“Full machine” Höler and the harmony with Gregoritsch

Has confirmed the good impression from the friendlies: Lucas Höler.

IMAGO/sport photo pack

Again and again Höler. This aptly describes the initial phase of the 1-1 draw against Eintracht Frankfurt. The left offensive power in the 3-4-3 system was particularly in the first 30 minutes, but also overall for long stretches of the Breisgauer asset – with the ball and against the ball. “For the fact that Luci after his long time for the first time played from the start, I’m very happy right away because he did it very cleverly, with a lot of sprints in the run-up. That made it difficult for Frankfurt, they had to hit a lot of long balls and couldn’t come up with a constructive game,” praised coach Christian Prank.

It’s been over eight months. In mid-May 2022, on matchday 34 of the previous season, Höler was last in the starting eleven in a Freiburg Bundesliga game. The long dry spell ended on Wednesday evening. The regular from the previous season missed large parts of the most successful first half of the Freiburg club history because of a metatarsal fracture suffered in the summer training camp. Since the comeback in October, Höler has played as a joker eight times in the league and once in the starting XI in the Europa League.

Höler: “I’ve perfected that”

It is no coincidence that Höler repeatedly provoked Eintracht to make mistakes with his early counter-pressing. After more than five years in Breisgau, he knows exactly which basic virtues are indispensable in Streich’s football. “Start-up behavior is extremely important, I’ve perfected that,” he said at the training camp in early January. As in the summer, when he was thrown off track by a broken foot after very good impressions, Höler also knew how to use the winter preparations. At three goals and one assist in the five friendlies, he did a lot of self-promotion, and he has now confirmed this impression.

“He’s in really good shape in terms of running and athletics, otherwise he wouldn’t have played 80 minutes today and couldn’t have done so many tempo runs and sprints. He did it smart, he didn’t run too much, he had to do all of that running,” explained Streich. Physically, Höler is back, now it’s time to regain security through match practice in the competition. “Once he has to shoot, but then he throws it across, that was the wrong decision,” said Streich, also criticizing it.

Gregoritsch gets enthusiastic

For the first time, Höler was on the pitch together with Michael Gregoritsch for long stretches of the game. The Austrian then got into raptures. “Luci is such a good player, it’s really fun to play with him because he’s stable with his back to goal. Today was the first time we had the pleasure of playing together from the start. We can both build on that together, because that worked very, very well,” the 28-year-old summed up. While only Gregoritsch is usually looked for with long balls, so that the massive striker can shield and pass them on, Höler offered another option. “Luci is a real machine there. So it was a good way to prevent us from playing into the pressing,” Gregoritsch continued.

In order to win back his regular place, Höler has to make more appearances of this kind. Should Vincenzo Grifo be fit for the starting XI against Augsburg on Saturday, the left winger will take his usual position. Then there would be no place for Höler – except for Streich, the system changes again. If the 57-year-old returns to the back four, which is the most favored team this season, there is one more offensive place up for grabs in the 4-2-3-1 formation than in the 3-4-3, which came into play against Eintracht. With Grifo on the left and Ritsu Doan on the right, Höler would remain in the center as a hanging point behind Gregoritsch. He is very familiar with this role from the past few years, albeit with Nils Petersen as a shock striker. But Daniel-Kofi Kyereh is also hoping for this starting eleven mandate.