Baumann: Not hiding when times get tough

Together with head coach Florian Kohfeldt, he explained in detail the reasons behind the team’s “historically bad” season. Analysing the various departments at the club provided a wealth of data, from athletic parameters to statistics, injuries and match data. “It’s clear that the injuries were the main factor that weakened the team for much of the season and well into the Rückrunde,” Baumann said. Players missed a total of 2,000 days due to injuries this season - nearly three times as many days compared to the average across the rest of the league (742 days). In particular, the 905 days players missed across the Hinrunde - largely with muscular issues due to a lack of load management - had a significant impact. Baumann quoted statistics from various studies that have proven that a team loses an average of a point for every 137 days of injuries. A team will drop one place in the table for every 271 days injured. At times, Werder had 12 regular starters out injured. This resulted in a vicious cycle: the high number of injuries significantly reduced the quality of training, the intra-squad competition, the team’s ability to make tactical changes and the option of “adding personnel” during matches. According to Baumann, the team were only in a position to be able to compete in terms of squad depth and athleticism after the enforced break. 

Baumann was self-critical when listing the mistakes that were made this season. It’s true that action was taken early on in order to ease Werder’s injury woes, and that positive change was achieved later through tough personnel decisions, but overall, the club “did not act quickly enough” and lacked “conviction.” In terms of transfers, “very few” of the ideas worked out. Baumann also took the players to task, saying: “Of course, they played a part in this.” In addition to a lack of awareness off set-pieces, “every player fell short of playing to the best of their abilities.” This problem was not down to the coaching staff, as several players who were designated as leaders failed to help the team as expected. 

3. For over two-thirds of the season, the team was unable to have the flexibility it had hoped for given the lack of squad depth, which had an impact on the games. “The coach was thus unable to showcase his strengths,” said Baumann. 

It was Marco Bode, chairman of the supervisory board, who said that it could not just be “business as usual.” The supervisory board had been a critical companion to the club’s decision-makers across the entire season. “We need to be prepared to learn from our mistakes,” Bode said. He added that he is in support of maintaining consistency across the team’s management and coaching staff. “Those who think there are only two extremes - 'stick on the same path' or 'fire some people' - will be disappointed. We undertook a thorough and critical examination of what went wrong. We are all convinced that we want to continue with the management that we currently have. It’s clear that we must continue to develop, but I’m also convinced that we need to remain true to our basic philosophy.”