Paul Merson did not hold back on his criticism of Mesut Ozil after Arsenal’s 3-1 defeat against Rennes on Thursday.
The Gunners gave up a significant 2-goal advantage in the first lef of the round of 16 Europa League tie.
They started out well with Alex Iwobi breaking the deadlock but it all fell apart after Sokratis Papastathopoulos’ sending off. One of the main reasons Arsenal lost the tie was because of their numerical disadvantage for an entire half of the football match.
Ozil understandably had a rough day on the pitch with a less equipped attacking lineup next to him. The German eventually was taken late into the game as Unai Emery tried to spark a comeback.
Merson said, “You have got to take Ozil off. Because now you are playing with nine and a half really. You’re not playing with ten because he is not going to get back into shape, he’s not going to get back and tackle anybody.”
“So I think he probably would have thought ‘I’ll come off here’ He doesn’t want to play with 10, he finds it hard with 11 sometimes if he doesn’t get out of the right side of bed. So, with 10, at least he can go ‘I’ve had enough, I’ve done my bit’.”
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