Eight days after the 1-0 home win against Hertha BSC, the wohninvest WESERSTADION once again opens its gates ahead of a Bundesliga game. SV Werder Bremen want to collect another three points on Saturday evening (05.11.2022, 18.30 CET) against FC Schalke 04. With a win the Green-Whites would move 15 points clear of a team that they were promoted with last season. Head coach Ole Werner emphasised in his press conference that he wants his team to “always push ourselves to the absolute limit.”
Team news: Lee Buchanan is unavailable for the game this weekend with illness, while Felix Agu also misses out. Anthony Jung picked up a knock, but has been able to train again and currently is in selection contention. “Milos Veljkovic was back on the training pitch on Friday and most likely will play against Schalke. Nevertheless, I am not concerned about the situation on the left-wing. We have already had the opportunity to react to certain things and have alternatives in mind. But it’s not like players being out will make us a better team,” said Werner.
The head coach on the opposition: “As always, we have to prepare for our opponents playing as well as they possibly can. Having changed their coach, Schalke can definitely develop a new dynamic. On a basic level, they are very good on second balls, make very good runs from deep, play directly, are dangerous from set pieces and, especially against Freiburg, implemented good Gegenpressing after losing the ball. For us it is really, really simple: We have to be really well prepared for every game. There aren’t any games that we can win just by turning up."
Previous meetings: Werder and FC Schalke 04 have followed the exact same path with their relegations and subsequent automatic promotions straight back into the Bundesliga. The more recent meeting last April, where Werder won 4-1 away at the Royal Blues, was definitely one of the decisive moments in the teams promotion campaign. SVW and S04 have played 117 competitive games against each other in total, with the recent head-to-head strongly in the Green-Whites' favour: Werder have only lost one of the last ten games, winning seven in that period.
The head coach: Preparing for Schalke is a difficult task, with new coach Thomas Reis only having made his debut last week in a 2-0 loss against Freiburg and now having a full training week behind him. It will be the second time the 49-year-old has taken on Werder this season, with Reis being in charge of VfL during the 2-0 win in Bochum. “Thomas Reis knows Werder Bremen and me, we have played against each other a few times,” said SVW head coach Werner, “We have to try to work everything out, but we can only prepare for what is likely – which is what we are doing.”
Duel master: Amos Pieper has won 50 out of the 69 duels that he has competed in this season, giving SVW’s summer new signing the best percentage success rate in the league (72.5%). Schalke also have a player in the top 10 of this category in the form of defender Maya Yoshida (67.8%).
![[Translate to Englisch:] Milos Veljkovic und Niklas Stark klatschen sich ab.](https://werdercdn.azureedge.net/typo3temp/assets/_processed_/1/6/csm_56dcd58b414cd2723f3fbd538c204339e257cbe9-fp-1000-600-10-72_7780828fb3.jpg)
