Ole Werner took the risk that this substitution could be a bit much for the hearts of Bremen fans. The SV Werder coach had left Naby Keita on the bench for 90 minutes, but in stoppage time he saw the moment had come: Keita entered the pitch, which evoked loud applause from the stands, which a little later turned into a standing ovation, when the midfielder pulled off a cheeky backheel trick. Wonderful, that’s what it could look like, the spectators in the Weser Stadium obviously thought. And you know: Keita was only able to be transferred from Liverpool to the Weser in the summer because he was constantly plagued by aches and pains that prevented him from playing. That was also the case in the current season. You have to celebrate your missions as they come.
The Bremen fans’ hearts understandably paid no attention to such details on Saturday because they were already too busy pounding. And they might have jumped out of their chests if Keita had made it 3-1 after a fine individual effort and not shot into the arms of the goalkeeper. So the debutant didn’t score, the sparkling punch line was postponed, but Bremen were able to live with it: This supposedly unadorned 2-1 win after goals from strikers Rafael Borré and Justin Njinmah against 1. FC Köln was significant enough as it was .
The Weser Stadium has already experienced floodlit evenings when football was played that was of a higher quality and with at least as much pressure. The game, which was scheduled for prime time, still brought exactly what the club and its supporters needed: a touch of change blew across the Osterdeich – and because this feeling was also combined with a sense of achievement, it was not only for the Bremen fans, but also for the players to note the relief. It wasn’t just Naby Keita that was lifted from their hearts, but also a huge weight. “I let out a scream,” said defender Niklas Stark at the moment of the final whistle. “I’m very proud of the team,” added striker Marvin Ducksch. And trainer Werner, as always, demonstrated the demonstrative patience of a head waiter whose guests browse the menu for far too long. But he didn’t want to deny the importance of the victory: “Points help in every situation and this also applies to us now.”
Werder coach Ole Werner’s line-up not only makes sense in terms of foreign policy
The longing for a positive experience was indeed great in Bremen, because things that could be counted were only administered in very small doses: before the game against Cologne, Bremen had only scored three out of twelve possible points, plus the embarrassing exit in the DFB Cup against the Third division Viktoria Köln and a second half of the previous season in which only the desolate relegated Hertha BSC performed worse. Werner, who was popular not only in northern Germany, had to endure something like criticism for the first time. Above all, he was blamed for his conservative approach to access, even though the coach was always able to conclusively justify his decisions in individual cases.
However, many individual cases add up to a series of crimes for which Werner would have had to plead guilty if things had continued to go wrong. And so his line-up turned out to be a good choice, and not just for foreign policy reasons: the lively Olivier Deman, who came from Belgium during the summer sales, played for the defensively oriented left-back Anthony Jung. Senne Lynen, also a Belgian, who was already in the starting line-up at the start of the season, was allowed to replace the clearer Christian Groß – and who was then sent out again by Werner, even though he had done a really good job. Striker Borré also made his inaugural visit to the starting lineup, who has the colossal task of filling the gap left by Niclas “Lücke” Füllkrug since his move to Dortmund.
Access to Borré can change the statics in Bremen’s game
And what must say? The individual cases proved to be a source of inspiration that noticeably brought the collective forward, which in this case must be understood literally: Werder’s recently somewhat dusty combination game was given more speed and options because Deman formed an interesting counterpoint to the busy Mitchell Weiser on the other side. The quality of the passes has increased because Lynen can simply do more with the ball than Groß, whose personnel had recently become a minor political issue on the Weser. Everyone likes him, his story is great too: as a late starter, he made it through Osnabrück and Werder’s second team to become a regular in the professional team, he is the underdog with whom the Bremen team can identify. Recently, however, he has been an example of the stagnation in the club. Tall sometimes seems wooden – and he is prone to those safety passes that can become a problem two or three plays later because they close spaces instead of opening them.
“Points help in every situation”: Justin Njinmah on his winning goal.
(Photo: Michael Taeger/Imago)
These changes in the middle structure explain why Bremen had more control against Cologne than in the confusing previous weeks. And the escalation in attack also worked: Borré proved to be the bustling troublemaker that he was supposed to be during his year-long corpse from Frankfurt; he scored the equalizer in the 38th minute after a pass from striker colleague Marvin Ducksch. A “good boy” had joined the Bremen team, praised Ducksch, a “likeable person who is always smiling”. And someone who can change the statics of the Bremen game because he represents a kind of counter-model to the massive filling pitcher. The same also applies to Justin Njinmah, who came on for Borré, a lightning-fast homegrown player who was most recently on loan to Dortmund. Before his winning goal, Njinmah also raced after a nice pass, which this time came from Lynen and would most likely not have been played so precisely into the run by Groß.
“Everyone did their job,” Werner said truthfully about the newcomers. Which is why the question arises: How hard do the Bremen fans’ hearts beat when royal transfer Naby Keita has more than five minutes of stoppage time in his legs?