Chelsea Must Sign Mesut Ozil

On July 1st, the transfer window opens although you can argue it is already open with Man City signing Boateng, Real Madrid signing Angel Di Maria today according to Spanish Press, Wenger signing Chamakh, Man U signing Javier Hernandez who has performed well in the world cup, and Barca signing David Villa who has been phenomenal. Chelsea has remained relatively quiet besides the exits of Ballack (33), Joe Cole (28), Belleti (34), Stoch (21) and potentially Deco (32). Those are five players out with 3 midfielders. 

Chelsea has been linked with Aguero, Pato, and Torres consistently. Aguero and Pato would likely cost about 40 million pounds with Torres costing somewhat higher. They was a time Chelsea was suffering from abundance of midfielders. I think we are suffering from abundance of strikers with Drogba, Anelka, Sturridge, Kalou, Di Santo (most likely gone) and Borini. Drogba and Anelka should be becoming squad players by Euro 2012 or maybe even gone so we may not need a striker as immediate as the press makes it seem. Kalou has been subbing for Anelka to play the RW position too. As far midfield goes, we have Mikel, Matic, Essien, Malouda, Kakuta and Lampard. Malouda and Kakuta could play as forwards on the left flanks and LM so in reality we have 4 players left for three other midfield positions giving us lack of depth. None of the remaining 4 midfielders are true central attacking midfielders. This actually makes the signing of Ozil more important than Pato, Aguero and Torres. 

Ancelotti started off the season with his diamond formation without adding any players of his own to the squad. He tried Joe Cole, Frank Lampard and Deco at the tip of the diamond, but none fit that role. Instead of being stubborn like some other managers, he switched the formation to a style that all Chelsea players were suited playing, 4-3-3. However, they were times during the season that Chelsea became too predictable with the 4-3-3 formation and we also struggled against teams who play the same formation with devastating left wingers (Wigan 1st leg, Tottenham, and Man City). Inter-Milan also used their 4-2-3-1 to beat us. It was clear in all those matches that our midfield lacked creativity or a player to create a spark that we needed. Especially the Inter-Milan match where we could not do anything but pass the ball to Malouda or Anelka on the wings and try to cross into the box for header and pray for Lampard to shoot if Lucio or Walter Samuel heads it out. This same formula failed for England. The lack of creativity can be ended with the signing of Ozil.

Ozil can play anywhere in the midfield, but preferably behind the strikers and loves to drift to the left a lot because he is left-footed. He loves to play between the midfield and the strikers and plays as your typical number 10. With the addition of Ozil, Ancelotti could play any formation especially the diamond formation with Ozil playing the Kaka role for Chelsea. We could play the the 4-2-3-1 formation with Ozil behind Drogba, Anelka on the right, malouda on the left, Essien and Lampard behind Ozil or 4-3-3 with Ozil as LW, Drigba as CF, Anelka as RW, Malouda (LM), Lampard (RM) and Essien as the DM. Chelsea would almost become unstoppable. Mesut can really open up our midfield game with his passes, speed and also the goal scoring threat he can also provide upfront. The downside to Chelsea would be Frank Lampard would have to play a deeper role for Ozil to be as effective for Chelsea. With Lampard playing a deeper role, we may not see the goal scoring form of 20+ a season which may not be bad for Chelsea. Schweini was made to play as a left midfielder for Germany and provide link ups to Ozil even though he is an attacking midfielder for Bayern Munich.

Lampard is a fine midfielder who has provided a lot of goals for Chelsea, but he lacks in other areas that other midfielders such as Xavi, Schneider, and Kaka provide to their team such as those killer and on time passes that change a game, dribbling ability to open up defenses and set up plays for his other team mates. Considering the fact that Super Lamps is 32, he is beginning to struggle against teams with competent defensive midfielders and defenders e.g. it is hard to remember his presence on the midfield against Man-U, Arsenal, Man City (1st leg), Tottenham and Inter Milan. All they do is put a defensive midfielder on him and prevent him from penetrating the penalty box. Doing that prevents Lamps from shooting from outside the box because the DMs throw their body on him. Because of his lack of dribbling abilities, he becomes quiet against such teams and ends up passing the balls to our wingers a.k.a Malouda and Anelka/Joe Cole. He suffered from the same thing in the English squad where he just passed the ball to Gerrard and Milner on the wings for crosses after crosses after crosses.

This is something Ozil can do for Chelsea as we lacked a playmaker all throughout the season with Deco often injured etc...He can penetrate the middle if he wants as well as use the wings to come in to attack. In actuality this would make Chelsea especially Lampard even more deadly because Ozil is upfront working the defense along with Drogba, Malouda, and Anelka. Some teams would dedicate a defensive midfielder and a defender which would create opportunities for other chelsea players like lampard and essien to score.

Several rumours have circulated that Barcelona wants him, but I doubt that. Firstly where would he play and they seem to stuck on chasing Fabregas for the whole summer. I doubt he is a kid that would want to be on the bench after such a successful world cup.There is always Man City but those guys are busy chasing Yaya Toure, James Milner and David Silva, but they also do not offer Champions League. Real Madrid have just signed Angel Di Maria and also have an abundance of midfield players unlike Chelsea. Inter-Milan has joined the swoop but going by their word that they can't afford Mascherano, I doubt they would be willing to spill that cash on him. This leaves chelsea as the most ideal given that we need him more than the other clubs mentioned above. I also hope we sign him as he will play with us for the next decade.