Eintracht Frankfurt messed up the second half of the season again after a strong first half. again? A look at the statistics reveals whether the Hessians really have a problem in the second half of the season.
There are football clubs that develop a reputation over the years that eventually becomes a sort of club trademark. Bayer Vizekusen, for example, or the Mia-san-Mia-Bayern, or Eintracht Frankfurt, the diva from the Main, who wins against the big ones in order to stumble against the little ones.
The diva image doesn’t seem quite as up-to-date at the moment, but the Hessians are diligently trying to develop a reputation that you should try to avoid becoming part of the club’s flesh and blood: that one, in the second half of the season break in and destroy what you built up in the much better first half of the season.
“This is a shit phase”
“It’s a shitty phase,” said Eintracht sports director Markus Krösche after the game 0: 4 at Borussia Dortmund on Saturday. And indeed: Before the second half of the season, Eintracht and BVB were still tied. Now Dortmund are leaders and first championship favorites, the Hessians haven’t won in eight Bundesliga games and collected a lousy four points in March and April. Eintracht was passed from fourth to ninth place.
Die “shit phaseHowever, it also seems to be a well-known one, as a look at the statistics shows. The mother of all slumps in the second half of the season was the “second half of the shame” in 2010/11, when the Hessians squinted to seventh place in Europe with 26 points, but then after the winter break only collected eight points and descended without a word.
Only four times better after the winter break
Since then, the Hessians have messed up the second half of the season relatively regularly and thus rob themselves of the best starting positions. In the twelve following seasons, Eintracht only managed to do better in the second half of the season than in the first half of the season. 2013/14 (six points up), 2015/16 (two points up), 2019/20 (nine points up) and most recently 2020/21 (six points up).
Two of these four seasons feel anything but successful: in 2016 Eintracht had to be relegated, in 2021 after Adi Hütter’s farewell became known they lost a seven-point lead in the last four games and thus the Champions League. A blow to the neck for the entire club, the six points more in the second half of the season shouldn’t matter much.
The European Cup compensates
Once, in 2018/19, you collected exactly the same number of points before and after the winter break. The Hessians scored fewer points seven times, including this season. And they collapsed dramatically: in 2016/17 they scored a whopping 16 points fewer than before the winter and missed out on a possible qualification for the European Cup.
Last season it was twelve points less in the second half of the season. A discrepancy that didn’t bother anyone in the end because the focus was on the European Cup. And with the greatest possible success.
Krösche: “Have to win the upcoming games”
And in the current season? Are there currently, believe it or not, twenty points fewer than in the first half of the season, with five games still to play. “We have to win the upcoming games, no matter how. And so we have to start against Augsburg on Saturday. That’s clearly the task of the coaching staff and the team,” said Krösche after the game at BVB.
Eintracht will not get more points than in the first half of the season, that much is clear. The way to still be able to record this season as a success is more likely to lead via Berlin. In order to even make it into the DFB Cup final, the Frankfurters must first pass VfB Stuttgart in the coming week.
Eintracht’s first and second half of the last few years
• 2010/11 | first round: 7th place, 26 points. second half: 18th place, 8 points
• 2011/12 (2. Liga) | first round: 2nd place, 38 points. second half: 3rd place, 30 points
• 2012/13 | first round: 4th place, 30 points. second half: 12th place, 21 points
• 2013/14 | first round: 15th place, 15 points. second half: 12th place, 21 points
• 2014/15 | first round: 9th place, 23 points. second half: 11th place, 20 points
• 2015/16 | first round: 14th place, 17 points. second half: 15th place, 19 points
• 2016/17 | first round: 6th place, 29 points. second half: 18th place, 13 points
• 2017/18 | first round: 8th place, 26 points. second half: 9th place, 23 points
• 2018/19 | first round: 6th place, 27 points. second half: 7th place, 27 points
• 2019/20 | first round: 13th place, 18 points. second half: 6th place, 27 points
• 2020/21 | first round: 8th place, 27 points. second half: 3rd place, 33 points
• 2021/22 | first round: 6th place, 27 points. second half: 15th place, 15 points
• 2022/23 | first round: 4th place, 31 points. second half: 14th place, 11 points