right. all he needs now is to be the key player on a world cup, european championship & champions league winning side....almost there. coming up with an assist or 2 in the classico is still a far cry from a world cup or champions league final.
Zidane also let down his team mates in the World Cup final against Italy. Oezil is not a leader like Zidane and never will be. He is not the goalscoring type. I doubt he will ever score a winning goal in a big final. However, his goalscoring record for the national team is much better compared to his goalscoring record at Werder and Real.
There's no question about it. The quality and level of performances Özil has been showing early in his age is just incredible.
He hasn't played in those games though? And maybe he'd be able to do more if he had midfielders like Patrick Vieira handing him an armchair ride
playing for both germany & real madrid there shouldnt be any shortage of opportunities to play in these big finals. so far he went missing in a europa league final (admittedly very early in his career) and has come up short with germany in world cup & euro semifinal's. obviously the spain & italy losses arent all on his shoulders but if you're gonna be compared with zidane then these are the games you should be stepping up and taking by the scruff of the neck. still a very long career ahead so i'm not passing judgement on him just yet, just hoping its not one of these ballack-like career's filled with 2nd & 3rd place finishes.
Zidane won the World Cup in 1998 at the age of 26. Oezil is still 24. He has time. Hopefully, he wins it.
Zidane scored in some of the biggest games for club and country, not saying Ozil can't do this but he isn't at that level at the moment.
Thats a fair argument, I always say that and my madrid friends always argue against me. Ozil can really control a game and has done so against Barcelona at least once, but I'm still looking for more. I.E against bayern, both legs, he was conspicuously absent. But I do believe that Ozil will become a top 3 player within his career span.
Not to say that he controlled those games or anything, but at least he added a goal and an assist over the course of the two legs and was his team's most effective player in that regard, aside from C. Ronaldo.
He assisted and scored 2 of 3 goals Real Madrid had in the series.. I think Ozil did more then his teammates did in that one. Honestly in big games Ozil seems to be the real spark behind anything. Look at all the Classico they had.. It's not his fault he has 2 warm/freezing strikers. Or Di Maria who diseapears most of the game or makes stupid decisions. Not is it his fault every give and go with Ronaldo ends with just a give and shoot... If Ozil was in Dortmund his stats would be much higher as reus/gotze/lowen would link up with him much more..
To be fair, I have seen Ronaldo play one-twos with Özil before, and also, it is worth noting the gap between Özil's stats for the NT and Özil's stats for Madrid. Perhaps that's the difference between an environment that works for him and an environment that doesn't?
It's simple. For Germany, the system is built to suit him better than Madrid's who centers around Ronaldo, Higuain, and Benzema who play in that space in front of goal far more than Özil who is often instructed to play wider as a result. Either way, his form in Madrid understated. I think he's been excellent there and very good against Bayern last season. He is very much the driving and creative force for club and country.
Well no one is disagreeing with most of this, he is Madrids creative force, attacking wise and for Germany his contributions are simply unparalleled. I don't think he was any good against Bayern, yes, he did give a glorious pass to ronaldo for the goal, but his impact on the game was definitely not that high at all. It doesn't mean anything, Ozil is 24/25, he hasn't even peaked yet, I'm expecting a lot of work from him.
He wasn't "any good" is defined by not having any impact on the tie, and he certainly did. He wasn't 10 out of 10 but what a player like Özil offers is always something even when he isn't in form because of the way his brain works, whether it's one pass or simply his movement. In other words he will, contrary to most players, rarely have any games where he is below a 5/10 rating for example.
He's really added the ability to turn even when tightly marked in central midfield to create that tiny bit of space - it was very scholes at times. The thing that has been frustrating me up til recently is he had become so quick to offload the ball, whereas in Paris he would very things by beating one or 2 guys in central midfield and thus creating room for others
He's still very much refining his game but it's developing at a great level. It's genuinely exhilarating to see his progress as a player.
The talent in this team is really special. As Ozil, Khedira, Reus, Kroos, Mueller, Hummels and Ilky go through/hit their primes over the next 5 years they should be able to win multiple titles if the defense rights itself and Jogi let's them play through any struggles they have learning a 4-3-3-0. I think Ozil and Reus could both be top 5 in the world players by the time 2016 comes around, and by 2018 Gotze, Kroos and Hummels could be top 10.
Lahm boetang/bads hummels schmelzer Khedira kroos piggy Muller Ozil reus Gotze and then schurrle subbed for relentless fresh attack at the 60+. I think Gundogan can sub out either Khedira/piggy as we need it. I think this is our best starting 11 for 2014 WC.
I'd like to see the young fullbacks get a shot after the u21 euros. But Schmelzer needs to get more reps playing next to Hummels and Boa/Bads/Wollscheid. So I'd give Lahm some breaks and try Jung or Jantschke in his place, hoping that Jung takes the spot and runs with it, outplaying Schmelzer so we can just swap Lahm to that side. And ilkay should only replace Schweini, let Lars step in for Khedira, he's got that dynamism and verticality.
Schmelzer seems to have a place in the NT by virtue of his performances at BVB (which are nothing amazing like say, Alaba , but still solid). If I was Loew, I'd literally go with a very solid lineup that I can foresee growing within the next 2 years or so. He got bads and hummels very late last season and we paid for it, now he has to get it right and start with an appropriate back 4.
I think it's important we pick a CB pairing and let it develop, personally a fan of Hummels-Boateng, and I don't mind Schmelzer, his workrate is great, his offensive movement is clever and he's not a terrible defender, but his poor final ball is a disappointing so I would mind seeing if some of the kids can't outperform him cause guys like Jung, Jantschke, Ozcipka, etc. bring things Schmelzer doesn't, higher skill level, stronger defensively, and better final ball, respectively.