“Need to regain our sharpness” | OneFootball

The second half of the Bundesliga season gets underway for Ole Werner and his SV Werder side on Sunday (Photo: W.DE).

Press conference ahead of the home match against FC Augsburg

A busy schedule for the Green-Whites culminates in the beginning of the latter half of the league season on Sunday, 19.01.25, when FC Augsburg come to town (kick-off 17:30 CET). Ahead of the second home match within the space of a few days, Ole Werner spoke in his press conference on Friday about…

… squad updates: “Felix Agu and Keke Topp remain absent due to injury. Senne Lynen will also miss the game through suspension after picking up his fifth yellow card. Senne is obviously a very important player for us and has performed well this season. Nevertheless, we have good options in his position and either Skelly Alvero or Leo Bittencourt could fill in.”

… the last-minute goal conceded against Heidenheim: “It is what it is. We can’t do anything about it now, neither in terms of how it came about our decision-making, so we just have to move forward and give our full focus to the Augsburg game. We need to regain our sharpness in order to find some rhythm again. There are a lot of things that we did well in the last couple matches, playing very well in Leipzig and creating lots of chances against Heidenheim. The fact that the result didn’t go our way on Wednesday is therefore frustrating so that’s something we need to put right on Sunday.”

… the number of goals conceded in the last two matches: “The goals we let in have stemmed from various situations so there isn’t one thing that we need to work on specifically. Obviously, there are the common factors that we need to be aware of like the strengths of the opponent and our own individual mistakes. In that sense, we require better decision-making, which can be developed by greater recognition of danger and how to deal with that depending on the scenario. That is currently being discussed ahead of this next challenge.”

“He is a great example of how hard work pays off.”

Marco Grüll netted his second Bundesliga brace against Heidenheim (Photo: W.DE).

… the form of Marco Grüll: “Marco has performed well in a number of games for us already and Heidenheim was no exception. On the whole, we were good going forward and Marco twice made that show on the score board. He has become effective in front of goal and that has given him the confidence that is so important to a striker. He has also got himself up to the speed of the league now, which is expected to take time. His is a great example of how hard work pays off.”

… possible rotation: “I will make a final call after the training sessions that remain, but we matched our opponents physically in the last couple games and also don’t have too many absentees. Therefore, I am positive ahead of the upcoming game. I won’t rule out changes but it’s nothing something we are being forced into.”

… the opponent: “Augsburg possess similar strengths to Heidenheim. They are very on it defensively, while playing a physical game and using long balls to make for a hectic contest. We need to embrace that intensity and remain alert. We also have to keep in our shape and to play our football in the hope of recording our first win of the new year. Attacking-wise, it’s been really positive so far but just need to get that decisiveness back in our defensive play.”

… aims for the remainder of the campaign: “Having performed well up until now, we want to do ourselves justice by playing just as well, if not better, in the second half of the season. There is still room for further development since each week is different. We hope that cohesion within our squad provides a solid foundation from which we can continue to develop, both as a team and as individual players.”