Hire Jurgen Klopp now! Germany's latest World Cup failure must result in Julian Nagelsmann being sacked - and ex-Liverpool boss taking over flailing national team

Following the 2018 World Cup, when Germany became the third-successive defending champions to be eliminated in the groups thanks to defeats to Mexico and South Korea, a decision needed to be made on the future of manager Joachim Low. The man who had guided Germany to the summit of the global game had overseen a catastrophic failure, and the overwhelming feeling was that his 12-year tenure was at its end.

However, it was instead decided that Low's credit in the bank had earned him another shot, and he remained in charge until the delayed Euros in 2021. Germany, having shown little to no improvements in the three years since their Russian debacle, fell in the last 16 to England. Low resigned in the aftermath.

His replacement, Hansi Flick, carried Germany to the 2022 World Cup on a wave of optimism, only for them to once again fall at the first hurdle, punished for losing to Japan in their opening game despite having initially taken the lead. The expectation was that Flick would be fired, but he remained in charge until the autumn of 2023, when repeated bad results eventually caught up with him and paved the way for Nagelsmann to take over.

The ex-Bayern Munich and RB Leipzig boss oversaw a run to the quarter-finals of Euro 2024 on home soil before Germany were knocked out by eventual winners Spain, but the team has gradually gone backwards since then, and the DFB cannot make the same mistake three times by waiting too long to get rid of a failing coach.

Nagelsmann replaced Flick in September 2023, and his refreshing approach and shrewd squad selections quickly instilled optimism that he would be the man to return Die Mannschaft to the top of the global game.

At their home Euros, he delivered Germany's first successful tournament in eight years, forging a rare unity among players, coach and fans. Yet the quarter-final exit stung, and almost immediately, Nagelsmann declared winning the 2026 World Cup as his next target.

At the time, he was the most popular national coach since Low at his peak; today, that seems hard to believe. Over the past two years, Nagelsmann has burned through his public capital at an astonishing pace. His short- and long-term missteps thus culminated in the low point at Foxborough on Monday.

Nagelsmann inexplicably used press conferences and interviews every few weeks to deliver detailed individual critiques of his players. Driven by a desire for attention, he made numerous statements ranging from unfortunate to totally untrue, and broke promises he had previously made regarding the roles certain individuals would play within his squad and team. When pressed by critical questions, he often appeared to lack composure and instead came across as patronising, as happened many times during the World Cup.

In terms of Nagelmann's material decisions, following Toni Kroos' successful return to the international arena during the Euros, the coach brought 40-year-old Manuel Neuer out of retirement for this tournament, despite repeated denials that he was planning to do so. That decision came as a bitter blow to Oliver Baumann, who had been rock-solid throughout the qualifiers. It was a move that was handled poorly and ultimately proved unnecessary, as Neuer produced nothing at this World Cup that Baumann could not have done himself.

Equally troubling was Nagelsmann's constant positional tinkering with Joshua Kimmich, underlined by the captain's switch between right-back and central midfield during the defeat to Paraguay.

Germany's display against Paraguay was a comprehensive failure, and it was entirely foreseeable. The team has shown no progress since the Euros and, apart from a brief second-half flourish against minnows Curacao, consistently underperformed at the World Cup.

Lacking creativity up front and vulnerable at the back, the team floundered against average opponents such as Ivory Coast, Ecuador and Paraguay. In purely sporting terms, this campaign was ultimately more disappointing than the disastrous 2022 World Cup, when at least a draw against Spain was salvaged.

To their credit, the players shouldered collective blame after the exit, explicitly exonerating Nagelsmann. Ultimately, though, it is the coach's job to provide a workable game plan, and despite the squad's undoubted individual talent, Nagelsmann failed to do so. His tournament coaching was also flawed, featuring questionable substitutions against Ecuador and the unnecessary inclusion of super-sub Undav in the starting line-up against Paraguay.

The most galling aspect of the tournament for Nagelsmann was that every one of these failings was dissected non-stop on television by his ideal successor, Jurgen Klopp.

"You have to attack down the wings. There's no alternative," Klopp told Magenta TV following Germany's elimination. "We all know how well these guys can play, but they didn't bring that to the pitch. In three months, we'll be raving about [Florian] Wirtz and [Jamal] Musiala again about how great they are, but not now.

"Paraguay had the opportunity to achieve something, Germany was under pressure to achieve something. Everyone in the stadium thought: Now they'll turn it around! But we didn't. We let them off the hook... We can talk about the DFB. We absolutely have to change a few things."

For many fans, the change they want to see is Klopp leaving his role as Red Bull's head of soccer to step into the Germany dugout and lead the national team into both Euro 2028 and the 2030 World Cup. The ex-Liverpool and Borussia Dortmund boss taking the role would spark mass euphoria across German football, though Klopp refused to commit when the question was posed to him in Boston.

"I haven't thought about that yet. I understand that when the national coach position is discussed, my name is mentioned in some form. But it's not the moment to really talk about it. There's nothing to say about it. I have a job that I enjoy very much. As far as I know, it's not a part-time job."

First of all, despite public backing from the squad and sporting director Rudi Voller, the DFB must now cut ties with Nagelsmann, and act quickly. They can't keep Klopp waiting - their hope for a brighter future won't wait forever for their call.

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