holy hell. I've had a couple tonight, and perhaps shouldn't be posting, but … … Ozil's been at Arsenal since 2013?! And has 79 goals for you?! That can't be right. It can't be. I'm going to bed. I'm not googling it. And maybe tomorrow I'll see this and find myself embarrassed. But right now that seems utterly implausible.
Nope I was taken. I didn’t drink today but I had a fat joint, my buddy showed me a tweet...I got too eager to shine Ozil...it was basically fake news. The numbers are right, just that they both start in 2008.
No you were right. Even the less than sober you. Wikipedia says he's had 27 goals for us in 5 yrs. Sounds about right. Assists will be higher of course. I'll let someone else provide that.
That may be true, but apparently the author was trafficking in fake news. In any case, I think most Arsenal fans only really care about what he's done for us in the last 5 years since he's been here, and don't much care what his stats were in the 5 years before that.
It appears his stats are broadly consistent between the two periods. This comparison has been made legitmiately before. Ozil's outputs are quite similar to Silva He doesn't score a lot, but if you combine his assisting with goals scored, his goal contribution is elite
That's true, but Silva's not the headline player on his team either: that's been Yaya, Aguero, and KdB. Though that explains the problem: it's that Arsenal haven't surrounded Ozil with enough good players.
That's good that his stats levels have been consistent. Except that his stats levels haven't exactly made a huge difference to our success it seems. I've heard one or two podders say the same thing, and it sounds about right, although it's a tad depressing. Basically that Ozil is elite on several levels, but he's not a leader, one who can drag a team up the ladder of success. Furthermore, to get the most out of him, you need to surround him with very strong (if not elite) players in other positions. And sadly that's just not likely to happen at Arsenal, at least the current Arsenal, with the current owner, the current budget, lack of UCL moneys, etc. I really hope that analysis is wrong, but I suspect it's not. And barring injury, I think we'll all find out this season... whether the huge money we're paying Ozil is worth it.
Who really can drag a team to success when they have a shambolic defence? We've been thru this so many times. The number one issue is the number of goals this team concedes
Which is the same case for every player that has laced up a pair of football boots (e.g. Messi with Argentina).
It's interesting because Germany has now given us a decent run of A/B split testing with and without Ozil Unsurprisingly, by selecting 4 quality CBs and a rising star at 6 - Germany's defensive worries eased. But the attack remains goal shy whether or not Ozil plays. So the idea he was causing the problems seems farfetched Indeed he was top chance creator in group phase despite only playing in 2 games at the WC - this is what he does.
Ozil returns to the starting lineup today at St. James Park. All of us are united in wishing him good luck & good form. Come on Mesut, we're rooting for you!
He can’t watch and understand the sport through any other lens. On this sport, dude isn’t a critical thinker. Good goal by Özil today and he beasted that second half.
Indeed! I commented on that in the MD thread. A few years ago Arsene tried to make him into a serious goal scorer, but it didn't quite work out. Will be interesting to see how his role develops this season under Unai.
This story has legs. A pretty big article in today's NY Times Sports section (sorry for those who have difficulty with the paywall) https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/17/sports/germany-soccer.html A pretty balanced, well-written piece about how this Ozil-vs-DFB issue is now impacting Germany's bid for Euro 2024, with a nice summary of what led us up to this point. Here are a few notable portions, if the paywall blocks you:
The whole thing going to Turkey would be a shocker. I mean, compare the Özil incident with the things which happen in Turkey. Collapsing economy, dictatorship in the making, several thousands of political prisoners, an invasion in Syria against international law, a highly corrupted civil service, a growing civil war in the south and east, a dependent justice and a enslaved media system and press. It's hard to decide where to start to discuss Turkey. The whole thing is a pure joke and if Turkey gets the Euro this would be a scandal probably even bigger than Quatar.
Dude. The World Cup was played in Argentina when the junta was ruling it and was just played in Russia. If your standard for hosting sporting events is that the government of a place do very few bad things, then there would be no one to host sporting events. There certainly wouldn't be sporting events hosted in the US if that were the standard.