Werder Bremen currently sit in 10th place in the Bundesliga following an inconsistent start to the new season. This season has already been littered with injuries and suspensions for Bremen and the initial poor results of the team could at first be put down to poor team performances or poor technical play. When we delve a little deeper into the stats, we see that this may not be the case but that something is certainly odd about Werders start to the season.
They have an xG of 9.26 so far this season and have scored eight goals, while the real alarming stat is their xGA of 7.69, considering they have conceded 12 goals. In this tactical analysis, I will look at Werders tactics so far this season, identify their impact on these stats, and seek to find a solution on what is not quite going to plan.
Build-up
On the face of it, Werder are building up excellently and are being successful, which certainly in the deeper phases is true. As we can see in the screenshot below, Bremens defenders are dominating the Bundesliga in terms of ball progressions, which is down to their style of play and the way Florian Kohfeldt has coached these defenders to play.
Werders centre backs particularly are very skilled at finding progressive passes to teammates, and it is very clear when watching them that this is given importance in the teams tactical setup. We can see a few examples of their centre-backs abilities below.
Below, we can see Ömer Toprak play an excellent pass through the lines. The most noticeable thing about Bremens build-up is their patience, in that as we can see below their centre-backs usually refuse safe passes out wide to the open full-backs, and instead recycle the ball centrally looking to find a penetrative pass.
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