By Sebastian Karkos
1. FC Union is rushing downwards unchecked. 0:2 in Bremen – the tenth competitive defeat in a row.
Manager Oliver Ruhnert (51) states: “It’s actually about staying in the league.” That will be difficult enough with the performance shown on Saturday. The game at Werder may also have been the beginning of the end for coach Urs Fischer (57).
Before the cup game in Stuttgart, Ruhnert officially supports the coach (“He will be on the bench on Tuesday”), but in the end club boss Dirk Zingler (59) raises and lowers his thumbs with the Köpenickers on the coaching question. And no one else. If the cup game also goes wrong, a change of coach is no longer out of the question.
Fischer (contract runs until 2025) should first change his lineup. There is no other way to interpret Ruhnert’s words after the Bremen game. He said: “Whether the players who are now in the first eleven will also be in the first eleven in the next games – you have to think about that.” Translated, this means: The ailing Fischer should think about it. The coach says: “We still want to solve this situation together. It must and will continue.”
Union Robin Knoche heads the ball into his own goal in the game in Bremen Photo: City Press
Ruhnert on the Swiss’s job: “For us the situation is that we say: We certainly have the approaches in the common dialogue to hopefully discuss with each other and also try to make changes.” Hopefully together means: Fischer should listen to advice hear, he wants to save his job. But can a manager interfere like that? Ruhnert has never done that in this way in recent years.
The manager continued: “I am of the opinion that we still have people sitting outside who did not play any worse than others when they came in today. On the contrary. I found us sometimes more dangerous with ten men than with eleven.”
Ruhnert may have an exclusive opinion, but who could the Union leader have been alluding to? Aissa Laidouni (26). The Franco-Tunisian was in remarkably good form at the start of the season, but for weeks he has only come as a substitute. But one thing is also clear: the fate of Köpenick will not depend on Laidouni. Rather, Fischer lacks alternatives in terms of personnel. The most noticeable problem is in the offensive game.
Not enough: On the defensive, like in Bremen, top performers like Robin Knoche (own goal to make it 0-1) and Rani Khedira (red after 60 minutes) are also failing. Usually the beginning of the end. While the Iron Men played passably to well in the previous nine bankruptcies, Bremen represents a low point. The team seemed physically and mentally exhausted, even if Knoche claims: “I’m not worried because the team is alive.”
The 90 minutes in Bremen showed anything but that.