Relegation looms: Bundesliga club faces rude awakening | OneFootball

Didn't the world seem beautiful on the Weser? The departure of successful coach Ole Werner was directly compensated with successful coach Horst Steffen. A future in which the Elversberg talent magician trains future stars on the Weser and at the same time lets them play good football was ahead of SVW. But just a few weeks later, a very, very tough season is now threatening. What's going on in Bremen?

The preparation of the Green-Whites was extremely bumpy. Captain Marco Friedl recently warned: "We have to address many things and do better." The problem is not so much the many defeats, which one should never overestimate in friendly matches, but a very blatant weakness that has shown itself in all matches: Werder does not conjure up any goal threat under offensive football preacher Steffen.

Watch all the DFB-Pokal matches on the Sky livestream at OneFootball. Each game is available as Pay-Per-View for €4.99 in our app.

0:0 against Parma, 0:1 and 0:3 in the double test against Hoffenheim as well as 0:1 and 1:2 in the double test against Udinese, where the only own goal was scored after a penalty. The Bremen attack machine is stuttering, which is all the more surprising that Marvin Ducksch was recently sold for the mini sum of two million euros to Birmingham City. The 31-year-old contributed 32 goals and 27 assists in the last three first division seasons.

Can Silva replace Ducksch?

He is now very likely to be replaced by André Silva (9 goals, 6 assists in the last three years) from RB Leipzig. He still benefits from having once scored 28 goals for Frankfurt, but he did not convince as a loan player at Werder in the last round. Changes of coach and system are now supposed to help him, but Silva had his best time at Eintracht in a three-chain system with a double top, similar to what Werner also let play in Bremen. That doesn't sound like a savior at first.

Horst Steffen is converting Werder to a 4-2-3-1 with a clear center forward. Silva is supposed to take this position, but currently it is occupied by Keke Topp. The 21-year-old showed commitment in the preparation, but probably still needs some time. Behind him, Mitchell Weiser, Marco Grüll, Justin Njinmah, Romano Schmid and ten million new signing Samuel Mbangula are supposed to whirl. However, the latter could already have been a prelude to a possible Schmid sale. After all, Werder wants to generate a transfer surplus of 7.5 million euros, according to its own statement when setting up the fan bond. They are currently at minus 7.5 million euros.

📸 Joern Pollex - 2025 Getty Images

While Weiser is still out until winter, Mbangula showed against Udinese with his dribblings and his speed that he can indeed be fun, but he first has to prove that he can consistently deliver a whole first division season.

So currently there are a lot of question marks in the attack. The burden of answering these should not yet be placed on certainly existing offensive talents like Patrice Covic, Leon Opitz or Isak Hansen-Aarøen.

Accordingly, Steffen has also decided on the experienced Michael Zetterer as number one to provide more security. Substitute goalkeeper Mio Backhaus (21 years old) will have to wait for now.

The coach is also still hoping for transfers to get better: "I am always impatient because I always want high quality and as quickly as possible. But I see that everyone is working on it," Steffen told 'Sportschau'. Without further reinforcements, however, one really has to ask whether this offense is strong enough for the first division.

The start is tough

The team will also not get much time to find itself. In the DFB-Pokal, the toughest possible opponent of the first round, second division leader and last year's finalist Arminia Bielefeld, is waiting. Given the numerous opening blunders in the past, it currently seems to be the bigger sensation if Werder should actually prevail there.

In the Bundesliga, the first five games will not be any easier. Frankfurt (A), Leverkusen (H), Mönchengladbach (A), Freiburg (H) and Bayern (A) are the opponents. A team that is not firmly in the saddle can quickly get into crisis mode from which it does not get out quickly if it should hang in there at the bottom.

The Werder fans are not known to be particularly critical, but rather encouragingly supportive, but if the start goes wrong, comparisons with Werner, who almost led the club to Europe in the past two years, are likely to be made quickly.

Instead of a football fairy tale, the Bremen people should therefore prepare for a tough season in which the main aim is to avoid slipping into the deep relegation battle. Or will Werder still find the urgently needed new heroes who, after initial setbacks, also provide a surprising happy ending in this fairy tale?

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.

📸 Maryam Majd - 2025 Getty Images