...three goals that were met: “We came up with plenty of other goals for this season, some of which failed to appear. We exceeded them in some regards. The first big part of our work was implementing a winning mentality within the club and the team. The team did a really great job of implementing that. They never gave up and never let themselves go, even in situations where it would have been understandable to do so. The boys always bounced back. I find that remarkable and I think we’ll be able to benefit from that for a long time. This season was just the beginning.
Secondly, we wanted to be known once again for the way in which we play. We wanted to reawaken that feeling of ‘Here comes Werder, and everyone knows what that stands for.’ Werder plays high and with confidence, and works their way towards goal. We wanted to defend strongly. We stand for something, no matter our formation or tactics, which vary. I think the fans appreciated that.
Our third goal was to develop players, especially young ones. In my opinion, we exceeded our task in this regard. It’s important for me to say that it’s not us coaches or the club that develop the players—they do it themselves. They accept the offer to take their game to the next level. As an example, I can name Milot Rashica, Maximilian and Johannes Eggestein and Josh Sargent. But, Theodor Gebre Selassie had a great season as well, and Kevin Möhwald improved greatly.”
… the points total: “In my opinion, 53 points are a lot. We were strong in both halves of the season, and collected more points during the second half. On average, over the last three halves of the season, we picked up at least 25 points. That’s good. That’s due to consistency, and not due to the fixture list.”