With the international break now upon us, it’s a perfect time for clubs to assess how things are going and see where they can improve. For Union Berlin, it is mostly positives.
The recently promoted side have taken the Bundesliga by storm this season, sitting fifth in the table after seven games and just three points behind Borussia Dortmund in third.
It’s been a remarkable start to the season for the German side, largely thanks to their transfer business, which is where Liverpool come in.
They sent two players to the club this summer, with goalkeeper Loris Karius and striker Taiwo Awoniyi arriving on loan in an attempt to find the regular playing time that’s not on offer at Anfield.
Both players feature in a mid-season review from Sky Sports today, and it doesn’t make good reading for the Liverpool pair.
They use a rating system of 1-5, with one being extremely good and five, therefore, naturally being the worst a player can get.
Starting with Karius, he’s not given a rating, with it explained he ‘hasn’t been a factor so far’ partly because he’s been injured and joined the team late so has only sat on the bench in the Bundesliga.
Things are slightly better for Awoniyi, albeit barely. He’s given a four out of five as anything more than ‘short appearances’ have not been possible for him so far, largely due to the impressive form of Max Kruse.
Sky also say that the ‘burden of Liverpool’ has played its part, stating that ‘doesn’t make it any easier’ for the 23-year-old to impress at his new club.
What that ‘burden’ is, isn’t made clear but it very much reads that some sort of expectation from Liverpool isn’t helping the player.
The review is very much a negative one for him, although one not shared by Berliner Kurier, who say that he has been ‘great’ so far, despite managing only 194 minutes of action.
All in all, it seems that things aren’t going well for the Reds duo at their new club, who will be hoping for a turnaround in fortunes following the international break.
