The progression of Ruprecht Prusseit as one of the best young managers around was confirmed as he led an unfancied Union Berlin side to survival in his first season in Bundesliga. But the Dresden-born manager was keen to progress both his managerial abilities and the club he was working with to avoid any suggestion of second-season syndrome.
To get there, Prusseit knew he had to make sacrifices, such as cashing in on interest shown in his promising youngsters. Early examples of that were defender Jindrich Scasny and striker Valle Paavolainen, who’d signed for a combined £8 million 12 months ago, both drawing interest from big European sides. And Chelsea won the race for both, spending £12m on Scasny and £11.5m on Paavolainen. He also sold players with 12 months on their contracts who refused to sign new deals, which saw striker Ahmed Ramadan join Sampdoria for £3.3m and underperforming centre-back Younes Dias move to Monaco for £3.6m.
Prusseit quickly reinvested by splashing out a club record £7.5m on exciting 18-year-old Sparta Prague attacking midfielder Jakub Silny. He replaced Scasny and Dias with 19-year-old Mikulaz Mraz for £800k from Slovan Bratislava. He also did deals to bring in former loanee Gerhard Seibert in for £3.5m from RB Salzburg and striker Michael Storskov for £2.5m from Kobenhavn, which may be the best deal of the summer.
With those additions, Prusseit decided to tweak his formation to a 4-3-3 with a flat three in midfield and Silny and Antonio Villalonga providing the width in behind Storskov.
Into Bundesliga Season 2
Union’s chances are rated slightly higher than last season, with a prediction to finish 16th and title odds of 300/1. Bayern are obviously favourites at 10/11 followed by Leipzig (8/1), Leverkusen (10/1), Dortmund (12/1) and Stuttgart and Freiburg (18/1).
They began with a no-hope game at home to Bayern, but applied themselves well and only lost 1-0 to a ninth-minute strike. But an opportunity to get off the mark saw Jahn Regensburg come to town and Storskov got his first goal for the club before Grga Picak made it 2-0 inside 18 minutes. They settled for that and Prusseit was a little disappointed they didn’t add a few more. Strangely, a third home game followed and they earned a 0-0 with Leipzig.
Bizarrely, Union faced five away games on the bounce. That began with a 2-0 loss at early pacesetters Gladbach, in which Storskov got injured for the third successive game. Matej Lnenicka moved up front and earned a point at Nürnberg. Then the big one took Union to Hertha, where they lost 8-0 last season. This time they applied themselves better but got dominated and lost 2-1. They also got battered at 2nd-place Wolfsburg but a stout defensive effort after Picak’s early strike earned a 1-1. But a slight tactical tweak, dropping Satoru Iida to a holding role, worked well as Picak and Mraz goals earned a 2-0 win at Köln.
So after five away days, Union headed into the October international break – in which Storskov scored on his Denmark debut – in a respectable 12th place. They sat seven points above relegation trouble and only three points off the European places.
Looking Upwards Pre-Christmas
Union returned to action with a first home game in a month against 6th-place Werder Bremen. The newly monikered wonderkid Silny had a slow start to life in Germany but got his first goal for the club to earn a 1-1 draw. And another solid defensive effort and a penalty by loanee Robert Gruber earned an important 1-0 win at 15th-place Arminia Bielefeld.
Another must-win game saw a first top-tier clash with fellow OstDeutscher side and newly-promoted Hansa Rostock. They started on the front foot with Storskov missing a sitter. But they soon took advantage of a strong start as Villalonga slammed home then Storskov tapped home from close range. That gave the striker confidence and he scored a delicious 25-yard curler 90 seconds after the break. Two Mads Hermansen howlers gifted Rostock goals back but Storskov wrapped up a hat-trick to sandwich those goals. Then got injured again!
That was followed by a tough trip to Dortmund, where Prusseit decided to test out a defensive approach with a mass of more defensive instructions. And, to his surprise more than anyone else’s, it worked as Seibert scored early and, despite an Adeyemi penalty, they held on for a point.
Another international break followed but Union returned with another three points. Villalonga put them ahead after half an hour then goals either side of halftime by Lnenicka and Picak’s delicious curled effort wrapped up a 3-2 victory over Hamburg. That suddenly had them in 7th and just three points off the Champions League places! But any dreams of reaching those heights were firmly dashed by a 2-1 loss at 4th-place Freiburg, who dominated by 25 shots to seven.
However, they closed the gap on the European places with an excellent 3-2 win at home to 6th-place Stuttgart. The visitors twice led either side of Storskov’s close-range header, second time around thanks to another Hermansen clanger. But an excellent Storskov finish got them level again before a superb outside-of-the-right-foot finish by Seiber nicked it in the 89th minute.
That was backed up with a solid 0-0 at home to a strong but struggling Leverkusen before wrapping up 2033 with a thrilling 3-3 draw at 5th-place Frankfurt. That was despite going to Prusseit’s defensive approach with Picak and centre-back Philipp Shulz twice cancelling out Frankfurt goals before another late Seibert strike earned a point.
A strong run of form saw Union sitting firmly in mid-table in 10th place. Their 25 points, thanks to six wins, seven draws and just four defeats, sees them 13 points of any relegation issues and five points off the European places. Interestingly, Bayern didn’t hit the top of Bundesliga until the last week of November due to a strong Gladbach start, and now only trail Dortmund having played one game fewer.
DFB-Pokal Run!
Last season, Union’s Pokal run was halted by Dortmind in the ‘eight final.’ And wins over Nordhausen and Frankurt sent them back to that stage again. This time, they took on Freiburg away three days after the same league fixture. And a switch to Prusseit’s defensive away approach worked as they earned a 0-0 then Seibert and Gruber strikes nicked a 2-0 extra-time win. That teed up a quarter-final at Wolfsburg in January.
Prusseit was delighted with Union’s progress so far this season. But he was keen to avoid the post-Christmas slump that occurred last season. Their top player, when he’s been fit, has been new boy Storskov, who has nine goals and a 7.27 average rating in 14 games. Picak has impressed with seven goals, he and Villalonga both have four assists, but Silny leads the way with six assists.
Can Prusseit help Union avoid another Bundesliga slump? And can they progress to the latter stages of DFB-Pokal? Join us on Monday to find out!
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