I was wrong about Union Berlin
Different is good for the Bundesliga and for the club's success.
Let’s try this again, shall we?
A late winner from a striker suffering a goal drought.
A win from behind in one of the toughest games of the season.
A clean sheet and a 0-0 draw at the home of the four-time European champions.
Union Berlin did little against Mainz a fortnight ago but, like seemingly always, still did enough to win. Having been pegged back, Jordan Pefok was sent on and scored for the first time after 14 goalless games to win all three points and temporarily send Union top of the Bundesliga.
“German champions will be Union Berlin! Union Berlin! Union Berlin!”
Who’s to say how many fans actually believe it but that was the chant at the Alte Försterei at full-time. Head coach Urs Fischer, though, barely smiled as he said he was only interested in the team reaching the 40-point mark. They already had 39.
Last week’s win from behind in Leipzig saw them surpass the 40 hurdle and felt like a true statement.
Union came from behind on the road against a team previously unbeaten at home this season and, heading into last weekend, the team with the most points of any Bundesliga side in the 14 matchdays since Marco Rose was appointed back in September.
That win made in five in five in the league in 2023 for Union, repairing the damage of a stuttering end to 2022.
There was not another win in the Europa League in midweek but a 0-0 draw away from home against Ajax was still another one of those results that makes this all feel like a dream. The Dutch giants were in a Champions League semi-final in 2019, just as Union were closing in on promotion to the top flight of football in a unified Germany for the first time.
It may not be a vintage Ajax side right now but they had won all four of their games since removing Alfred Schreuder as head coach, scoring 13 goals in the process. They did not manage a single shot on target against Union on Thursday.
So I was wrong. I didn’t think there was any chance Union could keep this up after a fast start to the season.
“Union will continue to win a lot of points because their defence is genuinely superb … but their attack cannot keep this up without a significant uptick in output,” I wrote at the end of September.
Well, actually, I was right.
At the time of writing, I said the goalscoring form of Pefok and fellow forward Sheraldo Becker was unsustainable and it was.
Through the first seven games of the season, they scored a combined nine goals from 3.5 xG. In 13 Bundesliga matchdays since, the pair have scored a combined two goals. Their finishing hasn’t even been bad, they just don’t get anywhere near enough chances, managing just 2.3xG between them since the start of October despite racking up a combined 20 Bundesliga starts.
I was just wrong to doubt the team would find ways to enough to win enough and I was wrong to underestimate how much the uniqueness of their style, compared to everyone else in the Bundesliga, is their biggest strength.
Union, incredibly, have the lowest non-penalty expected goals in the entire league. But they also have the lowest non-penalty expected goals conceded in the entire league. They don’t have the ball much and when they do have it they don’t gamble, risking losing it in areas that could hurt them. And they don’t risk being cut open by trying to win it in areas where they could be split apart by a few passes.
The Bundesliga has unhealthy obsessions with pressing and playing at incredible speed on the break. They are the cornerstones for almost every team in the league. But Union don’t get sucked into either. In a league full of teams playing high-risk football, the club from the capital do not press high, they do not take risks out of possession. They sit back and protect their box.
The key in possession is sensibility. Don’t give the ball away where it could hurt. Get it wide. They have the league’s fewest take-ons and the league’s most completed crosses. The midfielders on their outside in their 5-3-2 get wide to support the wing-back, ball goes into the box regularly, and they have enough players in the middle to compete for but also enough hanging back so they are not liable to be hit on the break.
In a league where everyone wants to play in space, denying them any is the best way for a team to defend. In a league where everyone will leave you with spaces to attack, waiting for them to offer just that is a sensible way to approach attacking without leaving gaps.
Why press high and leave space in behind or between the lines when you can focus on defending your area — where it really matters — with more bodies? Why play high risk football when everyone else is already doing so anyway and you can make every game close instead of trying to outplay the opposition and sometimes ending up outplayed?
Any league is richer for having clubs that play in a way different to the other sides in it and the Bundesliga is no different. Union Berlin’s unbelievable journey goes on and we should all know by now to never, ever write them off.
‘Any league is richer for having clubs that play in a way different to the other sides in it and the Bundesliga is no different.”
So true! I find myself gravitating more and more to watching teams who just play differently than others each week.