Pre-Season Preview: Werder Bremen

Werder Bre­men Secured 3rd Last Sea­son Under Man­ager Thomas Schaaf.

Man­ager Thomas Schaaf will be delighted with the fact that many of the young­sters under his wing have sprung to world­wide suc­cess in South Africa this sum­mer dur­ing the World Cup. Mesut Ozil, in par­tic­u­lar, was a mas­sive suc­cess. Schaaf will be con­fi­dent in his abil­ity, and his play­ers’ abil­i­ties, to chal­lenge for domes­tic hon­ours this sea­son in the Bun­desliga. Despite the pres­sure of other aspir­ing Bun­desliga cham­pi­ons in the form of Bayer Lev­erkusen, Schalke 04, Stuttgart and Wolfs­burg, Schaaf’s Werder Bre­men side will be con­fi­dent that their squad has enough qual­ity to meet any and all expec­ta­tions this season.

Key Play­ers

The afore­men­tioned Mesut Ozil will be piv­otal to Werder Bremen’s sea­son if they have any inten­tions of chal­leng­ing for domes­tic hon­ours this sea­son. As we’ve just seen dur­ing the World Cup, Mesut Ozil’s sen­sa­tional abil­ity to both cre­ate and score goals can turn a game on it’s head in an instant.

It isn’t just up top where Werder are impres­sive. At the back, they have a man-mountain known as Per Merte­sacker. The Ger­man inter­na­tional was an absolute shield to Manuel Neuer’s goal at the World Cup, and will be plow­ing oppo­si­tion oppo­nents out of the way for Werder this sea­son along­side Naldo, who is another intense phys­i­cal spec­i­men. I think it’s rel­a­tively safe to say that Werder will not con­cede goals from set pieces or crosses this season.

New­com­ers

Marko Arnau­tovic has joined the club from FC Twente after com­plet­ing a sea­son on-loan at Euro­pean and Ital­ian cham­pi­ons Inter last sea­son. While he failed to make too much of an impact at Inter, he does look to be a fan­tas­tic prospect for the future. Under Thomas Schaaf’s wing, and with the tuition of more expe­ri­enced play­ers like Huge Almeida and Clau­dio Pizarro, Arnau­tovic could well turn into a top Bun­desliga striker.

Felix Kroos has also joined the club from FC Hansa Ros­tock. Felix is the younger brother of Bay­ern Munich’s Toni Kroos, and is another Werder Bre­men player who is set for a very bright future. He is an attack­ing mid­field player in the mould of his brother, and will look to learn his trade by part­ner­ing up with Mesut Ozil, Aaron Hunt and Marko Marin on the train­ing field. At 19 years old, Felix Kroos is only two or three years younger than the first-teamers play­ing in his posi­tion. Kudos to the won­der­ful youth setup in Ger­many for being able to con­tin­u­ously pump out fan­tas­tic tal­ent that can com­pete at the top level at such an early age.

Expec­ta­tions

Werder Bre­men fin­ished in an impres­sive 3rd place last sea­son and will look to con­tinue their domes­tic suc­cess after rein­forc­ing an already strong squad. Mesut Ozil, Torsten Frings, and Per Merte­sacker are the spine of a very com­pe­tent Bun­desliga side that will con­tinue to chal­lenge for a Euro­pean spot and domes­tic glory.