Mauro Lustrinelli has taken just one point from his first three Bundesliga games in charge of Union Berlin. The 50-year-old coach's start mirrors the difficult beginning he had at FC Thun, where he later won a championship.
The international break arrives at the perfect time for Union, according to those around the club. It provides two extra weeks to embed Lustrinelli's ideas and better integrate the many new signings. These include the 28-year-old Michel Aebischer, 26-year-old Kastriot Imeri, and 29-year-old Felix Uduokhai. Striker Andrej Ilic has also been absent recently following an appendectomy.
Parallels to Thun
At FC Thun in the 2022/23 season, Lustrinelli also managed only two points from his first four games in the Swiss second tier. He finished that campaign in sixth place. In the following 2023/24 season, he guided Thun to a second-place finish, achieved promotion in 2024/25, and then won the Swiss championship. This trajectory shows that Lustrinelli, hired with a reputation as a title-winning coach, needs time for his projects.
"A fortunate point from three games! That's not how Mauro Lustrinelli imagined his start at Union," the coach said himself. The numbers underline this: Union sits 16th in the table with one point after a 1-3 home defeat to Schalke and a 4-0 loss at Leverkusen. Tim Skarke scored Union's only goal in the sixth minute of added time against Schalke. The full standings show an eight-point gap to leaders Freiburg.
The next challenge comes on Friday at 20:30 with the home match against Bayern Munich. After that, the cup tie at Elversberg follows on October 10th, before a match against Borussia Dortmund. The current injuries list and the upcoming fixtures are key for planning in this phase. The squad still possesses quality in attack with the fast and technically strong Emmanuel Latte Lath.
The report in full is at Bild Sport
