Arsenal playmaker Mesut Ozil came in for a lot of criticism for his performance against Stoke City in Saturday evening’s defeat at the Britannia Stadium.
At risk of beating this drum too much, it’s worth highlighting just how much criticism Ozil received after out defeat to Stoke. It was after the game that the pundits on the day, Steven Gerrard and Martin Keown, both hammered Ozil.
"Arsenal can't afford to carry Ozil!"
"He should have a good look at himself"
Keown and Gerrard don't hold back… pic.twitter.com/wx1ZKv4pWK
— BT Sport Football (@btsportfootball) August 19, 2017
Ozil did his job against Stoke. He was near perfect in possession and created chances for his team mates. However, he didn’t track a player much quicker than he was back into his own half, and that has seemingly coloured people’s perceptions of his performance.
Martin Keown has every right to criticise Mesut Ozil, he's a pundit for a reason. #AFC
— Dan Bonham (@DanBonzo) August 20, 2017
So too has the result. You can’t help but think that had Arsenal won, Ozil would have been lauded for his creativity and influence, and not panned for his work ethic and body language. This isn’t to say Ozil was amazing on the day, but we feel there’s something of an agenda at work here.
Ozil didn't even have a bad game yesterday, he was everywhere second half, he had 4 key passes and a 92.8% pass completion, he's a scapegoat
— Mr DT © (@MrDtAFC) August 20, 2017
Gerrard criticised Ozil’s reaction to a turnover of possession and “worries” about his body language, while Keown thought he was “going through the motions”. It’s curious that of all the problems we had on the day, psycho-analysing Ozil somehow took priority.
The reality is, as we discussed here, that the goal was a combination of errors. Ozil didn’t cover the midfield, but Xhaka made the mistake to begin with and left the midfield open.
There was too much space for an attacking-midfielder to reasonably cover by tracking back. After the goal, Ozil continued to try and create chances for the team – far from going through the motions.
It’s understandable that there are big expectations on Ozil. He’s an important player for Arsenal and should be judged as such. However, there also needs to be an understanding of what he contributes to the team, something that is still painfully lacking in football punditry.
It’s not unreasonable to expect some nuance to the criticism, and not just a lazy perpetuating of the narrative that Ozil is a lazy, sulky and ineffective player.