FTWerder

Bonjour, dear Toulouse supporters! Firstly, please excuse my incredibly limited knowledge of the French language - I hope I can still provide some value writing this in English. For a translation, I think the deepl.com translator is pretty reliable. With the transfer of Niklas Schmidt to your club imminent, I wanted to give you a little perspective from a life-long Bremen supporter about the kind of player and person that's about to join your team. Schmidt wasn't a regular starter for us last season, but many supporters argued that he should have been, calling him »the best footballer on the team«. That's partly because a lot of our players lack footballing intelligence/awareness as well as technical skill, but it's also a testament to Schmidt's potential. He might already be 25, but I do think his pure talent would allow him to make another step up. Back when he was playing in the youth academy, he was regularly invited to the German U17 and U19 national teams, excelling with his breathtaking passing and stunning goals from long range. Young Schmidt was not a hard worker. He was so naturally gifted that everything came to him, he was a classic playmaker, a #10 that reminded people of Kevin De Bruyne when he went on loan to Bremen a few years before Schmidt broke through the youth system. He had an amazing vision and spatial awareness, and he paired that with sublime, intuitive passing. But there was one problem that kept him from showcasing his talents at senior level: He had massive fitness and work rate issues. If you look up old pictures of Schmidt, you'll see a chubby kid. If you look up highlight compilations, you'll see fancy goals and assists, but next to no defensive legwork put it. It all escalated to a point where Robert Bauer, a far less talented, but far more disciplined defender at the club at that time, picked a fight with Schmidt in training over him being overweight. Werder loaned him out for three years, but nobody really expected him to make it in the first team, ever. Everybody considered Schmidt a wasted talent at that point. Then, two things happened: Schmidt got his shit together. You've been discussing his depression and how he talked about it publicly already, and I think it's fair to say that he's a rather sentimental guy who needs to surround himself with the right people to thrive. One big factor is his girlfriend, who appears to be a little bit of his savior in that she first helped him out with his diet, and then also was important for him to work through his mental health struggles. The other thing that occurred was Werder getting relegated to the 2. Bundesliga. With the lower level of competition, Werder could use a creative player like Schmidt again, because the team wouldn't need to spend all 90 minutes defending. So that's why he started to get somewhat regular game time with the first team finally, contributing a respectable two goals and six assists despite only playing 1/3 of the minutes. His fitness is not an issue anymore, and his willingness to make a tackle is on par with that of other attacking midfielders. What he's not great at is intercepting passes, so you'd want to play him as an attacking #8 in a three-man midfield or as a classic #10. His best attributes are his progressive passing (both short and long range), his creativity around the box, and his shot, especially from range and from set pieces. He's not the fastest, but he can take on a man and dribble. Pretty well-rounded attacking talent, overall. Werder's current coach, Ole Werner, prefers midfielders that are more all-around box-to-box players. We also have a pretty creative centre forward in Marvin Ducksch who has some of the playmaker qualities Schmidt brings to the table, so he isn't the greatest fit stylistically with some of his talents being a little redundant. Whether Schmidt can help you as a starter or merely as a rotational player will depend on your approach on the pitch. Need a workhorse that runs everywhere for 90 minutes? Schmidt is the wrong man for you. Need a player who can connect attacks with passing and positioning, create from deep or play a dangerous ball into the box, maybe score a screamer once or twice a season? Yup, Schmidt's your guy. Beyond that, everyone in Bremen is pretty much in agreement that he's just a lovely human being. Very warm and kind personality, almost too nice for professional football. We need you to take good care of him, but if you do, he's capable of producing some magic moments.