Arsenal star must avoid Barcelona move at all costs
Mesut Ozil shouldn’t trade Arsenal for Barcelona
As a Tottenham supporter, I don’t have any issue with an Arsenal star wanting to leave the club. However, if Mesut Ozil does opt to leave the Gunners for Barcelona in January, it’s going to end very badly for the German international.
Reports from Spain (via the Daily Star) claim that Barcelona are plotting a January move for Ozil. As the story goes, the Catalan giants want to include Andre Gomes as a makeweight to lessen the cash required to bring Ozil to Spain. There’s only one problem with this story from my perspective.
What exactly is Ozil supposed to do once he arrives at Barcelona? I realize he’s a talented player who can dominate matches with his passing from the midfield. He’s such a prodigious talent that he can walk into almost any side in Europe and enter their starting XI.
The trouble is Barcelona aren’t just any European side. Ernesto Valverde’s club are blessed with one of the most talented rosters in the world. Ozil would struggle mightily to carve out a place in Barcelona’s starting XI.
Some fans might think Ozil could assume Neymar’s old role and transition Barcelona back into their old 4-3-3 attacking system. The reality is Ozil lacks the speed to really make that formation work for Valverde. It’s a terrific lineup to play on FIFA, but it’s not something that’s going to work in the real world.
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Instead, Ozil would need to battle Sergio Busquets and Ivan Rakitic for playing time in the Catalan midfield. Busquets is the one midfielder who provides Barcelona real steel in the centre of the pitch. That means Ozil would need to oust Rakitic from the starting XI.
I’m not the biggest fan of the Croatian star, but it’s hard to ignore how well he’s played for Valverde this season. He ranks seventh in the squad with a Whoscored.com player rating average of 7.23. Critics of Rakitic might point to his lack of goals as a reason to take him out of the starting XI, but it’s not as if Ozil is likely to remedy that issue. The German international is also frequently slated for his lack of scoring.
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The only way Mesut Ozil should move to Barcelona this January is if he’s willing to accept a role on the bench. Given the German’s obvious level of ambition, that seems very unlikely. Ozil needs to find another club to join this summer. A transfer to Barcelona might be the end of his time as a starter.