It’s becoming increasingly difficult to take at face value the insistence from Arsenal that all is well with Mesut Ozil.
Officially the player is injured, out with the same back problem that caused him to miss the wins against Sheffield United and Norwich this week.
Yet Mikel Arteta appeared reluctant, uncomfortable even, when asked to give an update on the 31-year-old’s condition.
Ozil has been absent for all five Arsenal games staged since the lockdown.
Against Manchester City in June, “tactical reasons” were given for his omission. Against Brighton and Southampton, he was an unused substitute.
Even seated on the bench he drew ridicule from supporters on social media for protecting himself from the punishing Hampshire sunshine with an umbrella.
These absences, not to mention the accompanying bluster, are only the tip of the iceberg.
Ozil has had 18 periods of injury or illness since he joined Arsenal in 2013.
In the three and a half years before arriving at the Emirates, he didn’t miss a game.
Yet the problem seems to go deeper. Rather than being simply a matter of fitness, it’s the lack of clarity surrounding the issue that is of most concern.
There was a worrying reticence from the manager when asked to discuss the continued absence of his highest-paid player.
“The medical teams will try to answer the problem in the best way possible” – Mikel Arteta
Is this a recurring, chronic injury problem? “I’m not the medical expert to answer the question.”
But surely there are medical experts at the club advising the manager? “[The doctors] could say that, but I haven’t asked that specific question.”
Arteta is usually brief but clinical with details of injuries within his squad, and the blasé failure to engage over Ozil speaks to a muddying of the relationship between club and player, or worse a complete breakdown of communication behind the scenes.
Ozil caused Emery headaches too
He isn’t the first Arsenal manager to be without answers.
After the Gunners had just beaten Tottenham 4-2 at the Emirates in December 2018, former boss Unai Emery found himself similarly unable to account for Ozil’s absence or condition.
He’d dropped him for a game against Bournemouth the previous week out of fear the match would be “too physical” for the German.
Officially Ozil missed the Spurs win with “back ache”.
Whatever the truth, the current manager could do worse than to try and create the impression of the club being in charge of the situation.
The longer he stalls and skirts the issue, the greater the creeping feeling that the player is setting his own agenda.
“I think the medical teams will try to answer the problem in the best possible way, to try to treat him as well as they possibly can,” Arteta added.
“But everybody is different, everybody adapts in a different way to treatments. It’s not something that I have much to say.”
Are tactics the issue?
One concern has been that, with the manager increasingly favouring a 3-4-3 formation since the lockdown, there is no room in the team for a player whose outstanding contributions have come in the number 10 role.
It could have been a get out of jail card free for Arteta as he squirmed, a tailor-made defence masquerading as tactical incompatibility, to excuse the whims of a player who has emotionally checked out.
Players such as Mesut Ozil can cancel their contract and leave on a free transfer if pressurised into taking wage reductions by their club. Story @iPaperSport: https://t.co/pRPflkrNpg
— Sam Cunningham (@samcunningham) April 23, 2020
Yet the manager was quick to dismiss the idea.
“I think players can adapt to different systems, we can adapt systems for different players,” he said.
“Sometimes it’s not just about how we want to play.
“Sometimes we have to try and fit the players that we have available, in the right moment, in the right positions to do what we require them to do.
“There’s always a place for a player of [Ozil’s] quality.”
For now, that place appears to be in the empty stands.
Follow i sport on Facebook for more Arsenal news, interviews and features
More on Arsenal
- Cunningham: Arsenal’s players should ask for their money back after Kroenke’s £325m windfall
- Is it really worth it? Arsenal need to take a long, hard look at their relationship with this super agent
- Opinion: What Arsenal’s ‘nauseous’ statement on Ozil and China says about the club
- The road to 2024: How a new Champions League format could leave Arsenal high and dry
- Magee: Arsenal’s Europa League exit shows Arteta cannot work miracles with this squad
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/2C0tn22
Post a Comment