Former Liverpool star Xabi Alonso says Mesut Ozil was the "perfect" player in his No.10 role at Real Madrid.
Alonso left the Premier League to join the Spanish giants in 2009, with Ozil joining from Schalke in 2010. In the German star's first season at the club, they won the Copa del Rey, followed by the La Liga title in 2011/12 under Jose Mourinho as they banked 100 points, scoring 121 goals.
Ozil eventually left Spain when Arsenal came calling in 2013, but hasn't endured the best of times in north London, with speculation surrounding his future becoming frequent in the past few years.
Ozil has spent his fair share of time on the sidelines since Unai Emery took over, with the Spanish coach seemingly unconvinced about his role at the club.
However, when reflecting on their time together at Real Madrid, Alonso says that Ozil was the perfect player for their system, linking the play in attack expertly.
"Most of the years, especially with Jose [Mourinho], we used to play with two midfielders - myself and Sami Khedira," Alonso told The Coaches' Voice. "And Sami, he has a lot of energy so he would start from [the centre of the pitch] and he will make a lot of runs.
"And Mesut, between the lines he was the perfect player to play there because he wanted to play in the hole and that's the toughest position to play where there's no space, where all the defence try to squeeze. I always tried to look for him, to find a (tense?) pass, because with the touch he had, with the good control he was straight attacking the last line.
"We had a very good connection of course with Cristiano. He used to play on the left wing, [Angel] Di Maria on the right. Cristiano made everything very easy because I get the ball, I find him and he used to do his own individual actions.
"In Madrid most of the time there were very quick transitions, not that much elaboration; it was more attacking with quick actions. We scored so many goals; the potential we had to score goals - the goals came from nothing, almost."
