Former Liverpool star makes a controversial claim about Arsenal midfielder

Former Liverpool star Craig Bellamy made his debut as a replacement for Gary Neville on Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football show last night. Gary Neville was widely regarded as one of the best football pundits on television, and Bellamy had huge boots to fill in on his debut on Monday Night Football. The Welshman, who was accompanied by his former teammate, Jamie Carragher, on the show, certainly didn’t have an impressive debut on the show as he made some more than dubious observations about Arsenal midfield.

Bellamy believes that his compatriot should be played ahead of German playmaker Mesut Ozil in Arsenal midfield. While Ramsey surely is a talented midfielder, but to suggest that he should replace Ozil in the No 10 role is not something you want to do when you are getting paid for providing your views on the game.

He said: “For me Aaron has to play in a three (in midfield). But he has to be in the centre for me, if you are going to ask him to sit then; you are restricting a lot of his game. (Mesut) Ozil has played left at certain times, and Aaron has played right a lot as well. It’s not just me being biased, I’ve known Aaron since he was five years of age, but I would play him central instead of Ozil. It might be a difficult statement at this moment because of Ozil’s (form), but I feel personally watching his game and watching him develop over the last couple of years that he is one of the top central players in world football when he’s fit, and he proved that last summer when Barcelona wanted him.”

Ozil is currently having his best season with the Gunners and is head and shoulders ahead of other creative midfielders in Europe at the moment. Also, any Arsenal fan could attest to the fact that Ramsey is a better box-to-box midfielder than a pure playmaker. The followings stats confirm Ozil’s undisputable claim at Arsenal’s number 10 at the moment:

Bellamy’s opinion drew some sharp criticism from fellow journalists too:

Here’s hoping that Bellamy will do some research before appearing on live television again.