Why does Mesut Ozil get so much slack for doing what he does best?

Ozil’s consistent performances has seen him become one of the best players at Arsenal this season.

Mesut Ozil – a player that divides that football fans in general and Arsenal fans in particular. For some, he’s a lazy player that doesn’t work hard enough for the team while for others, he’s the player that epitomizes efficient use of the ball, creating chances, and not the player that you look for to do the dirty work.

Irrespective of which side of the fence you stand on, the undeniable fact is that Ozil is a very intelligent player, and all the managers who worked with him, starting from Joachim Loew to Jose Mourinho to Arsene Wenger, have nothing but praise for him.

Is Ozil a lazy player?

In all the years that he has played, Mesut Ozil has never had to face the criticism that he was a lazy player. Up until he came to England that is. He was always praised for his intelligence on the ball, the way he could put in clever passes splitting defences and his teammates, for both club and country, were in awe of his abilities and valued them.

So, what happens when you come to England, supposedly the best league in the planet and the home to football? The media calls you a lazy player for the simple reason you are not running around the pitch like you are some dog chasing a rabbit. Sometimes it feels like English fans and the media don’t have a complete appreciation and understanding of the game, if all they can praise is people who run up and down the pitch all the time.

Perhaps, that’s not fair on them though.

Because the focus at any time of the match is on perhaps 20% of the pitch, and since it goes at such a high pace in English games, it is easy to miss all the action off the ball. Even the referees find it hard to keep up with the game and so there are a number of incidences where a handball is not called or a foul is given mistakenly.

Ozil has been on form in the second half of the season unlike Sanchez who has struggled to keep up the high performance levels.

Ozil unlike Sanchez, is not a one-trick pony

So when Ozil does a jink or a pass or a run that does not immediately become a goal threat, it is easy to see how it can be missed. After all, he is not playing to the gallery or the tv, he’s trying to do what is best for his team to create an opportunity. If that means pulling one of the defenders away to give space to his teammate in midfield, so be it.

If it means that he will see the player that is making the run while nobody else has, and in the split second that he has, he decides, correctly, that he is the best option available, even if it is the full back running near the touchline, so be it. Not every move has to come off as an assist or a goal. Giving the defence headache and a lot to think about is part of the remit of an attacking player. If you are going to be a one trick pony, where all you do is run at the defenders, you will get found out soon enough.

Let’s take the example of Alexis Sanchez itself. There is no question that he was a major influence on Arsenal in the first half of the season, so much so that it was hard to see where the goals were going to come from if he were to have an off day. But it is also fair to say that since his return from injury, he has not had the same impact. Either his speed is being curtailed a bit as an after affect of the injury or defenders have him figured out.

Whatever the case may be, the goals certainly seemed to have dried for the Chilean. However, Sanchez is no Walcott and he has other tricks up his sleeve that help him get close to goal, with his dribbling one of his strong points. He also has the energy to track back and close down opposition counter attacks which is of great value for a team like Arsenal.

And there in lies the rub. Sanchez, despite his not being effective as a goal scorer, gets far less criticism than a Mesut Ozil who has more tricks up his locker and is always thinking about the best option to pass the ball too. Both players, in their own way, are contributing to the team. One of them is visible, while the other bases his game on the whole point of not being obvious.

Mesut Ozil is like a magician who bases his work on the sleight of hand. If he showed you what he was doing, he might as well work as a traffic cop directing vehicles. It will do well for you to remember this – if you can’t figure out what Ozil was doing all game, he probably did his job to perfection.