Germany legend Michael Ballack has admitted that he is surprised by the country’s handling of Joachim Loew following the team’s poor performance at the World Cup. The Germans suffered the recent curse of reigning champions as they were ousted within the group stage of the World Cup but this has however not hampered the head coach position of Loew.

Speaking to Deutsche Welle, Ballack said that he was surprised by the decision made by the German Federation despite the team going through one of the worst phases in recent history. He added that Loew should have parted ways with the team on his own after going with most of the 2014 World Cup-winning squad rather than placing emphasis on upcoming talents.

He said: “I was surprised, as well as many other people, that he kept his job. For a long time, he worked with the team and sometimes you should say that things don’t work anymore. It’s not abnormal that a coach who won the World Cup trusts the players with whom he was successful. But that’s the difficulty, because he is responsible for that, he should be professional enough.”

Despite the World Cup defeat, Loew has surprisingly not made wholesale changes to the squad but there has been some improvement made on the defensive front where they were hugely disappointing in Russia. During the recent game against World Cup holders France, they managed to play out a goalless stalemate containing the threat from the likes of Griezmann and Mbappe and what was more impressive was the organisation at the back which was non-existent during the World Cup.

Germany are currently second in their Nations League group with just one point on the board and they face must-win games against France and Netherlands during the current international break if they are to progress towards the playoffs. At present, France have a clear five-point advantage after having played an extra game against Netherlands last month.