Arsene Wenger has criticised under-fire Mesut Ozil for his first-half penalty miss during Arsenal’s 2-0 defeat to Bayern Munich in their Champions League last-16 first leg.
Ozil squandered a golden chance to put Arsenal 1-0 ahead in the early stages of the opening period, taking a tame two-step run-up to the ball and firing his penalty down the middle at Manuel Neuer, who gratefully palmed it away.Bayern went on to miss a penalty of their own when Wojciech Szczesny was sent off for bringing down Arjen Robben in the box. But second-half strikes from Toni Kroos and Thomas Muller left Arsenal up against it ahead of the second leg.
Asked about Ozil’s penalty, Wenger said: “I prefer people run properly at the ball.
“Everybody has his own style and you have to respect there’s not one way of penalty taking. It’s his style.
“I think he wanted to do so well tonight that it affected him. Missing penalties happens to everybody. You could see, five, ten minutes later, he was still shaking his head.”
It was Ozil’s third consecutive penalty miss at club level, and comes amid criticism for some below-par performances in recent months.
Initially shining after his £42.5 million move to Arsenal on transfer deadline day in the summer, Ozil has failed to find the back of the net since December.
Ozil also drew the criticism of former Germany midfielder Michael Ballack in the Sky Sports studio after the match. Ballack said his compatriot appears to have lost the trust of his teammates.
Ballack said: “He [Ozil] looks a little bit lost in this team. He started well when he came but it seems like he doesn’t have the acceptance of his team now and he should be untouchable.”
ESPN
No comments:
Post a Comment