Werder Bremen missed out on Schalke staying in the Bundesliga early. Captain Friedl warns of the final sprint against Bayern, Leipzig, Cologne and Union Berlin: “We have to pull ourselves together quickly, otherwise it will be tight.”
Captain Marco Friedl crouched on the lawn, didn’t want to see or hear anything anymore. The around 7,500 Werder fans who traveled to Schalke were suddenly speechless. And after the 2-1 defeat sealed in injury time, coach Ole Werner openly criticized his team’s indisputable performance in the second half: “We could have won the game here today if we had been more effective.”
A 30th matchday to forget for Werder Bremen, which in the euphoria after the 4-2 win at relegation candidate Hertha BSC actually had on the agenda to make the stay in the Bundesliga with the penultimate in Gelsenkirchen mathematically perfect. But a lot of things aren’t going smoothly for the Hanseatic League.
False Security?
The offensive dream duo Niclas Füllkrug/Marvin Ducksch has covered up obvious weaknesses in Bremen’s squad with their goals and assists and suggested a security that is fragile to the promoted team. These two strikers account for more than half of Bremen’s goals. The fact that a sporting change is at least possible for them after the season does not make the task for the sporting management around Werner, sports director Frank Baumann and football boss Clemens Fritz any easier in the future.
Friedl: “It’s your own fault”
On the one hand, the chronically clammy Bremen team could use the income, but on the other hand they depend on the drip of the two “goal machines”, which are more successful as a duo than any other in the league. “We’re concentrating on staying up, we’ll see about everything else then,” says Ducksch, which is what national player Füllkrug, who is still on a break due to persistent calf problems, also tends to say.
A Ducksch with a high-class combined lead goal in the 18th minute was not enough this time to keep Schalke at bay, who were gaining courage in the relegation battle. Substitutes Sepp van den Berg (81st) and Dominick Drexler (90th + 2) struck Werder late but deservedly. “We beat ourselves, it’s our own fault,” said Friedl in self-criticism and remorse.
Striker wanted – if the filling jug and Ducksch go
A new striker – especially on a free transfer – is said to have already been found in Dawid Kownacki from Fortuna Düsseldorf. According to information from the “Deichstube”, the 26-year-old Pole, who is also said to have had offers from Union Berlin, SC Freiburg and Borussia Mönchengladbach, has not yet decided.
Should Füllkrug and Ducksch decide to make a change, action would be required because Oliver Burke, who was loaned out to Millwall FC and did not feel valued in Bremen, is unlikely to return. That Eren Dinkci or Maximilian Philipp can close the gap should only be a pious wish.
Is the seven-point cushion enough?
Above all, however, Werder are repeatedly plagued by inexplicable dropouts in defense, which have cost a number of points in the last few weeks alone. Seven points separate Bremen from VfL Bochum on the relegation place with the last four games to go – and next Saturday Bayern will come to the Weser Stadium.
Werder have conceded at least two goals in each of the last eight matches. And this season there were only four clean sheets in 30 Bundesliga games anyway; twice against Bochum as well as against Hertha BSC and VfB Stuttgart. Werder want to play offensively – and that’s a good thing. But the hair-raising mistakes in defense are slowing down the upswing.
Coach Werner: Performance not as imagined
At Schalke there was an inexplicable drop in performance in the second half. “We became too passive and didn’t get what we wanted on the pitch,” said Ducksch in an interview with NDR and dodged the question of whether the narrow lead should only be managed despite the well-known shaky defense : “We missed our chances.” Coach Werner was clearer: “The bottom line was that our performance was not what we had imagined.”
Bavaria and Leipzig: “Two real boards”
As defense chief, Friedl is the focus. Although the Austrian is said to have made considerable progress, he still does not form a stable unit with his colleagues in the back three in front of goalkeeper Jiri Pavlenka – careless mistakes included.
“We have to make sure that we get back on track. We can’t allow ourselves such a half-time again; it doesn’t matter against whom,” said the 25-year-old, who thinks about the next tasks with mixed feelings: “We have now against Bayern and in Leipzig two real boards in front of the chest.” It will certainly also be uncomfortable against Cologne and at the end of the season at Union Berlin. Friedl: “We have to pull ourselves together quickly, otherwise things will get tight.”
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sports club | 30.04.2023 | 10:50 p.m
