Eadvice for the relegation, Florian Kohfeldt preferred to get somewhere else: he had “picked out two people” who had already experienced such a “special situation”, he said on Wednesday. The Bremen coach preferred to forego another first-hand experience: that of his striker Niclas Füllkrug. “I have to think about taking him into the squad,” joked Kohfeldt. Finally, Füllkrug felt the stab of these games on the knife edge: Both with Greuther Fürth (2014 against Hamburger SV) and with 1. FC Nürnberg (2016 against Eintracht Frankfurt), Füllkrug missed the rise.
Now he should help decisively that Werder still avoids the crash into the second division. Kohfeldt did not want to be put on the cards as to whether Füllkrug will start this Thursday (8:30 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the Bundesliga relegation as well as at DAZN and Amazon Prime) in the return game against 1. FC Heidenheim Saturday against Cologne had only been enough for 45 minutes. But one thing is certain: It is reassuring for Kohfeldt and Werder to have him back on board.
Reason for the misery
The 27-year-old filling pitcher, nicknamed “Lücke”, is not just an old friend of Kohfeldt; after Max Kruse’s departure, it was supposed to be a kind of king’s transfer, a dynamic striker that had long been out of fashion in football, but has since become extremely popular is – and on top of that a character that a team needs in difficult moments. On the fourth game day he had still scored the winning goal at Union Berlin, a few days later, on September 20, the cruciate ligament tore in training – for sports director Frank Baumann one of the main reasons for the Bremen crash. “We miss Niclas more than Max,” he said at the winter training camp.
For a long time it seemed that the season for Füllkrug was over, Davie Selke, who was brought in as a replacement, was of no help. But thanks to the Corona break, Füllkrug made it back onto the pitch, his third and fourth goals of the season against Paderborn and Cologne.
The six goals against Cologne – when Kohfeldt was supposed to speak about it on Saturday after jumping onto the relegation site, he urgently wanted to “say one more sentence”: it already feels like a press conference like “giving it to sixth or seventh “Can, said Kohfeldt in view of the many praises that he had distributed. But: “Not everything is good today.”
Delicate trend
Certainly not, but it is possibly a tangible piece better than the hard numbers in the final table show. In the alternative “Corona table” Kohfeldt’s team is tenth, with at least 13 points from ten games. In view of fluctuations and distortions towards the end, this section is also to be enjoyed with a certain caution, but a delicate trend that can already be seen at Werder, also on the court. Finally, players and moves can be seen there, which remind of a team with heart, mind and quality; in this trinity there was no such thing for a long time.
Before the Corona break, sports director Baumann said on Wednesday, Werder sometimes did not get the 20s squad. After the relegation, the reappraisal of what exactly was the reason and what role Kohfeldt’s training control played. The re-start itself was also accompanied by faults: Werder felt disadvantaged because the regulations allowed Bremen to train in groups later than anywhere else. Now, however, the athletes from Bremen could still emerge as winners from the crisis: their bodies fitter, their heads free and a squad that Kohfeldt again – almost – offers free choice (in the first leg there is no yellow-blocked Kevin Vogt).
His lineups no longer follow the need, but specific considerations for the opponent and the situation. So Augustinsson and Friedl alternated on the left defense. In the attack against Cologne, the trio Füllkrug / Rashica / Osako played for the first time and made a strong contribution to Werder’s relegation as a clear favorite.
Kohfeldt gladly accepted this role on Wednesday with all warnings of the “pitfalls”. He even referred to this opportunity as a “gift”. At that, even if it might sound strange, Corona was not completely uninvolved.
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