Mails: Why it’s time for Arsenal to drop Ozil

Mails: Why it’s time for Arsenal to drop Ozil

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Sterling does not regret it
Ah, there it is. A fine example of the epidemic affecting football fans in our sacred country – The Kneejerk Response. I completely understand fans being a bit hyper after a last-minute winner during the scrappiest of local derbies, but to form such a grand conclusion as Garret (LFC Dublin) did regarding Raheem Sterling’s situation is representative of the echo chamber a lot of Liverpool fans live in. I thought we were passed the bitterness, #LFCFamily?

First off, I’ll try to tackle the topic of “Identity”, a term that I have personally come to loathe due to its synonymity with Louis van Gaal’s blasted adoration of the word “Philosophy”. Let it be said that simple logic would dictate that Jurgen Klopp’s ideas would be impressed upon his team than Guardiola’s on his, purely due to him being in the role at least twice as long. From what I remember, the beginning of Klopp’s Liverpool showed promise but also consistency, funnily familiar to City’s start to this season.

Next I will attempt to tackle the issue of Sterling’s own abilities. Last season did not go completely to plan. It seemed that he, as well as every other member of City’s squad (apart from Iheanacho and De Bruyne), saw their game regress under Pellegrini. Even then, he was probably City’s best performer in their run to the Champions League semi-finals. Just being part of that squad gave him an opportunity Liverpool would not have been able to for at least two years since his departure. However, since this summer Sterling’s game has looked to progress as he constantly thanks Guardiola in the media for the impact he’s already had. I would probably place him as City’s second-most consistent performer this season, behind Fernandinho. Garret picked a good time to ask if Sterling regrets his move as he scored the winner against City’s most probably positional rivals, Arsenal.

Finally, its time to address Garret’s ludicrous suggestion that Klopp is better at progressing player’s games than Guardiola. Unearthing and sculpting rough gems is kind of Guardiola’s thing, as he harnessed Barca’s La Masia system and formed the unquestionably greatest club side of the last few decades. Off the top of my head, he considerably improved the games of: Lionel Messi, Sergio Busquets, Gerard Pique, Pedro, David Villa, Javier Mascherano, Jerome Boateng, David Alaba, Juan Bernat, Thomas Müller, Joshua Kimmich. His track record is not flawless – nobodies is. But few managers in recent times have had as many blockbuster hits as he has. Jurgen Klopp did built a truly spectacular Dortmund side. But he also nearly ran them into the ground. I think they were close to the relegation zone upon his resignation weren’t they? If we’re talking about hits and misses, that’s quite a big miss.

This is not supposed to be a sh*t-slinging competition. Klopp and Guardiola are both phenomenal managers, without a doubt. From the outside looking in, I just believe Liverpool fans are perenially in need of being brought down a few levels.

Regards,
The Grinch

In response to Garret (LFC Dublin), his e-mail epitomizes the delusion of LFC fans over the years. Raheem sterling regret leaving Liverpool??? You have to be kidding me…. and here’s why…

This season Liverpool look like a decent outfit yes, but they have also had some advantages in that they are not playing European football and had a good run of winnable fixtures recently. But to go as far as saying they are a better outfit than Man City I think is taking it a bit too far. City are still up there in the league even with their frailties and they are still playing champions league. You would expect Liverpool to have a clearer identity at the moment as Pep has only been with his team for 5 months.

Raheem has about 15 league starts this year which is good. He has 5 league goals already which is 4 goals off his most goals in one season. Raheem was just recently part of a squad that beat Barcelona as well. He is getting great experience in the champions league.

Pep is widely regarded as one of the best in the world, if not thee best. There is reallly no basis to say that Klopp would be better than Pep at developing young players. Pep has already stated that he wants to help Raheem and even though he has his moments, Raheem seems to be improving at City.

Frankly, would you rather want to play next to and learn from Can, Hendo and Origi (who is admittedly in fine form at the moment) or Silva, De Bruyne and Aguero?

Regards
Yaseen Moollatjie MUFC ( “This year is our year!” )

Garret (LFC Dublin) asks the question does Sterling have regrets leaving.

IMO, although Sterling is undoubtedly a very skilful player as we have seen in his time at Liverpool and more recently at Citeh, I really don’t think he provides what Klopp seems to look for in his players.

When I look at the current Liverpool attack I see a group of players who are strong, make decisions quickly and who keep their heads up to spot either a pass or to carry on and shoot. Frankly in Sterling I don’t think most people see any of those things. He is undoubtedly lightweight – too easily pushed off the ball, too easily put off his game by a few strong challenges, and has a tendency to get his head down just run, often to nowhere.

Only the end of the season will tell if he regrets leaving The Reds, but to be honest, even at this stage I believe Liverpool to be much better off without him.
Ste, LFC, Gibraltar

Raheem Sterling is having a wonderful time at City under Pep Guardiola – a world class coach who values him highly and has already improved him as a player. He’s earning great money and playing Champions League football. I very much doubt he has any regrets about leaving Liverpool whatsoever, so for the love of God, get over it.

Cheers,
Dan (if trophies were given out for narcissism it’d be Liverpool’s year every year) MCFC

If your team can’t win the title…
Eseosa AFC (Lagos) asked supporters of the current top 6 to name their ‘preferred’ alternate title winner. Well I suspect 99% of Liverpool fans will have Man U last, Chelsea next to last, then probably Man City and a toss-up between Spurs and Arsenal. Personally I’d go for Spurs. Nothing against Arsenal (or City actually), never had a problem with those guys. Just be nice for a new PL winner.

Also guessing Spurs might be choice of many Man U and Man City fans; Arsenal fans I suspect might choose City, though maybe a minority might say us?; City fans might plump for anyone but United, and Spurs anyone but Arsenal and Chelsea? Just my opinion/guess though..

Garret (LFC Dublin) please don’t tempt fate. At the moment Sterling I’m sure will be happy where he is. Ask the question again in May if we are doing better than them. Of course we hope for the latter, but so many things can still happen (don’t even write United off yet) and they are certainly more than capable of being title winners.
Mike Woolrich, LFC

Now Eseosa AFC asked a genuinely pertinent question, but Lindsey Dublin immediately offered an answer to a team I wouldn’t want to win. Lindsay’s smug, snotty email is the exact reason, as a united fan, Liverpool are the one team I don’t want to see win the EPL.

Liverpool didn’t deserve to beat Everton on Monday, the game was basically a pile of sh*te served up us Christmas dinner. But Liverpool fans have basically managed to repaint that shower of dog poo, to look like their team served up one of Chef Gordon Ramsey’s specials.

Here is a team that has never won the premier league, but have fans who act like they are perennial winners. They literally suck out whatever goodwill Klopp brings to the club.

Anyway, here is a lost of clubs I’d like to win if Man Utd don’t, Spurs, Man City, Chelsea, Arsenal, anyone else but Liverpool or WestHam.
Dave(As of they even have a chance),Somewhere

Carrick’s successor
Couldn’t agree more with Al that Carrick is one of our most important players and we need to be wary of his fitness (similar feelings about Ibrahimovic but that’s another story).

I’m not going to say that Toni Kroos wouldn’t be a good addition (hes a fantastic player who knows how to control a midfield), but I’m not entirely convinced that he would fit into Carrick’s role. To be honest, I don’t watch much overseas football but I didn’t think his defensive work was as solid as Carrick’s?

I thought that this was potentially our weakest area in the squad, but actually we have some pretty good backups who fit the mould. For me, the obvious injury cover is Schweinsteiger, who has comparable experience (if not more), awareness, discipline and passing ability. Based on Jose basically ignoring him (daft choice) though, I don’t think he’ll get a look in and at 32 we couldn’t really call him a successor.

Blind is probably the best shout for that role. He’s got really similar attributes (albeit he’s a bit smaller) and a season at centre half has no doubt improved his defensive game massively. The biggest criticism of him as a midfielder was that he rarely passed the ball forward and played very safety first, which has definitely been improved by acting as the ball playing defender for van Gaal. He’s also got great awareness which I think is he hardest of Carrick’s attributes to replace since that’s usually a matter of experience.

Fosu-Mensah could also be the future in that role. Currently, he’s a different proposition who’s quick, strong and aggressive in tackling. More of a ball winner than Carrick so I don’t think he would slot in at the moment but could work on his passing and be thereabouts in two or three seasons.

So there’s three options in the squad without mentioning Schneiderlin, whose style is more like Fosu-Mensah and whose problem is like Schweinsteiger (the manager).

I don’t know whether there are really any great options available at other clubs, anyone know of any who have a similar play style?

Like you say though Al, it’ll probably be Fellaini.
Dave, MUFC, Manchester

Wenger should drop Ozil
I know it’s been 3 full days since the loss at the Etihad, so please excuse my late reaction. I’ve taken some time to do some thinking, and I’ve come to the realisation that we’ve built the team around the wrong player.

The 4-2-3-1 formation is designed so that Ozil is the gateway of any Arsenal attack, with the 2 defensive midfielders providing cover and allowing the front four to do their thing.

This formation has a number of problems. Firstly, as we saw on the weekend, it doesn’t fair well when we’re losing against opposition that can maintain possession (not just the top four, teams like Swansea, Southampton, Tottenham, and even Stoke are adept at playing keep-ball nowadays). This is because the number 10 position is too isolated when pressing, meaning even someone with bags of energy would struggle, let alone Ozil.

Secondly, if the opposing team can keep Ozil quiet, then it essentially means that Sanchez is forced to drop deep if he wants to have a touch of the ball. Even if we are in our free-flowing best, the formation also results in too many chances falling to Ozil, and as someone who has watched Arsenal matches religiously, let me assure you that he is a rotten finisher. Sure, he has moments of brilliance, but he too often squanders good chances. Against Everton, he missed a couple that could’ve made all the difference in the end-result.

Lastly, building the team around Ozil means that so many other players suffer. We can only play one striker, and I’m dreaming of seeing how Sanchez/Giroud perform as a front two with Xhaka/Ramsey as a CM pairing. Losing Giroud in the team also significantly reduces are aerial presence, both defensively and offensively. And I don’t even want to go into how annoying it is to see Ramsey and Wilshere forced to play in the deep-midfield role.

The team should be built around Sanchez, who is a class above Ozil. We live in a world where there’s an abundance of attacking midfielders and a lack of world class strikers. Lose Ozil, and we have a number of strong replacements in-house. Lose Sanchez, and we’re back to the days of Giroud as a lone striker.

Bottom line, Wenger needs to be more tactically flexible, and I think he should start with the unthinkable – dropping Ozil.
Pany Koizi