Arsenal legend Gilberto Silva has hit out at interim manager Freddie Ljungberg for wasting Mesut Ozil.
Gilberto says that Ozil has been wasted out wide as he has not been close enough to the strikers to have an impact on the game.
Ozil has started the last two Premier League matches after struggling to get a look in under Unai Emery.
As quoted by The Metro, Gilberto said this:
You need to play in a way where you can protect him and he can produce good football and give assists, or goals and whatever.
You need to give him those conditions or don’t play him. Listen, I think he’s a good player and sometimes it looks like he is not in the game. But it always depends on how you put him in the game. Why not try to put him close to the strikers?
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Gilberto may have a point. Ozil is at his best when he is able to interplay with the other forwards in the team and connect play with his vision and passing, which has not been able to happen whilst he is in wide positions. It leaves him isolated and easily taken out of the game, as he does not have the pace to get away from defenders and drive forward with the ball.
Playing him centrally and closer to Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang should be the way forward for Ljungberg, or whoever replaces him at the helm.
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