Confident Mesut Ozil Will Help Arsenal Pass Monaco Test
Arsenal will face a different kind of test when the team meets AS Monaco in the UEFA Champions League last 16. Fortunately for the Gunners, the confidence of Mesut Ozil can provide a quick route past that test.
The club's record signing has been in exceptional form since returning from prolonged injury in January. Ozil's scored three goals and provided two assists in that time.
More than mere numbers though, the German schemer is finally becoming the player manager Arsene Wenger hoped he was getting when he paid £42.4 million to Real Madrid in 2013.
TOP NEWS
Madrid Fines Players $590K 😲
'Mbappé Out' Petition Gaining Steam 😳
Star-Studded World Cup Ad 🤩
Ozil is at last fulfilling his role as the brain of Arsenal's attack. He's the "quarterback" Wenger has wanted since the great Dennis Bergkamp hung up his boots.
That's high praise, but Ozil is starting to merit at least part of it after an uneven first season in north London. He's playing better for one simple reason: those around him.
More to the point, those around him are giving Ozil more room to do what he does best. He's no longer required to dictate Arsenal's possession play. Santi Cazorla, the outrageously gifted worker bee, capable with both feet, does that. Especially now he's played deeper.
Just as important, Ozil is no longer the sole player the rest of the team looks to for magic in the final third. The arrival of Alexis Sanchez has given the Gunners a new talisman in forward areas.
There's now less pressure on Ozil to work hard and forage on the flanks. Sanchez and goal-shy, workhorse striker Danny Welbeck do that for him.
With so much industry and endeavour going on around him, Ozil now has the freedom to do what he does best. He can concentrate solely on his one remit in this team: finding a forward runner with an incisive pass between the lines.
He's been a production line of created chances in recent matches. Ozil's most prolific outing came in the 2-0 dismantling of Middlesbrough in the FA Cup.
It took just one half for this supremely talented, yet too often frustratingly passive maestro to prove his worth, as statistics from WhoScored.com showed:
That was a game Arsenal spent on the front foot. But the Gunners weren't anywhere near as proactive in the 2-1 Premier League away win at Crystal Palace.
That became another in the increasing number of siege-style defensive efforts punctuated by sudden breaks. Ozil has become a significant figure in this approach.
Like Bergkamp back in the day, Ozil is the one player most often spared defensive duties. When the opposition has a corner, or free-kick deep in Arsenal territory, Ozil is rarely back.
Instead, he's left to hover just inside his own half, waiting for the ball to break his way. The likes of Sanchez and Welbeck get back, their pace is required to transition defence to attack.
Those transitions are geared to get around Ozil quickly. Get the big brain the ball and let runners sprint alongside him and rely on Ozil picking the right pass.
It's been working wonderfully. In fact, it should have produced a third goal for Arsenal at Selhurst Park. Only an uncharacteristically wayward finish from Sanchez wasted a lightning break with Ozil as its hub, rolling the ball expertly into the Chilean's path.
It was just one more Ozil-created chance.
Crafting scoring opportunities is Ozil's signature skill and one he performs more often when he's confident. That's a quality certainly not in short supply with the former Schalke 04 and Werder Bremen man at the moment.
Striker Olivier Giroud was quick to highlight Ozil's growing confidence as a key to his game during an interview with TF1 (h/t Daily Express writer Ben Jefferson): "Ozil, he's quietly strong: he's very calm, almost introverted, very at ease technically, and when his confidence is up, he makes the difference."
The Gunners need a confident Ozil at his best against a Monaco side it would be easy to overlook. Easy, but potentially fatal.
The Ligue 1 side will enter this tie carrying a host of injuries in defensive areas, per France-based journalist Matt Spiro:
B/R writer Jonathan Johnson also noted how Monaco face two matches against French top-flight giants Paris Saint-Germain. Those games will be wedged between the two matches against Arsenal.
But even with a daunting schedule and some injury woes, Monaco are the type of stubborn and cagey opponent that's frustrated the Gunners so often in the past.
Pragmatic and sly manager Leonardo Jardim's team have turned stingy defending into an art form, conceding just once during the group stage, per UEFA.com reporter Simon Hart. Monaco love to pack the midfield and funnel passing into a logjam in the middle.
Arsenal will need a player with a keen eye for a pass, a natural conjurer in the middle capable of adding some magic to proceedings and outwitting a packed defence.
That's Ozil in a nutshell. At least when he's at his best.
Fortunately, the mercurial playmaker is at his best for the most important period of Arsenal's season.
.jpg?w=600 "Colts Release Kenny Moore")
