Mesut Ozil might have “no future” at Arsenal if he does not receive “special management” going forward.
Ozil has endured an indifferent season in north London under Unai Emery, starting just 16 games of a possible 41 in all competitions.
The German has played just five games this year, but served a reminder of his unique talents in the 5-1 demolition of Bournemouth in midweek.
Arsenal take on Tottenham this Big Weekend with the hope of closing the gap to their bitter third-placed rivals to a single point, and Dixon feels the Gunners will “need that creativity”.
Asked whether Ozil has to start such an important game, Dixon told the London Evening Standard: “Yes, absolutely.
“That’s what everybody wants and I’m sure he wants to be in that position, but wanting it and making it happen are two different things.
“Is he knocking on the manager’s door, and saying ‘right I want this situation to change, what do I need to do?’ That’s what I would be doing if I was him, but it’s quite clear that we’re very different characters.
“The team needs him, they need that creativity. There’s no other player in the league like him, he’s a very unique talent, but he has to be in an environment that subsidises for his weaknesses.
“If he came to me, if he was playing on my side and said, ‘Look Lee, I’m not going to track back as much as you want, but I’ll win you the game’, I would do everything I could to make that happen.
“He needs special management. If you’re not willing to do that as a group of players, and as a coach, then there’s no future for him at the club.
“He’s one that has an amazingly brilliant attitude, like all players should have, but we know that’s not the case. He seems a very positive boy that loves playing football and scoring goals.
“His attitude is to do anything he possibly can to get that shirt on and run out on the pitch.
“He might well have had a bad back, and an illness, but it’s not just the fact of what’s happened, it’s surrounded by the whole situation that puts you in a negative frame of mind.
“If he was playing every week and supplying goals, scoring goals, and then he said, ‘I’ve got a twinge in my back’, and he couldn’t play, you’d be desperately upset. But now it’s just like, ‘Oh, there’s something else wrong with him’.”