Füllkrug sees a future at Werder Bremen – Werner is a reason to remain a player

After the best season personally

Werder Bremen’s Niclas Füllkrug (29) has had the best season of his career with 19 goals and eight assists in 34 appearances. In an interview with “Kicker”, the attacker, whose contract ends in 2023, has now expressed his desire to continue working together. “I want to stay at Werder,” he said. “We’ll see what kind of talks will be held during the preparations. But I’m fine here. I’d rather like to strengthen my role in the team rather than seeing myself somewhere else.” Meanwhile, the striker sees coach Ole Werner as a big plus.

Füllkrug believe “that Ole is a reason for most players why they didn’t look for other clubs after the season”. Werner followed Markus Anfang in November 2021, took over Bremen in tenth place and led them to promotion to the Bundesliga. In 19 games so far, he has 13 wins and an average of 2.26 points, which is the best value among all coaches in the Bremen club’s history. “He’s very easy to get along with. And up to now he’s always had the right touch: when you tackle a player rather calmly or when you say it’s almost 12. He does it in a way that goes down well with the team – I don’t just have that feeling noticed me,” said Füllkrug about the coach.

Filling krug is “curious” about how Werner will position himself after his promotion to the German House of Lords. It would “tactically also make sense” not to consistently rely on the successful double lead with Marvin Ducksch (28) in the past season. Together they were directly involved in 56 of Bremen’s 65 goals. Basically, the team in the Bundesliga “must have more fun defending,” said Füllkrug. “But we should continue to be courageous. There is no relegation contender immediately ranked below. A certain calm will be important, even if we lose two games in a row. Then we must remain convinced of our way. If we do that, we might even be able to surprise.”

Werder Bremen: Füllkrug’s qualities “not a second time in the squad”

In terms of squad values, Werder would currently be in 17th place in the coming Bundesliga season with 42.3 million euros. Only co-promoted FC Schalke 04 (35.4 million euros) is below that. Together, “everyone would try to be successful together,” said Füllkrug, who increased his market value from 2.5 to 3 million euros in the most recent update.

“I think I’ve changed my style again, become more mature and a little more variable. I know what I can do, what I can’t do – and use it accordingly. (…) I’m also a lot more robust than when I was 25 or 26 and I believe that I can give the team something that we don’t have in the squad a second time,” emphasized Füllkrug. In 2019 he returned from Hannover 96 to his former club for €6.5 million, where he ranked eighth in the ranking of the most expensive purchases in the club’s history.

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