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While one specific result should not signal the end for any football coach ­as proven by Feyenoord's excellent decision to retain Mario Been after they lost 10-0 to PSV last month ­ the latest defeat for Werder Bremen, a 6-0thrashing at Stuttgart, has kick-started a debate about the future of their boss Thomas Schaaf.

Schaaf is the longest-serving coach in the Bundesliga, having been at the Weserstadion since 1999, and before that, he spent four years with the reserve team. Schaaf also deserves huge respect for sticking to his belief in attacking football, which is why Bremen are so often involved in high-scoring matches. It's always worth looking at the over 2.5 goals option when they play as well as the other goals markets ­ six of their matches this season have already had five or more goals in them.

But the major complaint at the moment is not that their attacking potential has dried up ­ with a team that contains the likes of Marko Marin, Aaron Hunt, Claudio Pizarro, Tim Borowski and Daniel Jensen, that's unlikely to ever happen ­ but that their defensive side of the game is not working.

And so it proved against Stuttgart, a side that lost six of its first seven matches but since sacking Christian Gross and replacing him with number two Jens Keller, has been steadily moving up the table. Cacau scored twice and could have had another but missed a penalty, while the score could have been very different had Torsten Frings not missed a penalty of how own at 1-0.

"Going forward, all of us work hard. Tracking back, less so," said Pizarro last week. "That's our problem. We are very good to watch but it's not easy for the strikers. If you're scoring three goals but concede four, it's not ideal."

Bremen's sports director Klaus Allofs has vowed to be patient with Schaaf but has indirectly taken some of the blame himself. Not for the first time, he has critcised Mikael Silvestre, a player he signed last summer, for Bremen's defensive issues, claiming: "He is in a difficult spot and plays well below his ability."

Bremen are safely in mid-table but given their hopes of Champions League qualification again this season, they should be higher. They take on Frankfurt next week, and are 1.95 to win, looking to end a run of four straight losses and after playing Schalke, take on Tottenham in what promises to be a thrilling European tie at White Hart Lane. Bremen are 10.0 to go further than Bayern and Schalke in the competition, but the
bet for the Spurs game will be in the Over-Goals market.

Schaaf was understandably critical of his side after the Stuttgart loss. "We completely failed to do what we had to but we must get this out of our system," he said. "We tried a few things today but we played like it was a training session, which is clearly insufficient for a competitive game." His longevity, and previous success, at the club, should grant him some grace but questions are still being asked.

As Suddeutsche Zeitung's Raphael Honigstein put it: "There is a suspicion that this team could be so much better with a manager in charge who spent more time drilling defensive movement rather than lecturing his players."

By Ben Lyttleton

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