Mauro Lustrinelli has moved from a title-winning season with FC Thun to a difficult opening stretch at Union Berlin. The 50-year-old wants to change the club’s football, but Union have taken one point from their first four Bundesliga matches.
Quick facts
- Union drew 1-1 with Eintracht Frankfurt on the opening matchday.
- They then lost 4-0 to Bayer Leverkusen, 3-1 to Schalke and 7-0 at Bayern Munich.
- Lustrinelli is introducing a higher press and a more attacking style.
- He says results are needed to give the project greater credibility.
The Bayern defeat was the low point of a bruising start. Lustrinelli described his first months in Berlin as complicated at times, with good phases still followed by spells when the plan does not work.
He sees similarities with his first year at Thun, when performances could swing within a season, a week or even one match. Union, he said, currently lack consistency in how they play.
Lustrinelli compared the task to finding balance on scales. Some principles have not yet become automatic for the squad, and that balance will take time. Victories, he believes, are part of that process.
Heavy losses must be absorbed and left behind. Union know they need wins to strengthen belief in the new direction, while the staff continue their work on the training ground.
Doubts are normal when results are poor, Lustrinelli said. His focus is not on those concerns but on finding solutions and developing the team step by step.
The coach wants to build a winning side through an energetic, forward-looking game. Union are being asked to press higher and play more aggressively than in recent seasons, when the team often defended in a compact, deeper block.
That switch cannot be completed immediately. The players know the previous defensive habits, while the new approach requires curiosity and repetition before the movements become instinctive.
Lustrinelli compared it with learning to ride a bike: at first, every action needs conscious thought. Only later does it become natural.
