The German men's football squad has been accused of lacking the grit needed to succeed at the top of the game following their devastating exit from this year's World Cup where they were stunned by Paraguay in the last 32.
"We don’t currently have any players who can compete at the highest level," former national coach Berti Vogts wrote in an op-ed for the Rheinische Post newspaper published on Wednesday.
"That's where we need to start: why aren't our players world-class anymore? Why are we lagging behind in the areas that used to make us strong? The others are faster, they’re more athletic, they’re better at battling. We’ve missed out on crucial developments in international football; that’s becoming increasingly clear," Vogts wrote.
Former German international Thomas Hellmer accused the German squad of not having tried hard enough against Paraguay.
"If every one of the current players had given their all – I'm sure that, if they had, Germany would still be in the tournament," Helmer, who won the European Championship in 1996, told the Augsburger Allgemeine daily.
Helmer, 61, called for a member of Germany's 2014 World Cup-winning squad to become part of the team.
"Whether that’s within the coaching team or the wider staff doesn’t really matter. Bastian Schweinsteiger, for example, might have been able to explain to the lads what it means to play for Germany and give it your all," said Helmer, who, like former coach Vogts, was part of the squad in 1994 when the German team suffered a similarly disappointing defeat to Bulgaria in the World Cup quarter-finals.
Vogts called for the team to look to other squads for guidance.
"The national coach has to travel to England, France and South America. He has to see: what's being done differently – and perhaps better – over there, and how can we put that to good use?"
Vogts also called for regular meetings between the national coach, the Bundesliga coaches and foreign national coaches "to carry out a modern analysis of international football."
