From DESNJ : smaller clubs never get a decision
Dear Myles,
Agree overall with comments regarding refereeing bias towards the big clubs. Not always the case though, and a good example last night.
The ref did QPR a huge favour last night: Karl Henry should have been sent off (straight red? second yellow ? You choose!) and a penalty given after a blatant, blatant tug on Ozil as he was shaping up to score.
Don’t know whether he didn’t see it or didn’t have the guts to give it.
But a big, wrong call in favor of the “smaller” team.
From Adefolahan Oshinloye : this has to stop
Hi Myles,
Loving the new site layout, I wish Arsene could be as up-to-date and open to change as ANR is!
The consensus understandably is that Özil isn’t a world class player.
While I understand the reasons behind that, I’m going wear my Alexis de Tocqueville hat and rail against the tyranny of the majority here – Özil is world class
It all comes down to understanding what type of players you have, and formulating a style accordingly.
Thinking back to Zidane’s disgust when Real Madrid sold Makelele to Chelsea, “why sell the engine to apply an extra layer of gold paint”, it is so important for a manager to consistently make decisions to ensure the team is more than the sum of its parts.
Our German master is the best archer in the world. Period. No matter how good the archer is, he can’t attack without arrows. Arsene hasn’t given him any arrows. One arrow was broken when he was inexplicably left to be bludgeoned by Spurs in the FA Cup last year. I screamed at my TV set for Walcott to be taken off, we were 2-0 up for goodness sake. Three minutes later, Theo’s season was over. Arrow gone.
Sanchez isn’t quite an arrow – more of a heat-seeking missile, which explains why he dribbles into traffic so often. That’s fine, if there were some other arrows in the team, but the fact is, there aren’t any. Özil needs infantry – the likes of Bender, Scheiderlin et al to do the leg work and wear the enemy down.
Wilshere has no battle knowledge and is constantly in the medic’s tent, Ramsey’s lost his way. Özil is wasted because we don’t pass properly anymore. Swap Özil with Hleb in the 2008 team, and we’d have ball retention plus assists.
Making Arsene’s decision not to sign Cesc ludicrous. We know Cesc doesn’t trust Wenger, but a Cesc-marshalled midfield would have cleared the way for Özil to at least try and mould his team mates into arrows as much as he possibly could.
As it stands, Özil has to make space, use space, make runs, pass to runners (who don’t exist) – is it a wonder he’s underperforming?
Against Everton, Özil was so fed up of the Ox and Sanchez running into the middle, he made the wide runs himself. His assist for Rosicky’s goal a case in point.
Özil can walk into any team in the world. He’s better than James, Götze, Rakitic, Oscar, Silva, or whichever reserve goalkeeper LVG decides to play in Utd’s Attacking Midfield (that man is a lunatic).
Özil was sold not because he wasn’t good enough for Florentino’s Galacticos, but because he was the only player expensive enough to help pay Bale’s fee.
Had Di Maria in Summer 2013 been the £59.7million player he was (over)valued to be in 2014, Özil would still be a Madrid player.
To mention him in the same breath as Giroud and Ospina is bordering on blasphemy.
Özil’s career will be wasted under this manager, and that’s the sad thing – you know yourself Myles that Arsene ruined Arshavin. He didn’t play him in the FA Cup Semi-final, because he “wanted to prove we could win without him”. Diaby played instead.
Arsene sold Adebayor, RVP got injured (again), yet he told 5 foot 7 to play as a lone striker…in the Premier League. He’s shunted Özil to the left this season, and it’s inexcusable.
The problem is the manager – and it pains me to say this, but The Professor needs to drop out, he’s failing his classes too often.
Myles says:
I wish he was as good as you say.
Real Madrid play power football with big gladiators, as the Invincibles did.
Perez was stupid not to offer galactico wages to PV4. He was on that level.
Thierry talked Pat out of moving and some Arsenal directors were furious about Vieira not being sold for a huge fee that summer.
Ozil, like Bergkamp, is mainly a catapult player who launches runners.
Ozil is a sublime technician with vision.
But Bergkamp was a powerhouse as well as being a sublime technician with vision.
In a team with 10 six-foot power players, Ozil could do what he does best.,
However, in a team where guys of 5’9″ play five-yard passes, he doesn’t look so dynamic.
The huge Emirates Stadium, containing 60,000 customers, needs to be galvanised by thrilling attacks by players who can get in a shot or header after three or four passes.