Mesut Özil becomes central to Arsène Wenger’s way of thinking at Arsenal

  
Positioned in his favoured No10 role and having added steel to his skill, the German is being spoken of by his manager as a contender for player of the year

There are not many aspects of football where Arsène Wenger and José Mourinho naturally find agreement but there is no discord on the subject of Mesut Özil. Considering his languid wizardry is not to everybody’s tastes, it is intriguing that Özil should inspire shared admiration from managers as contrasting as the pragmatic Mourinho and romantic Wenger. Both have worked with the German playmaker, and both have found his interpretation of the footballer’s art fascinating.

Mourinho, who had a spell with Özil at the Bernabéu, described him as unique. “There is no copy of him – not even a bad one,” he said. Wenger, mulling over his squad before the new season, predicts – not for the first time – that Özil should be a contender for player of the year. Perhaps that pronouncement can help normal service on the Wenger-Mourinho-ometer to resume. The Chelsea manager, naturally, backs his virtuoso Eden Hazard to retain that particular crown.

The high hopes pinned around both players are cranking up. Chelsea know what Hazard can bring in hitting that level others do not easily reach to turn Premier League matches with a bewitching moment. Arsenal expect the same from Özil. Wenger thinks the player he bought for a club record £42.5m from Real Madridtwo summers ago is readier than he has ever been to excel, to design the game, consistently and decisively.

“What I think is that he shows more authority to dictate the game than before,” says Wenger. “He is physically stronger, that is for sure, and he is more equipped to deal with the Premier League. In the second part of last season we saw the intelligence of his passing, the fact that he added some steel to his game that was needed certainly in the Premier League. I’m confident that he can be one of the great players of 2015-16. He can become player of the year.

“He joined very late in 2013 without any preparation with the team. In 2014 he came back exhausted by the World Cup and was then injured for four months. In the second part of last season he started to really adapt and, of course, this is the test. It’s a very important season for him.”

Advertisement

Wenger is challenging Özil, particularly in the scoring department. He thinks the 26-year-old should aspire to achieve more in the manner that Dennis Bergkamp did as a traditional No10 with an ability to combine the joy of the pass with the clinical shot. “I want more goals from him because he plays in that position and he is a good finisher,” Wenger says.

“But he doesn’t take enough chances. He is conscious of it and wants to do it now, so I am confident in that. Although his main aspect will always be in the intelligence of his passing and his creativity, he can finish better and we want from him 10 goals this season.”

Maybe because it is so difficult to buy an elite striker, to magic up a Diego Costa as Chelsea did last summer, Wenger is targeting more goals from the cadre of attackers who get to play off the main striker. Alexis Sánchez scored most of his goals from there last season, and Santi Cazorla, Jack Wilshere, Aaron Ramsey, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Özil are all capable of chipping in with a healthy number.

Having spent a full pre-season with Özil for the first time, Wenger sees a very settled player who feels entirely comfortable about his role at the club. He was the only player who started both Emirates Cup games, positioned in his favoured central role. There was a message in there somewhere, about the manager’s faith in him as a creative source whatever is around him.

“I am super happy with the No10 position and will confirm that trust,” Özil said afterwards. Occasionally, player and manager converse one to one in German to discuss the finer details but in everyday training-ground life, Özil speaks English well.

His integration took its time and had its setbacks with injuries and criticism and painful periods that he needed to overcome. Wenger now sees a different Özil: “He looks happy.”

How come? “London transforms people,” Wenger says. “I believe at the start, people who come here feel a bit of a shock. Why? The climate is different, London is a big city. After, London slowly gets people with the charm of the city and I have seen that many times. They start to really enjoy living in London and the club is the same.Arsenal is similar because the Premier League is a shock sometimes for the players.”

Wenger is pleased the noise around Özil has eased off. At times ineffective moments became almost provocative due to a style that – when it does not work – can be perceived as a lack of effort. Did the manager ever, for one moment, consider he had made a mistake when Özil was under severe pressure? “No. You come with me for a week in training and watch him play you will never think you made a mistake.

“You can see that people have turned in favour of him recently, they are starting to enjoy his game. You have players like that who are more fluid, more subtle, more slalom than direct. Sometimes with their style it is deceptive as he is quicker than people think he is and works much harder than people think he does.”

In conversation about captivating game-changers, Wenger also found time to compliment Hazard. He does not quite agree with Mourinho’s elevation of theBelgian to the stratosphere inhabited by Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo but is nonetheless a fan of Hazard’s craft. “Hazard is for me a great player but Ronaldo and Messi are still [above him] at the moment. His target is to get there as well. Hazard has talent, he was voted player of the year in France by his peers at the age of 20-21, two times. That means there is some special talent there.”

The Community Shield on Sunday brings Arsenal and Chelsea together at Wembley. That cannot happen without a certain friction. Wenger’s priority, really, is to use the exercise to fine-tune preparations for the season proper next weekend without getting too caught up in the emotion of the result against a local rival.

If his team are to close the gap set by the Premier League champions last season, the level of concentration and sharpness needs to be right from day one.

“After six games we were 11 points behind Chelsea. We finished 13 points behind Chelsea. That means after six games the decision was made,” Wenger says. “That’s what they had – a strong start while we had a slow start. Man City had a slow start, Man United had a slow start, we had a slow start and they went off the block very decisively and positively and that made the difference.”

Özil says Arsenal feel better than last season. “We trust ourselves to improve,” he says.

Step by measured step it’s time to walk the walk.

--------------------------------------------XXXXX---------------------------------

Louis van Gaal tells Manchester United board to sell David de Gea – reports

Manager now keen to resolve transfer saga with Real Madrid 
• Decision comes after Spanish goalkeeper’s errors against PSG

Louis van Gaal has asked Manchester United’s board to sanction David de Gea’s departure to Real Madrid, according to reports in Spain.

The goalkeeper has been linked heavily with a move to the La Liga club throughout the summer transfer window and the AS newspaper says that Van Gaal has tired of what has become a drawn-out saga, requesting that De Gea is moved on at the earliest opportunity.

The U-turn over De Gea – who has a year left on his contract at Old Trafford – is reported to have come after the 25-year-old performed poorly in a 2-0 defeat to Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday, being involved in a mix-up with Phil Jones and Luke Shaw that resulted in the French side’s opening goal and subsequently being substituted at half-time.

After that match, the cracks in Van Gaal’s patience were visible. “We have a situation that is not favourable for David De Gea but neither for us and neither for the club [Real Madrid] that maybe he wants to go [to],” said the United manager. Later, he added: “Everybody can make mistakes but when a goalkeeper makes a mistake it is mostly a goal and that’s the difference.”

Van Gaal is now believed to have pressed for a relaxation of the club’s stance on De Gea, which has involved a hard-line over any fee and a willingness to let the player’s contract run down if necessary. United are thought to be seeking £25m for De Gea, who was signed from Atlético Madrid in 2011, but Real may feel under little pressure to part with that kind of money this summer. Although the long-serving Iker Casillas departed during the summer, the Real manager Rafael Benítez can call upon Keylor Navas and Kiko Casilla and will be aware of De Gea’s availability on a free transfer a year from now.

The prospect of keeping De Gea for another season may be less appealing to United if Van Gaal expresses a view that his state of mind is disruptive to his squad. An improvement on last season’s fourth-place Premier League finish is expected this time around and there has been a positive sheen to the club’s transfer market performance this summer, with the arrivals of Memphis Depay, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Morgan Schneiderlin providing a sense that Van Gaal is stamping his identity on the side. Allowing any ambiguity to rumble towards the end of the transfer window, by which time United will be four games into their league campaign, could risk compromising the kind of start required for a title race.

De Gea is the second goalkeeper at Manchester United to face an uncertain future, with his compatriot Victor Valdes – signed by Van Gaal to provide competition in January – recently placed on the transfer list after Van Gaal claimed he had refused to play for the reserve team.

The Argentina international, Sergio Romero, joined on a three-year contract last week after an impressive Copa América. He is well known to Van Gaal from the pair’s time at AZ Alkmaar but was not a regular for Italian side Sampdoria last season and any sale of De Gea would force Van Gaal to consider whether Romero and the Dane Anders Lindegaard would constitute sufficient depth in their position this season.