“We’ll know what to expect” | OneFootball

Ole Werner is facing Dortmund away for the third time as Werder head coach (Photo: W.DE).

Press conference ahead of the away game against Borussia Dortmund

Both SV Werder and Borussia Dortmund are still winless in 2025. On Saturday, 25.01.25, they will face off at the Signal-Iduna-Park at 15:30 CET. There was a change of head coach during the week for BVB, and this was one of the things that Ole Werner addressed at the pre-match press conference on Thursday. The Werder boss also spoke about…

… the results from a week with multiple games: “It turned out to be a disappointment for us. We were hoping for more. One point isn’t enough. We’ve analysed the games and tried to put our finger on what went wrong. For us now, it’s important we do the things that we know work well on the pitch against Dortmund.”

… Felix Agu: “It's great that he was able to train with the team partially again. That was a trial run for him, and he’ll still need a bit of time. He won’t be available for the next one or two games. I'm also very cautious about putting a timescale on his return.”

… the change of coach at Borussia Dortmund: “It does have an effect on your preparations, because it creates a bit more uncertainty. It’s not that unusual though. You get some information about the new coach and analyse his approach. We’ll draw our conclusions from that and know what to expect. It’s also important that we look to improve ourselves.”

… BVB interim head coach Mike Tullberg: “Every coach has their own philosophy. We can’t really have an influence on how his Dortmund team play though apart from through our own performance on the pitch. We’ll see when it comes to the game. Dortmund are at home and have a lot of individual quality.”

… the number of goals conceded: “We’re not just talking about the defence, because we’ve been conceding goals from different types of situations. We haven’t been good enough in certain moments and that’s disappointing. We’ve talked very openly about that. It happens that sometimes you’re in a phase when things just aren’t going your way. We’ve also been lacking a bit of luck in some of these moments and we need to get that back on our side. You also have to say that we haven’t performed to the level we know we’re capable of though.”

“We have confidence in ourselves”

… being under pressure after three games without a win: “We’re under pressure every week and we put it on ourselves. We always go out onto the pitch to win, and these sorts of runs are part of football, as much as you try to stop them and don’t enjoy them. It’s normal that you have periods like this during a season, when things aren’t going your way, and that’s reflected in the results. What’s important is how you deal with it and we have confidence in ourselves and our players. We won’t change our approach because of this.”

… Julian Malatini: “I’m happy with him overall. You have to think about where he started from and at what point in his development he was when we signed him. A year ago, we wanted to bring in a defender with lots of potential. He’s talented and works hard to improve every day. We want to help him develop and that’ll take time. He’s done well in his first year here.”