Bremen
When Christian Groß had to undergo knee surgery last week, they put their heads together at Werder Bremen. Are our players in the central midfield still well enough after the veteran ‘s injury, who will be out for up to eight weeks? Or do we have to look around among those professionals who are currently without a contract and therefore immediately obliged to do so?
The consideration
“There are always considerations, but we decided against it,” said Clemens Fritz, head of scouting for the second division soccer team, and explained: “Players without a contract who have had no team training since May then also need their time to convert to achieve their match fitness. That would take a few weeks again. “
The revelation
In the first game after the big failure in the desperate 3-0 at Dynamo Dresden, however, it was revealed that Werder’s biggest gap was in the central midfield. Coach Markus Anfang entrusted the 21-year-old Ilia Gruev with the role in front of the defense, and for the first time he was allowed to play in the starting line-up. Gruev deserved it because he was thrown into the game after the yellow-red card for Groß in the derby against Hamburger SV (0: 2 / Groß injured himself in training afterwards) and made a good impression there. The strong fighters from Dresden revealed, however, that the Bulgarian still lacks a whole lot of robustness and quality in order to achieve second division maturity. Gruev only won 42 percent of his tackles – too little in this position.
The weakening
Maximilian Eggestein (SC Freiburg), Kevin Möhwald (Union Berlin) and Patrick Erras (Holstein Kiel) had given up Werder after relegation, in Nicolai Rapp only signed one midfielder for the center. Leonardo Bittencourt (more offensive anyway) and Groß are now out – and Werder no longer has a real two-man in midfield, as Philipp Bargfrede was for years. He is now playing in the second, ending his career.
