Unai Emery has confirmed that Mesut Ozil is in the squad for Wednesday's Carabao Cup fourth-round clash at Liverpool and "has a chance to play".
Our head coach faced the media at London Colney, and this is what he said:
on whether Ozil is in the travelling squad and if he will play…
Yes, tomorrow. He’s in the group so he has a chance to play. We have had this morning a very good conversation, Mesut and Me, and I said to him I haven’t changed my idea about him. He knows what I want from him because it’s the same as last season in the first day of pre-season training when we had a conversation. It’s the same as one month ago and in that way, some circumstances weren’t helping us in every moment to be consistent or available to play. But I will say I think the last weeks he has progressively been training well and adding his spirit to help us. For example, our conversation this morning was because I wanted to listen to him about how he’s thinking now to help us and be with us tomorrow. Then if we are in the same spirit and the same idea, to play. It was a very good conversation and tomorrow he’s in the group.
on what he wants to see from Ozil…
We need his quality, his skill and his consistency. We need his positive mentality and then he will help us on the pitch. That’s the next step. I think he’s done the steps before, and now I want the steps like in pre-season and one month ago to help us on the pitch.
on what we need to show if we want to reach the quarter-finals…
Each match in this competition can be different, and tomorrow is one very good opportunity for us. We will be thinking that the Carabao Cup is important and it’s an opportunity for us to recover confidence and our way. It’s not important what players they have on the pitch because we need every player and tomorrow we are going to have the possibility to play some different players from Sunday, and also in Europa they can repeat the match. I am looking to play tomorrow with 11 players and 18 players in the squad to do one good match and find the victory. Each game is difficult and maybe they will change some players also, but to win at Anfield is difficult in each match.
on whether Ozil will be the captain…
It depends because he’s one of the captains. I’m not thinking exactly yet, but we are going to decide the first XI and if he’s in the first XI. It depends on who else plays. He could be, yes.
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