Opponent profile: Focus on SV Werder Bremen

The trend

With 1-1 draws against Hannover 96 and newly promoted 1. FC Nürnberg, as well as victories over Frankfurt, Augsburg and Berlin, Werder Bremen have made a very amicable start to the 2018/2019 Bundesliga season. With five games played, the north Germany are level on points with Dortmund in third place.

The coach

Florian Kohfeldt has been head coach of Werder Bremen for under a year. The 35-year-old tool charge of the Bundesliga team at the end of October 2017, having previously coached the club’s Under 23s in the '3. Liga'. Born in Siegen, Kohfeldt has coached several Werder youth teams along the way. In the Bundesliga, he boasts an impressive tally: Since taking the reins, Werder have not lost a single game at home in the Weserstadion. Following the pre-season preparations, Florian Kohfeldt confidently declared the goal of making a return to European cup football – and thus reigniting the euphoria on the banks of the Weser. The assistant-coaches of Werder’s Bundesliga side are Thomas Horsch and Tim Borowski.

The record-man

Last Saturday, Claudio Pizarro reached an exceptional milestone. Away to FC Augsburg, in the 14^th minute of the match, the front-man achieved the impressive figure of 30,000 Bundesliga minutes. Thanks to the 3-2 away victory, the Peruvian celebrated his 235^th Bundesliga win. The striker, who turns 40 next Wednesday, thus drew level with Franz Beckenbauer. Oliver Kahn leads the all-time Bundesliga victory rankings with 310 wins.

The former favourites

After nine years away, this summer Martin Harnik returned to SV Werder. In between his stints in Bremen he spent one year on loan at Fortuna Düsseldorf, six years with VfB and two seasons with Hannover 96. The former Austrian international scored 53 goals in 173 Bundesliga games in the shirt with the infamous hoop.

The new signings

This season, Werder compensated for ten departures with nine new signings. In Davy Klaassen, a Dutch international made the move to the banks of the Weser from Everton FC. Experienced Bundesliga veterans Yuya Osako (1. FC Köln), Martin Harnik (Hannover 96), Nuri Sahin (Borussia Dortmund) and the returning Claudio Pizarro (1. FC Köln) all linked up with Werder. In addition, the side from the Hanseatic city signed Kevin Möhwald from 1. FC Nürnberg, Felix Beijmo from Swedish first division side Djurgardens IF, Jan-Niklas Beste from Borussia Dortmund and goalkeeper Stefanos Kapino from Nottingham Forest.