the Italians. Anyway, credit to the team for winning the point in the end.
We have been playing very well, up until we met with the baggies. So what changed? In my opinion, it is the fact that Wenger has forced Arteta back into the team, without really looking at the balance. Against Napoli, we needed a double pivot to neutralize the threat posed by Hamsik, and it worked perfectly. Against WBA however, forcing Arteta alongside Flamini had a number of negative effects. First of all, it meant that Ramsey and Wilshere were pushed out wide. Wilshere had a shitter of a first half and it is only until he was brought back in the middle that we began to feel his presence.
As for Ramsey, we know he’s played wide before. However it has its downsides. Firstly, on the wing his movement is somewhat limited, and more so when playing in front of Jenkinson. This is because Jenko always bombs forward so Ramsey had to do a lot of covering work which in the end shackled him. Secondly, his influence and energy in the middle of the park which (dare I say) has been one of the main reasons we have dominated games, was sorely missed. You see Arteta is very good at reading the game and calm it down from deep, but lately it seems that’s all he’s good at. Do you know that against WBA he attempted only one forward pass in the opposition’s half, which was intercepted? All he does in pass sideways.
Arteta is no where near as good at dispossessing players as Ramsey and Flamini are. That’s what has made that partnership so good. Flamini will sit in front of the back four and Ramsey will support him when needed but then bomb forward and cause havoc on the other end. Ramsey also presses the ball very high (to great effect) which helps us win possession in very dangerous places. Both Flamini and Ramsey have a tenacity that neutralizes physical opponents. Yesterday you saw how we were bullied in the middle. Let’s not forget Ramsey’s goal threat is neutralized when he’s played out wide. Given his form, had he been played where he’s supposed to, he could and probably would have won us the game.
Second of all, bringing in Arteta gave Flamini the license to roam forward and this gave Sessegnon the space he needed to really terrorize us, which he did. When Ramsey and Flamini play together, they both know that Flamini protects the back and Ramsey moves forward. And because of Ramsey’s incredible engine, it works even when we are under pressure. Arteta just sits deep. This meant that Ozil was largely isolated and was therefore crowded out and neutralized. This made West Brom’s defending very easy. With Wilshere and Ramsey out wide, Mulumbu just needed to take Ozil out and they had a handle on us.
Flamini was the one (of the defensive two) going forward and let’s be honest, he’s no Ramsey. He had a few shots on goal which he hit straight at the keeper. Ramsey would have done much better. Even putting all this logic aside, if there’s a player who this season has earned the right to play where he feels most comfortable, it’s Aaron Ramsey. This game was very similar to the one we played against Marseille, except in that one Ramsey was played through the middle and won us the game.
To conclude, I will reiterate that I have nothing against Arteta. The thing is with the form of our three central midfielders (Flamini, Ramsey and Ozil) it is unfortunate but he is the one to lose his place, at least for now. I feel that we showed great character to salvage a point. That said, this is a game that could have gone either way and that shouldn’t be the case. If West Brom were better goal scorers, we could have lost. There’s a saying that goes ”if it ain’t broke don’t fix it”. The team is anything but broke so changing one of its fundamental elements will only disrupt a flow that has been steadily building over the past few weeks.
On the plus side, Spurs were humiliated yesterday. COYG!!!!
Frustratingly, I had to travel back from London last night and was not able to watch the game. The only thing I had was my blackberry on which I could read comments on my own site but not respond (for some reason), as well as regular updates on the BBC website.
I could gather from the comments how well we were playing and that made it even harder to only have written words of the good guys’ performances, whilst others were getting the Full Monty at the ground or on TV.
I was able to watch ‘the highlights’ on ITV later on, and although they did not give our game much time, I could gather what a special night it has been at the Home of Football.
I know the footie statisticians focus a lot on goals and assists, but it is about time we start to measure ‘penultimate assists’ as well. The big question for me is: where does a goal originate from: is it the assist maker and/or the one who starts the attack? Ultimately, a goal is a combination of actions on and off the ball and most goals are scored as a result of efforts by a number of players.
Last night, Ozil was praised to heaven for a very, very fine performance in the first half. His goal was simply Bergkampesque and so was his assist for the second one. It is impossible to over-estimate what this German footballing Genius is adding to our team right now, and that at half the money of Bale muhahahaha! 😀
Ramsey’s assist was also Bergkampesque in terms of vision and accuracy, and this guy – the ultimate professional footballer – deserves all the credit he is getting currently.
But last night was also a great demonstration of the importance of our Big Fecking Frenchman: Ollie Giroud. He produced both penultimate assists and without him and his actions both goals would not have happened: it is as simple as that. I have been stressing for quite a while that Ollie is not just a classical nr.9; he is far more important than that to the team. His hold-up play and ability to play with his back to the goal, combined with his energy and his permanent goal threat, is absolutely pivotal to our system of football.
If Giroud had not scored yesterday, he might not have had much recognition for his contributions. Luckily, he did score which is good for him and us, but what matters even more is that he was at the very basis of both our goals last night.
His control and body strength, combined with good touches and pass, allowed Ramsey to penetrate the Napoli defence and have space and time to both spot Ozil and deliver an accurate pass to our nr.11. This was absolute sublime ‘holding forward’ football and without it Ramsey would not have had the time and space to produce his classy assist, and Ozil would not have been put in a good scoring position.
The second goal was another example of Giroud’s wider importance to the team. He was helping out with our pressing game and not just hanging around the box for ‘an opportunity coming his way’. The pressing let to him receiving the ball; he controlled it well, passed it to king of assists and then burst into the box himself. Ozil found him with sublime precision and our big Frenchman was rewarded for all his efforts with a relatively simple ‘blast-in’. Another fine team goal and another fine penultimate assist by OG.
Although his goals and direct assists are very important, his other contributions are just as important to the team. I reckon OG is the sort of striker we will see a lot more of in the future, although they might be hard to find. I reckon Chelsea and to a lesser extent Man City, who have Negredo and Dzeko, are crying out for a holding striker of Giroud’s pedigree, and the same goes for many other teams in the PL and Europe who want to play 4-2-1-3 or 4-5-1.
It might also explain why Dortmund did not allow Lewandowski to leave them this summer, as he is probably the finest holding forward around. The Pole is as pivotal to Dortmund as Giroud is to us, and I predict that not only the former but also the latter will become big transfer targets this summer. Not that we will let him go, no way Jose! 🙂
All ingredients for another feast of Wengerball football this season are here. Ozil and Ramsey, but also Flamini and Mertesacker, and many others deserve all the praise they are getting, and so does our mobile rock up-front, our beacon, our lighthouse, our linchpin, our giant of a holding forward.
Written by: TotalArsenal.
Gerry produced a fine morning comment that should be read by a wider audience, so I have added it to today’s post:
So, the first 15 minutes. None of that cagey stuff I talked about pre-game. Instead, some of the finest, crispest, passing for such a long time I think we were beginning to think that that side of our game had gone? The grab an early goal and defend in numbers was fantastically left behind in this half.
Sagna – the times he slipped the pass along the line where there was barely room was amazing. He was on very good form, and didn’t he enjoy it?
Ramsey – whether playing tight one-twos or playing down the wing, switching play, tackling .. It was all the same. Probably one of his best displays without scoring. Brilliant!
Flamini – how did we ever manage to do so well without him? Right man in the right job, and invariably in the right place. Of all the missing pieces in our team, he has to be one of the best? Drove the play forward at pace when he wasn’t ‘Johnny on the spot’ defending.
Ozil – what can you add that has not been already said? Truth be told, he himself added a whole lot more with this display? His goal alone should be on Walcott’s I-pad on a continuous loop – the timing of his run was immaculate. When Ramsey reached the byline Ozil had only just left his marker about 10 yards inside their half, but running into space. Ramsey is so hot-wired at the moment that he saw the space … the SPACE(note Theo!) and not the fully marked Giro in the box. He then played the perfect ball accordingly. Ozil reached the point where their trajectories would meet and played the simplest of first time shots with his instep into the bottom left hand corner.
That was just the finish it deserved. Others added to it along the way.
Rosicky – I am so disappointed that he has hardly got a mention in a report I read elsewhere, other than to say he ‘tired in the 2nd half’. I am not sure that this display would have been possible without him in the side. True, he did not lay on the perfect assist, or score a sumptuous goal. But what he did, and always does, is drive the play forwards. He passed the ball quickly, whether on the left or right, up front or on the edge of our box. This on his first game back from injury, and the first alongside Ozil. He may get overlooked a star of this game, but don’t think for one minute he did not play his part.
Giroud – I predicted his intelligence would help him connect well with Ozil, and it did in this game. It was Ozil this time that got to the goal line and somehow got the ball through a narrow gap between defenders and keeper for a simple tap in. However, when players are moving around him, his nod downs and quick flicks really do show off his skills to the full. I said early this season that he is like a lighthouse, a beacon from where the team know where they are .. and here it with this illuminating display?
I sought of skipped past Arteta’s contribution as I concentrated on the moves going forwards. He was his usual solid self. I did not see him going forward much in the first half, but Flamini was allowed to because he was there.
Again, not a lot to say about Szcz, Per, or Kos, as they had little to do, but what they did was solid enough.
Gibbs was not used so much in attack, as the right flank was getting most joy. It did not stop him making himself available though, which meant when he was having his one-two’s down the line it opened space for the others in the middle. However, his defending was questioned more than once. There was one occasion in the first half where he was not close enough to Insigne and allowed him a shot on goal, but shot wide. This was something happened, according to the audio, in the 2nd half too. And on each occasion it was down to Gibbs making the ‘right’(imo) decision to not allow the right back a free run in behind, but it is a fine line when trying to cover two players at the same time. If he tracks their wide player coming in, somebody should either take over so he can mark the overlap, or somebody else go wide? Gibbs is quick, but even he cannot be in two places at once? For the most part of the first half Flamini was there, with Rosicky tracking back. In the 2nd half when Wilshere came on for Rosicky it seemed to make the problem worse? Either the two are not communicating well enough, or Wilshere is a tad slow in reading the options?
And that folks is the nearest I can come to the report on performance. The match was decided by AW’s tactics to go all out from the off, so he gets top credit. But the players did all that was asked and then some.
This is why we are more likely to attract top players, whether next January or in the summer, as the video of this game gets spread around. Not only are we a top club, we have the players to match.
Kaboom is a new writer and English is not his first language. I have made some changes to make the article flow a bit better, but other than that I left it as it is. BK is an inclusive blog and we like it when bloggers from all over the world share their views and write for us. I would like to ask you to focus purely on the content of Kaboom’s very fine post and respect that English is not his mother tongue.
Many thanks,
TotalArsenal.
The return of the UMF – Ultimate Midfield Force
Ramsey. Giroud: the players on fire. Santi. Mikel -lego hair- arteta still to come back. Players that continue their last season’s good form. Per and Kos with new found belief at back. Who can exclude the Öne and Önly, Özil? Arsenal are currently top of the table, most points accumulated and most goals scored team at the moment. And the table never lies!
However, in my humble opinion, the player who brought sparks/life to the spineless team has to be no other but Matthew Flamini.
The self-exiled for 4 years from the greatest club on earth has returned. All is forgiven. The sole survivor of the famous back 5 ( Lehmann, Eboue, Campbell & Toure) that inspired the heroic run that conceded only 1 goal all the way to champions league final ( only lost to 2 dodgy offside goals).
Rumours has it that he was close to be sent on loan to Birmingham but Wenger’s last minutes change of heart meant he stayed at the home of football. Everything else was history. His performance was so good AW had to leave former Brazil captain Gilberto on the bench.
Time and time again we saw endless running, tackling, arriving late at 18 yards box and having a pop at goal. Typical defensive midfielder. Along with Cesc, Hleb and Ro-sick-y, they formed the formidable midfield line-up that almost won the league. Unfortunately the agent got into his head and convinced him that a better future lay away from the great Arsenal. He left us like he left Marseille. That reminds me of what my old man always tells me. Do not pick a girl who left another man for you: one day she will do the same to you. Sadly, it was so true. AW failed to convince him on a new contract for the variance of GBP 5k (sounds familiar huh?), and he left Arsenal for Ac Milan.
It didn’t work out for either parties for past 4,5 years. Arsenal continued to struggle to find a proper DM (Dont.Ever.Mention. Song! He is a joke) and Flamini can’t even get any game time for the team. Due to stubbornness/principle of AW against signing ex-players, time and time the quality of Flamini had been overlooked.
Since then, Henry, Campbell and even Lehmann had returned on temp basis, and perhaps it softened AW’s principle of signing ex-players. Flamini rejoined the club after a successful trial. I read a report somewhere that he chose to park his super car at the visitors car park and walked thru the long corridor to the training area. To most people it may sounds like common courtesy but it has to be a huge huge humble pie (in-your-face) for Flamini. Well, it is really a minor gesture which is not worth mentioning but I have heard of far worse parking ethics of footballers. I believe that shows his willingness to earn the trust again to be part of the team and the will to be successful again.
Compared to the rest or marquee players, Flamini never has the chance to out shine anyone. He cant provides 2,3 assists per games, let alone goals. He can’t nutmeg opponents. He cant string 3,4 barca-likes passes with his teammates. However his roles of tracking players all over field, covering every inches of the pitch, stamping authority, kicking players and doing ugly jobs are second to none.
Jack’s early withdrawal against tot-scum-spur had proven to be a real blessing in disguise. Flamini was everywhere. Tackling, kicking, shouting at defenders, organizing the defence. His performance against Stoke City has to be the best individual defensive work in years! And that’s really what Arsenal were lacking of for the past few seasons Ramsey and Özil might be taking the limelight now, but Flamini is the real unsung hero for the team at the moment.
I guess the real dilemma for AW is how to blend in Flamini with existing rich selection of midfielders. Can AW afford to drop Ramsey? What to do about Arteta returning? Is he going to bench Jack? How about Ro-sick-y, Chambo and Diaby(if he ever gets fit again)?
It’s going to be a long season but so far I am extremely glad to see the return of Flamini. I do hope that he will play a major role in our quest for the first EPL title since forever. For me, he is already the signing of the season.
Apparently, Florentino Perez recently said our record signing was not able to deal with ‘the pressure’ at Real Madrid and that is why he was allowed to leave. Whatever Perez exactly said about about Mesut Ozil’s departure does not really matter to us, but for his own sake, the self-celebrating president would do wisely to make things up with our nr.11 before he has properly burned his bridges.
I truly hope Ozil will be a Gunner till the end of his career, just like our saintly Dennis did once he arrived from Inter. It might become the best yardstick of the club’s growth in stature in Europe if we could keep hold of him, whilst building a truly successful team around him.
I have little doubt that Arsene will move Ozil to another level in the next two years and turn him into an even better footballer.
He will allow him to play in the hole like a proper nr.10, and build a team around him. Yet, Wenger will simultaneously develop Ramsey, Jack, and Ox, and one or two others, into exceptional footballers, which means that the pressure to be the main man will be somewhat spread across a number of players. This is already the case right now, as the likes of Flamini, Arteta, BFG, Cazorla, and to some extent, Theo, Giroud, Rosicky and Podolski co-share the team-leading responsibilities with him.
Ozil looks at home like a frog in a pond, and yet it is clear he is only playing at 70% of his capability, as the telepathic relationships between him and his teammates simply need time to fully develop. The really good thing right now is that we keep winning whilst Ozil, and to a lesser extent Flamini, get time to properly grow into our first team. It is fair to say that the fixtures list has been very kind to Arsenal in that respect, but we deserve it after a number of tough starts in recent seasons.
Of course, we only have to look at Ozil’s current statistics to know that his settling into the team is going hand in hand with producing the goods for Arsenal already: two assists per game is simply magic, and long may it continue. I agree with Wenger, though; the best is yet to come, and this is all to do with Ozil being able to give shape and purpose to the team on a constant basis.
Once that happens, and the likes of Podolski, Cazorla and Ox return to the squad as well, the real party can get started.
I predict that Madrid will be begging on their knees for Ozil to return in two years, and that Perez will come to see the German Wizard’s departure as the biggest mistake during his Presidential era. He might even do ‘a Robben’ or ‘a Sneijder’ and win the CL with Arsenal. Mesut is ours now and here to stay, and he will have the last laugh!
WBA line-up
I am really looking forward to the WBA game. I love to see our youngsters combined with our more experienced players and play some fine football in the process; and usually the League Cup does not disappoint in this respect. It will be really hard to predict an accurate line-up for Wednesday, and I am inviting fellow BK readers to give us their first eleven.
Who would you like to start against WBA and in what formation (and why)? Who should captain the team?
Wednesday evening’s CL opener, sandwiched between tough league matches (Sunderland away, Stoke City at home) asked the question: is this team ready to fight on multiple fronts? We got the needed result in our very difficult group, but a quick glance at our bench – or a (necessarily) longer look at our guys out injured – suggests that we have a much more complicated task in the longer term.
It appears we escaped the South of France without any new injuries, but there was some concern expressed when Theo Walcott came off (walking slowly and not smiling) not long after his sumptuous volley which put us ahead. A quiet match from Olivier Giroud in his old stomping grounds was also a worry given his twisted knee late in the Sunderland match. If either of those two are not fully fit going into the Stoke match, who do we have to step in?
The answer, at the moment, is youth players or guys who are in the squad but not necessarily for their goal scoring. Fingers crossed and I won’t dwell on the hypothetical questions. It’s no great secret that Arsenal was looking at strikers throughout the transfer window and that coming away without reinforcements in this area is (one of) the biggest question marks hanging over the squad. Regardless, barring any “miracle” recoveries from the likes of Santi Cazorla, Mikel Arteta or Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, our best bet for Sunday is that the same 11 who started in Marseille are ready to go again. We have a few fresh bodies to shore up matches we’re winning (Jenkinson, Monreal, Vermaelen) but not much firepower if we had to chase a result.
On the other hand, watching (or hearing and reading about…) the struggles of our rivals, it’s questionable if a bigger squad is the answer.
Chelsea lost at home to Basel Wednesday night and were booed off the pitch. Did Jose Mourinho do the right thing in letting Romelu Lukaku go back out on loan or leaving Fernando Torres and André Schürrle out of the team for his CL opener? With players like Oscar, Hazard, Mata, Eto’o, Willian and Demba Ba (not to mention Frank Lampard…) the list of their attacking assets would seem enough to see off Basel, wouldn’t it? Still, they couldn’t. Is this their wake-up call (equivalent to our Aston Villa opening day debacle) or is it a sign that, despite all the talent, they don’t have players who are comfortable taking on the moments which turn losses into draws or draws into victories? And, of course, this was on the heels of losing at Everton and drawing at Manchester United…
The other silly money club, ManchesterCity, is in a similar quandary. After bludgeoning Newcastle in their first league match, they’ve been a lot less convincing. Some of the issues appear to be at the back with injuries in defense and mistakes by their (still very young) keeper, Joe Hart. Again, however, there seems, amongst the options further forward, a lack of that player or two who will really make it all happen.The loss at Cardiff, the draw at Stoke, with the Manchester Derby looming, along with David Silva injured on international duty, would seem to be taking all that hair of Manuel Pelligrini further towards the solid grey sported by our own Arsene Wenger…
And speaking of hair issues and Manchester Derbies, how goes it for United? For me, Rooney with the protective headgear is better than seeing his arse to forehead transplants, and there appears some notion that he and the guy we made prematurely grey (RVP) are finding a measure of togetherness. Still, prodigious talents like Nani and Kagawa have become fringe players and the English/Welshmen in United’s midfield (Carrick, Cleverly, ancient Giggs…) seem serviceable if deathly unexciting. On the plus side, Moyes at least seems to have a pecking order even if it would seem to favour the older English habits of strong wing play (Antonio Valencia) and crossing married to the “new” English diving of Ashley Young (and the old French variety in Patrice Evra). With £27million, Maroune Fellaini (and his fro) strongly in the mix and Rooney wearing the half-cap, the wide players certainly have things to aim at. Big match there on Sunday…
Of course it’s all far too early to tell and we’re just getting started on these extra midweek matches. Still, points are points and, after getting all the tensions out with our opening day slip on the proverbial banana skin (…slip, rhymes with blip…) we are looking better.
Mesut Özil, even if he might not have impressed in Marseilles as he did at Sunderland, seems a very good addition. Pound for pound Mathieu Flamini looks even better (winky face)… Certainly they’re not obviously displacing any healthy players and thereby causing disgruntlement or consternation… In fact, it could be argued that it’s just the opposite and that others are playing better with the new midfielders around them.
While new signings are relegating former stalwarts to the benches and shadow squads up in Manchester and across town at Chelsea, our new players are filling obvious holes and are already showing big dividends. We are thin, but we seem unified.
A question, I believe, in this era of mega-money clubs might be: How many (high quality) players can you keep happy and productive and fully focused on getting results for your club? Corollary questions might include: Is there a tipping point where a club loses collective focus by having too many quality players? What is the ideal sized squad and is it perhaps better to have blend of established stars and up and comers?
I’m curious what people think and most certainly Arsenal are charting a different course than the three clubs who finished above us last season. While (very, very) risky, I think there’s a chance our club may have an intangible advantage (to which Total alluded in the previous post) which may allow us to compete with the bigger squads and even eclipse them.
The proof (however, of course…) is in the pudding and all the clubs will be judged match over match and season over season. The focus then must be on what’s in front of us and our match on Sunday (preceding the “big one” in Manchester…) is a “must-win.” There’s no love lost between “Sparky” and Arsene, nor between the players left over from the Tony Pulis era and our own. Will Stoke revert to their defensive roots? They have a keeper in Begovic who all the bigger teams (supposedly, according to the tabloids…) lusted after during the transfer window, and a central pairing of galoots and set-piece specialists in Huth and (Ramsey-reducer) Shawcross.
In other words they won’t necessarily be easy to break down. Scouting reports suggest that their offensive play and work on the break—N’Zonzi is not the worst as a fulcrum player–is more sophisticated, these days, than just trying to win throw-ins. One would guess that, while we’ve been travelling in Europe, they’ve been drilling in ways to neutralize and/or beat us.
Do we have enough resilience—clearly, at the moment we lack the quality in depth—to get the needed result? At this point in the season conclusions are premature yet, with each match, declarations will be made…
For me this is a(nother) real opportunity…For 3 points and to establish, in front of our home support, that we are onto something genuine with our team. Coming off the back of a gutty 1-nil against our local (and most hated) rivals AND the signing (and presumed first home outing) of Mesut Özil, we should have good home support. Still, if we struggle, or if referee Mike Dean does his usual thing and calls everything against us, it could quickly turn into a repeat of opening day. As such (for me at least) the match seems extra critical… In my opinion the home support—and being able to replicate our awesome away form—10 wins in 10 matches(!!!)—is the next frontier for the Gunners (and the Gooners…) and could give us the boost we need as we move into more difficult parts of our fixture list.
Nik produced a very fine post about half a year ago on how Arsenal could beat Bayern in our CL encounters with them. Nik is based in Germany and knows German football really well, and that’s why I asked him to write a background post on our new super-quality signing. He did not hesitate to say yes, and below you will find a very fine post about MO11. Enjoy. 🙂
TotalArsenal.
The Perfect Transfer?
Thanking the Guardian for today’s picture.
Born and raised in Gelsenkirchen, Mesut Özil joined Schalke in summer ‘05 at the age of 16: a move that really kicked off the career of the best number 10 in the world.
Only half a year later he starred in the prestigious indoor tournament ‘Mercedes-Benz Junior Cup’. Schalke won the Cup beating youth sides of Dortmund, Stuttgart, Bremen, Basel and some others along the way. Özil was top scorer and impressed with his footballing intelligence and technical skills. He also was ‘chief actor’ of Aljoscha Pause’s short-film ‘Mesut17’ – only available in German: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utXR5BDU3sQ
In the movie Joachim Löw, Jürgen Klinsmann’s assistant at that time, and Uli Stielike, German U20 coach back then, talk about Germany stepping up their youth-development and the possibility that Mesut Özil could become a part of Germany’s 2010 WC team. Özil himself talks about wanting to play for Germany despite not having acquired the German citizenship yet. Later that season, Özil made his debut for the German U19 and went on to win the U19-Bundesliga.
At the end of the short-movie Özil was asked how he rates his chances of playing in the first team for Schalke. Özil confidently replied ‘by the end of the season, I think I will make it’. It only took seven months before Özil was handed his first Bundesliga match on the opening day of the 2006/07 season, coming on as a substitute after 80 minutes. Özil went on to make 20 appearances for Schalke and 10 for the U19 national team.
Özil started 6 of his 11 games for Schalke in the first half of the 2007/08 season, before Schalke announced they will not give him a new contract. The reason for the decision were long running contract talks with Özil’s father and agent, Mustafa Özil which did not come to any conclusion.
Bremen signed Özil on January, 31st 2008, deadline-day. He made 12 more appearances including 6 starts for Bremen until the end of the season and was able to score his first ever Bundesliga goal.
Objectively, Özil moving to Bremen was the best possible move inside of Germany for him. He was able to learn from the best number 10 in the Bundesliga, Diego. Diego was the heart of Werder Bremen’s great offense and he collected 13 goals and 11 assist in the ‘07/’08, and 12 goals and 6 assist in the 08/09 Bundesliga seasons.
The 08/09 season saw the breakthrough of Mesut Özil.
Collecting 3 goals and 15 assists, scoring the winning goal in the DFB-Cup final and reaching the UEFA-Cup final, saw him become one of the most established young players in Germany. On international level, Özil collected his first senior cap in a friendly against Norway, and he won the U21 Euros, being named the man of the match in the 4-0 final victory over England, where he scored 1 goal and produced assists for 2 of the other 3 goals.
With the departure of Diego, the 09/10 season was perfectly set for Özil to become the key-player for Bremen. He delivered 9 goals and 17 assist and led Bremen to another DFB-Cup final, which they lost to Bayern. Özil made his first competitive game for Germany in the WC qualification against Azerbaijan and has been present ever since. The 2010 World Cup in South Africa, and his move to Real Madrid a month later, saw Özil’s popularity rise on a global scale and his well documented development to being one of the best number 10s in the world (I consider him THE best number 10 in the world).
Strengths:
For me Mesut Özil has two major strengths: 1) His vision. It is absolutely amazing how Özil always picks the right pass at the right time. He sees possibilities, spaces, runs that no other would see and therefore collects all those assists. Every time I see him play I get the feeling that he has a radar in his vision.
2) Technical skills. Özil is one of very view players who could run half an hour with the ball at his feet with another player chasing him, without losing the ball. He has absolutely perfect control of the ball at any time.
Weaknesses:
His biggest and only real weakness to me is his defensive work. Most of the time he gets robbed of the ball or plays a bad pass he is disappointed with himself, and does not track back immediately. Fortunately he doesn’t lose the ball too often.
The perfect transfer?
Over the course of the transfer window I have read what feels like millions of stories, rumors, articles and gossip. My mood went from great we have 70 million to spend to, are we going to spend at all; and I know most of you felt very much alike.
But when I read that we were close to signing Mesut Özil on deadline-day, I went absolutely crazy.
I believe that we could not have made a better signing to strengthen our attack, for the following reasons:
All our front players will profit from Özil’s passing. (Theo in particular);
At times, our possession did not seem to get us anywhere, because we were just playing it from left to right and back again. Özil is the player who will unlock the defence when we play too many square passes;
Wilshire, Ramsey, Ox, Zelalem, and all other young central midfielders, can and will learn a lot from playing with Özil.
He is just 24.
He is a statement of intent from Wenger. (hopefully)
Now, do you agree with me on his strengths and weaknesses, and do you think we could have made a better single transfer this summer?
A few days before last year’s CL final was to be played, Arsene was interviewed by Eurosport about his thoughts on the two finalists: Bayern and Dortmund. When he was asked who he believed would win he said it would be Bayern, and the reason he gave was the larger number of 28/29 year olds in the Bavarian team. This is what he had to say:
“If we analyse rationally, Bayern Munich are Champions League favourites.
First of all, experience weighs in their favour because they have reached three of the last four Champions League finals.
Secondly, they have the edge because they have reached a point of maturity both technically and tactically.
You need players who are 28 or 29 for that. Bastian Schweinsteiger (28) is their natural leader, while Franck Ribery (30), Arjen Robben (29) and Philipp Lahm (29) also play significant roles in the team.”
At the time, I thought that was quite a remarkable thing to say by Arsene; after all, he has been investing heavily in bringing through young/inexperienced players since the move to Ashburton Grove, and the average ages of his teams have repeatedly been low in recent times.
Of course, it makes sense that having a team full of established, quality players at the perfect crossroads between physical health and experience, which I agree with Wenger is around 28/29, is a very good basis for winning a final against a far younger and inexperienced team. And although Dortmund played the better football, it was Bayern’s experience that saw them finish the final as winners.
The interview made me also reflect on our team, and what I find quite remarkable is how the age and experience profile of our first/best possible team has changed significantly over the last few years.
Although still buying and bringing through young/inexperienced players, Arsene has also invested heavily in quality/experienced/’older’ players. It looks like his attempts at evolution have been boosted by systematic purchases of experienced, yet fully to bloom (in most cases) quality players.
I reckon, this would approximately be Arsene’s strongest team if we were to face a top PL or European team and all are fit this season:
If we stretch the ‘ideal age group’ a bit, say from 27 till 30, Arsene would be fielding six players with the perfect balance of health and experience: Sagna, Koz, Mertesacker, Flamini, Cazorla and Giroud. He would also have a number of experienced, yet top-fit, players on the bench: Nacho, Vermaelen, Viviano & Pod, and to some extent Rosicky, who, although a lot older, is still relatively very fit (if not injured 😉 ).
The table below shows how much experience we now have in our squad:
Player
Age
League Games
Internationals
FIFA WC ranking *
Szczesny
23
81
14
Below 30th
Viviano
27
263
6
6th
Sagna
30
268
36
23rd
Koscielny
27
233
12
23rd
BFG
28
278
92
2nd
Gibbs
23
71
2
14th
Nacho
27
220
13
1st
Vermaelen
27
208
43
10th
Flamini
29
213
3
23rd
Arteta
31
376
–
–
Ozil
24 almost 25
206
48
2nd
Rosicky
32 almost 33
298
92
26th
Cazorla
28
295
58
1st
Podolski
28
278
111
2nd
Giroud
26 almost 27
227
21
23rd
Theo
24
204
35
14th
* of the country playing for
As you can see, our best line-up would have a strong core of experienced quality players with good players on the bench to add further to it.
We do of course have a number of players who are still well below the ideal age, but are yet more than good enough to make the first team on a regular basis: Walcott, Ozil, Szczesny, Gibbs, Wilshere, Ramsey; and Ox and Jenkinson – and possibly Bendtner – are not too far away from it either.
This gives us a squad of 20 to 21 players who can all make a decent to very large contribution to this season’s quest for silverware. Some will argue we need more quality squad players, and they might have a point, especially up-front.
But I still believe Wenger has slowly but steadily put a squad together with the right balance between players at the perfect age on the one hand, and younger, yet established quality players on the other hand.
And the good thing is, he has done this gradually, through incremental changes and just a few additions this summer: there is no need for another transitional season. Ozil is so good that he will fit in like a glove and Flamini fitted in from the moment he walked on to the pitch again against the Spuds (although there are some tactical issues he and Wenger will need to address, but that is for another post).
It goes without saying that we need to be a bit lucky with injuries this season, and the first signs have not been promising. But despite the injuries, the team has started the season well, and there appears to be a robustness in the wider squad now which allows us to cope with these a lot better than in previous seasons.
Hopefully, a quality striker will be added in January (why oh why did Arsene not get one this summer….), so we have good strength in depth in all areas; and if Giroud can stay fit and on fire till then, Arsenal have a real chance this year of winning some silverware.
The balance between experienced quality players and up and coming quality players is very good, and with other PL clubs going through transitional phases, this could well be our year. It looks like Wenger has been following his own advice and has been working hard to put together a squad that can compete this year, if not next year, for serious silverware.
Towards the end of last season, I wrote about the five things that Arsenal would need to look at if the club wanted to be serious in its pursuit of silverware. A solid start to the new season (including a win against the “strongest ever” Spurs – which for some reason made me so very very very happy!!) and one harrowing, frustrating and ultimately exciting transfer window later, it’s a good time to go back to those five points and reassess where the club stands:
1 – Sort out the squad by the middle of July, have a consistent first team and timely rotations
When the transfer window started, the club had three objectives: a) get rid of the deadwood, b) keep our good players at the club, and c) bring in new players who would add value to the squad, ideally a superstar or two. Ivan Gazidis went out and put the cat amongst the pigeons by saying Arsene had a huge kitty to spend from, that we’d get in our players nice and early and that we could afford the likes of Rooney etc. Cue, huge expectations.
Did we achieve those objectives? A categorical yes to a) and b). We did very well with the deadwood, and we retained all of our core players. As far as bringing in new players was concerned, I felt the club struggled. Key areas to be strengthened were ST, GK, DM and defense.
Sanogo came in early, and was a victim of being a free signing. I rate him, but he is at best a third option striker, so the ST position still needed to be strengthened. Links with Higuain and Rooney arose, and Higuain was all but signed. Then came Suarez, and from what I understand, we were led up the garden path by his agent regarding the 40 mn + 1 offer. The only good thing that came out of that was a statement that we were willing to spend huge money.
Flamini came in next, again on a free, after being linked with Gotze, Fabregas, Cabaye, Fellaini, Gundogan, Illarmendi etc. At the time, I felt that Flamini was a brilliant and shrewd signing, but underwhelming when you compare him to the likes that we were being linked too. A word on Flamini before we move on: he should never have left. He was brought in to replace Viera and for a while did a great job. Seeing him back against Spurs really made me happy, because he’s one of those players who can take the bit between his teeth and push everyone around him to be better. He’s a shouter, an organizer, a tackler… and Gosh, how we have missed someone like that.
Then came the deadline day and we ended up with Oh My God… Ozil! And in that one signing Arsene showcased that he is still well respected around the world and an attractive option to superstar players. Remember, Ozil did not want to leave Madrid or come to Arsenal, he had an offer from PSG and unconvincing interest from Man U, but he signed for us after Arsene convinced him that we mean business. You can’t ask for more than that. And in doing so, Ozil became the 3rd most expensive British signing and the most expensive German ever signed. 42.5 mn… wow! Arsenal paid that!
So was the first point achieved? Yes in the sense that the team remained stable, no players important to us were sold and our first team is gelled and ready (unlike others who have spent 100 mn +) and that was on show in the last 4 games that we have played and particularly against Spurs. Spurs on the other hand looked disjointed at times and will take a while to gel.
However we did go off-track in the sense that despite ending up with Ozil, we could have planned the window a bit better, and gotten good players in early. I still find it head-scratching that we couldn’t get a striker. I’m not going to pretend to understand how a lot of things work in the transfer window between clubs, but surely in two months you can sign one striker.
Ozil should have been a bonus (he still is), the cherry on top of 4/5 players that we needed to strengthen. Having said that, we did strengthen, and the only place I feel we are light now is the ST position.
I would point out that this was the first window where Wenger, Gazidis and co. could spend big money, and talk to big players (hopefully we should have a similar kitty in upcoming windows), so to an extent it may have been a learning process for all involved. I feel Higuain and Suarez could have been handled a lot better.
Having said all of that at least we didn’t end up paying 5 mn extra for a player who could have been signed a few weeks before via the get-out clause in his contract! Guess who I’m talking about!
2 – A strong vocal performing captain
In my article I had put forward Arteta as one possible option. Arteta has been our spiritual leader in many ways, and a player that the team can look up to. Unfortunately, along with TV, Arteta too is out for now and the mantle of the captaincy has fallen upon the BFG! And I’ll tell you what, he has done a bang up job so far in terms of organizing and leading the team. However, I do not feel he can be a long term solution.
It is clear that Arsene plans on keeping TV as the club captain, so it becomes vital for a) TV to recapture his old form and force his way back into the side, and b) for all of our other leaders to make their collective mark and push the team forward. I’m referring to Per, Arteta and Flamini.
3 – Capture the fans imagination, change the press narrative
Oh how well we have achieved this is: absolutely utterly phenomenal! Not since Bergkamp has such a superstar been signed. Arguably the greatest playmaker in the world, Mesut Ozil! Dear oh dear… I still get goose bumps! However, we need to keep in mind that we were very close to ending the window with a narrative that would have been worse than where we started from. I do believe that Arsene had his eye out on a big signing, and delivered accordingly.
The narrative is now exciting, the fans are now excited! We are a team that is intent on making a statement, we are a team that is together and gelled, we are a team that has just trebled its record transfer in one go, signing the best in the world; and we are a team led by a man who may be flawed, who may be misunderstood, but one who is still well respected and who still, in my opinion, is something of a genius!
Could we possibly be in a better position right now to mount a challenge on ending the barren trophy run?
4 – Be strong against the top six, and clinical against lower half opposition
We have started off OK. A loss to Villa was a perfect example of everything going wrong, but since then we have been solid and we have been strong. That is very heartening. Add to that the incomparable form of Ramsey, Kos, Per, Scez, Ollie and Santi, and we are looking good. The win against Spurs was all about positive work going forward and being solid at the back, and as a supporter you can’t ask for more. I recall thinking during the last five minutes that I can’t really fault them even if Spurs get an equalizer, even though we deserved to win. But we pulled through… in many a season ago that win might have been a draw or even a late loss, but our team ran themselves to the ground and won the game. It may be a big statement, but its matches like these rather than 5-0 thrashings that define a championship/cup winning team and breeds the winner mentality.
5 – Do the basics right and have clear objectives
So what do we expect from this team and this squad? As much as I would love to believe that with Ozil we can challenge for the title, I feel that may be a step too far. For me in the premiership we should finish second (although we are dark horses for sure). I firmly believe that with the squad Arsenal have, we should win both the League Cup and the FA Cup, if not one of them. The Champions League we can only take one step at a time, and for now the biggest challenge is to get through the group.
Bottom line though, if someone tells me right now that we win one cup at the end of this season, I will gladly take it! If nothing, that would make the narrative more positive and enhance the winning mentality with which we can look to win the league next season, with the possible addition of a couple of more quality players.
In his post-match interview for the 2013/14 season opener against Aston Villa, Arsene said this: “…we are out to buy players. People always say ‘buy players, buy players, buy players’. When you tell them ‘tell me who?’ it becomes much more problematic.”
Here I have compiled a list for Wenger, as he asked. Please buy one player from each of these lists, Arsene.
The order the players are in within the lists is the order of which players (in my opinion) are the ones we should be in for most to least. (Ex. Rami is ahead of Sakho. Therefore, we should try to get Rami first; then if we can’t, get Sakho.)
Finally, the first price is what I think our starting bid should be, the second number is the highest I think we should go for that player.
CB:
Adil Rami, Valencia (£8 mil – £15 mil)
OR
Mamadou Sakho, PSG (£10 mil – £15 mil)
RB:
Jesús Gámez, Málaga (£2 mil + Bendtner – £7 mil)
OR
Micah Richards, ManchesterCity (£10 mil – £17 mil)
ST #1:
Sergio Agüero, Manchester City (£45 mil – £60 mil)
OR
Luis Suárez, Liverpool (£50 mil – £55 mil)
GK:
Federico Marchetti, Lazio (£5 mil – £11 mil)
OR
René Adler, Hamburger (£5 mil – £9 mil)
LB Cover/Other positions:
Fábio Coentrão, Real Madrid (£10 mil – £15 mil)
OR
David Alaba, Bayern Munich (£15 mil – £25 mil)
DM/CM:
İlkay Gündoğan, Borussia Dortmund (£20 mil – £30 mil)
OR
Lars Bender, Bayer Leverkusen (£25 mil – £30 mil)
LW:
Marco Reus, Borussia Dortmund (£30 mil – £40 mil)
OR
Ángel di María, Real Madrid (£20 mil – £30 mil)
OR
Stephan El Shaarawy, AC Milan (£28 mil – £38 mil)
OR
Adem Ljajić, Fiorentina (£15 mil – £23 mil)
OR
Pedro Rodríguez Ledesma, Barcelona (£20 mil – £25 mil)
OR
Alexis Sánchez, Barcelona (£20 mil – £25 mil)
AM:
Christian Eriksen, Ajax (£12 mil – £25 mil)
OR
Willian Borges da Silva, Anzhi Makhachkala (£20 mil – £35 mil)
OR
Toni Kroos, Bayern Munich (£17 mil – £25 mil)
OR
Lorenzo Insigne, Napoli (£12 mil – £20 mil)
ST #2:
Javier Hernández Balcázar, Manchester United (£18 mil – £30 mil)
OR
Erik Lamela, Roma (£18 mil – £30 mil)
OR
Luis Muriel, Udinese (£20 mil – £30 mil)
Some young players would be a bonus. Maybe even Flamini in on a free for one year, as cover for Diaby.
Now, don’t get me wrong; I am a huge Wenger fan, I want him to stay and be successful with Arsenal. But he asked for a list, so I’m giving it to him.
Note: Coentrão wouldn’t be a waste because he’s put in a transfer request. He could play LW when Gibbs and Monreal are fit.
Also, Alaba wouldn’t be a waste because he can play in the DM pivot when Monreal and Gibbs are fit.
Finally, this is only a small list of players. I realize there are many more players out there that we could buy (Cáceres, Eto’o, etc.). Please do post any more players that you think should be included on this list in the comments.
I don’t know about you fine fellow Gooners, but I have been pinching myself occasionally during the last few days: A ‘wake me up please from this rotten nightmare’ sort of pinch. Unwisely, many Gooners including me, consciously or subconsciously, tend to wish away the summer time in order for proper footie to start again as soon as possible. And when the moment finally arrives, we want to be filled with (very often unrealistic) hope to win silverware again: we like to see a strong squad, a good pre-season, a nice new shirt, and a few new players we can get really excited about.
Whilst travelling through Norwich on Saturday, I was amazed by the number of Canaries wearing a nr.9 ‘Van Wolfswinkel’ shirt in town. I counted seven in just five minutes: the Norwich new record signing has become the embodiment of hope for the Canaries (and boy, did he deliver for them this weekend).
It made me mad at Gazidis, Kroenke and Wenger for seemingly not understanding/wanting to understand the very basic nature of football and its supporters, especially after promising so much at the start of the Torture Window.
Arsenal football club were in great position a few months ago: the team fought back to finish in the top-four, a strong core-team of young and experienced players was coming together, the main competition was going through major change, and we did not have to sell any of our star players but would be able to add to our squad with considerable funds. Strategically, Arsenal were in a superb position to make significant steps towards breaking into the very top of the PL again.
Three months later: no core players have been sold (as yet) but also nobody was bought, and the squad is depleted – in terms of numbers, and possibly, morale – after suffering a number of bad to very bad injuries during pre-season; and seeing no quality additions will also not have helped. We also lost a game, but that can happen and the season is long; although, the timing of it is very painful.
Rather than having every reason for real optimism for the new season, the club finds itself in considerable turmoil right now: a squad lacking strength in depth (no midfielders who can defend, not many defenders left for example) and not enough quality players who can make a real and sustained difference; and a disgruntled fan base who feel let down and to some extent manipulated by the BoD.
The management of the club have, until now, over promised and totally under delivered, and only a small miracle of quality transfer dealings could possibly turn the situation round again.
The mood could easily have been so different, and that’s what is so frustrating.
Most supporters wanted a quality addition in all four lines: GK, defence, midfield and attack. An experienced back-up goalkeeper, or for some the new nr.1, was high on the list, but most of us really wanted Arsene to finally get a quality DM who could play a bit of footie as well. Many of us also felt that we needed either a quality ‘third or fourth’ CB, or if Sagna was to be moved into central defence, an experienced RB. Many of us also believed we needed to add more fire power to our attack, and it appears that the club have been trying to achieve the latter as their first priority.
So what went wrong – who is to blame?
The problem is that despite the media’s attempt to desperately fill in the holes, we lack tangible knowledge of what has really happened in terms of transfer dealings this summer. It is one big, black box for us. We know the input: £70m to spend; we know the output: no players signed; but we do not know the throughput, other than the club making a few bids for players during the summer – and very little has actually been confirmed by the club on any of these bids.
But as supporters we can only be understanding for so long and the facts of the matter are there have not been any signings, and the season has started already.
So why did the club not spend the money and sign players this summer, and why did Gazidis come out so noticeably with his statement that we can compete with the best and have lots of money to burn in the process?
It did not seem very clever to be so public about it at the time, other than perhaps an attempt to convince top player prospects that the club is entering a new era, AND/OR to put some pressure on Wenger to buy a different calibre of player this time round. Some will argue he did it to get supporters to renew their season tickets, but I reckon that is far too cynical and Gazidis is too clever a man to underestimate the incredible damage this could do to the club long-term.
No, something is not right here. Of course, each and every failed attempt to sign up a new player could be down to causes beyond the control of the club: other clubs not prepared to sell (yet) or simply wanting unacceptably high sums of money; players not wanting to come or too many contractual complications, etc.
But usually money talks and as we have seen many times with clubs like Liverpool, Man City etc, if you are prepared to pay the right price, AND individual packages, quality players will come. Key in all of this is not to set your sight too high but go for realistic targets.
Despite having considerable funds, the club will still negotiate hard to get their targets for the ‘right’ price; but the right price in football is very hard to determine as there is lots of (oil) money about to constantly inflate the prices and undermine our negotiations, and this could be the main reason for missing out on all our apparent prospects until now.
Some have argued that the club is simply not negotiating astute enough; that we are dithering too much. If so, who is to blame for this: the negotiators, the manager, the final decision makers (Gazidis, Kroenke?). We just don’t know, and as long as we don’t, we have to blame them all, including Arsene Wenger.
It could well be that the management believed they could survive till the end of the transfer window with the existing squad and bring in players right at the end if need be, when negotiating can be a lot easier with those clubs who are desperate to sell to make ends meet. But this would always have been a very risky strategy, and losing on Saturday, combined with the depletion of our first team squad, have left the club in an embarrassing predicament right now.
Whatever the reasons, the facts are the season has started and we signed nobody; we have a weak squad, AND first team, for the foreseeable future; and it could and should have been very different right now.
The management need to take responsibility and act accordingly. If you treat our football club like a business – something I can understand to a certain extent – you also need to act like a proper business when those in charge over-promise and under-deliver; whoever that is. You also need to put things right pronto.
Bergkampesque 