It took three months and a change of coaches: Werder Bremen only picked up their first win in the current campaign in the middle of November. Alexander Nouri, who had an outstanding second half of the season last term, had to step down as head coach. His successor Florian Kohfeldt was able to celebrate three wins in his first five games in charge to get back in touch with the non-relegation spots. And Saturday's 2-1 win at Borussia Dortmund certainly made their rivals sit up. Given the recent wins, the 35-year-old can be hopeful of remaining the Werder coach after the winter break. That is the limit of his current contract.
Werder produce their own coaches. Kohfeldt coached the Bremen U23 side in the third division before being promoted to first team boss – just like his two predecessors Viktor Skripnik and Alexander Nouri. Before the latter was dismissed – contrary to the trend at Bremen over recent years – he set out to solidify the defence around the new goalkeeper Jiri Pavlenka. The outcome: In games involving Bremen, which used to be a guarantee for the spectacular not so long ago, there were the lowest number of goals in the current season across the league with Werder already drawing 0-0 three times. The big but: After 15 games, the Green and Whites had scored a meagre 11 goals with eight coming after Kohfeldt's appointment in November. the new coach benefited from the return of Max Kruse (in photo at front). The flamboyant striker was sidelined in the early autumn with a broken collarbone and that had a crippling effect on Bremen's attacking game. Having returned to fitness, Kruse proved to be the match-winner in Bremen's first two wins of the season: In the 4-0 victory against Hannover 96, the former Germany international netted a hat-trick and scored the only goal of the game against Stuttgart. In Dortmund the 29-year-old provided the assists for both goals in the 2-1 win. The impressive combination of Kruse and his mobile team-mate Fin Bartels has lead to people at Werder Bremen hoping the barren period at the start of the campaign is over. However, the goal-getter now has to look for another partner: Bartels suffered a torn Achilles in his left foot at Dortmund on Saturday and is probably sidelined for the rest of the season.
Werder's team performance is largely dependent on the form of their top players. If star striker Kruse and captain Zlatko Junuzovic have a run like the second half of last season then the team from the Hanseatic city will be one of the better teams in the Bundesliga. If the duo are ruled out with injury, as at the start of the season, or their form drops then the team is not in a position to compensate for their individual class. There is a particular lack in options for creating goalscoring opportunities –particularly if the most reliable Bremen goalscorer Kruse is not on the pitch to convert them. Apart from Bartels (two goals), no other Bremen forward has found the back of the net in the current campaign.
Where they were once the main rivals to Bayern, Bremen are now miles away from that position. A squad with players like Mertesacker, Diego and Klose, that qualified for the Champions League five times in succession between 2004 and 2008, is now beyond the capabilities of Werder Bremen. The CEO Frank Baumann and chairman of the advisory board Marco Bode, two former key players for Werder Bremen, face the challenge of creating the foundations at Werder to enable them to escape the bottom half of the table to compete at the top end of the table. The second half of last season showed that is possible with Bremen just missing out on a European qualification position. In order to slowly get back on track they first need to make sure they come through this season unscathed.
The idea of placing expectations on Kohfeldt and his players other than the battle to avoid relegation is not realistic given performances in the first third of the season. However, Bremen have shown over the past few weeks that they have the class to stay in the top flight again this season. If key players like Kruse, Junuzovic and Thomas Delaney stay fit then there's a good chance that Werder will be in the Bundesliga in the summer of 2018.
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