Borussia Monchengladbach remain stuck to the bottom of the Bundesliga after three games following a poor away defeat at Werder Bremen.
Goals from Aron Johannsson and Jannik Vestergaard saw Bremen home in spite of Lars Stindl’s equaliser, with Fin Bartels having an opportunity to extend the lead brilliantly saved by Yann Sommer.
A great result for Bremen who picked up their first win, but Lucien Favre and his men are still searching for their first, heading into the upcoming international break.
Both sides needed a win, but only one showed it
With neither side having won a game in the first two weeks, Bremen and Gladbach were both in desperate need of a win. However, only one team seemed to show that, with Bremen the more urgent from the get-go. Sloppy early on, Die Fohlen struggled to get into the game as Bremen were only to happy to mop up Gladbach’s poor touches and build their own attacks out of it. Monchengladbach manager Favre would have been upset by not only the way his team started, but also the roundabout manner in which they went about asserting themselves in the game.
Favre’s side now sits rooted to the bottom of the Bundesliga with no points from three games, and a long road back up to the heights of last season.
Werder Bremen can trouble the best in the league
Throughout this match, Bremen hardly looked like a team sitting 15th in the table, albeit after two matches. The direct, quick movement of Johannsson and Anthony Ujah was key as they repeatedly targeted the Borussia defence, forcing mistakes and hasty giveaways of possession. Ujah had chances throughout the game, but was unable to capitalise, and ultimately left the scoreline flattering Monchengladbach.
The movement, pace and directness of their attacking gave the sense that if Bremen can keep up this sort of play, where they do not need the lion’s share of possession, then they may very well be able to match it with the better teams in the league moving forward. Just ignore matchday one.
Favre’s system undone by pace again
With the memories of their 4-0 loss to Dortmund still lingering, this loss to Bremen will not have freshened Gladbach up, with Favre’s 4-4-2 system once more undone by a fast, pressing system. The afore-mentioned Ujah and Johannsson created problems for the Monchengladbach defensive line, constantly running in behind, as well as stretching them all the way to the flanks.
Ujah’s pace created the first goal as Marvin Schulz brought him down in the box, however he consistently caused problems all game, with the midfield behind him contributing to press and hassle Die Fohlen when they had the ball.
Much like against Dortmund, Gladbach allowed too much space in between their defensive and midfield banks of four, which helped to create the chances for Viktor Skrypnyk’s side. Schulz was exposed again by opposition forwards, while Zlatko Junuzovic was also a menace for Bremen as a supply chain for those ahead of him. With the international break upon the league, Favre would do well to have a look at how he is setting up at the moment and how he can combat this problem of pace.
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