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Mesut Ozil: Player Performance Analysis Of The Arsenal Superstar

The enthralling tie between Arsenal and Manchester City got Game week 4 of the Barclays Premier League off to a rollicking start. The game at The Emirates was one of changing fortunes and it was only apt at the end of the day that the game finished all square with both the teams having their share fair of dominance. While Arsenal employed the 4-1-4-1 formation to begin with, City operated in a 4-2-3-1 formation. Jack Wilshere added another impressive performance to his resume against City and will look to build on the confidence boosting performance. While Gunners will be joyous at the performance of Wilshere, the mention of Mesut Ozil will be probably met with disappointment.

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Deployed at the right-wing by Wenger, the German was quite unimpressive on the night and has drawn a lot of criticism for his performance.  While some attribute his lacklustre performance on being deployed outside of his natural play-making role, some others were unimpressed by his basic lack of desire and drive to make an impact in the game.

Ozil was decent with his passing on the overall, clocking 81% pass completion over the afternoon. He completed 28 of the 33 passes he attempted in the attacking third. Of these, however, only 5 were attempted inside the box, with most of the passes being square. Danny Welbeck was often seeing falling deeper to help his team mates with his attacking team mates, and the lack of a number 9 to target could have restricted Ozil’s passing ability in the attacking third. The link between the midfield and attack can often define the fortunes of a side. However, Ozil didn’t contribute a lot on that front either as he completed just 11 passes in the mid-third of the pitch.

After creating an early chance, Ozil was kept silent through the first half and made created just one more chance through the game. He was often cutting in towards the centre onto his favoured foot and attempted just 2 crosses, neither of which failed to materialise into anything solid. The German had two shots in the game, both long rangers within a short span of 2 minutes, late into the first half. However, neither of his attempts troubled Hart as they flew off target. He completed 50% of the 8 take-ons he completed.

On the defensive side, Ozil wasn’t too successful in his duels. He won no challenge in the air, and made just 1 successful tackle through the game. His sole defensive contribution in the game came in the 20th minute when he blocked a pass. Apart from that, he was non-existent in the defending hemisphere as he neither made any interceptions, nor any clearances. To add to the agony, he was at fault for Demichelis’ goal, letting the Argentine have a free header in the box.

Mesut OzilHis heat map from the game shows a non-existent work rate in the defensive third, in attack or in defence.  There was constant shuffling of position between him and Sanchez for a while, but apart from that, there wasn’t much that he added to this side. When compared to the creative brainchild of the opposition, David Silva, Ozil did very less through the game. When he lost the ball, he showed no drive to win the ball back from the opposition, further frustrating the Arsenal faithful. Contrastingly, Alexis Sanchez on the other flank won plaudits for working really hard in attack as well as defence to impose himself on the game.

There were doubts about his fitness before the game and in some ways that could have affected his performance in the afternoon. However, even for a player who made no contribution in defence, his attacking tools weren’t sharp enough. Wenger will have an issue at hand to sort out his position in the coming weeks as he is at his best operating at the middle of the park, rather than the flanks. The word “anonymous” has been used often to describe his performance and Ozil will be hoping he can put in a better shift in the weeks to come.

-Stats from Squawka and FourFourTwo

Aditya Upaadhyay
Aditya Upaadhyay
A masters in finance with a passion for football and an urge to work at the intersection of both.
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