On the Daily Cannon weekly podcast recently, we had a lengthy discussion and Mesut Ozil, Unai Emery and the role of the number 10.

If you haven’t listened to that episode, you can find it on all good podcast apps by searching ‘Daily Cannon’ or by following this link.

In the meantime, here’s host, Stephen Bradly, discussing briefly what he feels is the end of the number 10 role that is playing some part in Mesut Ozil’s exclusion from the squad, in addition to the GPS data as explained by David Ornstein.

“I think Özil, he’s a unique player with a unique case,” Stephen said.

“I mean, he is a wonderfully, magnificently talented number 10 and if he’d have been playing in the mid-90s or the early 2000s where people were crying out for number 10s, he would have been lauded.

“He would have been carried to the moon and back in the years of the Iniestas and the Ronaldinhos and the Kakas and all that jazz.

“But today, there’s just no room…like who’s the best number 10 right now in the world? Is it Roberto Firmino?

“That’s the problem.

“Kevin de Bruyne plays 8. David Silva plays 8. Real Madrid couldn’t find anyone to buy James Rodriguez. Coutinho has to play left wing.

“Like, you know, there’s literally no-one playing number 10 anymore apart from Mesut Özil.

“And because he doesn’t press in the way that modern teams need to be able to press, he can’t track back in the way modern midfielders need to be able to track back.

“He is becoming the ultimate square peg in the ultimate round hole.”

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