First press conference
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Werder Bremen’s new coach was bursting with energy. Bremen have not won a game in the Bundesliga for almost three months and are in last place in the form table. 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 Weserstadion 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 Steffen’s successor. Werder are way down and the task is “demanding”. 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. 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. “When selecting coaches, we drew up a shortlist. There were four coaches on it,” said Werder’s sports director. “What I would like to correct is that no coach turned us down 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 (to the table).
Thioune praises the much-criticized Werder squad
Just like for Steffen, Werder is also the first stop in the Bundesliga for Thioune. 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 am 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.”
But the biggest difference between the old and the new coach is: Thioune has always had a strong connection to Werder. “I’m Lower Saxony, a native of 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, then 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.
