- Team form: Stuttgart have been unbeaten in their last two matches, beating Leverkusen and Paderborn.
- Recent form: Bremen have taken two wins, two draws and a defeat in their last five games.
- Key player: Niclas Füllkrug has scored 3 of Bremen's Bundesliga 2026/2027 goals and 7 of their last 9 in all competitions.
Chess match in perspective at MHPArena
Form and recent results
VfB Stuttgart should have just a little more about them than SV Werder Bremen when they clash at MHPArena on Saturday afternoon. The Schwaben have been in solid form since the start of the season, winning their last two games to take a 4-2 win at Leverkusen on matchday two and a 1-0 win at Paderborn on matchday four.
Tactics
Sebastian Hoeneß has done a great job at VfB since his appointment on 3 April 2023 and his team have shown great variety in playing styles when necessary. The 4-2-3-1 and 4-3-3 formations look equally likely to be used on Saturday and the emphasis in all of them is on getting the ball wide and forwards quickly using vertical passing and selective pressing to speed the game up.
Home record
Stuttgart have won one, drawn none and lost two of their three Bundesliga 2026/2027 home games, so far, but have scored six times. A 2-3 home defeat to Borussia Mönchengladbach has shown that they can be prone to the occasional error at the back, but their attacking quality has impressed, with Ermedin Demirovic contributing four of their last 12 goals.
Füllkrug is the key man for the visitors
The visitors, who sit fifth in the Bundesliga 2026/2027 with 15 points from eight games, have the better position coming into this game with two more points than their hosts in 10th with nine points from the same number of games. Daniel Thioune took over on 4 February 2026 and has set his team up in a compact, well-structured system that makes it hard for opponents to get the ball down and break through them.
Bremen have one win, two draws and one defeat in four Bundesliga 2026/2027 away games, conceding nine goals already, while their 2-0 home win over Hoffenheim on opening day was followed by a defeat to Dortmund in the Cup.
- Bremen can hit back quickly when the opposition over-commits, which has often been the case in their Bundesliga 2026/2027 games, with Niclas Füllkrug the key to the system.
- The prolific striker has three of Werder's Bundesliga goals in 2026/2027, which is a huge proportion, but he also scored seven of their previous nine.
- So this could be a chess match of Stuttgart's possession game against Bremen's counter-attack, which should make it a little open.
Stuttgart should edge it
Bremen's cup loss came in Dortmund, however, and they will not be as open as the Schwaben when they play in Stuttgart. That said, the hosts are in better form and look slightly more likely to win this, but the odds do not reflect the closeness of the encounter we see in prospect.
Bremen will get chances to score on the counter-attack with their main man in form and, although Stuttgart have the best of the goals on paper, we'll pass up the 1.48 odds on Hoeneß's side to take Over 2.5 goals at 1.3 and both teams to score at 1.42. The last Bundesliga meeting in Stuttgart finished 1-1 six months ago and the Schwaben have not won either of their two previous games at home to Bremen, but they have enough quality to nick this one.
