North crackers at eye level: Werder starts important weeks at St. Pauli, but downplays the pressure

Created: 04/07/2022Updated: 04/07/2022 19:04

By: Malte Bürger

SV Werder Bremen around coach Ole Werner meets FC St. Pauli in the top game of the 2nd Bundesliga: How big is the pressure?

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It's about a lot.

A hell of a lot.

But it will continue to do so for the next few weeks, so nothing will be decided this Saturday either.

And yet it simply cannot be downplayed, the explosiveness before the northern cracker between SV Werder Bremen and FC St. Pauli (Saturday, 1:30 p.m. in the DeichStube* live ticker).

The first in the table travels to third, a silly point lies between the two teams.

Much more pressure is hardly possible.

Only Ole Werner, who still doesn't let on, whether his pulse beat isn't gradually reaching higher spheres.

"For me, it's more anticipation and a good sign that we're under this pressure and aren't eighth in the table and playing for the golden pineapple." Of course, you can also put it that way.

Bremen - Should this

game against

really be a game like any other?

If

has his way, then yes.

"It's tingling because it's a special game, a

in a special atmosphere and because the table constellation is what it is," admits the

coach .

"But I had a tingling last week and it will tingle next week too."

Then, by the way, the opponent is called 1. FC Nürnberg, followed shortly afterwards by FC Schalke 04. Similar heavyweights in the league, victories against direct competition in the

race would be just as important .

But in order for

's starting position to be as formidable as it is now, a pleasing result must first be achieved in the present.

knows that too

: “

has playful strengths, acts very variably with the central midfielders, but can also be dangerous over long balls,” the 33-year-old lists.

"That makes it difficult from the approach, because you have to ask yourself what height you choose and how you defend that variability."

Top game against FC St. Pauli: How does Werder Bremen and coach Ole Werner deal with the pressure?

Werder's head coach wanted to work out the right answers to these questions with his team this week.

Most recently against Sandhausen, the solutions were still something of a problem.

Bremen were superior, and there were also a few chances.

Ultimately, however, it was only enough for a 1:1 because a deep opponent caused problems again this season.

The good news: at the

there should be a few more rooms.

The bad: The Hamburgers should also have much more to offer offensively than Stolperstein Sandhausen.

It does not only point to a stormy afternoon on the Elbe because of the weather.

The mutual aggressiveness could result in a real spectacle, although Werner is betting that this is not synonymous with a headless attack.

"I wouldn't speak of an open exchange of blows, because that would mean that both teams aren't doing their job very well defensively," says the

, who instead expects much more discipline on both sides.

"I do think it will be about tactics and how to create a certain compactness and defend under pressure."

His counterpart sees it very similarly.

"

have a high quality squad and also work excellently as a team.

I think it will be an open game," predicted

coach

on Thursday.

“The Bremen team always want to play forward.

We want to play a lot with the ball and play creatively forward, but we also know that there will be phases where we have to chase the ball and defend.

Then it will be important that we stay compact and win our duels.”

The expected 29,546 spectators in the stadium are obviously looking forward to a real duel at eye level on Saturday.

One in the

usually cut a fine figure.

In any case, the hosts were only able to win the very first league comparison in August 1977 (3:1), otherwise there was usually joy in Bremen (eleven wins, five draws).

Data that sounds nice but is of no interest to anyone at Werder.

At least not Clemens Fritz, the head of professional football.

"I know you're all fans of statistics, and that's a good thing," he told journalists during the press conference.

“But we should definitely not rely on numbers like that.

We know the strengths of the Paulians and we mustn't concern ourselves with things that may have worked well in the past, because we have to implement them now."

Werder Bremen vs. FC St. Pauli - Ole Werner: "The form on the day will make the difference"

And this is where

comes into play again, who also clearly prefers the present.

“The form on the day will make the difference.

In the end, the team that plays their kind of football better will win,” he is convinced.

“I have confidence that we will succeed because we have often succeeded in the past.

And I think that as a group – if we work out – we will be

very hard to beat from

But we have to prove this feeling at the weekend.” Then

can even count on the returnees Ömer Toprak, Marco Friedl, Mitchell Weiser and Milos Veljkovic.

(mbü) *

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