Werder Bremen lean heavily on Niclas Füllkrug after turbulent international break

An international break that began with Werder Bremen sitting on seven points after four Bundesliga fixtures has not been kind to Germany's green Hanseatic city-state club. Daniel Thioune's side entered the break with genuine momentum.

Seven points and eight goals offered evidence that Thioune had begun adding more expansive ideas to the compact football initially required during last season's relegation battle. Werder were making effective tactical adjustments, had already scored four times from dead-ball situations and, most importantly, had repeatedly demonstrated the resilience required to overturn deficits.

Niclas Füllkrug stood near the center of the revival. Any assumption that the 33-year-old would simply resume where he left off at his former club had been tempered by two difficult years away from Bremen.

One month into his return, however, Kicker could already write that Füllkrug was performing and leading "as if he had never been away. Werder Bremen's international break takes an ugly turn The problems actually began before Werder's disastrous 0-7 friendly defeat at FC Twente.

Highly-rated young striker Salim Musah suffered a serious thigh injury while away with the Germany U20s. The 1.98-meter attacker, who had featured four times from the bench this season, will not return until the new year.

One day later, Werder mutually terminated Dawid Kownacki's contract. The 29-year-old had not played a single professional minute this season and no longer possessed a meaningful sporting perspective at the club.

That departure was expected to some degree. Markus Pilawa,appointed only in May as Werder's head of squad planning and transfer strategy, also left the club at the end of September.

Personal circumstances in his family environment were explicitly cited as the reason and his departure should not be conflated with Werder's sporting situation. It nevertheless added another change to an already turbulent period.

Werder lost 0-7 to Twente in a behind-closed-doors friendly that almost immediately obliterated the good feeling generated by their Bundesliga start. Thioune's team trailed 0-4 after just 21 minutes and 0-6 at halftime."