What's Happening To Germany?

Germany are one of the best national football teams on the planet. They have generated world class players through the academy's of some of the worlds most popular clubs and always 'show up' at major tournaments. Things were going so well for Germany in the early 2000's. From the World Cup in 2002 to the Euros in 2016, the Germans reached the last four seven times in eight major tournaments. Reaching the semi final four times and the final three times (winning one: World Cup 2014) Not to mention a young team captained by the talented Julian Draxler won the Confederations Cup in 2017.

The biggest shock at the World Cup 2018 in Russia was Die Mannschaft's early exit from the tournament in the group stage. Losing the first game to Mexico 1-0, just about doing enough to beat Sweden with a late Toni Kroos winner but the game against South Korea summed up their tournament. A disastrous 2-0 loss which sent the so called 'tournament team' packing. Germany were out. Bottom of the group. The headlines back home were not pretty.

Post World Cup, the team finds itself bottom of it's UEFA Nations League group without a win, with just one point from three games. They even have a possibility of facing a relegation from their group. Germany have only won three matches in their last eleven games in all competitions. That includes five defeats from nine matches.

So the real question is, what is going wrong for Germany? - The major talking point is the future of Joachim Low. The manager that will be remembered for a long time in German football because of his 2014 World Cup success, has been criticised by ex players such as Michael Ballack. The old dog has been in charge of Germany for thirteen years. He's won two trophies in that time including a World Cup but is Low past it?

The finishing has been dreadful. The Germans have produced star strikers over the years such as all time World Cup leading goalscorer Miroslav Klose - but Low's men have taken 107 shots in their last five games - and scored just twice. Striker's Timo Werner and Thomas Muller have struggled to find the net recently. Muller had a chance to add to his tally of World Cup goals in the summer to catch up with Klose's 16 but Muller failed to find the net once and his form has looked pretty sour since.

The team is low on confidence. After the shock group stage exit at the World Cup, the team has not looked like the German team we have seen in recent years. The manager Low admitted himself that the players were low on confidence. Germany missed some golden opportunities against France and Holland in the UEFA Nations League. Twenty one shots with four on target against the Dutch. Striker Timo Werner admitted "it was like a punch to the stomach" after conceding the first goal in that 3-0 loss against Germany's biggest rivals. Thomas Muller, Joshua Kimmich, Mats Hummels, Jerome Boateng and Manuel Neuer all came into this international break on the back of bad club form for Bayern Munich. Most recently a 3-0 loss at home to Borussia Monchengladbach.

So can Germany turn it around and avoid a Nations League relegation? They'll certainly need to in order to show the world they are capable of beating anyone. They take on arch rivals Holland at home on November 19th.