Matchday in focus: Bremen down but not out

In partnership with

Eintracht Frankfurt

·16 gennaio 2026

Matchday in focus: Bremen down but not out

All you need to know ahead of the start of the second half of the season, including team news, tactics and which promising youngster to keep an eye on.

Tactics

Head coach Horst Steffen, who has been in the SV Werder Bremen dugout since the start of this season, primarily employs a 4-2-3-1 formation, although he has shown some tactical tweaks of late. Bremen used a 3-5-2 system against FC Augsburg, while it was a 3-4-2-1 in their most recent outing against Borussia Dortmund.Bremen only took one point from those two games, extending their winless sequence to six consecutive matches and leaving them 282 minutes without a goal. “After six games without a win, the mood obviously isn’t great,” said Steffen at his pre-match press conference, “but I see the players every day and there’s a good atmosphere within the group. We’re confident we can turn the corner against Frankfurt.”

OneFootball Video

Absentees

Injury has deprived Eintracht of the services of Elias Baum, Timothy Chandler, Jonathan Burkardt, Michy Batshuayi and Younes Ebnoutalib, while Hugo Larsson (illness) and Mario Götze also miss out.For Bremen, Maximilian Wöber, Niklas Stark, Felix Agu, Mitchell Weiser, Wesley Adeh and Victor Boniface are all sidelined with injury.

One to watch: Karim Coulibaly

Coulibaly is one of Bremen’s promising youngsters. The defender came through the Hamburger SV youth academy before moving to Werder’s U19s last season and signing his first professional contract in July 2025. Since making his Bundesliga debut in the opening match of the season against Eintracht, the Oldenburg native has started 15 times and scored once.

Karim Coulibaly …

…has represented Germany’s U19s since September 2025, earning four caps for the team.
… became Bremen’s all-time youngest Bundesliga goalscorer when he equalised against Bayer 04 Leverkusen.
… has played more passes inside his own half (873) this season than any other Bremen player.
… has lived at Bremen’s academy since moving from Hamburg.

Facts and figures

The Eagles have had 15 different scorers this season, a league-high shared with Bayern Munich. Bremen, by contrast, have had a league-low eight different scorers.

Werder have not found the net in any of their last three Bundesliga assignments, a fate they last suffered between May and August 2023. The last time the club had a longer goal drought was in 2017.

The Green-and-Whites have beaten Eintracht 30 times in the Bundesliga at the Weserstadion. A 31st victory would be a joint club record for Bremen, previously achieved only against Borussia Dortmund – a testament to the teams’ long-standing top-flight status.