Germany were beaten 1-0 by Greece in the Nations League on new manager Jurgen Klopp's home debut. Liverpool star Florian Wirtz, who only played 26 minutes, has been lambasted by local media for another "inconspicuous" showing.
Klopp's first home match ends in historic defeat
A new era for the German national team began last week as Klopp, taking charge of a side for the first time since his Anfield exit over two years ago, was in the dugout for a 1-1 draw against the Netherlands. For the ongoing international break, the legendary ex-Liverpool coach has called up 44 players to his first Germany squad, splitting the group into two for the four games.
The weaker of these took on Greece on Sunday evening and were agonisingly put to the sword despite having 76 per cent of the possession. Dimitrios Kourbelis scored the Nations League A2 match's only goal in the 74th minute, latching onto a pass from Arsenal's Christos Tzolis before his strike took a slight deflection off Joshua Kimmich into the net. The 1-0 loss marked Germany's first-ever defeat to Greece on the international stage and boos rang out in Augsburg at full-time.
Wirtz labelled 'inconspicuous' by BILD
The media in Germany has, for the most part, stood down from criticising Klopp as he finds his feet in the role and is using the break to assess a broader pool of talent. But Reds attacker Wirtz, who came off the bench in the 65th minute, was on the receiving end of some frank fault-finding, as has been the case for most of this season.
Wirtz cost Liverpool £116.5million when he arrived from Bayer Leverkusen last summer. In England, the likes of Jamie Carragher and Sean Dyche have been ruthless in their evaluations. He hasn't scored for Liverpool this season and in seven games, has only registered one assist. On Sunday, Wirtz, who is part of this generally weaker German cohort, replaced surprise debutant Bambase Conte but failed to make any impact.
Publication BILD branded him "inconspicuous" whilst backing Klopp to turn things around. "Klopp's second match brought the first setback: a 0-1 defeat against Greece in Augsburg, following the promising 1-1 draw in the Netherlands. With a completely revamped team that will never play together again, this can happen, but it shouldn't," it wrote. "Wirtz only came on late in the 0-1 defeat against Greece and couldn't make a difference. The 23-year-old remained largely inconspicuous. Wirtz is still far from his best form. But the fans are behind this fresh start. Klopp's decision to nominate so many players for his debut as national coach, to give everyone a chance to play, was the right one."
Ratings of 4/10 from Spox and Sport1
Wirtz was rated a 4/10 by Spox for his second-half showing. The report reads: "He replaced Conte in the 65th minute and remained ineffective from then on. Shortly before the end, he shot well over the bar." Germany had several good opportunities to avoid their first-ever defeat against Greece in front of 28,945 spectators. Overall, however, the four-time world champions' attacking play was extremely sluggish.
Sport1 also gave Wirtz a 4/10 for his play. It claimed: "That was a complete disaster: In Klopp's first home game as Germany's national coach, the DFB team suffered their first-ever defeat against Greece. They offered absolutely nothing in the last half hour. Germany disappointed as a team. Wirtz came on for debutant Conte after just over an hour. However, he was unable to turn the game in Germany's favour. He fired the ball well over the Greek goal from a promising position in the 89th minute. He failed to initiate a single German attack."
