Six games, three wins, three draws: RB Leipzig have never lost to Eintracht Frankfurt in front of their home crowd. For coach Marco Rose, however, that doesn’t matter. And there are reasons for that.
Meets with his team at Eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday: Marco Rose.
IMAGO/Jan Huebner
The balance sheet was impressive. Marco Rose had only lost one of six duels with Union Berlin, but then it was the second defeat when he dealt with the Irons for the first time as Leipzig coach two weeks ago. “Before the game against Union, I said my statistics aren’t that bad,” said Rose on Friday and then sent how much value the numbers had: “Bam, 1: 2 lost,” Leipzig’s coach called and wanted to do it say: What was in the past does not always allow conclusions to be drawn about what will come in the future.
With a view to the home game against Frankfurt, this means that even if RB has never lost to Eintracht at home, that means nothing for the game on Saturday. Rose knows that the SBU brings immense quality with it. “We have to be extremely careful with their transition game,” emphasized the 46-year-old, but also announced that his team would not be aligned with Eintracht. “The approach isn’t to keep a clean sheet and hope we get one,” said Rose.
While Frankfurt reached its limits in the 0-2 draw against Naples, Leipzig drew 1-1 from Manchester City. His team “assessed the 90 minutes very well”, said Rose: “After the game I heard a lot of clever things from my players.” So that means: Even after the respectable performance against one of the best teams in Europe, RB is staying true to itself and is now thinking about the race for the Champions League places.
In this context, Eintracht is a direct competitor against whom Rose Christopher Nkunku can plan as a joker again, but may have to do without Lukas Klostermann. The 26-year-old, who started at right-back in a back four against Man City, was replaced at half-time by Benjamin Henrichs on Wednesday night. Klostermann has adductor problems, Rose explained: “We’re threatened with a failure.”
