Arsenal strolled to victory but the Sky pundit criticised the German’s attitude.
Graeme Souness took aim at the attitude of Arsenal midfielder Mesut Ozil despite the Gunners’ 4-0 home victory over Newcastle.
Speaking on Sky Sports, via Daily Mail, Souness said that Ozil wouldn’t even be at Arsenal if he had a better attitude and criticised his recent goal record.
He said: “Same old accusation, does he bust a gut? No. Does he do the hard yards? No he doesn’t always. One goal in ten months, still no if he had a different attitude where could get angry with himself if things aren’t going well. He seems to accept things aren’t going well.
“If he could get angry with himself he would (still) be at Real Madrid. Wenger was easy on him, Emery was hard on him, now it is a new manager’s turn. He is not a boy any more, he is man who knows what he has to do be successful.”
With the greatest will in the world, Souness and Ozil are always going to be midfield players with a completely different attitude to the game.
There have been times through Ozil’s Arsenal career when perhaps many fans might have liked the German to show some of the fighting spirit which characterised Souness during his playing days.
That said, Ozil has far more natural talent than the Scot ever had and has won the World Cup, in 2014.
In any case, the stats show Ozil covered more distance than every Arsenal player other than Granit Xhaka yesterday and he also got himself on the scoresheet.
A home match against a side like Newcastle is perfectly set up for Ozil to dictate the match and despite the criticism of Souness, he did that as Arsenal wracked up a morale-boosting win, only Mikel Arteta’s second Premier League victory in charge.
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