Pundit Craig Burley has slammed Bastian Schweinsteiger’s recent comments about Pep Guardiola’s time managing Bayern Munich having a negative impact on the German national team’s recent difficulties.
Earlier in the week, the former Bayern midfielder suggested that Germany have lost their values in terms of trying to replicate the Spaniard’s style of play on the international stage.
This has quickly led to one pundit sharing his thoughts on the matter and he wasn’t particularly enamoured with what the 38-year-old said.
Burley slams Schweinsteiger comments
Speaking in a recent video on the ESPN FC YouTube channel, Burley had this to say in response to Schweinsteiger’s comments about Guardiola and his impact on the German national team.
He said: “I saw this yesterday and I thought oh my God, one man has been blamed for Germany’s demise and decline? What utter nonsense.
“It’s not Pep Guardiola’s fault they haven’t got decent defenders, it’s not Pep Guardiola’s fault that they’ve stopped producing elite-level strikers that put the ball in the back of the net.
“All he did was go to Bayern, 2013 to 2016 and got Bayern to play attractive football. Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but since 2016, Bayern Munich and other teams in Germany, have still been trying to play the ball out from the back.
“That’s not all a man who has been in Manchester for seven years’ fault. For an international player of his repute to come out and try and pinpoint a country that’s in decline on a manager who came in and managed one team is utterly ridiculous.
“They’re not producing the quality, high-end [players], all across the park in key positions they once were so to come out, Schweinsteiger and say Germany’s problems are partly down to one of the best coaches in the world coming to our country, I mean come on, look in before you look out, I mean they’re just ridiculous comments.”
Since winning the World Cup back in 2014, one year after Guardiola was appointed as Bayern’s coach, Germany have only won the Confederations Cup in 2017.
The previous World Cup in Qatar saw the Germans get knocked out in the group stage, finishing below Japan and Spain having won just one of their three group matches.
Given how long it’s been since the Manchester City boss was managing in Germany, it does feel to us like their recent failings could be more to do with the players they have had in that time rather than the way Bayern played in the three years they had Guardiola as their head coach.
Overall, we agree with Burley that perhaps Schweinsteiger should look at potential internal factors that have led to Germany being unsuccessful in recent years rather than projecting it on Guardiola.
