At eight o’clock in the morning, Union Berlin midfielder Rani Khedira had a moment to dream on the massage table while talking to the physiotherapist.
“I’m really looking forward to it because a childhood dream that you’ve worked all your life for is coming true,” said the 29-year-old before Berlin’s Champions League home game against Italian champions SSC Napoli on Tuesday (9 p.m./ DAZN). Khedira should finally celebrate his debut in the premier class.
It was painful that he missed the Iron Men’s first two games against Real Madrid and SC Braga due to an injury. The Berliners suffered just as much from the absence of their midfield organizer.
Union against Naples under pressure
He was injured in the cup at Walldorf in August. After that, Union had two wins and then eight defeats in a row. This hasn’t even come close under coach Urs Fischer since 2018. It was only at the weekend that Khedira returned to the team against Stuttgart (0-3), without direct success. “We’re just trying to turn the situation around again.”
The Berliners almost have to win against Naples in order to keep their chance of overwintering in European business alive – whether in the premier class or as third in the group on the way to the Europa League. There are zero points after the defeats against Real Madrid and Braga.
“We had the next upheaval in the summer. The team came together late. Some of the automatisms didn’t take effect yet. On the other hand, you have some bad luck with injuries,” Khedira tried to explain with an outside perspective.
For these automatisms, there are hardly two players at Union who are as important as the long-running favorites Khedira and Robin Knoche, who was also missing for a longer period. Union’s success in recent years has not been based on absolute dominance. It was about percentages. One more step, the intuitively correct movement of the chains. Even small mistakes can cause the entire structure to falter.
The problems cannot be pinpointed to one point, said Fischer. It’s about unity, automatism, the bile in the duels. “To achieve the compactness so that the three lines work perfectly with each other.” Players would also need to remain confident in order to make bold decisions in the game.
Goshens struck
Union’s record transfer Robin Gosens also took a seat on the physio’s bench after training and was unable to attend the press conference as originally planned. “I don’t want to say too much yet. He’s being treated,” said Fischer. “But I’m really very positive that things will work out with Robin tomorrow.”
As a new signing, in the absence of Khedira and Knoche, Gosens was required to be a leader much more quickly than he and those in charge would have liked. Fischer “agrees” with Gosens’ performance, but is far from completely satisfied. “He has indicated what he is capable of. He has turned out to be very dangerous in front of goal,” praised the Swiss at first and added: “There are still things he needs to work on, especially when it comes to automatism.”
Italy’s European champion Leonardo Bonucci, another part of Union’s transfer offensive, also solved a difficult situation well, said the Swiss. But also: “If you lose eight times in a row, you can’t be satisfied with the whole thing.” However, Khedira was extremely confident that the negative series would soon come to an end: “We know where to apply the levers.”
