2018 FIFA World Cup: 3 takeaways from Germany's disastrous World Cup campaign

Germany suffered a humiliating exit from the FIFA World Cup after losing 2-0 to South Korea. Being the defending champions, they started their World Cup campaign with a loss to Mexico. Germany were slow and reactive in their first match and the opposition took full advantage of their slackness by defending deep and countering attacking them.

They escaped defeat in the second match against Sweden due to the heroics of Kroos and Reus. In that match, Germany looked an improved side but were far from their potential best. The German playmakers were quite ineffective in delivering the perfect final ball to their strikers who waited quite patiently for it.

In their decisive match against South Korea, they were unable to score a goal despite having all their strikers on the field in the second-half. The German attackers were sadly unable to convert goal-scoring opportunities and lacked the venom required from world-class strikers in decisive moments.

On the other hand, the German defenders were slow and couldn't effectively stop an opponent's counter attack. After their early exit, the German players will have to go back to the drawing board and deeply introspect about what has gone wrong. Let us look at 3 major takeaways from their campaign:

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#3 German defence was exposed to counter-attacks

The German defense was very slow, reactive instead of proactive and was left exposed during opposition's counter-attacks throughout the group stage. They weren't strong in dealing with pacy wingers who got past Boateng, Hummels, and Rudiger very easily. The wing-backs were also sloppy as Kimmich couldn't cover the ground quickly to come back and help out his central defenders.

Against Mexico, the dribbling skills and extreme pace of Lozano was no match for him. The German defensive midfielders especially Sami Khedira was ineffective and isolated himself on the pitch. Every team in the group took advantage of this weakness including South Korea in their match today.

The German defenders will have to deeply introspect and sort out this problem very quickly.

#2 German playmakers were ineffective in penetrating opposition's defence

The other teams in Germany's group played counter-attacking football and hence defended quite deep and frustrated Germany. Having probably the best playmakers in their side, German midfielders were unable to thread a pass to break open the opposition's defence.

Kroos and Reus were good against Sweden but were ineffective against South Korea. Ozil, on the other hand, had a completely disastrous World Cup. His final deliveries inside the opposition's penalty area were unable to find German attackers against Mexico and South Korea.

The German players kept possession but were unable to create many chances for their side with it. All in all, it was disappointing World Cup for the German midfielders who are reputed all over the world for being complete midfielders.

#1 German attackers gave a below-par performance

The German strikers gave a lacklustre performance at the World Cup. Being highly regarded for their poaching skills and good finishing abilities, Muller, Werner, and Gomez gave below par performance.

It was a questionable decision by Low to play Muller in the right wing in order to accommodate Timo Werner. Being regarded as the best goal-scorer of the current German side, it was widely expected that he will play as the main striker. Despite playing out of position, Muller was expected to score for Germany as he was their top scorer in the previous two World Cups.

The young and talented Timo Werner too didn't fire for Germany from the chances he got inside the penalty area. Gomez, on the other hand too didn't put the ball into the opposition's net from the few chances he got after coming on from the bench in all three matches.