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As the 2025/26 Bundesliga relegation race heats up, Get German Football News is pleased to release “relegation check” features checking in on German clubs fighting the drop. Having already covered Köln and Augsburg this weekend, it’s time to take a look in at Werder Bremen. These particular Hanseaten have managed to manufacture a lifeline for themselves via a huge win against relegation rivals Heidenheim.
The three points attained against Frank Schmidt’s FCH almost redefine the basic nature of a “relegation six pointer”. The inability of Schmidt’s club to pick up any points led the Heidenheim trainer literally conceding that his team stood no chance of slipping into the 2. Bundesliga next year. Bremen, meanwhile have snapped a 13-match winless run dating back to November and delivered 51-year-old trainer Daniel Thioune his very first top flight win.
Is there any hope left for a squad still lacking a natural center forward and ravaged with injury in the defensive ranks? As we’ve done in the other segments, the full remaining schedule is chronicled below. Thione’s team possess a marvelous opportunity to parlay this weekend’s momentum into a “Marvelous March”. Nine points can actually be secured against direct relegation rivals. It nevertheless remains the case that no points can be captured on paper.
We’ll need to inspect this team quite closely.
Werder Bremen
The precise manner in which Werder won this weekend happens to be immensely important. As Thioune himself pointed out in his post-match comments, bottled chances from Jovan Milosevic and Romano Schmid in the first half left him feeling as if he was trapped in an absurd nightmare. Milosevic missed a chance to slide the ball into an empty net in the 36th-minute. At 45+2, Schmid found himself alone in front of goal on a breakaway. The Austrian unfathomably struck the post, then sent the rebound into the side netting.
Milosevic also found himself responsible for a disallowed Bremen goal in the 26th. The highly touted Stuttgart loanee – already the subject of criticism with his new loan club – clumsily failed to keep himself onside and probably couldn’t have done a better job of obstructing the view of the FCH keeper had he intently tried. Ugh. An absurd nightmare, indeed! Fortunately, Milosevic redeemed himself by netting the 1-0 in the 57th. Assisting him was none other than Schmid, who supplied him with an excellent cross.
Thioune did well to mention the resilience of both players afterwards.
Trainer Check, Werder Bremen
We’ve covered Thioune’s inexperience in a previous GGFN piece. Here, we should emphasize that Thioune’s reputation of being more of a “player friendly” coach can actually serve as an enormous asset. Thioune’s specific backing of Milosevic and Schmid after the match counts for a lot. So too, did Thioune’s gentle handling of rookie keeper Mio Backhaus‘ horrible outing last weekend.
It did engender some doubt in many of us when Bremen opted to install Thioune as their next trainer. After all, the fact that the elderly Horst Steffen also never worked in the German top flight before constituted one of, though certainly not the biggest, reasons Bremen have had so many problems this season. All it takes for this purported problem to totally disappear from the discourse, however, is Thioune helping inspire one or two youngsters.
Thioune suddenly finds himself ahead of the curve.
Key Performer Check, Werder Bremen
Jovan Milosevic, Attacker
We might as well start with the “last great hope”. Someone on this squad has to assume responsibility for scoring regular goals. Arguably, no one else really can at this point. Jens Stage remains streaky, not to mention a natural midfielder. Marco Grüll no longer works as a forward without his old top axis attacking partner Marvin Ducksch. Justin Njinmah’s abilities are more sorted to wing deployments and Keke Topp is….well…Keke Topp is Keke Topp. The kid needs to spend at least a year or two in the lower divisions in order to refine his game.
With Samuel Mbangula (already struggling) hurt again, Milosevic must mature into the team’s leading attacker posthaste. The good news is that he doesn’t need to work as a classic No. 9 in order to do so. Thioune has had a chance to work out a few alternate roles for the 20-year-old. Now that he’s scored in two consecutive matches, it’s possible that can proceed with a bit more confidence. Three Bundesliga goals (his first three tallies) in eight league appearances isn’t a bad haul at all for the young Serb. Hopefully, he has more in store.
Mio Backhaus, Keeper
It’s been quite the rollercoaster ride for the 21-year-old this year after being unexpectedly thrust into the limelight for both club and country. One can’t help but compare Backhaus’ career trajectory with that of Freiburg’s Noah Atubolu; who happened to be even younger than Backhaus when he was tapped to serve as the No. 1 between the SCF sticks. Atubolu also had to learn to adjust to German top division football quickly in addition to assuming responsibility as the new Germany U21 starting net-minder.
Overall, Backhaus looks to be acclimating a little quicker than Atubolu did during the 2023/24 Bundesliga campaign. Now that Atubolu has matured into a record-breaking German darling, there’s plenty of hope that the Mönchengladbach-native can follow suit. Irrespective of how Backhaus’ overall career pans out, it’s of vital importance that he brings his very best for Bremen down the stretch here. Certain saves or non-saves over the course of the next few weeks will remain with the youngster for the rest of his life.
Niklas Stark, Defender
German defensive prodigy Karim Coulibaly has brought a great deal of joy to those of us Bundesliga beat reporters watching Bremen this season. Now that the 18-year-old has hopped on the injured reserve list along with fellow defenders Amos Pieper, Felix Agu, and Maxmilian Wöber, it’s up to Niklas Stark to close ranks alongside captain Marco Friedl ahead of Backhaus. It’s do or die time for the now 30-year-old former German international. Those of us old enough to remember his heyday still believe in him.
Believe it or not, both Stark and another Bremen defender who moved to the Hanseaten in the summer of 2022 were once thought to be the future pillars of the German national team central defensive corps. These days, Stark joins Amos Pieper on the list of forgotten Germany U21 European Champion/Olympians that once held promise for newly promoted Werder. Thus far, Stark has shaken off the rust adequately enough in four consecutive starts. He’ll obviously need to come up huge for Werder here.
Leonardo Bittencourt, Midfielder
Perhaps the author should simply reiterate his plea that Werder sign one of the Bundesliga’s most popular players to a contract extension. Why not? The 32-year-old still has plenty of spunk left! Bremen famously kept Claudio Pizarro on the payroll until he was in his early 40s and could no longer keep pace with the neighborhood ice-cream truck! As Leonardo Bittencourt closes in on his 300th Bundesliga appearance, one just has a hunch that he has something heroic in store for his team here.
Tactics Check, Werder Bremen
Thioune got fairly desperate against St. Pauli last week, using Njinmah as a wingback, moving Senne Lynen into the back-three and asking Cameron Puertas to…well….it might be safe to assume that Puertas received no real clear instructions as a deep midfield sweeper swarmed by a bunch of other players who had no clue why they were working in their odd positional roles. This happened to be really mucked up. To be fair, things might have worked better if Agu didn’t have to withdraw from injury late.
Lineup—Werder Bremen, Round 23 (3-3-3-1)
Ahem. This didn’t “totally” fail. Grüll and Schmid got a couple of half looks in from open play. Thioune’s set-piece playbook also produced a couple of half chances. As profoundly irritating as it was to watch cycles involving Njinmah’s side stall out of the back, and predictably go wrong when Njinmah couldn’t cover enough ground to catch up to the long balls, one could fairly say that this constellation fought St. Pauli to a draw.
The Backhaus goalkeeping howler that enabled the other Hanseaten to take a 55th-minute lead was quickly followed up by an intelligent tactical re-format. Milosevic and Bittencourt relieved Grüll and Schmidt at the hour-mark. Within a couple of minutes, Bremen had equalized. The new formation also proved much more effective in attack. The match could have swung either way.
Lineup—Werder Bremen, 60th minute (4-2-3-1)
Topp would eventually relieve Puertas and everyone (including Njinmah) poured forward. The final push (from about the 80th minute onwards) nevertheless came too late. St. Pauli had already taken the lead via Joel Chima Fujita’s goal and Alexander Blessin re-configured his team into a back-seven. No chance for the guests. Three personnel changes ahead of this weekend’s home fixture yielded something more sensible.
Lineup—Werder Bremen, Round 24 (4-1-4-1)
Placing Yukinari Sugawara and Olivier Deman back in the XI naturally made a huge difference. Milosevic frequently didn’t function as a true nine, rotating around quite a bit with his second axis teammates. Grüll and Jens Stage would frequently tuck under center in order to absorb FCH attack charges and spark quick counters. This played a role in freeing up Schmid.
Topp (Milosevic), Njinmah (Grüll), and even Bittencourt (Schmid) all did well on like-for-like substitution swaps. Overall, Bremen produced two very good halves of football. A full time xG value of 2.7 even seemed a little low. In short, Bremen looked like a Bundesliga squad for the first time since…er…since….hold on a minute….damn.
Maybe since they beat Heidenheim on the final matchday of last season for all the author can recall.
Remaining Schedule, Werder Bremen
We arrive at the promising stretch of March fixtures that lay ahead. With a strong set of tactics, much is possible. One should note that the extreme difficulty of Bremen’s early schedule was also a topic in the Hin-Runde. How did Horst Steffen’s team do with this same run of fixtures last autumn?
Round 25
Union Berlin (A)
Round 26
FSV Mainz 05 (H)
Round 27
VfL Wolfsburg (A)
Round 28
RB Leipzig (H)
Round 29
FC Köln (A)
Round 30
Hamburger SV (H)
Round 31
VfB Stuttgart (A)
Round 32
FC Augsburg (H)
Round 33
TSG 1899 Hoffenheim (A)
Round 34
Borussia Dortmund (H)
Rather well. After beating St. Pauli and drawing Heidenheim, Bremen beat Union Berlin, drew Mainz, and bested Wolfsburg. The win over Wolfsburg on matchday 10 nevertheless kicked off the 13-match winless streak. If Thioune’s crew can collect seven points from Union, Mainz, and Wolfsburg, 30 points with seven matchdays remaining does place them in a decent position.
They’ll still have to do better than the three points Steffen’s side picked up from the remaining field. A total of 33 points can, but doesn’t necessarily, guarantee Bundesliga safety. There’s some tough matches to close out the year, but it could prove the case there will be dead rubbers in the Stuttgart, Augsburg, Hoffenheim, and Dortmund affairs.
This does actually look rather good.
A club tipped to finish last at the beginning of the campaign might make it.
