da lvbet： This article is part of Football FanCast’s Pundit View series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent quotes from journalists, pundits, players and managers…
da leao： Arsenal legend Martin Keown has suggested that Mesut Ozil needs to work harder to regain his place in Unai Emery’s starting line-up.
What’s the word?
The manager’s working relationship with Mesut Ozil is one of the worst kept secrets in football and the Spanish manager has opted to keep the former Germany international away from any form of playing time.
Emery decided not to play Ozil against Manchester United despite the former Real Madrid player revealing that he had a “really good relationship” with the manager.
And Keown believes that Ozil needs to find a balance between his undoubted skill and his willingness to work hard to break back into the first team.
Speaking to Goal, he said: “I think it’s disappointing that someone with that amount of talent can’t find his way into an Arsenal team.”
“And again, that’s about balance. That’s about a player wanting to graft and show the other side of his game. Until he does that, he won’t be in this new Arsenal team.”
The end of the road
With Ozil having only played two matches this season, it looks very unlikely that the former Germany international will feature under Emery and his Arsenal side.
The arrival of Dani Ceballos from Real Madrid on loan and the emergence of Matteo Guendouzi as a first-team regular has pushed Ozil down the pecking order at the Emirates.
Despite this, his contributions over the years for Arsenal cannot be ignored. The Gelsenkirchen-born midfielder has scored 43 goals in 233 appearances for the Gunners since his move from Real Madrid in 2013 and was the fastest player in Premier League history to conjure up 50 assists after just 141 outings.
However, with the likes of Reiss Nelson and Lucas Torreira having played more games than Ozil this season, it looks to be the end of the road for the Arsenal midfielder as he looks to be sidelined due to selection reasons.
He doesn’t appear to have the hunger to continue but despite coming to a halt at Arsenal, the same doesn’t have to go for his career. His talent is something that many clubs would love to have in their inventory and he may well need to move on to flourish once again.