Since the departure of Filip Kostic last August, no Frankfurt professional has been convincing on the left in the 3-4-2-1. Now Eindhoven’s Philipp Max should fix the weakness.
He is about to move to Frankfurt: Philipp Max.
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The last details are still to be clarified, but there is general agreement about a change to the Main. The 29-year-old will initially be loaned out until the end of the season.
Philipp Max played for FC Augsburg for five years before moving to the Eredivisie almost two and a half years ago and even playing three senior internationals for Germany in November 2020. Especially in his first season in Eindhoven, he regularly shone and intervened a lot in the game, Max scored six goals and prepared twelve goals in all competitions. After that, he still often played from the start, but was no longer able to consistently maintain the strong performances of his debut season.
According to kicker correspondent Jan Leerkes, this was also due to the fact that he no longer enjoyed as much freedom in the game due to the system (4-2-3-1 instead of 4-2-2-2). From the 2021/22 season, the high-flyer Cody Gakpo, who recently switched to Liverpool FC, played regularly as a left winger in front of Max. In addition, the Brazilian Mauro Junior had worked his way past Max in the internal ranking and is now fit again after a long injury break. Apparently left-back Patrick van Aanholt (Galatasaray) is about to switch to PSV.
Max would meet Götze again
It therefore seems logical that Max is looking for a new challenge in Frankfurt. The move could prove to be a win-win situation. Since Eintracht only has one player on each wing in 3-4-2-1, could Max live out his offensive urge again in the future – and flourish again in the early autumn of his career? In Mario Götze he would meet a former teammate at SBU who could also shorten his time to get used to the game, after all the 30-year-old acts half-left in the offensive half-space. Like Max, Götze came to Eindhoven in 2020.
Is Pellegrini going? – St. Juste isn’t coming
As the “Bild” first reported, a purchase obligation should take effect after the season, the transfer fee being less than two million euros. That coincides with kicker information. It is possible that left-back Luca Pellegrini, on loan from Juventus Turin, will leave Eintracht, but that was not yet apparent on Monday evening. A central defender will probably no longer be committed in this transfer period, the former Mainzer Jeremiah St. Juste (Sporting Lisbon), brought into play by some media, would be a top reinforcement, but will not come according to kicker information.
