Werder Bremen 2026/27 season preview: Can Green-Whites climb the table under Daniel Thioune?
Werder Bremen ended the 2025/26 season in 15th place - only three points above relegated Wolfsburg. Head coach Daniel Thioune's task has not been helped by the departure of several key players over the summer, but their replacements - including veteran striker Niclas Füllkrug - are determined to fire the Green-Whites up the table.
Werder Bremen
2025/26 finish: 15th
Pre-season results: 6-2 win vs. Verden, 2-0 win vs. Fagiano Okayama, 2-0 win vs. Bochum, 4-2 win vs. Energie Cottbus, 2-2 draw vs. Paderborn, 1-0 loss vs. Auxerre
First three fixtures: Freiburg (A), RB Leipzig (H), Cologne (A)
What to expect?
After flirting with a return to the second tier last season, Werder are determined to take another step in the right direction this term. However, this has been anything but an easy summer for head coach Thioune, despite some promising results in pre-season.
Goalkeeper Mio Backhaus, Romano Schmid, Karim Coulibaly and Leonardo Bittencourt have all left the club, while 2025/26 loanees Yukinari Sugawara, Jovan Milosević, Victor Boniface and Maximilian Wöber have either returned to their parent clubs or moved on to pastures new.
They have been replaced - for the most part at least - with a group of raw but highly gifted youngsters. Chuki, a 22-year-old playmaker from Valladolid, is arguably the most exciting of those young arrivals, but the likes of Dariusz Stalmach (20), Kenny Quetent (20) and Darwin Soylu (19) will all have big parts to play this season.
That injection of young blood may be just what Werder need to secure a third top-half finish in four seasons.
Key new signing: Niclas Füllkrug
The most high-profile arrival, however, was Füllkrug, who is back for a third spell at the Weserstadion after joining on loan from West Ham United.
The 33-year-old hit 49 goals in 124 appearances across his first two stints in Bremen, helping the club return to the top flight in 2022 and finishing as the Bundesliga’s joint-top scorer 12 months later.
His goals and experience could prove vital in keeping Werder’s heads above water this time around.
See all of Bremen’s summer comings and goings here
Watch: Füllkrug arrives back in Bremen
Key player: Marco Friedl
Jens Stage was also set to play a key role for Werder this season, but the Danish midfielder suffered a thigh muscle injury on the eve of Bremen’s opener against Freiburg and is set to be out until 2027.
Check out Bremen’s new jerseys for 2026/27
The 29-year-old, who scored 10 goals in 29 Bundesliga appearances last term, will hope to make up for lost time when he returns to full fitness. For now, though, Thioune will have to make do without one of his most influential stars.
Captain and left-back Friedl may be a very different player to Stage, but the former Bayern Munich defender’s experience and consistency will be more important than ever as Bremen come to terms with the absence of their midfield talisman.
Talking point
With matches against Freiburg and RB Leipzig coming up at the start of their league campaign, Werder’s new recruits will need to hit the ground running.
Thioune, though, insists games against last season’s UEFA Europa League finalists and Martín Demichelis’ exciting Leipzig side will not define their season. “Our first target has to be to get to 40 points as quickly as possible,” he said. “Depending on when we get there, we can see what else might be possible.
“It makes sense to keep our feet on the ground, while still having a clear target to aim for.”
Follow Werder’s Bundesliga opener against Freiburg here!
