Ole Werner reveals the most important elements

Lars-Lukas Mai and Mitchell Weiser, who have both begun to quarantine, are unavailable for the away match against Jahn Regensburg. Eren Dinkci and Niklas Schmidt are also ruled out due to Coronavirus reasons, and Abed Nankishi and Nick Woltemade are still sidelined through injury.

There is, however, more positive news when it comes to two of Werder’s squad members. “Nicolai Rapp and Fabio Chiarodia trained individually on Tuesday for the first time, but we’ll have to see later on whether or not they’ll be ready for the weekend,” commented Ole Werner.

Ole Werner is keeping his cards close to his chest when it comes to Friday’s starting line-up, as he is not one to stick to the classic motto ‘never change a winning team’. He did go on to say that a strong foundation is important for his side: “I think every team needs a good structure and that you shouldn’t be making loads of changes every week.”

Despite all this, the starting XI and the way in which the team is set up are topics of discussion every week: “For me, there are three factors which determine my starting XI. The first is the performance from the previous game; the second is how the players have performed in training, which can vary from week to week; and the third concerns how to best set up tactically against the upcoming opponent. These all play a role in my decision-making process.”