Bastian Schweinsteiger blames Pep Guardiola for Germany’s decline on the world stage
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Updated 07/07/2023 at 09:13 GMT
Bastian Schweinsteiger has made some eye-catching comments about Pep Guardiola in an interview with UK radio station talkSPORT. The iconic former Germany midfielder gave an interesting insight into his country's recent woes at the highest level, and indicates that Guardiola's influence on German football has been largely negative. Schweinsteiger worked alongside Guardiola at Bayern Munich.
Pep Guardiola and Bastian Schweinsteiger
Image credit: Getty Images
Bastian Schweinsteiger has laid some of the blame towards Pep Guardiola for Germany’s decline on the world stage.
Since winning the World Cup in 2014, Die Mannschaft were eliminated at the group stage in 2018 and 2022.
They were also eliminated by England in the last 16 of Euro 2020, which marked the end of Joachim Low’s tenure as head coach.
Schweinsteiger, who played for two seasons under Guardiola at Bayern Munich, feels German ideals were lost under the Spaniard’s influence.
“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,” he told talkSPORT.
“I think most of the other countries were looking at Germany as a fighter, we can run until the end and everything. The strengths got lost through the last seven, eight years. We forgot about that and were more focused on playing the ball nicely to each other. That's one of the reasons.”
Since Hansi Flick took over, fortunes have not turned round as hoped heading into next summer’s European Championship.
Germany will host the tournament, and it is fair to say that there is still plenty of pessimism surrounding the team.
Under Flick, Germany won only three of their 11 games last season and currently sit 12th in FIFA’s world rankings.
They resume their preparations for next year’s Euros with two more friendlies against Japan and France on September 9 and 12 respectively.
As for Guardiola, he has gone onto enjoy a hugely-successful spell at Manchester City, including an historic Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League treble last season.
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That Champions League final victory was Guardiola’s third as a manager, but the first in 12 years since leading Barcelona to glory at Wembley in 2011.
It had been the one blemish on an otherwise outstanding CV, as he also failed to land the famous ‘big ears’ trophy during his three years as Bayern boss.
Guardiola’s focus will be on defending all three trophies next season, as City begin their Premier League campaign against Vincent Kompany’s Burnley side on August 11.
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