Jose Mourinho has been hitting the headlines in recent days after he recalled a whole host of fascinating stories whilst working for the broadcaster Bein Sports. Alongside Andy Gray and Richard Keys (remember them?!) he gave yet another cracking tale on how to deal with different players.
The conversation turned to Mesut Ozil, a man who played his best football under Jose Mourinho at Real Madrid and has recently been dumped out of the Arsenal team by Unai Emery. Ozil needs ‘a little bit of love’ according to his former boss.
“Honestly, I don’t know what is going on. I don’t know if he is having physical problems or not. I know there was some problems in relation to his contract – he’s leaving on a free, he’s not leaving on a free.”
“I think he finally signed a contract and decided to stay, so there is not an issue with contracts, so believe there is something physical or there is some confrontation of ideas with Unai.
“The nature of football is exactly that – with me Ozil played amazingly well, maybe not with Unai. And maybe a certain player was phenomenal with Unai, and work as well with me. It’s just the nature of empathy.”
“I just feel that Ozil is the kind of player that needs both sides of it. If you are just sweet with him, you lose his natural aggression.
He’s not naturally a very strong, physical player in terms of aggression. If you are too strong with him, and you forget that – he also needs a little bit of care, and a little bit of love – you don’t find the right balance.”
“So I think it is about finding the right balance with him.”
Ozil was an unused substitute as Arsenal ran out 2-0 winners over Chelsea on Saturday night giving them a huge boost to their hopes of finishing in the top four.