Stephen Warnock has told BBC Radio 5 Live (21/10/20 at 7:45 pm) that he finds Mikel Arteta’s decision to axe Mesut Ozil from Arsenal’s squad as ‘very strange’.
The former Liverpool defender questioned why, at the very least, Ozil couldn’t be an option from the bench if Arsenal wanted to change the game.
Arteta, 38, has opted to leave out his German playmaker from his 25-man Premier League squad, which more than likely means, he has now played his last game for the club.
Warnock shared how Arteta’s need to press in the manner he wants doesn’t help Ozil’s cause, as he didn’t agree with the Arsenal boss leaving his creative spark out of his plans.
“I think if you look at it from the way Mesut Ozil has performed,” Warnock told BBC Radio 5 Live. “Then the way he [Arteta] wants to press and the organisation that he wants then I don’t think Ozil fits that solution.
“But when you have got a genius of a player then you try to find a way for him to fit in. If you need the game to change then why not bring him off the bench?
“To absolutely leave him out of the squad completely and just push him away, I find that a very strange decision.”
Ozil being on the bench or out of the matchday squad isn’t too much of a surprise anymore. But at least he can still make the matchday squad.
Not anymore!
For a player of his calibre to be treated in this manner will raise eyebrows and only Arteta’s work on the field of play will shut any potential critics up.
In the meantime, Ozil will now be a sitting duck up until January, where he surely has to leave for a club that will be willing to provide him with the game time that he craves.
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