It works: Werder Bremen’s Niclas Füllkrug (centre) celebrates his goal to make it 2-1 against Dynamo Dresden (Bremen, March 6, 2022)
With a 2-1 home win over Dynamo Dresden, SV Werder Bremen took back the lead in the second Bundesliga. With nine games to go, last year’s Bundesliga relegated team is now six points ahead of fourth place. The performance of the North Germans against a relegation candidate was not particularly impressive.
After just two minutes, coach Ole Werner’s team was 1-0 down. But two goals from striker Niclas Füllkrug turned the game around during the first half. In the end, coach Werner was satisfied with the result, “But we still have a lot of room for improvement in terms of performance,” said the 33-year-old after the game.
Bremen have not lost in ten games since Werner took office at the end of November last year, and even won nine of them. Werner narrowly missed Otto Rehhagel’s internal record of eight wins in a row due to a 1-1 draw against FC Ingolstadt. Werner had previously won seven games in a row.
Werner, who had missed promotion to the Bundesliga with Holstein Kiel in the relegation against 1. FC Köln the previous season, took over as coach in Bremen from Markus Anfang. He gave up his post after it was discovered that he had falsified his vaccination card.
The beginning of the new season was quite bumpy. When Werner came, Bremen was only tenth in the table. “Under Werner’s predecessor at the beginning, Werder Bremen rarely acted as boldly and courageously as they do now,” it said on the fan portal at the end of January dyke room about the difference between the two coaches.
Nevertheless, tactics expert Tobias Escher stated at the end of last year that, from a systematic point of view, not much had changed under Werner. “In Bremen, Ole Werner initially did what many new coaches try to do: He put the supposedly strongest players in their best positions.” This also includes relying on a strike duo of Niclas Füllkrug and Marvin Ducksch.
Both are currently the most dangerous tandem in the second Bundesliga. Füllkrug has scored 13 times so far and was already in the Bremen squad in the relegation season. Colleague Ducksch, with 15 goals Werder’s best scorer, came to the Weser at the end of the summer transfer window from league rivals Hannover 96.
Ducksch, with his experience in the second Bundesliga – and his proven qualities as a goalscorer – was something like the royal transfer from sports director Frank Baumann. In the summer, he had the difficult task of generating enough money for the license of the now notoriously tight Bremen team by selling players and at the same time putting together a powerful squad. Also because of these circumstances, those responsible in Bremen probably did not want to spend the direct resurgence as a goal.
In the end there was a transfer surplus of around 30 million euros. Nevertheless, current top performers such as Füllkrug, central defender Ömer Toprak and goalkeeper Jiri Pavlenka were retained. According to transfermarkt.de Werder currently has the most valuable squad in the German lower house.
Seen in this way, Baumann had fulfilled his task satisfactorily. When Bremen was still struggling at the beginning of the second Bundesliga, during a 4-1 home defeat against SC Paderborn, shouts of »Baumann raus« rang out from the stands. The reputation of being one of the main people responsible for the relegation of a four-time German champion and former European Cup winner may still be attached to the 46-year-old: the extension of the contract with Baumann in mid-February not only met with approval from the fans, as a survey by the dyke room proven.
The immediate resurgence could definitely help with Baumann’s popularity problem. Werner’s signing has certainly already brought plus points – because Werder performs like a real top team under him: with a lot of ball possession and high pressing. In addition, Bremen gives on average according to whoscored.com Most shots per game in the league. There is still room for improvement.