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Bastian Schweinsteiger explains how Pep Guardiola influence has damaged German national team
Pep Guardiola's time at Bayern Munich is one reason for Germany's declining fortunes in international football, according to Bastian Schweinsteiger.
The former Bayern and Manchester United star believes the Manchester City manager's philosophy is partly responsible for a loss of traditional German football values over the last 10 years.
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Serial winner Guardiola joined Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich from Barcelona in 2013 while Schweinsteiger was there, going on to win three league titles and two German Cups.
But Schweinsteiger - who earned 121 caps and won the 2014 World Cup with Germany - believes his former Bayern boss may have had an adverse effect on the country's national team.
"Well it's a situation that's very tricky for the German national team and football in general," the former midfielder, who rose through Germany's ranks during the days of direct football, said when asked why his country have struggled.
"I think there has been a lot of change. You know when Pep Guardiola joined Bayern Munich when he came to the country, everyone believed we had to play this kind of football, like short passes and everything.
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"We were kind of losing our values you know. I think most of the other countries were looking at Germany as a fighter and we can run until the end and everything."
Following their fourth World Cup win in 2014, the Germans then went on to make the semi-finals of the 2016 European Championships.
But the 2018 World Cup marked the beginning of the decline, as the reigning champions were booted out in the group stages, their first exit in the first round since 1938 and first in the group stage since the format was reintroduced in 1950.
Euro 2020 saw them only reach the Round of 16 too and most recently they were knocked out of group stages at Qatar 2022, failing to qualify for the knockout stages on goal difference.
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But despite Guardiola being at Bayern when Germany won the World Cup, Schweinsteiger believes it's his former manager - who once hinted the midfielder struggled to keep himself fit - that has changed the country's style of play.
"The strengths, through the last seven, eight years, we forgot about that," the 38-year-old explained.
"We were more focused on playing the ball nicely to each other and that's one of the reasons."
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