The 2-1 win over Schalke was hard-fought for Bremen. Nevertheless, the factual coach Ole Werner was really happy about Werder’s strong interim result.
After the final whistle on Saturday evening, the Bremen fans in the Weser Stadium were in a beery mood. Some sang “Fullness for Germany”, the others agreed on the way home “Oh, how beautiful that is”. And one or the other dreamed of entering the international competition as seventh in the table, just one point behind.
The green-white world is pink again after the 2-1 victory over Schalke. But Ole Werner has been a Werder coach long enough to understand how they tick in Bremen. “Werder Bremen is a club that the whole city lives with. In the event of success, the glass is very full here. If things don’t go so well, you quickly get the feeling that doubts arise.”
“Who would have expected that from a climber?”
With his North German sober nature, Werner doesn’t have big emotional swings in one direction or the other anyway. For him the truth lies somewhere in the middle and after this evening Werner’s glass is at least a little more than half full. After 13 match days, the promoted team from Bremen has already played half the battle that should be enough to stay up in the league.
“21 points is sensational for us at this point in the season – it’s an outstanding performance by the team.” (Werder coach Ole Werner)
And TV expert and record national player Lothar Matthäus had to praise Bremen’s performance throughout the season. “21 points – who would have expected that from a climber who had hardly any changes?” Matthäus asked Sky: “You can see what can happen if you continue to work in peace and refine what worked in the 2nd division . That is Werder’s great strength – it’s a community that works.”
Weiser, Werder’s furious preparer
Initially, however, very little had worked at Werder against Schalke. “We weren’t at our maximum, the performance could certainly be improved,” Werner analyzed afterwards. There was also a bit of luck against the battered Schalke, who probably delivered their best performance of the season, but didn’t reward themselves with points.
Because Werder developed the effectiveness in the exploitation of chances – also thanks to an outstanding Mitchell Weiser, who furiously prepared the two goals for Niclas Füllkrug and Marvin Ducksch. “Ronaldinho” is now Weiser’s new nickname and Werner also praised the “super game intelligence” of his key player, who “makes 97 correct decisions out of 100 in the game”.
“It’s always rock-hard work for us”
The duel between the two promoted teams showed how high Werder’s 21 points are, but also how fragile this success is. How easy it would have been for Bremen to be bottom of the table with just six points. Coach Werner is also very aware of that. “Games like today show how close it is,” he said. This is one of the reasons why Werner always urges humility and hard work.
“We have to remain objective. A game like today shows us that it’s always really hard work for us to get points. We’ll have problems against every opponent if we’re not 100 percent.” (Werder coach Ole Werner)
But Werder’s interim balance is very positive, it gives the Bremen team some breathing space to continue working in peace. Werner can work far more freely these days than Schalke can. Werder has shown that you can keep up as a promoted team. One is rightly proud of this, but resting on one’s laurels is not the order of the day.
“We have to keep working and developing,” says Werner: “Because the 21 points won’t be enough to stay in the Bundesliga.” Werder’s glass isn’t quite full yet.
