“Get to 40 points as quickly as possible”

SV Werder Bremen’s Bundesliga campaign gets underway away to SC Freiburg on Sunday, 30th August 2026 (15:30 CEST). The aim is clear: Werder want to have a much better season than they did last time around. Ahead of the opening game, head coach Daniel Thioune spoke at his press conference about…

…the target for the season: “We obviously want to have a much better season. Our first target has to be to get to 40 points as quickly as possible. That’s the first job. Depending on when we get there, we can see what else might be possible. I think it makes sense to keep our feet on the ground and not set our sights too high, while still having a clear target to aim for. It’s no secret that, after last season, plenty of experts have us down towards the bottom end of the table.”

…the style of play he wants to see: “We’ve said that we want to show more resilience on the pitch. To do that, we need to improve our work out of possession. Of course, you can also say that we should be scoring more than three goals against a fifth-tier side, but we also restricted them to a very low xG. Ultimately, though, football is about winning games, and we want to do that with a style that gets us forward quickly and directly. Our first thought should be to play forward rather than wide. That’s what the fans can expect, although it will still take a little time and patience.”

…SC Freiburg: “We’ll go into the game full of respect for them. Freiburg have come such a long way. We’re facing a side who have two players of similar quality in almost every position. They’ve also been regulars in Europe in recent years, and yesterday evening they showed how good they are at managing a game once they’re in control. Freiburg are already operating at a very high level in pretty much every area. But we also know we can cause them problems if we’re brave in possession and find areas that are difficult for them to defend.”

…Eren Dinkci and his knowledge of Freiburg: “Eren has trained fully this week. If he comes through tomorrow’s final training session, he’ll be in contention for Sunday. Given the last few weeks, when he hasn’t been able to train fully, I’d rule out a start for now. We can obviously pick Eren’s brains about Freiburg, but they have very clear patterns of play. They’re also extremely solid and have very clear patterns when the wingers come inside, the full-backs push on or the centre-backs step out to pick up an opposition attacking midfielder. They’re also very dangerous from set pieces. I didn’t need Eren to tell me that.”

…Karl Hein: “Karl no longer has any muscular issues. He’ll therefore start in goal on Sunday and begin the season as our number one. We also know Alex Schlager can perform just as well.”

…Ludovit Reis: “You’ve already seen that six months without football haven’t held him back. He covered more ground than anyone else against Lüneburg. What he still needs is to build a better understanding with the rest of the team. That’s why it was important to me to keep him on the pitch with his teammates for as long as possible. But Ludo has settled in now. He’s happy to be playing football again and to be part of a team that is working well together. He’ll definitely have plenty to offer us.”

…Niclas Füllkrug: “The Niclas we all know has already made a big impact on the squad with his personality. Now it’s about him making the same kind of impact on the pitch. I think he’s in surprisingly good physical shape given how little he’s played. He’s certainly not someone who fades into the background. We need his incredible energy. It rubs off on everyone around him. It wouldn’t be a surprise if he started on Sunday.”

…his criticism of Samuel Mbangula: “I didn’t make excuses for why I took him off early. I’m not going to drop a player after one below-par game. I spoke to him about it. Sometimes you have to remind a player that he needs to give that little bit more if he wants to keep getting minutes. I think Sam took the criticism very well. It’s never personal. We can talk openly with each other. But it was so obvious that we simply had to address it. He was disappointed in himself, but delighted that we made it through to the next round.”

…the limited options at full-back: “If we’re talking about Mick Schmetgens and Marco Grüll, they’re certainly not stopgaps. They’re solid options for us. Of course, the aim is also to get Mitchell Weiser and Felix Agu back. I don’t know when that will be, but the fact is they are our players. I think it would be important to add another versatile defender. Who we can bring in will obviously depend on the market as well.”