Mesut Ozil has been targeted for criticism once again in the wake of Germany’s disastrous World Cup exit, with Mario Basler claiming the Arsenal playmaker “is not the leader he wants to be”.
Having been unceremoniously dropped for a 2-1 victory over Sweden, the 29-year-old returned to Joachim Low’s starting XI for a crunch clash with South Korea.
Victory in that contest would have seen the reigning champions through to the last 16, but two stoppage-time goals saw them dumped out in remarkable fashion.
An inquest into what went wrong has now begun, with too many so-called stars having failed to perform on Russian soil – with Ozil being singled out as one of those to have badly underperformed.