Ozil could flop at Real Madrid

It is by no mistake that Mesut Ozil is one of the biggest talents in Europe especially after a brilliant performance at 2010 World Cup in South Africa. The youngster was part of Werder Bremen first team last season and helped his team to third place finish in the Bundesliga. The 21-year-old has left north Germany to begin his career at Real Madrid. Now the he expects a great season at Real Madrid and an equally impressive World Cup fully convinced Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho of his talent. Ozil will play alongside Madrid stars like Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka, Angel Di Maria, Higuian and not the less glamorous Philipp Bargfrede and old Thorsten Frings at his former club. Looking at the evolution of the German international in the last three years, it is by no doubt Ozil has made a steep ascent. Ozil’s contract with Bremen was set to expire in a year, but the Bundesliga side would have been happy to keep him with hopes of a renewal. When Real knocked, Ozil could not reject the move to Santiago Bernabeu. The intriguing question mark remains whether the left footed star will break through Real Madrid starting X1 regularly. Real Madrid has so many great talents playing as attacking midfielders and experienced playmakers. Real Madrid has two great attackers of Higuian and Ronaldo. The arrival of the Angel Di Maria from Benifica this summer gives the youngster stiff competition as he cannot operate on the wings better than the Argentinean. Another competitor at RealMadrid will be Brazilian playmaker Kaka. The experienced Brazilian is one of few players on the planet with consistent performances all season. Kaka has pace, skill and good shooting ability. I think Mourinho cannot choose Ozil ahead of the Brazilian. Probably Ozil is better than Dutchman Rafael Van der Vaart in terms of creativity. But Rafael is more of a substitute player at Madrid now days. May be Ozil can compete with him for a place on the bench. Another constraint the German international is likely to face is the system of play at Real Madrid. Real Madrid is an offensive team with it’s preferred 4-3-3 formation that sometimes differs from teams like Werder Bremen where he was deployed behind a lone striker. The German youngster also settled well in the same system of play with the Germany national team ‘Mannschaft nationale’. A point to notice is that Mourinho is a fox who knows what he has with players like Oezil. Christoph Metzelder was also a good player before he joined Madrid but had a difficult time at Real, Now will Ozil succeed where his compatriot failed? The worrying factor for Ozil is the likely loss of his starting place in the Germany national team especially if he does not play regularly at Real Madrid. With Michael Ballack back at Bayer Leverkusen and having recovered fully from his ankle injury that kept him out of the World Cup means competition is also stiff for Ozil’s shirt in the national Mannschaft. Ozil was transferred to Bremen in January 2008 at the age of 19 from Schalke for an impressive fee of €4.5 million on a three-year contract. With in two years, he became a national player and led the German national team to a strong World Cup performance in South Africa where he garnered further attention. Even Mourinho watched closely and found favour in him, who a year ago was part of the German U-21 team crowned European champions. Ends