Tired Mesut Ozil needs a break

Mesut Ozil

Blame is thrown around too easily and too often when it comes to Arsenal defeats and it looks like Özil could be the next person to bear the brunt of a vitriolic movement that seems to enjoy Arsenal defeats as it serves their agenda.

Arsenal’s record signing is already being labelled a flop by a small fraction of moronic fans despite an impressive goal and assists haul since joining on transfer deadline day without the benefit of a preseason with his new teammates.

Özil is not a flop but he does look tired. Arsenal have a relatively small squad but do have enough to compete at the highest level, with a fully fit squad. Sadly, at the moment, Arsenal does not have a fully fit squad and that isn’t allowing for much rotation.

Rotation sometimes can be a negative thing when you have a team performing as Arsenal have been over the past few months but it is always worse to leave a team undisrupted when one or more of them is showing signs of fatigue.

Mesut Özil is a thrilling player whose mind works that little bit faster than everyone else’s but at the moment his feet and his brain do not seem to be working at the same speed, as highlighted by his record number of errors and unforced dispossessions against United.

This is not a stick to beat him with, just an observation that he needs to be rested. It was impossible to rest him against United with our already depleted squad hit by influenza but it seems as though Arsenal could welcome back Podolski and Walcott for the game against Southampton from injury as well as Rosicky, Flamini and Mertesacker from illness.

With an expanded roster of fit players it could be the perfect time to rest a few players like Özil and maybe even Giroud who is also looking a bit tired and out of the game (although that could be a lack of service).

Arsenal are grinding out results at the moment and recent games have been tense and closely fought. Gooners have a level of expectation for excitement and a few tense games to rack up points is okay but unless our players can recharge their batteries properly we can predict quite a few more tense affairs.

A lack of excitement here and there is okay as we can always visit Titan Bingo for thrilling games and special bonuses but ideally we want to see impressive passing displays, telepathic attacking and sublime finishing. That cannot be done with half of the team running on fumes.

Podolski and Theo might not be completely ready for Southampton but if one of them is pretty close we could use that as an opportunity to play Rosicky or Cazorla in the middle and give Özil a little rest.

December is going to be a massive month for Arsenal and rotation and fit players will be key to starting the New Year in a strong position that we could capitalise on with a choice buy or two.

So let’s agree not to get on Özil’s back and afford him some real time to adapt and maybe give him a chance to get some fitness back.

He might be tired but he certainly isn’t a flop.