Is Klopp to blame? Matthäus rejects Schweinsteiger's attack: Germany have lost what once terrified everyone

Defeat to Greece has reopened the debate over the quality of the German national team. Bastian Schweinsteiger tore into Jürgen Klopp's side just recently. Lothar Matthäus sees it completely differently.

Germany opened the Klopp era with a 1-1 draw against the Netherlands, then went down 1-0 to Greece in the group stage of the UEFA Nations League.

Matthäus told Bild: "Our national team is not mediocre. We have enough players capable of changing the course of a match, who prove week after week at big clubs such as Bayern Munich, Barcelona and Arsenal that they possess high quality."

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Where Schweinsteiger points to a lack of quality, Matthäus locates the trouble elsewhere. "The national team's players do not suffer from a quality problem, but rather a mentality one," he said. "Germany needs to recover the resilience and winning mentality that used to terrify everyone in the past."

The 1990 World Cup winner pins his hopes on Klopp: "If there is anyone who can instil this spirit in this team, it is him (Klopp)."

Schweinsteiger lit the fuse with his analysis after the Greece defeat. Now working as an analyst for ARD, the 2014 World Cup winner said: "We are no longer an elite team. We have reached a modest level. We no longer have the players who make the difference."

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Matthäus reaches for the current crop as his evidence, and he sees plenty of it.

"Kai Havertz does not play as a forward for Arsenal, the English league champions and runners-up in the Champions League, for nothing," he stressed. "Karim Adeyemi is at the peak of his form with Barcelona."

He went on: "The attacking duo Jamal Musiala and Florian Wirtz also possess exceptional quality, and with Joshua Kimmich present, we have a true leader."

The defence drew his praise too, particularly Nico Schlotterbeck and Jonathan Tah.

Yann Aurel Bisseck, now a fixture at Inter Milan, earned a special mention. "My former colleague Giuseppe Bergomi (the former Inter star) praised him, saying he is already a world-class player. When an expert like him tells me that, I believe him," Matthäus said. Bild concluded: "Despite their differing assessments of the current team, Schweinsteiger and Matthäus agree on one point: each of them considers Jürgen Klopp to be the right choice to lead the German national team back to success.

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