Werder appointed U23 coach Alexander Nouri as the new head coach and he said, “We need to bring the fans back onto our side.” However, Nouri’s first match in charge of the Green-Whites ended in disappointment as Mainz ran out 2-1 winners at the Weser-Stadion. However, Nouri didn’t have to wait long before he was able to register his first win as Werder head coach. Lennart Thy’s stunning 86th minute equaliser was followed by a Theodor Gebre Selassie header in stoppage time to turn the game around and seal a 2-1 home win for the Green-Whites and Nouri. Gebre-Selassie won exactly 100 aerial duels last season and four of his five goals were scored with his head.
Werder followed up the dramatic home win with a 2-2 draw in Darmstadt. Then Werder gained their 750th Bundesliga win with a 2-1 victory over Bayer Leverkusen at the Weser-Stadion. Ousman Manneh scored the winner and said after the game, “I can’t belive it. I’ve fulfilled one of my dreams.” However, Werder lacked consistency in the first half of the season. The Green-Whites used no fewer than 31 different players over the course of the first half of the campaign. Werder didn’t pick up a single point from four successive games against Leipzig, Freiburg, Schalke and Frankfurt. However, despite trailing twice in the Nordderby in Hamburg, Werder came away with a point and Frank Baumann said after the match, “We’re finding it hard to be content going home with a point.”
