And then Dino Toppmöller moved his upper body back and forth on the chair. It was clear to see that the Frankfurt coach, who was sitting on the podium in the press conference room at the Waldstadion on Saturday, was upset by the journalist’s question (“Was the 1-1 win against Bochum an improvement compared to the 0-2 loss in Cologne?”).
That it was important to him to go into attack mode in order to verbally defend himself and his team. “We always have to take a little bit of the circumstances into account,” asked Toppmöller, looking at the big picture and listing the “circumstances” himself. He mentioned the absence of Sasa Kalajdzic (birth of his child), Kevin Trapp (back problems) and Hugo Larsson (missed early due to injury with muscular problems).
He also had to substitute new signing Hugo Ekitiké (fitness deficit) earlier than planned. All difficult circumstances for the work processes at Eintracht and new challenges that had to be “mastered”. Seen from that point of view, his players did “well,” the coach summed up.
Melodious music of the future
With the words “You just have to take it as it is now,” the 43-year-old appealed for understanding for the situation, but not without also promising improvement. “I’m looking forward to the time when the players are really in the shape and fitness level that they can play a game like the one in the second half for 90 minutes. We can then look forward to many more good games,” said Toppmöller with conviction.
As of now, this sounds like a dream of the future. The present appears rather sad in the Eintracht cosmos in view of the high demands that the Frankfurters place on themselves and which they have always made offensively known. They just can’t do justice to them at the moment. The draw against the resolute Bochum team revealed how alarming the emotional situation around Eintracht now is.
The mood threatens to change and the patience of the supporters is noticeably dwindling. The discordant notes one after the other: When Mario Götze played back to goalkeeper Jens Grahl in the first half, which was a bad one on the part of the Hessians, who were once again not active enough and appeared quite nervous, there were a few football fans in the stadium area – there were 57,500 football fans present – for the first time Whistles can be heard.
With the players at 1-1 (Omar Marmoush, a bright spot in the team, gave Frankfurt a 1-0 lead in the 14th minute with the only shot on goal in the first half, before Moritz Broschinski equalized for Bochum three minutes later succeeded) went into the dressing rooms at half-time, the audience’s expressions of dissatisfaction were already greater. It got loudest after the final whistle: some of the spectators expressed their disappointment and dissatisfaction with a loud whistle concert. Reactions of this kind have become rare in Frankfurt.
Markus Krösche can understand the fans’ frustration. “The demands are increasing, we all have high standards, the demands in the environment are also high.” That’s why you have to live with “the fact that this dissatisfaction is made known,” said the sports director. “I see it relatively relaxed now” – with these words he gave an insight into his innermost being on Saturday. A week ago, following the 2-0 loss in Cologne, Krösche sounded completely different.