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“It gives me more options once again”
DANIEL THIOUNE AHEAD OF THE GAME AWAY AT 1. FC KÖLN
10/04/26 von Colin Hüge | 3 Min
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Werder Bremen travel to face 1. FC Köln on Sunday, 12th April (15:30 CEST), in a crucial clash in the battle to avoid relegation. Speaking at his Friday morning press conference, head coach Daniel Thioune discussed, among other things…
…any potential involvement of Victor Boniface: “I’d rule that out for right now because he’s simply not in the right physical condition yet. He does have our full trust, but if he’s not fit, he won’t be in the squad. It’s still a few days too early.”
…the options in attack: “Jovan will be back in the squad. Whether he’s ready for more than 15 minutes, we’ll have to see. Salim is an option to start, as he’s earned that with his recent performances. But we also shouldn’t put too much weight on his shoulders by expecting a lot. Justin is available again as well. It gives me more options in attack once again and also more flexibility during the game to adjust the system and react to situations.”
…Köln’s Said El Mala: “He’s a hot topic, but so are all of their players. That also includes Ache, Kaminski and Schwäbe. The new coach clearly sees El Mala as someone who should be on the pitch, so I expect him to play. We’ve been working very intensively and have really developed how we play out of possession. We’ll do everything to defend against what they throw at us, the stats from the past few weeks show that we’ve been doing so. We need to be very solid again in general, not just against El Mala.”
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…Köln’s new head coach René Wagner: “He’s worked in both the Bundesliga and 2. Bundesliga for a long time, alongside Steffen Baumgart. I don’t know him personally. I can only look at their match against Frankfurt. It’s a home game for Köln, so it will be intense, and it’s important that we take control of the game.”
…the importance of the upcoming fixtures: “Our focus is always on the next opponent, and right now that’s Köln. After Bayern München, they’re the team that have come back from behind most often, we need to make sure we prevent that from happening on Sunday. At the same time, we want to be more effective going forward again. The matches after this are just as important, and I’ll make sure the team is prepared for them.”
…the team’s goalscoring record so far: “The team has a clear plan for how we want to work off the ball. We’re also managing to get into dangerous areas. This week we’ve been doing a lot of work on shooting in training, and worked on those duels in the box. In the end, maybe we’ve been lacking a bit of luck, whether the ball comes off the post and goes in or not, for example. We’re working on becoming more clinical so we can pick up the points we need to stay up.”
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