World Cup 2018: 5 German stars who should be dropped from the national team

#3 Mesut Ozil

Ozil's genius did not show at all in Russia

Disinterested, lazy and a genuinely sad player to watch, Ozil's performances have been shocking.

At club side Arsenal, it was always said that the quality of players around him were not good enough to get the best out of one of the best playmakers of the modern era. His performances for the national team has always been used to justify this point of view as he had always delivered for his team.

However, that excuse no longer works given Ozil's abject performances at the World Cup. In the two games, he featured against Mexico and South Korea, he had just one shot on goal in the entire tournament and was dispossessed at least three times per game.

He was a brooding passenger in all the games he featured in and should be given time off national duty to get back into the groove under new Arsenal manager Unai Emery.

The time has come for Germany to switch to the three-man midfield that has become the hallmark of the best club and national teams in world football and with Ozil out, a combination of Toni Kroos, a defensive midfielder and a box-to-box runner like Leon Goretzka would add a different dimension to the team's play.