It seems nobody has a kind word to say about Mesut Ozil these days – not even those in his home country.
He may have helped Germany win the World Cup in the summer but the knives were out after another meek and ineffective performance for Arsenal in their 2-0 Champions League defeat to Borussia Dortmund.
German newspaper Bild gave him the lowest rating of anyone on the pitch at the Westfalenstadion and criticised his contribution as Arsenal struggled for creativity.
A rating of ‘6’ might seen quite reasonable at first glance but the German system works a little like school grades, so ‘1’ is the highest score possible rather than ’10.’
So Ozil was damned with a score of ‘6’ whereas the likes of Ciro Immobile, Kevin Grosskreutz and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang got the top mark.
In fairness, the rest of the Arsenal side didn’t fare much better, with Laurent Koscielny, Hector Bellerin, Alexis Sanchez, Aaron Ramsey and Jack Wilshere all getting a mark of ‘5’.
And in an indication of how one-sided the contest was, Arsenal’s best player was deemed to be goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny (‘3’). Danny Welbeck also received that score but missed two good chances.
In a Mesut Ozil ‘watch’, Bild said he won just 17 per cent of his tackles and touched the ball just 31 times in a ‘weak performance.’ They conclude that Ozil doesn’t have a great deal of credit left.
Many Arsenal fans and Premier League observers have been saying this for some time, with Ozil being accused of lazy performances in which he is carried along by his team-mates.
This was again apparent in Germany as Dortmund outclassed them and goals from strikers Immobile and Aubameyang sealed a deserved victory.
Source: Daily Mail