Cazorla should be sold

comment by Pat Rice - In Ozil's Shadow (U9114)
posted 6 minutes ago
To be fair, I think OP's point is actually to play Santi in the middle, rather than to sell him anyway
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Exactly
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Pat your reputation is already ruined. Don't mind.

GIven our strikers aren't exactly clinical poachers, I would really prefer to play goalscorers on each wing. Or atleast play Ox who is a bit of a hybrid between a creater and a scorer. Playing slow central midfielders is just too defensive a tactic

Pat your reputation is already ruined. Don't mind.
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GT I'm trying to repair it one article at a time

Pat. Must improve.

Comment Deleted by Site Moderator

Comment Deleted by Site Moderator

comment by Cereal Spiller - Exhales as zinc (U12126)
posted 43 minutes ago
To be fair, I think OP's point is actually to play Santi in the middle, rather than to sell him anyway
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In that case it probably wasn't a good idea to title his article "Cazorla should be sold"

Completely agree

He's an exceptional player, but not in the wide positions, so, as KPPR says, if we're not going to play him centrally, we shouldn't keep trying to shoehorn him into a position where he doesn't work.

I posted the following on an article which talked about playing Ozil down the left, so I feel it's somewhat relevant to this discussion (sorry to just copy and paste, but it's quite long-winded, so I don't really want to have to retype it all again!):
'There are two main problems I have with playing players like Ozil and Cazorla out in the wide-positions:
1) They don't have the sort of speed or directness to launch a counter-attack. I've lost count of the amount of times the opposition has us penned back, and a left-sided Cazorla has no ability to drive into the space left-behind the oppositon, instead he usually ends up coming inside with the ball - into a very crowded space - and attempting to switch play. This congests our play, and with a lack of threat down the left-hand side, the opposition defence can shift along to narrow the space on our right, nullifying the threat we have down either flank.
Ozil's not actually slow, but I don't think I've ever seen him just pick the ball up and fly past the opposition full-back in the way more pragmatic widemen tend to do.

2) When we switch the ball quickly to the other flank, they're unable to really exploit the space by isolating and beating their opposite full-back.
Look at how effective players like Hazard, Ribery, Robben, or even players like our very own Chamberlain are at driving beyond their opposite number when they get them one-on-one. If you take a defender out of the game, it forces another defender to cover, which creates space which another defender has to cover....an so on. The ability to go beyond a man is an invaluable tool and can really help destabilise the opposition.
To be fair, Cazorla does have very quick feet and can, on occasion, get beyond his man in a tight space. But most of the time, I find he comes back inside with the ball, which, again, can congest our play and allow the opposition to reshape.
Ozil's a great player, and actually has very good dribbling skills to wriggle out of tight situations. But very rarely does he actively seek to run at and drive beyond his man. The majority of the time I've seen him receive the ball in a wide position, he generally just holds onto it until he has someone he can pass it on to.

We have a great side, so, in a similar way to Spain and Germany, I'm sure we'd still be pretty successful if we played with Ozil and/or Cazorla down the flanks. But when we have arguably some of the best widemen in the country in Sanchez, Walcott, and Chamberlain (I genuinely believe we've a run of games, Chamberlain would establish himself as a top-class winger, but that's a discussion for another time), I don't believe that we should shoehorn central players out onto the wing.
Walcott, Sanchez, Chamberlain, and even Gnabry are all very comfortable at providing pace, width, and directness when required, but can also drift in-between-the-lines when required. For me, this presents a better option than either Cazorla or Ozil in the wide areas.'

Another contention I've noticed people have with selling Cazorla - and this is also true of Podolski - is that they don't like the idea of weakening the squad by selling an experienced player.
I can appreciate this standpoint, but I don't think anyone wants us to sell these players and not use the funds to strengthen the squad.
Whilst it would be great to simply add to what we have currently, we have to accept that there are limitations to squad size, wage budgets, and certain players' willingness to sit on the bench.
As painful as it would be to see him go, selling Cazorla would open up space in the squad and release funds to allow us to strength areas like CB, DM, and CF.
Perhaps just as importantly, it would stop certain players from becoming disarrayed at the lack of first-team football.

Just to clarify, I think Cazorla is one of the best AMs in the country when played centrally, but with the arrival of Ozil and Wenger's faith in Wilshere, I can't see him getting much game time in that position, in which case, I think both he and the club would be better served if he moved on.

'A midfield trio of Arteta - Wilshere - Ramsey is one I never want to see again and we're painful to watch when we line up that way'

If only the OP knew of the triumvirate of Xhaka - Ceballos- Guendouzi yet to come

I wish Pat Rice (U9114) were alive so I could send him back to hell again.