At the Bielefeld team with Patrick Wimmer (l.), Union and Bastian Oczipka conceded the third bankruptcy in a row.
Photo: imago images/Ulrich Hufnagel
Urs Fischer did not appear particularly concerned on Thursday. Losing three games in a row, the coach of 1. FC Union knows this situation. In their first year in the Bundesliga, the Berliners had three similar negative series, one of them with four games without winning a point. The 56-year-old Swiss remained level-headed at the time and remains calm these days. There are good reasons for it. But Fischer was just as unwilling to deny a certain disillusionment. “Of course that leaves its mark,” he said, referring to the recent defeats against Augsburg, Dortmund and Bielefeld.
The significantly increased excitement in the public eye is closely linked to the sporting development of Union. Hardly anyone had believed the Köpenick footballers capable of anything as a promoted team, so victories in the German elite class were still seen as a surprise. Just over two and a half years and a European Conference League qualifier later, perceptions have changed. Not the sense of entitlement at 1. FC Union. Fischer recalled this in an almost reassuring manner: “We have one goal, that means staying in the league.” A look at the table doesn’t give much cause for concern – with 34 points after 23 match days, the Berliners are in ninth place.
Even in the analysis of the last three games, Fischer couldn’t find anything too frightening. The trainer asked the following question in the media room: “How do defeats happen?” None was mandatory, he answered himself. His team did not play much worse than in January, which was more successful. He was assisted by a colleague from around 450 kilometers away. “The quality was still recognizable, they just didn’t take their chances,” Bo Svensson explained to the Mainz journalists on Thursday. The Danish coach can see for himself this Saturday when he comes to the Alte Försterei with Mainz 05.
The current lack of “competitive luck” and reduced “self-confidence” – in the duel between the direct table neighbors, the Berliners are not only going under difficult conditions according to their coach. An opponent is waiting who has scored seven points from the last three games, recently beat Bayer Leverkusen spectacularly and, according to Fischer, has no real weaknesses. At 1. FC Union, on the other hand, it doesn’t really fit either at the front or at the back. On the defensive, the Berliners made a somewhat more stable impression after two bad performances in Augsburg and against Dortmund in a 0-1 draw in Bielefeld. But the opponent was also that Arminia, which has the second weakest attack in the Bundesliga. If you add the Berlin offensive, which has been goalless for 270 minutes, then Fischer’s comparison with the first three games after the winter break in January is clearly wobbly.
The goals are obviously missing. But Union also has problems creating situations that lead to clear chances. You can combine both with one person: Since Max Kruse moved to Wolfsburg, there has been a zero in front. The 33-year-old not only scored the last two Bundesliga goals for Berlin, he was also the best provider of assists. Kruse’s short-term departure apparently surprised the club. The public excitement about it, the negative series and the farewell to Grischa Prömel announced this week at the end of the season made the otherwise stoically calm fisherman jump out of his skin for a moment: “The focus is not on the game. There are too many things happening right now.«
The quality of Kruse is undisputed. However, because a player cannot win games alone, his loss was only the last stone drawn that shakes the laboriously built tower of success. Because the axis of the good is missing: Shortly before offensive star Kruse, the sovereign defender Marvin Friedrich left the club, in the summer the dominant midfielder Robert Andrich left. Left-back Christopher Lenz also had to be replaced. Such a supporting structure of a team is difficult to replace within half a year. And: “You have to integrate three new players first,” Fischer described his problems in the past few weeks. The Swiss doesn’t want to complain at all. As a “young Bundesliga club” you have to accept such dark sides of success. That doesn’t change anything about the trainer’s way of working, which has been so profitable up to now: calm and prudence instead of »activism«.
