There's an old English adage you often hear in football circles: you should never change a winning team. And while those words of wisdom are clearly shaping Peter Stöger's thinking in the run-up to the away match at SV Werder Bremen on Sunday (kick-off 18:00 CET), the coach is refusing to completely close the door on other options.

"There is no reason to think about it and yet it always remains a consideration: how has the training been this week? What's the opposition like?" He added: "We now have a large group and more possibilities to implement changes."

Shinji Kagawa is back – although whether he is a candidate for a starting berth after an injury layoff of over two months Stöger did not say. Instead he turned his attentions to the issue of inconsistency: "This season we're yet to succeed in putting a run of two or three really good performances together," reminded Stöger. "My hope is that we can continue from where we left off in the Leverkusen game. That means more of the same if at all possible. We're now in a really decisive period. We missed an opportunity against Schalke but thankfully we beat a direct rival in Leverkusen. Now the task is to build on that in the next one or two weeks."

A victory in Bremen could help the team take another step towards securing a Champions League spot for next season. (br)