There is no doubting the impact Mesut Ozil has had at Arsenal but his stats in the last few weeks make for grim reading and have left Fantasy managers with a big decision to make.
Gameweek 12 review
Blue was very much the colour last weekend as far as Fantasy Football is concerned, with players from Manchester City, Everton and Chelsea making their presence felt on the Dream Team.
Not surprisingly for a team that won 6-0, Man City had the highest scoring representative in Jesus Navas, who scored a mighty 19 points thanks to two goals, an assist and three bonus points.
Sergio Aguero was one of the beneficiaries of Navas’ tour de force and he helped himself to two goals and an assist for 15 points, one short of the second highest scorer this week, Frank Lampard, after his brace against West Ham.
Lampard’s midfield partner-in-crime Oscar also got the nod with 13 points, the same total as Romelu Lukaku and our own Shane Long, who netted two of the finest goals you’ll see by an Irish player in the Premier League against Aston Villa on Monday night.
Stoke’s Steven Nzonzi went one better than that trio with 14 points after a goal and an assist against Sunderland, with Arsenal duo Wojciech Szczesny (8) and Per Mertesacker (11), Patrice Evra (9) and Danny Gabbidon (8) making up the Dream Team this week.
J-League
Two excellent scores by the top two means that there’s no change at the very top of the J-League this week with Barry Curran’s Gambitbeer maintaining their lead after 92 points, with Stuart McGoldrick’s Champions 2013/14 nine points further back after a very decent 84-point haul.
Brian Ruane’s Dukes of Hazard tool advantage of a slip by Sean O’Donoghue’s Celtic D’s to move into third place, while the eccentrically named Poppycock Wednesday make a welcome return to the top five thanks to the management of Paul McInaw.
J-League Top 5:
- Gambitbeer – Barry Curran: 825 points
- Champions 2013/14 – Stuart McGoldrick: 816 points
- Dukes of Hazard – Brian Ruane: 802 points
- Celtic D’s – Sean O’Donoghue: 794 points
- Poppycock Wednesday – Paul McInaw: 785 points
Has Ozil become a luxury a manager can’t afford?
Nobody would dare call him a flop, but it is also fair to say that Mesut Ozil hasn’t been himself in recent weeks.
And to be fair to the German, that’s perfectly understandable. He has had to deal with a massive price tag, has had to adapt to a new league with more games and a more frenetic pace and has also had to adapt to being a more important player in his new team than he was at Real Madrid.
Ozil also set the bar pretty high for himself with his first few performances for the Gunners, a bar that he hasn’t quite been able to reach since, although we have little doubt that he will reach it and even go beyond it again before the season’s out.
Understandably, a lot of Fantasy managers rushed to get Ozil into their team as soon as he arrived and they weren’t disappointed as he registered four assists, four out of a possible six bonus points and 20 points in his first two games.
Barring one game against Norwich when he scored twice and grabbed 15 points, his stats since have been decidedly mediocre and it’s no surprise that his price – which started at £10 million and once reached a high of £10.8 million – has dropped by nearly half a million quid to £10.4 million since the start of November.
Since the Norwich game on 19 October, Ozil has just one assist to his name and only 14 points from four games and while everyone is entitled to a bad patch every now and again, it’s not what you want from a man who is the most expensive midfielder in the league – £0.8 million more expensive than his nearest competitors Yaya Toure and Santi Cazorla – especially when there are so many alternatives available and playing better than the German international.
Ozil is such a good player that dropping him at any time constitutes a risk, but with the form he’s in and with Arsenal having to play Everton, Man City and Chelsea before Christmas, now might be the time to cut the cord, temporarily at least.
JOE’s Fantasy Football Picks:
Top Dollar: Luis Suarez (£12.2 million). Nine goals and 73 points in seven games since his return from suspension, not even horrendously bad tackles by Kevin Mirallas can stop Suarez in his stride right now. Hull will be afraid of what he might do at the KC on Sunday and rightly so.
Mid-Range: Romelu Lukaku (£7.9 million). No goals in his previous two games suggested he might be about to embark on a barren run, but a brace in the Merseyside derby suggests otherwise.
Bargain Basement: Danny Gabbidon (£4.0 million). They’ve been doing it quietly but Crystal Palace have kept two clean sheets in their last two games and as he plays 90 minutes virtually every week, Gabbidon isn’t a bad choice, as a squad player at least.
Irish Pick: Shane Long (£6.0 million). The Tipp man has always been something of a streaky goalscorer and with three in his last two games – including the outrageous goals against Aston Villa – he’ll be buzzing going into the clash with Newcastle on Saturday evening.
Captain’s Pick: Sergio Aguero (£12.1 million). Not only has Aguero scored 66 points in his last five games, but he has scored seven out of his ten league goals at the Etihad, where City are a completely different animal and where they will be going up against Swansea this weekend.
