Arsene Wenger would get more out of Mesut Ozil by subjecting him to some tough love, according to Thierry Henry.
The Germany international is well used to being scapegoated by critics of Arsenal’s failure to mount a genuine challenge for the Premier League title since his arrival nearly four years ago.
Ozil created six goalscoring opportunities on Friday against Leicester City but was still accused of failing to live up to his superstar billing.
Henry defended the former Real Madrid playmaker but admitted the 28-year-old is indulged too often by Arsene Wenger and cited Antonio Conte’s treatment of Eden Hazard last season as the perfect example for his old boss to follow if he hopes to extract the maximum out of Ozil’s potential.
‘He doesn’t’ take Mesut off when Mesut isn’t on his game and that can happen,’ Henry told Sky Sports. ‘It shouldn’t happen the amount of times it does happens but Mourinho wouldn’t hesitate.
‘Conte wouldn’t hesitate. It happened a couple of times with Eden Hazard last year.
‘What happened? The three times he took Eden Hazard off after an hour – the game after he scored from the halfway line [against Arsenal].
‘He destroyed Arsenal because he woke him up.’
Henry did, however, suggest it was not entirely Wenger’s responsibility to let Ozil know when he is not putting in the maximum efforts and called on the club’s senior players to take on extra responsibility as he did in his playing day.
‘We always focus on Ozil because he’s a brilliant player on his day. We had players like that in my team.
‘If Arsene doesn’t do it and have a go then I would go back again. I’m not trying to find excuses for Arsene but if you’re not tracking back I’ll tell you or grab you.
‘Some players went further than that but players will react in the second half to that sort of thing.’
Share this with