Bremen will be in very good form when they host Bayern on Saturday. But Werder are also in good form, as coach Ole Werner, who is once again in a great mood, made clear. The coach has to make crucial decisions in three positions.
Currently in a great mood: Werder coach Ole Werner.
IMAGO/Matthias Koch
Of course, Ole Werner was also sitting in front of the TV on Tuesday and watched Bayern’s Champions League match. The Werder coach saw the next opponent score nine goals in Munich’s 9:2 win against Zagreb. “At least I have a catchy tune,” said Werner with a laugh, referring to the Bayern goal music.
“Otherwise they are in good form, but so are we,” Werner made clear. “That’s why we are looking at ourselves and making sure we put in our best possible performance on the pitch. We know that the opposition has an incredible amount of quality in all positions.” Bremen (five points from the first three games of the season) are also coming into the match with confidence. They have not lost since mid-April and the 5-0 defeat at Leverkusen’s championship party, and only celebrated their first win of the season in a 2-1 win in Mainz when they were outnumbered. “The team knows what to do, we know how we want to play,” the 36-year-old made clear.
In terms of personnel, the Bremen coach, who finally managed to beat Bayern again with his team last season (1-0 in Munich), has a few questions to answer. In defence, Milos Veljkovic, who has been injured in his foot for several weeks (Werner: “He has persistent ankle problems that have prevented him from starting training. We’ll take it from week to week”), is also missing captain Marco Friedl, who was suspended for two games after his red card in Mainz.
Who will play for Friedl? Can Köhn start?
Amos Pieper and Julian Malatini are available as alternatives. Werner has to choose between Keke Topp or Marco Grüll in attack following Justin Njinmah’s injury. And new signing Derrick Köhn is pushing his way into the starting eleven after his winning goal in Mainz, but first has to get past the currently very consistent Felix Agu. Who will win the respective duel? “Anything is possible,” said Werner, and unleashed another broad grin.
Speaking of grins. Werner’s good mood has been a topic of conversation in Bremen in recent days. The coach was noticeably relaxed in the press conference before and after the Mainz game, and kept making jokes. “I don’t know if I was always in a bad mood before. I’m in a good mood here sometimes,” laughed Werner. “Otherwise I wouldn’t have lasted so long here. There’s no particular reason, it’s nice if you see it that way. But it’s not the first time since I’ve been in a good mood in Bremen.”
Both coaches have already met on the field
Things are going well for Bremen at the moment, and in their current form they are even dreaming of beating Bayern once again. The roles are of course clearly distributed, but with the fans behind them, SVW will annoy the record champions and coach Vincent Kompany.
This is not the first time that the two coaches Werner and Kompany have met. They have already crossed swords as players, on August 5, 2007 in the first round of the cup. Kompany started for HSV, Werner was substituted on in the 74th minute for Kiel. Hamburg won 5-0 against the Storks. When asked whether the Werder coach would speak to his counterpart about this team again, the SVW coach joked for the last time on Thursday: “I wouldn’t know how to start the conversation without it becoming awkward.”
