We all know it’s hard to leave when you can’t find the door. But sometimes you pay even more when you ignore the door that was right there. It was obvious in the last World Cup that Germany had reached the end of their cycle. They were made to look pretty damn plodding and basic, as both South Korea and Mexico ran around, over, and through a lineup that had aged more than the four years between their triumph in Brazil and their pratfall in Russia would suggest. Even their one win over Sweden was last-gasp, needing a Toni Kroos freekick to save them. Joachim Löw had already been the coach for 11 years by that point, which for a national team manager is equivalent to 300. Perhaps in a bid to save his own ass, he booted Thomas Müller, Mats Hummels, and Jerome Boateng from the team a…