Werder Bremen
August 8, 2006
Maybe. With Mohamed Zidan off to Mainz and Ivan Klasnic undergoing a kidney transplant, Bremen suddenly look uncharacteristically thin up front. Time will tell whether Sweden's Markus Rosenberg is an adequate replacement.
Top scorer Miroslav Klose and superlative playmaker Diego should be able to pick up much of the slack. But injuries to either one of them could dramatically stall Werder's goal-scoring machine.
What's more, given the amount of goals they've notch up, they should be much further ahead in the standings. If they can get more out of players like Tim Borowski, who disappointed early on, and learn how to win the close games as well as the blow-outs, there's no reason Bremen can't pick up their fifth league championship. But they may regret not doing more to improve during the winter break.
The Roster
Goal: Andreas Reinke, Tim Wiese, Kasper Jensen, Christian Vander
Defense: Petri Pasanen, Naldo, Pierre Wome, Clemens Fritz, Patrick Owomoyela, Florian Mohr, Christian Schulz
Midfield: Frank Baumann, Jurica Vranjes, Diego, Daniel Jensen, Torsten Frings, Tim Borowski, Peter Niemeyer,
Strikers: Miroslav Klose, Aaron Hunt, Ivan Klasnic, Hugo Almeida, Jerome Polenz, Markus Rosenberg
(as of January 2007)