Former Arsenal coach Darren Burgess believes that Mesut Ozil deserves more credit.
Mesut Ozil has been accused of being one of the Premier League’s laziest players. The midfielder has been lauded for his creativity repeatedly, however, his style of play and his body language always suggests that he is a lazy player who cares less about the physical side of the game.
He fell out with Unai Emery and struggled for minutes under the Spaniard, with the ex-Arsenal boss claiming that Ozil never measured up in terms of the physical side of the game.
Former Arsenal director of high performance, Darren Burgess has, however, come out to claim that there have been games that Ozil has clocked high numbers in terms of speed.
“Mesut is much-maligned physically,” Burgess told The Athletic as cited by Turkish-Football.
“But there were many games where his running numbers — and I’m talking high-speed numbers, not just distance but high-speed numbers — were among the elite in the competition. So he’s certainly capable of doing it.”
Arsenal has been doing better under Mikel Arteta and Ozil has been an important part of the revival with his work rate obviously better than it was under Emery.
Arteta will be hoping that the former Germany international can maintain his work rate until the end of the season as they look to secure a return to the Champions League.
It should be noted, however, that for every person, be it a former coach or whoever, that praises Ozil there is one on the other side that laments his contribution.
Ozil will continue to be one of the most divisive footballers to ever pull on an Arsenal shirt.