Why Werder Bremen can’t afford a repeat of a woeful performance against Paderborn

As the referee blew the full time whistle at the Weserstadion on Sunday afternoon it confirmed Werder Bremen’s third defeat in four home matches since the resumption of the Bundesliga. It left them three points off the relegation playoff place and six points adrift of safety. 

It was a performance that didn’t do much to lift the spirits of anyone with an allegiance to the football club. There didn’t appear to be the fight, desire or quality to lift themselves clear of the relegation struggle. Yes, their opponents last weekend, Wolfsburg, are fighting for a Europa League place so it was never going to be an easy match, but Bremen seemed to approach it with very little confidence that they could spring a surprise. 

This was typified by the fact that it wasn’t until Wolfsburg took the lead that manager Florian Kohfeldt made attacking substitutions and formation tweaks. This gave the impression that the Werder camp were only aiming for a draw.

In the plight they find themselves in and with so few matches remaining this seemed too cautious an approach. With the scores level at 75 minutes, this seemed the optimum time to take a risk in the search of a winning goal.

It might be argued that one point is better than none so the risk would have been foolhardy, but it is worth remembering that in the second half it really was all one way traffic, and Bremen barely offered any attacking threat.

A change of system might just have allowed them to spend a bit more time in the Wolfsburg half and in doing so, relieve a little bit of the bombardment of pressure they were being put under. 

When Wout Weghorst’s header flew into the net in the 82nd minute it had seemed inevitable, but Kohfeldt and his players seemed shocked; maybe it was just the agony. However, if it was a shock, this fits with the positivity and general mood of the camp in the build up to the match.

There seems an air of defiance that they will beat the drop, it could be determination, but as time rumbles on and the results continue to disappoint, it begins to smack of arrogance. Do Werder believe they are too good to go down? 

The first half of the game against Wolfsburg was an awful spectacle. Neither side found their rhythm or any fluency and it was devoid of much excitement. It was clear that Wolfsburg recognised this because they came out in the second half and lifted their level.

This resulted in them creating a string of fine chances and pressuring their hosts as aforementioned. Bremen didn’t change anything and because of Wolfsburg’s improvement, their own second half performance was even worse than their offering in the first. This possible complacency ended up costing them, as Wolfsburg eventually got the goal their performance warranted.

Having said that, it must be acknowledged that Bremen were missing their top goalscorer Milot Rashica and veteran forward Claudio Pizarro through injury. This does go some way to explaining the lack of attacking quality possessed by Werder.

It is quite conceivable that with this lack of firepower at his disposal Kohfeldt was realistic about their chances of being able to beat Wolfsburg, and that is why he set up fairly defensively. To him, given the injury problems, a draw against a fine side, would be a decent afternoon’s work.

Wolfsburg scored a late winner at the Weserstadion last Sunday, 
Photo Credit: Reuters

It is important to remember that only a couple of weeks ago the same Wolfsburg attacking unit dismantled Bayer Leverkusen in a 4-1 thrashing. The fact Bremen managed to shut them out for over 80 minutes was quite an achievement. Unfortunately for them it wasn’t enough to yield a point, and ultimately it is points that are counted up come the end of the season.

On Saturday, they face a crunch match against bottom side Paderborn. The word six pointer has never described a fixture so aptly. Paderborn are clinging on to survival by the skin of their teeth at the minute, but if they can find a way to beat Werder they would pull themselves right back into the picture.

This is mainly because Fortuna Dusseldorf, who currently occupy the relegation playoff place, host second placed Borussia Dortmund. Not many people expect Fortuna to be able to get anything out of that match so there is a chance for the victor of the Paderborn/Bremen game to close the gap.

With Bremen just three points behind Dusseldorf, a gain of three points would pull them level. A further boost is that both Rashica and Pizarro have a chance of being in contention to play the game so they may have the goal scoring threat required to earn all three points.

The significance of the match to Werder Bremen is heightened by the fact that they play Bayern Munich next week, so they could really do with picking up three points before playing a match they have little hope of getting anything out of. This should be enough to keep them in contention with two games to go and both of those are against sides that aren’t mathematically safe yet: Mainz and FC Köln.

The only certainty is that if they want to survive Bremen must show more grit, urgency and attacking flair in the final four fixtures than they did last time out against Wolfsburg.