Ex-Man Utd star blames Guardiola for national team's struggles

A former Manchester United star has now insisted that Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola played a role in his national team's decline on the world stage.

The Germany national team is currently enduring a miserable run of results, have won just four of their past 15 official international matches.

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Head coach Hansi Flick's record since taking over from Joachim Low in 2021 is now just 12 wins, seven draws, and five losses in 24 games. 

In 2022, Die Mannschaft were knocked out of the FIFA World Cup at the group stage for the second successive tournament following an early exit four years prior in Russia, while they were also dumped out of the 2020 UEFA European Championship in the round of 16.

The three-time world champions' continued misfortunes has become a growing concern in the country as they are set to host the 2024 UEFA European Championship next year.

Germany football legend Bastian Schweinsteiger has now insisted that Guardiola is partly to blame for the 2014 World Cup winners' downward trajectory. 

"Well, it's a situation that's very tricky for the German national team and football in general. I think there has been a lot of change," the 38-year-old told talkSPORT.

"You know, when Pep Guardiola joined Bayern Munich, when he came to the country, everyone believed we had to play this kind of football, like short passes and everything.

"We were kind of losing our values you know. I think most of the other countries were looking at Germany as a fighter and we can run until the end and everything.

"The strengths, through the last seven, eight years, we forgot about that.

"We were more focused on playing the ball nicely to each other and that's one of the reasons."