Frankfurt Eintracht seems to be out of the woods. When the fan scene, pessimistic with the sensitivity of seismographs, no longer questions the abilities of coach Dino Toppmöller – as it did just a few weeks ago – and no longer completely condemns the winter transfers of sports director Markus Krösche, but only focuses on the marketing If the department is excited about including a “Eintracht salmon” in its program, then that is a very encouraging signal.
And the prospects are actually excellent. Eight match days before the end of the season, despite all the prophecies of doom, the team is still in sixth place in the table, which will definitely take them to Europe, with a five point lead. And in the next three home games, Eintracht has a great chance of gaining an even greater safety margin over the competition. With Union Berlin this Holy Saturday (3:30 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the Bundesliga and on Sky), Werder Bremen and the current closest rival FC Augsburg, teams will soon be presenting themselves in the city forest against which the Frankfurt team must be considered favorites.
“We accept the role of favorites,” said coach Toppmöller confidently at the press conference for the game against Union Berlin. His team was recently defeated by BVB 1:3, which meant that their winning streak was interrupted again after successes over Heidenheim and Hoffenheim. But the performance against the Champions League quarter-finalists provided some arguments to remain optimistic for the next tasks.
In terms of structure, room layout, willingness to run and the playing area, the Frankfurt team showed themselves to be on a par with the Dortmund team. Once again it was individual mistakes that led to defeat. Their great individual class put Borussia in a position to take decisive advantage of Frankfurt’s mistakes. Against Union, Werder and Augsburg, Eintracht can hope for less oppositional consistency.
In addition, the form curve of two professionals who can decide games with their special qualities is pointing upwards – Mario Götze and Hugo Ekitiké. Two months after his arrival on the Main, the 21-year-old French striker is finally in the physical condition to be able to fully exploit his potential. After the many good approaches in the past few weeks, this is a circumstance that leads to optimism.
“Hugo has taken part in every session in the last three weeks, he is bursting with energy and has more confidence in his body. “He’s really looking forward to the next few weeks,” says Toppmöller about the Frenchman. The Eintracht coach had already called him into the starting line-up against VfL Wolfsburg at the end of February, but this turned out to be too early. There was a small physical setback, “Now I have the feeling that Hugo could be in the starting line-up week after week.” But for him, like every player, it’s all about performance. That seems to have been true in training during the international break. “Hugo offered a lot this week.”
For the first time, Toppmöller could give Omar Marmoush a break with a clear conscience. The Egyptian with the attitude of a solo entertainer only returned from the national team on Thursday – after two long and exhausting missions, which join the list of long, exhausting missions for Eintracht.
Idol is set
The coach is therefore faced with the question of whether to rest his best offensive player a little for the end of the season and change the tried and tested offensive structure or let him follow his rhythm and hope for his resilience. “I will talk to Omar about how he feels,” announced Toppmöller, who can also imagine starting with Ekitikè and Marmoush against Union.
Mario Götze is now back on the bench after Toppmöller placed the 2014 world champion on the bench twice at kick-off this month. Since then, the midfielder has acted with more purpose and determination again. For the first time since 2019, the 31-year-old scored a goal in two consecutive Bundesliga games – he also prepared a goal against Hoffenheim. It seems to be good for Götze to be positioned further forward by Toppmöller again and to have to lead fewer defensive duels. This gives him more strength and concentration to create idol moments.
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They will also be in demand against Union, a team that is very robust and athletic. “The Berlin players all have their hearts in the right place, everyone puts their foot down from the start. They have good transition players and moments, a lot of speed forward,” says the Eintracht coach, describing the opponent’s strengths and summing up succinctly: “Union is a tough nut to crack.” If they can’t crack it, then the bright prospects will become darker again for unity. And then the salmon issue would quickly be off the table and the trainer issue would be acute again.