‘He’s driving me up the wall’ – Craig Bellamy rips into Arsenal star following display against England
Former Liverpool and Manchester City striker Craig Bellamy became the latest football pundit to rip into Arsenal star Mesut Ozil.
Ozil could be mistaken for feeling he has been used as a bit of a human punching bag this season.
We have lost count of the number of pundits that have come out and laid into him.
Bellamy slammed Ozil for not working hard enough against England in the international friendly against Germany on Friday.
“We know Ozil doesn’t run a lot, we know he doesn’t track back. He’s driving me up the wall every time I’m watching him,” Bellamy told beIN Sports.
“Yeah, [Harry] Maguire did well, do you know why? Because he kept running past [Ozil]. He didn’t want to track him back. It’ll be a better test for [Maguire] when he’s not playing against Ozil again because he’ll have someone who’ll actually work back against him.”
Bellamy felt that Ozil let down the younger, inexperienced members of the Germany side and that he should have taken more responsibility.
“He was given responsibility in a key position today,” he said.
“If [Ilkay] Gundogan goes over to the left-hand side, you have to tuck in because you’re then playing the role of defensive midfielder. [Ozil is] walking into position.
“I thought he was so disappointing today with young players [around him]. I just think that as a World Cup winner, he could have taken more responsibility.”
Bellamy did however, state that he believe Ozil has a lot of talent and that the problem is that he hasn’t been showcasing what he’s capable of.
“We know there’s more, we’ve all seen more, and I just feel at this present moment that he’s not showing us what he’s capable of and it is annoying,” he added.