If everything goes well, Werder Bremen can announce a novelty for the current season on Friday. Because if the personalities of Ömer Toprak and Christian Groß continue to develop as positively as in the last few days until the game at 1. FC Nürnberg and Leo Bittencourt is not absent again for any reason, then coach Markus Anfang could for the first time his entire team council for a matchday squad nominate.
That was not yet possible this season and those responsible in Bremen are happy to cite one reason for the fact that things are not yet going as planned. “It’s good that there are leading players who give the young players stability,” says Clemens Fritz, referring to the concentrated portion of routine that Werder has been missing for some time.
The team council includes captain Ömer Toprak (32), Christian Groß (32), Leonardo Bittencourt (27), Niclas Füllkrug (28) and Milos Veljkovic (26). In Toprak and Groß, however, the most experienced players have not been available for weeks. After Groß celebrated his short comeback at the weekend with a six-minute stint against FC St. Pauli (1: 1), there are now signs of a Toprak return. The defender completed a full training session with the team for the first time on Monday. In order for him to be a candidate for the squad again on Friday, the coming days must bring many positive surprises. Fritz, head of professional football at SV Werder, remains cautious: “Given his injury history, it is important to give Ömer time. He should now increase the intensity. And we’ll see if he has been training for the whole week. ”At least Fritz can confirm:“ It’s been going very well so far. ”
A return to the Bremen starting XI is not to be expected at Toprak, a place in the squad would be a lot. Christian Groß, however, has already found his way back to the field. According to Fritz, there is no guarantee that the six minutes against St. Pauli will be followed by a return to the first team: “At first we were happy that he was available again. But now we have to give him time to get to one hundred percent. We mustn’t forget that he was out for a long time. ”Groß had to sit out for a month and a half due to a knee injury, but at the weekend he pushed back into the squad and will now certainly want to take the next step quickly. “It feels good that he played the first few minutes. And for us it’s nice that it worked like that, ”says Fritz.
Leonardo Bittencourt, who missed FC St. Pauli at short notice due to an infection, was back on the training ground yesterday and will be able to play again in Nuremberg after the current situation. And Fritz hopes that all the members of the team council will be healthy and fit in the near future: “The quality of Ömer, the experience of Grosso – of course that can be important.”
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