Werder’s sporting director faced the media on Monday

The drop in performance level came as something of a surprise for Baumann, as SV Werder have recently been characterised by consistent showings in the Bundesliga. “It just goes to show that even if things have been going well recently, there’s no guarantee that they will continue to do so indefinitely,” he warned. “You have to take it game by game, maintain alertness, and never let your focus drop, especially defensively.” Werder will not have long to dwell on the defeat and the fact that they failed to make up ground with the rest of the teams in the middle of the table. “We have to pick ourselves up. It’s a short week of training on the agenda and then we welcome a very in-form team to Bremen on Friday night. It goes without saying that we’ll need to play much better for that game,” emphasised the sporting director.

In spite of the result on Sunday, Baumann was optimistic that the Green-Whites will be able to show a different side of themselves in four days against Adi Hütter’s team. “The boys are self-critical enough to know that the performance against Hoffenheim was far below what was expected of them. They are keen to be better on Friday,” he continued, adding from his own experience: “As a Bundesliga player, you don’t want to let a defeat like that weigh you down.”