In the wake of his hat-trick of assists against Gibraltar capping a brilliant, sublime and sometimes downright lustful 2015, Mesut Ozil has been talking about his secret to success.
In an interview with Arsenal Player, the 26-year-old German spoke about his inner instinct that helps him to spray passes and split defences, so far amassing a whopping 161 assists in his career.
“I think the things that I sometimes see come from an instinct and you can’t really learn, though you can work hard at passing,” he said. “I spontaneously decide on what I’m going to do and maybe see spaces that other players don’t.
“When you have that surprise instinct on the pitch, it’s tough for the opposition to stop the passes.”
Ozil had a mixed 2013/14 and suffered his first major injury in the following year. However, he came back a lot stronger and helped Arsenal to finish third in the Premier League and retain the FA Cup with an array of assists, owing to his unerring ability to pick out a pass.
“Sometimes I see passes and other players might be surprised and wonder how I saw it,” he added. “My aim is to have that surprise effect on the pitch and find gaps that only very few players can.
“It’s important to have that and it’s why I sometimes see spaces to pass into, because I’ve already thought about where my team-mates could run and how I can make the most of that millisecond, think a tick faster than the opposition and find the gap.”
Presumably mentioning an edit a fan had made on his first assist in the FA Cup semi-final against Reading, Ozil said: “A while ago I was on Instagram and saw that a fan had made a graphic showing what other players see and what I see. I found that really interesting.”
