Daniel Thioune was not considered the favorite for the coaching position at Werder Bremen. But he is passionate about his new job. He makes that clear in his introduction.
The new Werder coach was bursting with energy. Bremen haven’t won a game in the Bundesliga for almost three months. The discussions about Horst Steffen, the team’s performances, the criticism of the squad planning – all of this has been weighing on the club for weeks. But on Wednesday Daniel Thioune entered the Weser Stadium and once again spread something like confidence, belief and self-confidence. We haven’t heard statements like his at Werder for a long time.
“To be part of this family now is really cool,” said the 51-year-old at his first press conference as Horst Steffen’s successor. Yes, Werder are way down. Yes, the task is “challenging”. But working at such a traditional club “gives me so much that I am convinced that I am the right coach in the right place,” said Thioune.
Thioune is not a C solution
Directly in action: Daniel Thioune led his first Werder training session on Wednesday.
He is sure “that at the end of the season we will not only leave three teams behind us, but will also be able to show in the last 14 games that there is significantly more in the team.”
Initially, the two Danes Bo Svensson and Bo Henriksen were considered favorites for the job. After stints at Fortuna Düsseldorf, Hamburger SV and VfL Osnabrück, Thioune is, at least in the public eye, only Plan C. However, Clemens Fritz contradicts this impression.
4 names on Werder’s shortlist
“We drew up a shortlist when selecting coaches. There were four coaches on it,” said Werder’s sports director. “What I would like to correct is that no coach canceled us because of the quality of the squad.” With Thioune he “had a very good feeling relatively quickly – even before the conversation was over.”
The Bremen team parted ways with their previous coach last weekend after the 1-1 draw against Borussia Mönchengladbach. The team has been without a win in the Bundesliga for ten games. The lead over the relegation place has shrunk to one point.
Thioune still without Bundesliga experience
Danuel Thioune sat in the Hamburger SV coaching bench for 32 games until May 2021.
Just like for Steffen, Werder is also Thioune’s first stop as Bundesliga coach. And just like Steffen, the new coach has to work with a squad that is not ideally put together. Fritz and professional football director Peter Niemeyer were widely criticized for the summer’s transfer policy. Even in the winter it was no longer possible to sign reinforcements for the injury-plagued defense line.
At this point too, Thioune exuded confidence: “I’m definitely convinced of the quality of this team,” he said. “The boys need a feeling again that they are the ones who touched the ball last when it goes into the goal. They haven’t been that far away from that in the last few weeks.”
Great connection to Bremen
But the biggest difference between the old and the new coach is: Thioune has always had a strong connection to Werder. “I am Lower Saxony, born in Osnabrück. Werder Bremen is a flagship of the region,” he said. “My father was a big Bremen fan. I was born in a year where the big streaming services didn’t yet exist. And if there was a live game, it was Hamburger SV, then it was Werder Bremen or Bayern Munich.”
Werder has “a big place in Germany on the football map. And we want to do everything we can to ensure that they don’t disappear from the Bundesliga map again so quickly.” However, Thioune also has a spicy past – at least for Werder fans.
From July 2020 to May 2021 he coached Hamburger SV in the 2nd Bundesliga. There, like so many trainers before Merlin Polzin, he failed to achieve his ultimate goal of promotion. With Düsseldorf he lost to VfL Bochum in a dramatic relegation in 2024. Now he has arrived in the Bundesliga.
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