Bastian Schweinsteiger blames Pep Guardiola impact for downturn in German national team fortunes

Pep Guardiola's time at Bayern Munich had a negative impact on the German national team, according to Bastian Schweinsteiger.

The Manchester City manager spent a highly successful three years in the Bundesliga in which he won the league every season as well as two German cups. Guardiola joined in 2013 after his exit from Barcelona and would go onto enjoy even more success with the Blues after moving to Manchester in 2016.

Though injuries hindered his playing time, Schweinsteiger was a key player for Guardiola in two of those seasons before he left for Manchester United and is very familiar with Guradiola's methods. The former midfielder believes the Catalonian's influence in German football has changed the way the national team play and not necessarily for the better as it's seen the team lose some of its traditional values.

“Well it’s a situation that’s very tricky for the German national team and football in general,” the 38-year-old told TalkSport. “I think there has been a lot of change.

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"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.

“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. The strengths, through the last seven, eight years, we forgot about that.

“We were more focused on playing the ball nicely to each other and that’s one of the reasons.”

Germany won the World Cup in 2014 with a team primarily made up of players at Guardiola's side, with players like Phillip Lahm, Manuel Neuer and Thomas Muller all