Werder Bremen vs Borussia Dortmund preview
Borussia Dortmund has undoubtedly been one of the most prolific attacking sides in the Bundeliga, and indeed the whole of Europe in recent times. Thomas Tuchel took over an already brilliant attacking team from Jurgen Klopp and turned them into an even more fearsome attacking unit scoring goals for fun and terrorising opposition defenders, but this season has been anything but positive for them so far.
Borussia Dortmund currently lie 6th on the Bundesliga table, below seemingly lower opposition sides like the overachieving Leipzig, Hertha Berlin, Eintracht Frankfurt and Hoffenheim. It would seem like their defence is suffering from the departure of their former defender and captain, Mats Hummels because even though they have scored the second most number of goals (35) in the league after Bayern Munich (39), they have conceded quite a number of goals too, almost twice as many as Bayern have and are 12 points adrift of the league leaders. They have won none of their last 3 league games, drawing all 3; out of their 16 games this season, they have won just 7, drawn 6 and lost 3, a far cry from their performance at this stage last season. And to make matters worse, they are missing their number one striker who is currently with Gabon at the ongoing African Cup of Nations. Although his absence notwithstanding, they still possess enough firepower in attack and will be desperate to end their their winless streak, which will be very key to them getting their season back on track and start staking a claim for the title or at least a top four spot.
Werder Bremen on the other hand seem to be doing well recently. Although they still sit dangerously close to the the drop zone, leading Hamburger SV with just 3 points, they are unbeaten in their last 5 league games, picking up a total of 9 out of a maximum 15 points. But at the same time, they have won only one of the last 10 meetings with Dortmund, so despite their seemingly good form and Dortmund’s recent poor results, they still have an uphill task when they host the 6th place side at the Weser Stadium this weekend.
Serge Gnabry has been a real livewire for Werder Bremen this season but none of his 7 goals has made much difference for his club as they are yet to win any match in which he has scored, but Dortmund will still have to be careful as he has enough quality about him to cause their poor defence a few problems. Also, Clemens Fritz and Claudio Pizarro are back to full fitness and Alexander Nouri will be delighted to have these key players around on Saturday.
On the other hand, Pierre-Emerick is not the only key absentee from Thomas Tuchel’s side as Roman Burki is still out with a broken hand, Neven Subotic, Ousmane Dembele,Nuri Sahin and Lars Bender are all also likely to miss out due to varying degrees of injury.
These problems faced by Dortmund notwithstanding, they are still favourites for this fixture and history may just work in their favor again.
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