Raphael Honigstein: Unai Emery Is Sending A Message With Mesut Ozil Omission

By The Editor
on 19th December 2018

European football expert Raphael Honigstein feels Mesut Ozil’s days are numbered under Unai Emery…

European football expert Raphael Honigstein feels Unai Emery is sending a message with his omission of Mesut Ozil from the squad that crashed out of the Carabao Cup to Spurs, ESPN reports.

Emery left the German star out of the squad to face our fierce rivals and the club put the decision down to ‘tactical reasons’ which spells danger for Ozil.

Not feeling the 30-year-old is suitable for the starting XI is understandable, but the fact that Emery felt Ozil couldn’t even make an impact from the bench is rather odd.

This issue stems from the game at Bournemouth when Ozil, who was named on the bench, spent the entire game in the dugout despite us needing a goal for much of the second half.

Ozil recently returned from a back spasm injury, and his poor cameo at Southampton on Sunday seems to have sent Emery into a weird space.

“If you’re not even in the squad, that suggests that he doesn’t seem to think Ozil offers anything that makes Arsenal tactically better,” Honigstein said.

“I can only suggest that this is geared towards sending a message that either he has to try harder or, as far as Emery is concerned, he feels he (Ozil) is no longer necessary in his squad.”

Ozil has been an enigma at Arsenal since his arrival and it usually revolved around his position how managers try to fit him in.

Arsene Wenger attempted to build the team around Ozil in a 4-2-3-1 system for most of his time here, though’s he’s also played wide in a front three and wide-forward in a 3-4-3 system.

None have born much fruit in terms of the overall security of the team and it seems Emery only sees one solution, to exclude the German from the squad.