Lothar Matthaus has hit out at Mesut Ozil, saying that he disappears from games and should be dropped from the national side.
His comments echo those of many in the media in the UK and a number of fans, all of whom clearly can’t be paying attention to the German on a regular basis.
His stats outshine nearly everyone on the planet and it was just recently shown that he even runs more than Alexis Sanchez. Even if you don’t trust stats to tell the full story, just use your eyes and watch him play live – it will rock your world.
“My line of front three looks like this: right Bellarabi, left Reus and central Gotze,” Matthaus said in his column for Sport Bild.
“There is no place for Mesut Ozil. His achievements are mixed. Sometimes, he is world class. Other times, he disappears completely.”
Ozil has a total of 33 assists and 18 goals in 70 national team appearances, including seven assists and three goals at three major tournaments.
Reus, on the other hand, has four assists and nine goals from 27 appearances. If you extrapolate from this to match Mesut’s 70 games, Reus would have 10 assists (and 23 goals).
Averaging over 80 minutes per game for his country, it seems that others are more than happy to find a place for Mesut, even if Matthaus is not.