Should Arsenal cut their losses with Ozil?

Midfielder Mesut Ozil was left out of Arsenal manager Unai Emery’s match day squad for Saturday’s defeat at West Ham, raising the question; should Arsenal cut their losses with the German?

Ozil has started just 12 of Arsenal’s 22 league games this season, which seems a low return on a reported salary of £350,000 per week. Not only this, but the 30-year-old has only returned three goals and one assist from his 943 minutes.

Embed from Getty Images

Rewind to the season’s start and it’s fair to say that the German was given a fair rite of passage by the newly appointed Emery.

Despite a poor World Cup campaign with Germany that was clouted with controversy and ended in retirement, Ozil had the chance to start afresh with a strong league campaign with the Gunners.

Things started well, with Ozil a regular in the team for the opening six games of the season, scoring two goals. By the end of October, Ozil had seemingly redeemed his critics with a stellar man of the match performance against Leicester, in which he scored and assisted as the Gunners ran out 3-1 winners.

It was from there though, that things began to decline, with the German managing 90 minutes just twice since then and failing to feature since Boxing Day – albeit with a couple of niggling injuries on the way.

It seems ludicrous that a player on such high wages should see such little action over a crucial first season for Emery at the Emirates, but with questions over his work rate persisting it seems the new boss just doesn’t want to take the risk.

Embed from Getty Images

A return of just seven goals and nine assists over the last two season isn’t exactly great for Arsenal’s supposed highest-paid player. Sitting on the bench isn’t great either and with Arsenal seemingly short on money, it would make sense to consider offloading the former Real Madrid man.

At the age of 30, Ozil would still command a reasonable transfer fee and the money could be spent bringing in well-reported Arsenal targets such as Denis Suarez in a bid to cement their push for a top four position.

#Arsenal have opened talks with Barcelona to sign Denis #Suarez. Unai Emery wants him on January. 🔴 #AFC #transfers #Barcelona

— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) January 5, 2019

Not only would Ozil leaving free up some much needed funds, but it would ease the pressure on Emery’s shoulders and allow him to select a more dynamic team to his liking. Iwobi for example, may not be able to produce an end product in front of goal but he works hard to retrieve the ball – a quality found lacking in Ozil.

It does seem unlikely that Ozil will leave in January all things considered, but the smart move would almost certainly be to cut their losses and reinvest the money before it’s too late.