Germany team manager Oliver Bierhoff has admitted the coaching staff made a mistake by including Mesut Ozil in the World Cup squad.

Bierhoff, a German legend in his own right, believes that Ozil and his teammate Ilkay Gundogan may have been distracted in the build up to the World Cup.

Both players voluntarily posed for pictures with Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, which angered many German supporters.

Bierhoff told Welt: "We have never forced players of the German national squad to do something, but always tried to convince them of a cause. We did not succeed with Mesut.

"In that respect, considerations should have been made about whether to leave out Ozil from a sporting point of view. I believe the fact that Mesut and Ilkay took the pictures did not distract the squad so much. But the debate afterwards did."

Bierhoff added: "Mesut did not say what was expected of him, due to certain and obvious reasons. Ilkay, on the other hand, has spoken and also opened up a lot. Despite that he was still harshly criticised the same way."