Did Germany underachieve at the Euros? One expert thinks so

Former Bayern Munich defender Markus Babbel was recently interviewed by NetBet, and the current manager of the Western Sydney Wanderers Football Club and the 38-year-old was not impressed with the way Die Mannschaft was managed at the European Championships.

“It wasn’t good. Especially our coach (Joachim Löw), wasn’t good enough,” said Babbel. “Too many players were not playing in their best position and when you play in a competition as tough as the European Championships then it’s very difficult to win like that. If you don’t feel comfortable playing in a certain position, then you are going to go out of the competition which is what happened.”

Babbel was not happy with how Germany looked unprepared to play in the 3-4-3 formation when the squad had years to fully implement the system.

“The biggest surprise for me was that he (Löw) had so much time to find a team and a system to play. He brought back Thomas Muller and Mats Hummels very late because he knew we were struggling,” Babbel said. “For me it was too late and there was only ever a plan A, there was never a plan B.”

For Babbel, the Euros exit differed from the 2018 World Cup dismissal in a big way.

“In 2018 we went out because we were too arrogant, we had a quality side but we didn’t respect the competition. This time I could see fear in his eyes, he wasn’t 100% sure that we could win something, he may have said the right things at times, but I feel like the passion had gone,” Babbel said. “On paper the signs were good, against England we had seven Champions League winners on the pitch. The quality of the players was there, but too many players were not playing in their best position.”