Matchday in focus: Werder Bremen | OneFootball

New faces in the squad and in the dugout: Werder Bremen are embarking on a new era, but their style of play hasn’t changed much since last season.

Tactics

Head coach Horst Steffen’s Bundesliga bow marks the start of a new chapter at SV Werder Bremen. Having spent nearly seven years in charge of SV Elversberg between autumn 2018 and summer 2025, leading them from the fourth division to the second tier, the 56-year-old is now set to make his coaching debut in Germany’s top flight. “We need to stick together,” he said ahead of the clash with Eintracht at Deutsche Bank Park on Saturday 23 August (15:30 CEST). “We have to be very flexible and want to take advantage of the opportunity we have as underdogs.”

In the 1-0 defeat at Arminia Bielefeld in the DFB Cup first round, Steffen opted for a formation he regularly used during his time at Elversberg, setting his new charges up in a 4-2-3-1 system.

Absentees Kaua Santos, Ellyes Skhiri and Jessic Ngankam remain sidelined for Eintracht.

The visitors, meanwhile, are without injured quintet Olivier Deman, Amos Pieper, Jens Stage, Mitchell Weiser and Maximilian Wöber. “We could obviously use all those lads,” said Steffen. “We’ll manage with the ones who are available and will have to make a few changes to our plans for Saturday’s game.”

One to watch: Romano Schmid

Born in the Austrian city of Graz, 25-year-old attacking midfielder Schmid has made 158 competitive appearances for Bremen to date. He joined the club on loan from Wolfsberger AC in 2019 before making his move permanent in 2020.

Schmid appeared in 35 of Werder’s 37 matches last term, registering five goals and as many assists – including a goal and an assist in a 2-0 victory over Eintracht at the beginning of April.

Key stats and runs

Bremen boss Steffen takes charge of his first Bundesliga match this weekend.

Eintracht have lost only one of their past 14 home games against Werder, going down 2-1 in September 2018.