Calls are growing for a quick decision on the future of Germany coach Julian Nagelsmann, who touched down in Munich on Wednesday following his team's early World Cup exit.
Nagelsmann has come under fire after four-time champions Germany were ousted 4-3 on penalties by Paraguay in the round of 32 on Monday, a result only marginally better than group stage exits in 2018 and 2022.
The performances in North America has sparked a heated debate over the future of Nagelsmann, who has a contract until 2028 and said post-match he would not step down and wanted to continue if allowed to.
Nagelsmann did not speak to waiting reporters when leaving Munich Airport through a rear exit in pouring rain.
Bayern Munich stars Aleksandar Pavlović and Jamal Musiala had travelled on the same plane.
Criticism of the coach and calls for someone else to take over have come from most sides, with former Germany international Mats Hummels saying he could see ex-Manchester City and Bayern boss Pep Guardiola of Spain, now out of work, replacing Nagelsmann.
"I believe that both Pep Guardiola and Jürgen Klopp would be a good fit anywhere – any club team, any national team," Hummels, who currently works as a pundit for Germany's MagentaTV, said.
"In my view, they are the two best managers of the past decade, indeed of the last 17 or 18 years, anywhere in the world. That's why I could easily see either of them taking the job."
Multiple voices have called for German Klopp to get the job, and Hummels did not hide the fact that his former coach during his time at Borussia Dortmund would be his preferred pick too.
He said Klopp's coaching style was not "about everyone having it as easy as possible. Instead, everyone has to work their socks off for the team and its success."
"He could even unite a whole country behind him once again. He’s got what it takes," added Hummels, who was part of Germany's 2014 World Cup-winning squad.
Kahn and Schweinsteiger say players are the problem
Klopp is now Red Bull global head of soccer after wanting a break from football after leaving Liverpool two years ago. He says now is not the time to discuss the issue.
Former Germany captain Philipp Lahm has also joined the chorus of Nagelsmann critics, stressing that the coach's performance "needs to be questioned."
"Of course, the national team coach bears responsibility for the elimination," Lahm, who led Germany to World Cup glory in 2014, wrote in an op-ed for Kicker magazine.
Lahm called on the German Football Federation (DFB) to conduct a prompt review of the World Cup debacle.
"We all have the right to a swift analysis and to answers. And then the DFB must take decisions, whatever direction they may take."
The DFB has said it will decide on Nagelsmann's future in the coming days following the team's return from the World Cup.
However, former world champion Bastian Schweinsteiger and German goalkeeping icon Oliver Kahn said the focus on Germany's World Cup fiasco should be the players' virtues and responsibility rather than coach Nagelsmann.
"We have given up or neglected our own strengths - probably some people don't want to hear this - our virtues, for which we were respected abroad," 2014 winner Schweinsteiger told ARD.
"What we have lost is robustness, identity, fight. Other teams have that. All my former rivals tell me: 'You have lost your DNA and you can't even play football as well any more. That's why you went out.'"
Kahn, whose side lost to Brazil in the 2002 final, spoke in similar terms. In his view, the debate about the coach misses the point, the former world class goalkeeper wrote on LinkedIn.
"Three head coaches have failed at the same point (sic): Joachim Löw, Hansi Flick and Julian Nagelsmann. Three different ideas of play. Three different leadership styles. The same outcome: in the group stage at the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, now in the round of 32 against Paraguay," Kahn mused.
"If three coaches with different approaches always fail at the same point, the cause runs deeper."
The German squad has also been accused of lacking the grit needed to succeed at the top having previously been major contenders from 1954 to 2014.
"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.
Germany defender Nico Schlotterbeck, injured during the tournament, summed up his thoughts on Instagram.
"I'm disappointed, empty and honestly don't know how I'm supposed to process all this," the Borussia Dortmund centre back wrote.
