If there is one Arsenal scapegoat from the defeat to Bayern Munich - and recent matches - it seems to be Mesut Ozil.
The Gunners playmaker has been copping a fair amount of flak for his languid style and the penalty miss.
Of course, one has to remember that Ozil is experiencing his first season without a winter break and as Arseblog's Andrew Mangan reminded us on Off The Ball last night, at Real Madrid the German was often hauled off with plenty of time to spare.
But last night was he really as bad as some are making out?
Let's counter the "lazy Ozil" argument first. As 101GreatGoals revealed last night, only two players covered more ground than Ozil...
“Lazy” Mesut Ozil was 3rd in ‘distance covered’ during Arsenal 0 – Bayern Munich 2 [Graphic] http://t.co/MXEBehGkGh pic.twitter.com/ZtbD9MVKD4
— 101 Great Goals (@101greatgoals) February 19, 2014
Then again, that does not explain whether he was running aimlessly or with any real sense of purpose. Check out his heat map here.
And excluding his poor penalty, how about his work when he had the ball?
Only 76 per cent of his passes found their man and as this Squawka graphic shows, his passes were not made from positions from which he could be incisive, although the red card did change the face of the second half...
Defensively, Ozil did make three interceptions on the edge of his box, but none of his tackles or headed duels worked out. One example was the moment Arjen Robben ghosted past him only to allow the ball to trickle out of play before he could square it for a team-mate.
So it was a mixed bag really but when you have a €50 million price tag hanging from your shirt sleeves, expectations do rise for big games and last night Ozil did not match, although circumstances also dictated that to an extent.
