Michael Ballack has now been discussing a former Arsenal player who he thinks was very misunderstood towards the end of his career.
Ballack, who enjoyed 105 appearances in the Premier League with Chelsea, does know a thing or two about playing in England.
The German won the Premier League in the 2009/10 season, and also won four domestic trophies.
And although he never crossed paths with Mesut Ozil in England, who joined Arsenal a few years after Ballack left Chelsea, Ballack did think he could see why Ozil was often misunderstood.
Ballack was recently speaking on the ‘Football’s Greatest’ podcast and was discussing Ozil’s career, his brilliance, and some ‘mistakes’ he also made.
Ballack admitted that he was commenting on Ozil’s travails from the outside, but thought he understood why the £43m Arsenal player was often polarising at the Emirates.
Michael Ballack says former Arsenal player Mesut Ozil was a difficult character
Speaking on the podcast Ballack said Ozil was a sensational footballer, but ‘not an easy character’.
He said: “You described him as a bit similar to Leroy [Sane], really, really, really talented and an outstanding player and having an impact on every game with his technical ability.
“He can make the difference, he can play the deciding pass, he can run in high speed with the ball, scoring goals.
“Yeah and then for Real Madrid also he showed that, he can really adapt well to circumstances but also not an easy character.
“Not loud, but he has his own view on things and when things are not working well in his way, I think he was not easy to handle and I think that’s what happened in the last years.”
Ozil made mistakes
Ballack continued to explain some ill-advised choices the former Arsenal player made.
“Maybe he made a few mistakes in terms of maybe when things are not going so well anymore you have to change, you need to break, you need to see what is coming.
“Maybe he was not well advised I don’t know but a player with his ambition and quality should be more relaxed to accept that if someone is not working anymore you need to go a different way and maybe he was a bit stubborn to stay that long-standing with his position.
“I didn’t look inside, I didn’t talk to him, but I can only explain it a bit from outside.
“I mean he was not a player who really typically fought for the ball. He was a number ten and we have to accept these number tens with all their weaknesses.
“We love the advantages of these players because they make the difference, they bring joy into the game, but on the other side they have weaknesses and sometimes they feel misunderstood.
“If they get criticised, they don’t understand why they got criticised because they were misunderstood.”
Arsene Wenger loved him
Of course, Ballack has just aptly described the issues a ‘luxury’ player can often face in today’s game.
Ballack’s words on Ozil do feel pretty accurate, a player who was a brilliant player at Arsenal under Arsene Wenger, but was often questioned by Unai Emery and then Mikel Arteta.
It does seem unlikely that such a character would exist in this current Arsenal team, even if he was an iconic footballer in his own right.
That being said, Arsenal fans have all been having their say on the club’s current polarising midfielder, Kai Havertz.