Germany does not have an endless supply of world-class players, national coach Joachim Low has said.
Following Die Nationalmannschaft's World Cup triumph in Brazil in July, three veteran Germany players decided to call it a day and retire from international football on a high.
Centre-back Per Mertesacker, 30, attacker Miroslav Klose, 36, and captain Philipp Lahm, 30, who was outstanding in holding midfield as well as at the two full-back positions during his 10 years in the German national team, are all no longer part of the setup.
"I've worked with each of those players for 10 years and we have a great deal of trust in each other. We've gone through good and bad times together," Low told Fifa.com.
"All three of them were massively important for us in terms of their personalities. They were characters who made a big contribution through their way of interacting in the squad, as well as with the values they took to the field with.
"In footballing terms there's no question that losing those three players is a massive blow."
The main problem for the Bundestrainer now is to find solutions for each one of those positions.
While Low has Jerome Boateng and Mats Hummels as his two main centre-backs, Germany have problems -- and have had problems for a number of years -- to find a solution for both full-back positions.
At the World Cup Low played four centre-backs throughout the first couple of games of the tournament, and only pulled Lahm back to right-back when Skhodran Mustafi picked up an injury in the last-16 tie with Algeria.
For now, out-of-form Borussia Dortmund left-back Erik Durm seems to have Low's trust, and at right-back he tested Hoffenheim midfielder Sebastian Rudy in the recent European Championship qualifier against Scotland.
In attack, Mario Gomez is injured once again, and Gladbach's Max Kruse has returned to the national team, but Low has also tested the likes of Mesut Ozil, Marco Reus, Thomas Muller or Mario Gotze in central attack.
"We do have a few problems in some positions but we don't have an endless supply of world-class players, as is often suggested," Low admitted.
"However, we do have several outstanding talents, that much is true."
Low cited those talents coming through the ranks as one of the reasons for staying in the Germany dugout, at least until the 2016 European Championships.
"I simply felt that I still have the motivation to go to Euro 2016 with this team, a side that have already achieved so much and are still very young. A lot of the players haven't reached their peak yet," he said.
"We've got plenty of young players and others are coming through so I think we all still have a lot of big challenges ahead."