Werder Bremen prepare for Bundesliga life again with defensive reinforcements

The Northern Power Plant bounced straight to the Bundesliga in May thanks to a 2-0 victory on the last day over Jahn Regensburg.

The four-time Bundesliga champions were only relegated in the previous campaign, but after a poor start they have found their feet in the 2. Bundesliga be a finalist Schalke.

Bremen are now tasked with trying to stay in the Bundesliga after a few years of turmoil at the club.

Club fans will have been impressed by Breamthe first deals of this summer, as they secured the signing of defenders Amos Pieper and Niklas Stark.

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Pieper arrives from the newly relegated side Arminia Bielefeld on a free transfer after his contract expires this summer.

The 24-year-old has 57 Bundesliga appearances to his name for Bielefeld over the past two seasons, showing why he has been capped by Germany at Under-21 level on ten occasions.

The central defender started his career at FC Nordkirchen but was quickly snatched up by Borussia Dortmundthe 2010 youth team where he spent his entire youth career.

However, having never made a senior appearance for Dortmund, he left for Arminia Bielefeld looking for regular playing time.

The move propelled his career as he was able to show off his talent every week and helped Bielefeld earn promotion in the 2019-20 season.

For someone his age, the German defender is a great reader of the game and although he doesn’t have a breakneck pace, he often gets in front of his man to intercept the ball and stop attacks.

Although he is a good one-on-one defender, the 6’4” defender struggles when dragged into the wider channel which is why he is expected to play in the middle of the three rears from Bremen.

Werder Bremen administrator Ole Werner showed his enthusiasm with the signing of the former Germany Under-21 international.

He said: “Amos is physically strong, has the ability to play from the back and is strong in the air. He has already proven that he can mix with the big boys of the Bundesliga.”

Pieper spoke well of Director of Professional Football Bremen, Clement Fritz as he explained why he chose Bremen.

He said: “The plans the club set for me and the opportunities here immediately appealed to me and left me with a good feeling. That’s why I chose Werder. The photos of the promotion celebrations and what was happening in Bremen also helped support my decision.”

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Stark arrived shortly after Pieper from Hertha Berlin again on a free transfer.

The 27-year-old had just helped Hertha stay in the Bundesliga with a 2-1 aggregate win over Hamburger S.V. in the relegation playoffs.

Stark will bring a ton of experience to this Bremen with nearly 200 Bundesliga appearances to his name and two caps with the German national team.

The 6’3” centre-back has struggled in recent years after showing great promise at Nürnberg which leads to Hertha Berlin bought it in 2015.

Stark will seek a fresh start in Bremen after leaving the chaos that is Hertha Berlin currently and will focus on trying to achieve the form that got him into the national team.

Fritz was again a happy man with this transfer.

He said: “We’ve been keeping tabs on Niklas for a long time and now we’ve had the chance to bring him to Bremen. With almost 200 Bundesliga games under his belt, he will bring a lot of experience with him.

Stark said he wanted to play a “Role in Werder’s permanent establishment in the Bundesliga.”

Where will they fit?

Young manager Ole Werner brought the Northern giants back to the Bundesliga using the 3-5-2 formation and many expect him to continue with this system when he returns to the Premier League.

Marco Friedl will be a guaranteed starter in the left-of-three next season as Bremen attempt to tie the 24-year-old Austria international to a long-term deal.

That leaves the other two centre-back positions that have been filled by veterans Omer Toprak and Milos Veljkovic the majority of last season.

Many expect Toprak to be dropped from the squad as he continues to age, with Pieper likely to play the central back three role next season due to his size and lack of recovery speed for play the role of right centre-back.

That would leave Stark battling Veljković for the right centre-back role of the three as well as possibly challenging Pieper for the central role.

Werner might also be tempted to play Stark in the role of six as he has played that role in the past for Hertha Berlin.

It is of course a gesture that Werner has already made with Christian Gross who he moved from centre-back to role-six last season due to lack of defensive midfield options at the Wohninvest Weserstadion.

With Groß being 33, Werner might be tempted to test Stark in his role with an eye to the future and also add more pace to that area.

And then ?

Bream should return for the pre-season on the 19the June before leaving for Austria on the 30e June for a training camp.

Werner, however, will want to add more reinforcements to his squad before the Bundesliga season kicks off on the 5th.e August.

Following the signings of Pieper and Stark, Bremen are now expected to look to strengthen in midfield as they struggled last season to find a defensive midfielder to replace Gros or even take over. of the 33-year-old player.

There are also question marks as to where the creativity will come from in the upcoming campaign, as neither Romano Schmid Where Nicholas Schmidt have a lot of experience in the first division and Leonard Bittencourt struggled to realize the potential he showed early in his career at cologne.

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