German football is in a crisis. No matter whether it's a national team or a club, this can currently be seen. The early retirement of the national team at the last World Cup and the relegation from the Nations League had already been indicated long before.

The results of Jogi Löw's team in the run-up to the World Cup were anything but good. The appearance of the team, the lack of speed in the game and the listless acting of the German stars were visible for all German fans. Accordingly, the elimination from the Wordcup could not really surprise anyone.

The affair around Mesut Özil and Ilkay Gündogan, who had themselves photographed with Turkish President Erdogan in the run-up to the World Cup, did the rest and brought a lot of unrest into the German environment.

Jogi Löw mainly relied on his remaining world champions from 2014 for the World Cup, although the young generation of national players had won the Confed Cup in Russia in an outstanding way the year before. Pep Guardiola's Leroy Sane, who played a fantastic season in the Premier League, also left Löw at home for the World Cup.

Before, during and after the World Cup, the team didn't look like a conspiratorial group with a strong will to succeed, as they did in every game in Brazil in 2014.

The tactics of ball possession football, which had made the national team almost unbeatable in previous years, were seen through by the other teams and thwarted by corresponding counter tactics, namely a quick switch-over game when the ball was won.

The team of coaches, the team manager and the association as well as the individual players did not cut a good figure after the elimination from the World Cup. There were hardly any critical interviews and there was hardly any attempt to deal with the historical early elimination.

Almost all of those responsible at the DFB remained in office. Apart from a few player resignations, not much has changed in the team structure. Weeks later, this was aggravated by the relegation from the Nations League with further bad results.

A few days ago the news came that Jogi Löw is no longer planning with the Bayern Stars Müller, Boateng and Hummels. Rather Löw wanted to initiate the long overdue upheaval. However, the timing and the way in which the whole thing will take place are also very questionable.

Next weekend, the national team will play two games that will show whether Löw can still manage the upheaval or whether he should act on the coaching position.

The bad performances of the national team have also transferred to the Bundesliga and the international competitions there. The early elimination of all German Champions League participants, including the German industry leader FC Bayer Munich, speaks volumes.

In the round of sixteen of the Champions League, all three German teams failed against the strong Premier League. It's the way the teams were defeated by the English clubs that makes you think.

A slow pace and few ideas compared to the English show the current weaknesses in German football relentlessly.

An exception to this is Eintracht from Frankfurt, who play a furious Europa League season with impressive results.

The lack of young talent in Germany is not to blame for the fact that German clubs are currently not competitive. There are plenty of talents in Germany. However, there seems to be a problem integrating the young players into the Bundesliga teams.

The permanent pressure to succeed, which weighs on the clubs to reach the European competitions in order to generate urgently needed income there, prevents the integration of young talents into the current match operations.

This, however, seems to me to be a luxury problem in comparison to 2004, when German football also had to undergo a radical change, when there were almost no German talents worth mentioning.

Ciao

Tomtheone