With the last three winless games in a row, Union Berlin has said goodbye to the top of the table. Urs Fischer did not want to use the burden as an excuse. Instead, his team missed the basics.

One or the other Union Berlin fan will have hoped that there will be a big surprise champion from Köpenick this year. After all, everything seemed to be going well for much of the first half of the season. For a while, the Irons saluted from the top of the league.

However, that changed abruptly within eight days. Three winless games in a row, including two crushing defeats, have shattered cautious dreams.

They lost 5-0 to Bayer Leverkusen. A 2-2 draw at FC Augsburg followed during the week before they lost again last Sunday at SC Freiburg 4-1. The consequence: Union only goes into the winter break in fifth place.

What on the one hand still means a great first 15 matchdays, on the other hand is also a clear slide.

"I wouldn't like to blame everything on the burden," Urs Fischer finally explained (via kicker). "Other teams have that year after year. It's not a habit for us yet, but we know what it's about."

The mixture of international business and the Bundesliga had meant a regular double program in recent weeks. His team is not really used to that in this form, but the coach focused more on other areas.

He found, for example: "Perhaps there was no longer the willingness to call up the basics. We couldn't do that in two of the three."

You have to learn from that, and that's why you will "analyze this phase of weakness after the break". With all understandable modesty when it comes to ambitions in the league, such a period of low form after previously strong form would be a small exclamation mark for every club.

Overall, Fischer still draws a "very positive" conclusion to date: "We only had a weaker phase in the last week. In the Europa League we came back after two defeats. Overall, we played a great first half of the season and had an outstanding year in 2022. "

This article was originally published on 90min.com/de as Despite the positive conclusion: Fischer laments the weak phase of the Union.