The promoted team doesn’t play like a relegated team: SV Werder Bremen got back on track in the Bundesliga and actually have good prospects now. Coach Ole Werner doesn’t want to rely on them.
Stuttgart – Most of the interviews were completed, including the obligatory press conference Ole Wernercoach of SV Werder Bremen, and his Stuttgart counterpart Bruno Labbadia just finished. And so the two coaches used the remaining time together for an extensive chat between the dressing room and the media room. What it was about was not revealed later. But there were two representatives of their guild who could hardly be more different at the moment. While Labbadia and his team are countering an exhausting relegation battle and warned of difficult weeks, Werner and Werder felt comfortable eleven points ahead of them VfB Stuttgart and thus worked out the relegation rank. The people of Bremen don’t want to feel safe at all.
“We have had phases throughout the year where the results were on our side and where they weren’t,” recalled the head coach of the SV Werder Bremen, before he warned: “It’s our job week after week to be competitive, to be on an equal footing so that little things can decide a game. And we try to get them on our side. We rarely have phases where we shoot opponents out of the stadium in rows Bundesliga is still missing, but the obvious qualities that currently make the difference between the bottom and middle of the table are still there on Osterdeich.
Werder Bremen is recovering well from the Cologne debacle and is rewarded against VfB Stuttgart
“If you sum up the season up to this point, then we’ve often scored the points when we needed them,” said the judge Werder Bremen Striker Niclas Füllkrug. “If an opponent comes from the top three, things can sometimes go wrong. We don’t want that and we’ll do everything we can to ensure that it doesn’t happen, but it’s possible that they’re better that day and we’re a little weaker.” against RB Leipzig or Union Berlin (each 1: 2) made less noticeable.
What is particularly impressive is how well the team has recovered from the bad 1:7 against 1. FC Köln. It has been talked about enough and everything negative has been dealt with, but an experience of this category still has a certain resonance. In the aftermath, very few would probably have been surprised if Werder Bremen would have been so lubricated. But the people of Bremen didn’t do their critics the favour. On the contrary. There was already an increase against Union Berlin, which was worth nothing countable due to blatant individual mistakes. As is well known, they did better against VfL Wolfsburg in a 2-1 win. Now against VfB Stuttgart there was the next success and as a bonus, the Werner team kept a clean sheet. “The zero stands. That gives self-confidence that the boys deserve,” explained Clemens Fritz, Werder’s head of professional football. And the 42-year-old himself no longer knew exactly how long ago such a sense of achievement actually was. “When was the last time?” he asked, and the answer was Bremen’s 1-0 win over Hertha BSC on October 28 of the previous year. “I’m happy for the boys. We were close last week.”
Werder Bremen have 27 points after 19 matchdays – the last time they did that was in the 2011/12 season
Bremen didn’t just get the curve pretty quickly, but – by the way – four points more than at the same time in the first series. And speaking of numbers: Werder Bremen started the second half of the season with two wins for the first time since the 2014/15 season. 27 points after 19 match days were last even in the 2011/12 season. In short: The promoted team does not present itself as a relegated team, despite not always flawless performances, other clubs are faring much worse. Just VfB Stuttgart or Hertha BSC and especially Schalke 04. And this trio has to catch up on the respective deficits to the competition first.
Pretty good prospects actually, on which Ole Werner but doesn’t really want to leave. In theory, a lot can still go wrong. Where would you know that better than when SV Werder Bremenwhere almost two years ago it was already 30 points relegation smelled As an exception, a look into the past is allowed. In the end, Bremen finally rushed off, which is why Werner now emphasized with a lot of pressure in his voice in the ARD interview: “We’re not looking at the table now, we have to make sure that we keep scoring consistently and our points until the end of April / beginning of May collect.” Only then might a more extensive consideration of the classification be allowed, “because then constellations arise that sometimes have an influence on an individual game”. Until then, however, another premise applies: “We only look at ourselves, see that we develop further. This is the path we have taken so far, which we are doing well and which we absolutely must continue to pursue.” (mbü)
