Germany's defence was poor in defeat to Mexico – we must improve if we want to stay in World Cup, says Mats Hummels

Mats Hummels, the Germany centre-back, has blamed the defensive indiscipline of his team-mates after the defending champions began their World Cup defence with a shock 1-0 defeat against Mexico.

Hirving Lozano’s winning goal was scored on the counter-attack and, despite Germany’s dominance of possession, they were repeatedly exposed defensively when they lost the ball and could have fallen to an even heavier defeat.

Hummels himself struggled badly but he pointed to the lack of protection that was being afforded to the team’s two centre-backs.

“Mexico deserved the win – our cover was often not good and we were left many times with Jérôme [Boateng] and myself at the back,” he said. “If seven of eight players are attacking then it’s clear our attacking power is greater. But that’s something that I have often talked about internally. It doesn’t always bear fruit.

“A wake-up call is too late. We now must win two games, otherwise that is that with the World Cup. I don’t really understand why we played like we played because, really, we already had our wake-up call.”

Manager Joachim Löw was adamant that Germany will still reach the last 16 but also admitted that the team had not responded adequately to Mexico’s rapid counter-attacks. Germany had previously won all six of their tournament opening matches in which Löw has either been manager or assistant manager by an aggregate 17-2 scoreline.

“We were nervous and we weren’t playing the game we wanted to play,” he said. “We just lost the ball up front far too easily, and Mexico had always two or three people up front whom we failed to block efficiently.

“We will make it to the next round. In tournaments, losing a match can happen and you have to accept it. We will not become reckless. There is no reason to panic. We have three matches and ample opportunities to correct this result."