PER: TIME IS RUNNING LOW NOW

FROM FRONT PAGE scoring as Holland hammered rivals Germany 3-0 in the Nations League on Saturday.

And former Arsenal defender Mertesacker, 34, said Low’s team need to be successful again “very quickly” after their group-stage exit from the World Cup in the summer.

Defeats by South Korea and Mexico meant Germany failed to progress past the opening round of a World Cup for the first time since 1938.

And after the heavy defeat in Amsterdam, the once-seemingly indestructible German football machine has now lost six of its last 10 games.

Mertesacker (above), who won the World Cup with Germany in 2014, said: “We can start to think about what we have done wrong and where our reputation has gone to a very negative energy.”

And the man who earned 104 caps for his country added that Low needs improvements quickly if he is to avoid a “very difficult situation”.

In other words, Low’s job is on the line – and it will not get any easier tomorrow when Germany travel to face world champions France in Paris.

Mertesacker, who retired in the summer, said: “They need to be successful very quickly. They have changed a few players and a few staff were removed, but in terms of the big figures, they have stayed in their jobs.”

He added that everyone “took it for granted” that Germany would always reach the knockout stages of major tournaments.

“We always found a way to cope with adversity,” said Mertesacker.

“We were reliable with producing when it counted. This time it was a strange feeling to see them struggle. It is getting stranger all the time.”