The out-of-proportion media criticism of Mesut Özil is continuing in Germany, ahead of the country’s second World Cup match against Sweden.

Mario Basler is the latest to go on a tirade against the player who helped them win the World Cup four years ago, after Özil extended his drought without a Germany goal or assist to one game on Sunday.

“Özil is overrated. He has extraordinary abilities, of course. But in big games, he doesn’t show them on the pitch,” said Basler, who never managed to win the World Cup with Germany. “Özil’s body language is like that of a dead frog, it’s pathetic.”

Basler is a former winger, who managed nine goal contributions in 30 games for his country. So you can understand why he’s so upset with Özil for only contributing 63 goals in 91 caps. As we all know, the most important thing is to look like you’re trying really hard, not to help your team score.

The former German international was particularly impressive in his country’s Euro 1996 victory, when he was named in the squad and went on to play a grand total of zero minutes throughout the tournament.

In Özil’s last 221 minutes on the pitch, no one has scored a goal for Germany except him. Clearly, that means he’s to blame for their poor results. He should’ve sat on the sidelines, if he wanted to influence the big games like Basler.

I can only hope the Arsenal man knows just how dense some of the ‘experts’ in his country are.