Mario Basler delivered a scathing assessment of Germany captain Joshua Kimmich after the defeat to Greece.

Photo by Alex Grimm/Getty Images

Former German international Mario Basler has criticised Joshua Kimmich after Sunday's 0-1 defeat to Greece.

According to the 57-year-old, the Bayern Munich midfielder was given the ball way too much when Germany were looking for openings in attack.

“Kimmich runs somewhere. Everyone immediately gives him the ball. I don’t know why. But nothing came of it from Kimmich yesterday. Most touches, covered a lot of ground, yes, but nothing came of it," Basler said on his podcast “Basler ballert” (via Sport.de).

“I’ve been saying for months, even years now: Kimmich is not a world-class player. He’s a normal midfielder who, seemingly, wants to take all the corners, all the free-kicks, everything, and is running around everywhere.”

According to Basler, Germany coach Jürgen Klopp needs to step in and change the way Kimmich is being used.

“I think Jürgen Klopp has to intervene in the future, because this kind of football isn’t going to take us any further if Kimmich dribbles the ball through midfield and slows the game down," Basler said.

“Kimmich’s game has been figured out. You saw that perfectly against Greece yesterday. They know that when he has the ball, he occasionally tries to chip it over the defence. They headed every ball away. That’s the truth.”

Basler also backed Bastian Schweinsteiger’s assessment that Germany have slipped into “average” territory.

“Basti put it perfectly yesterday. We don’t have any world-class players anymore. We haven’t had any world-class players for years.”