Ljungberg Questions Ozil’s Exile From Goal-Shy Arsenal Squad

Ozil has been ostracized from the Arsenal squad this season as he has not been named in their Premier League and Europa League squads for the campaign.

The former Real Madrid man has not played for the Emirates Stadium outfit since football resumed in June after the coronavirus lockdown despite being the club’s highest earner.

Arsenal have endured an inconsistent start to the season domestically, having won four, lost four and drawn one of their first nine league games.

Mikel Arteta’s side have struggled to find the back of the net of late, with just one goal in their last five league games, which was the penalty converted by Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang against Manchester United at the start of November and there have been questions whether Ozil’s creativity could help solve the problem.

Ljungberg, who took temporary charge of Arsenal before Arteta’s permanent appointment, believes the World Cup winner can be faulted defensively but his offensive abilities can still be of use.

“Mesut is a great football player, we know that,” Ljungberg told The Athletic.

“We all have different opinions and everybody needs to accept that people have different opinions.

“For me, maybe the way football has gone now sometimes he’s not as athletic defensively. Let’s say when you play Man City you don’t have the ball and need to just run after them, maybe you need more athletic players.

“What I tried to do, what I believed in, was that when you play teams who, on paper, you’re a bigger club than or you think they’ll have a low block and you need someone to unlock it, Mesut has the total quality to do that. I think there is a space for a player like that in those kind of games.

“But then as well you need to have a communication with the player — not just Mesut, every player. There are different games that suit certain players and other games suit others. The days of playing every single minute of every game maybe are just not happening that often anymore.

“When I left in the summer he was in the squads and now he’s not. What’s happened there, I can’t answer. I don’t know if something else has happened, I have no clue. But if you look at pure football qualities, I think my answer is quite obvious.

"When I was interim coach, I would play him in the games when I thought he could unlock defences, even if I knew his defensive job was not as good as some other players. So that’s my opinion; there should be a space in certain games.”