- On Tuesday, Germany were beaten by Austria in an international friendly match to suffer a second straight defeat.
- "We forgot about that and were more focused on playing the ball nicely to each other."
Image: FILE
German former professional footballer Bastian Schweinsteiger has blamed Pep Guardiola for the decline of the German national team's performances.
The former World Cup winners have been a pale shadow of their former selves in the last couple of years.
After winning the 2014 World Cup performances have dipped. Germany have won just four of their last 13 matches.
"When Pep Guardiola joined Bayern Munich when he came to the country, everyone believed we have to play this kind of football, like short passes and everything. We were kind of losing our values, "Schweinsteiger is quoted by @AzrOganization.
"I think most of the other countries were looking at Germany as fighters, who can run until the end and everything. These strengths got lost through the last seven, or eight years.
"We forgot about that and were more focused on playing the ball nicely to each other."
Guardiola, the current Manchester City manager, coached Bayern Munich between 2013-2016. He is known for possession-based and attacking-minded football. He won Bundesliga titles but failed to guide Bayern to the Champions League glory.
Since November 2022, Germany lost 2- against Japan, in the 2022 Fifa World Cup and failed to qualify for the knockouts. They also lost 3-2 to Belgium in Qatar.
Germany failed to defeat Ukraine, only managing a 3-3 draw, lost 1-0 against Poland, lost 2-0 against Colombia, and got beaten by Japan 4-1.
They surprisingly lost 3-2 against Turkey and also mastered a 2-2 draw against Mexico in a string of poor performances.
On Tuesday, Germany were beaten by Austria in an international friendly match to suffer a second straight defeat as Julian Nagelsmann's reign continues to get off to a difficult start.
This was Germany's second successive loss under Nagelsmann.
The 36-year-old replaced Hansi Flick in September on a contract until July 2024, after Germany host Euro 2024.
"We're not playing freely. We have an unbelievable amount of work to do in each position," Nagelsmann told German broadcaster ZDF.
"We need to accept the situation but we can't fall into the role of being victims."
"We are a well-functioning group at training, but it's not transferring onto the pitch. We're missing some self-confidence, which is not a surprise when you see the past few months."