SV Werder Bremen 16-17 Preview

by Doug Langner

We at Prost Amerika take pride in diversity of our writers.  Many of them began as fans and supporters.   This time we give one fan and member of a club a chance to give their view.  From the Kansas City Bundesliga co-founder we present Doug Langner’s Werder Bremen 16-17 preview.

Werder Bremen, a traditional club which flirted with relegation was a team that most certainly needed to make changes. And changes there have been with the “Green Whites”. First change started with management. Right after celebrating safety in the Bundesliga, there was thought that Manager Victor Skripnik might be gone, instead it was Sport Director Thomas Eichin, and quickly the board brought on one time Werder Player Frank Baumann.

First we must ask; what was it that almost sent Werder into relegation?  Bremen scored 50 goals, which tied them for 6th in the league, the problem was that they let in 65 goals, second worse only to Stuttgart a side that was relegated.  The other problem was depth, when you look at last year’s roster, the Bremen faithful must have felt a sigh of relief that there were not any More injuries as that team was patched together and barely survived. They were one of the youngest teams in the league and a few player’s came into their own especially Florian Grillitsch in Midfield.

Looking forward to this year Bremen started to bring in depth to ensure this type of scenario wouldn’t play itself out again in this upcoming campaign.  It must be stated that the new faces started appearing under Thomas Eichin, who brought in: Justin Eilers (CF/Winger) league leading goal scorer of Dresden, Lennart Thy (CF/Winger) from St. Pauli.  They also brought in youngster Thanos Petsos (DMid from Rapid Wien), as well as what many believe might be the biggest and brightest talent Florian Kainz (AttMid) also from Rapid Wien. Luca Caldirola (CB) who is coming back from loan after a solid season keeping Darmstadt in the Bundesliga. Some felt these were a step in the right direction, others felt this talent was just good enough if they went to the 2nd Bundesliga.

Baumann has been in charge just over 100 days and he seems to be a man with a plan. While making some great financial moves, getting close to 30 million Euros on outgoing players, he now has some room to work with.  Since he took the reins he has revamped the central defense adding a bit more experience by bringing in Jaroslav Drobny from HSV.   In case Wiedwald faulters, he added former captain’s of their clubs CB’s Lamine Sane (Bordeaux), Finland’s Niklas Moisander (Sampdoria) as well as Fallou Diagne (Rennes) to try and shore up the leaky defense.  

The big signing of the summer is Max Kruse (CF/Wolfsburg), the former Bremen player has brought a lot of hope to the Bremen fan’s.  The talented, if not often in troubled Kruse, looks to rebound after a tough season where he put in 11 goals (plus 2 for Germany) in what many consider a disappointing season on and off the field.  At least now his attitude seems good and Bremen hasn’t had a transfer like that in quite some time.  In Kruse Bremen has “brought in a real player”.  The other addition is one they had but hasn’t played in 11 months Aron Johansson. The U.S. International with some considerably upside and talent still has some questions to answer as to whether he will stay fit this 16-17 season.

Needless to say with all the optimism there are still, quite a few “if’s”. How long can Claudio Pizarro keep up his form? Will these players gel together? Was keeping Skripnik on the right move?  

All that being said, I would think if you polled all Bremen fan’s what their outlook for this year would be, most would probably say that this is a better club than this time one year ago; that initially Baumann seems to have a direction, which can be owed to the club finally getting out of debt and having the trust of the board (Eichin never did); as well as turning its first profit in quite some time.

So my guess…well anywhere from 7th to relegation, sadly I think it can be this wide of a margin.  Realistically, I am thinking solid mid table 9-12 after bowing out in the DFB Pokal first round.