Oliver Glasner will have to reorient itself. Actually, as the Eintracht coach had planned, he wanted to use the autumn weeks to give his team, which only slowly took shape over the course of the summer, a face and to deepen processes that only worked bumpily after the start of the season. Both in defense and on the offensive. “We’re talking about automatisms, so we have to play in the same formation from time to time,” was his motto.
But in the game against 1. FC Köln not only was the eagerly awaited first victory under Glasner missed again, but the team hospital got a new addition: Erik Durm (concussion) and Evan Ndicka (ligament strain in the knee) are missing until further notice two professionals who were most recently part of the trunk of the defense chain. So the coach has no choice but to draft a new plan for the away game this Thursday at FC Royal Antwerp (6.45 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the Europa League as well as on TVNOW).
Success is imperative
The task will by far not be as easy to master as those responsible for the Hessians initially extrapolated behind closed doors when the groups in the Europa League were recently drawn. The Belgians, Glasner got this picture from the Eintracht scouts in the meantime, is a challenger who should not be taken lightly.
“Royal Antwerp is not supposed to be an easy opponent. Belgian club football is doing very well in Europe. Bruges showed that in the Champions League Leipzig, and I also experienced it with Wolfsburg back then with only one point from two games against Gent, ”said Glasner. In order not to lose further ground in Group D after the 1-1 draw against Fenerbahce Istanbul, a (partial) success is almost imperative for the Frankfurters.
When asked whether he was thinking of changing the system or the composition of the team for this and in view of the fact that there was still no happy end in all eight attempts under his direction, the Austrian showed flexibility. He was by no means rigidly committed to the strategy with the back four, said Glasner, whose personal tactical attempts sometimes turned out to be a mistake in his first 100 days. He added that it could be “good” “that we switch from time to time”.
Return to the chain of three
One option is to return to the chain of three. In this formation, the Frankfurt team contested large parts of the previous round, in which they advanced into Champions League spheres before the mountain air became too thin for them. Since Christopher Lenz is also unavailable due to a fiber tear and Timothy Chandler cannot be in full power after his laceration on the head, especially when things get down to business in the air, it is worth more than a theoretical consideration with a trio to form the last row in front of the currently not very confident goalkeeper Kevin Trapp.
This would have the advantage that Makoto Hasebe could also be involved again, for whom there was seldom use, but whose ball security would contribute a lot to asserting its own terrain. He would be most sensible in the middle position as a libero between Martin Hinteregger and another central defender to be determined in the final training. For the place as Hinteregger’s neighbor, his Austrian compatriot Stefan Ilsanker is the first to offer. He came on Saturday against the Rhinelander as a substitute for a short term.
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More courage, of which it is questionable whether Glasner can muster in the current situation, would be necessary to nominate Tuta. The Brazilian is – after a weak performance at the cup in Mannheim (0: 2) – fallen behind. After six games in the Bundesliga, he had zero playing minutes after he was still considered a discovery in the spring who followed in the great footsteps of David Abraham with juvenile freshness. After the failure in Mannheim, Glasner said that he would “not drop” Tuta. Against Dortmund (2: 5), Augsburg (0: 0) and Bielefeld (1: 1) he was still on the bench, against Stuttgart, Wolfsburg and Cologne (each 1: 1) he was no longer in the matchday squad .
Tuta, who with a height of 1.85 meters in better days represented a reliable size in set-pieces even with Eintracht, would like Daichi Kamada with an advantage that he has over the established majority of colleagues: He knows what is going on in the Bosuil Stadium the crew is waiting. In the 19/20 season, the 22-year-old was loaned to KV Kortrijk. He brought it to 17 matches for the club from the West Flanders region. His record against Royal Antwerp: a narrow defeat (0: 1) and an unadorned victory (3: 1).
Eintracht would not mind if they – all in all – got more out of this international duel. She almost absolutely needs the outstanding experience of luck before the next international break. Otherwise there is a risk that the initial situation and mood will deteriorate further. “A win would always do you good, in the Europa League table and in terms of our overall situation. We’ll throw everything in to leave the field as the winner, ”said Glasner.
This Sunday it continues in Munich. And it currently takes a lot of imagination to imagine that the Bavarian pavement, of all things, could be a Frankfurt motivator for the start of the fourth quarter of the year.
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