Mats Hummels has hit out at Germany's critics, describing them as "disrespectful" and guilty of treating the team as "amateurs".
Joachim Low's side are bottom of their Nations League group after a 3-0 defeat to Netherlands on Saturday, while memories of a humiliating 2018 World Cup group-stage exit are still fresh.
This has led to fierce criticism from fans and media alike, but centre-back Hummels has reacted angrily to the continued scrutiny of the four-time world champions and believes Die Mannschaft should be receiving more support as they bid to reverse their fortunes.
"They're attacking everything right now, it's disrespectful in my opinion," he told Sport1.
"It's actually disrespectful of what the players are showing. It's not that we are living somehow in the past. It is still true that we have a really good team. We have a lot of top players and usually a good national team, but we are being treated like full-time amateurs.
"We have to live with that, and that will always be the case in football with the media and the fans. We have to deal with this disrespect.
"It's a mixture of bad luck and the failure to convert chances in attack, but three goals is too many. In my opinion, we have not played a bad game since the World Cup, but we did not get good results.
"We did not play well and did not get good results at the World Cup. The mood in the dressing room was a bit different. We're playing well but failing to reward ourselves, and of course we made mistakes on the goals we conceded. The big picture is not bad."
Germany face a daunting task to return to winning ways on Tuesday when they travel to Paris to face World Cup winners France.
