Thierry Henry gives Wenger advice on how to manage Mesut Ozil, cites Chelsea boss Antonio Conte as example
Arsenal legend Thierry Henry believes Arsene Wenger needs to take a firmer role with his star playmaker Mesut Ozil.
Henry told SkySports that the Germany international is being treated too nicely by Wenger.
The former France international went onto cite how Antonio Conte’s management of Eden Hazard brought out the best in the young playmaker.
Henry went onto say that Ozil isn’t substituted off the field when he is having a bad game while Conte doesn’t hesitate in taking Hazard off if he is performing poorly.
“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. He destroyed Arsenal because he woke him up.”
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Ozil has been on the end of frequent criticism from fans and pundits over the last 12 months. The former Real Madrid star created six goalscoring chances against Leicester City last week but was still slammed for failing live up to his potential.
Henry did however go onto defend Ozil. “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.”
Arsenal take on Stoke City at the Britannia Stadium on Saturday, August 19.
