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Werder Bremen dismiss coach Alexander Nouri

October 30, 2017

Bundesliga club Werder Bremen have sacked head coach Alexander Nouri. The widely expected move comes with the team yet to have won a league match this season and follows a 3-0 defeat at home to Augsburg.

Deutschland Bundesliga Alexander Nouri, Trainer SV Werder Bremen
Image: picture-alliance/nordphoto/Ewert

Werder Bremen announced the dismissal of head coach Alexander Nouri in a statement posted on their website on Monday. In the statement, sporting director Frank Baumann thanked Nouri for his work at the club.

"Alex took on a very tough task last season and successfully accomplished it. We want to thank him for that," Baumann said. "He brings everything that a successful coach does. I am sure that he will be successful in another post."

Nouri, 38, had held the post since being promoted from Werder's under-23 team in September of 2016 after the club parted ways with Viktor Skripnik. 

Nouri initially took over on an interim basis, but after three games Werder committed to the German-Iranian coach until the end of this season. Under Nouri, Bremen climbed from last place to sixth in the standings after an 11-game undefeated run. The Green and Whites lost their last three games to end the season in eighth place, but the meteoric rise prompted the club to give Nouri a two-year contract extension until 2019.

This time, the club has also gone for an internal solution, promoting current under-23 coach to Florian Kohfeldt to bench boss of the Bundesliga team. He is to be assisted by current assistant coach Thomas Horsch and U17 assistant coach Tim Borowski.

"We are of the belief that this coaching team will implement an important impuse in the next few days and can stabilize the the team," Baumann said.

Nouri is the third Bundesliga coach to lose his job this season, following Andries Jonker who was sacked by Wolfsburg in mid-September and Carlo Ancelotti who was let go by Bayern following their Champions League defeat in Paris at the end of last month.