Horst Steffen is the new head coach of Werder Bremen. The change to the sidelines could also mean a new course on the Weser.
The common chapter history is an ascent, a relegation and two placements in the upper Bundesliga table later. According to media reports, Werner was not convinced of the squad planning and the perspective on the Weser, so he did not want to extend his contract until 2026. The club therefore decided to pull the ripcord.
Werner’s successor is already ready. Horst Steffen becomes the new man on the sidelines, and Werder, according to Sky, costs around 350,000 euros. Steffen comes from SV Elversberg, with which he had failed late Monday evening in the aftermath period of the Bundesliga relegation to Heidenheim. A not entirely risk -free decision that could also herald a change of course.
Horst Steffen was a coach in Elversberg for almost seven years. In German professional football, only Frank Schmidt was in office at 1st FC Heidenheim last season. Steffen’s stations in front of Elversberg were not permanently shaped. In Münster he got ten months in Chemnitz for six months. Steffen’s career had received some scratches after more than ordinary terms as a youth coach in Duisburg and Mönchengladbach.
Regional league Elversberg still entrusted him with the team in autumn 2018. In the first two full seasons in Saarland, Steffen finished second in the regional league Südwest, in the third attempt it worked with the promotion. In 2022 he made the jump into the 3rd division. But not only that, Steffen and Elversberg succeeded in the 2nd Bundesliga, where they immediately became eleventh. And even if several key players left the club, Elversberg got even better. The third in the table went into the relegation, where Steffen now failed due to Heidenheim in added time.
But Horst Steffen has not yet trained a big club. SV Elversberg has a little more than 5,000 members, comes from a place with around 13,000 inhabitants. SV Werder has more than 60,000 members, the city of Bremen 570,000 inhabitants. The Bundesliga and the media pressure are something completely different. This is also why Werder takes the risk of separating Ole Werner.
The change of Ole Werner to Horst Steffen is not a complete trend reversal. Both coaches rely on a proactive style of play, like to have the ball and sometimes take a risk. Both the implementation and the system of fundamental orientation is different, but Werder does not have to change the entire squad.
Why one can still speak of a change of course in Bremen: it is about the integration and development of young own plants. Ole Werner has undoubtedly developed many players at Werder Bremen. Thanks to him, Niclas Füllkrug and Marvin Ducksch made the leap into the national team. Jens Stage has become one of the best central midfielder in the Bundesliga, and Mitchell Weiser, sorted out in Leverkusen, suddenly was one of the top players in his position in this country.
The actors mentioned were not young or are not all. Again and again there was criticism that Werner hardly promotes talents. Except for Romano Schmid, hardly any player under the age of 23 did a major development step under Werner. Many only needed a change to create exactly that. For example, Eren Dinkçi did not get beyond a joker role in Bremen, in Heidenheim he got 15 goal participations in one season. Nick Woltemade shot at Werder in 30 missions, many of them as a Joker, only two goals in the 2023/24 season, he moved to Stuttgart free of charge, became the key figure with 20 goal participations in 33 competitive games and recently received the call from Julian Nagelsmann for the DFB squad.