The last chance for Lucas Alario

Lucas Alario is currently making a new attempt at Eintracht Frankfurt. It’s a race against time for the 30-year-old attacker from Argentina, who is no sprinter on the pitch. Alario has until the winter break in December to prove that he has physically recovered from his knee operation. And that the South American fits into coach Dino Toppmöller’s playing system as a penalty area striker.

Goals are expected especially from Alario, who feels comfortable in the sixteen-yard box and prefers to be served there. So far, however, he has only had two, scored in August and October 2022. If he can quickly turn things around, he will have a perspective for the second half of the season at Eintracht. Otherwise, there would probably be an early separation from the striker in January next year, who has a contract until mid-2025. It would hardly make sense for either side to continue working together.

Frankfurt can really use reliable goal scorers right now. With goal scorer Randal Kolo Muani, who quickly overtook Alario in the previous round, the Dane Jesper Lindström and the Japanese Daichi Kamada, the goal guarantors have all left Eintracht this summer. They believe there are better (earning) opportunities in Paris, Naples and at Lazio Rome. The Hessians scored 58 goals (including two own goals) in the previous season; 31 of these went to the three most accurate players. Alario would be the right contact for Toppmöller when it comes to the topic of goals.

Not in top shape yet

But the Argentine is still a long way from being able to be of help to the coach and team in his main profession. “Everyone has to be able to run and march. That is the requirement – ​​otherwise it will be difficult,” is Toppmöller’s requirement. Alario is still far from being in top condition. In Argentina he had to undergo an arthroscopy in his knee at the beginning of July. He therefore missed the entire pre-season preparation under the guidance of the new coach. The attacker only returned to team training in the second half of August. In last Thursday’s friendly against Wehen Wiesbaden (3-1), he was on the pitch for a quarter of an hour.

Alario played his last competitive game in April of this year against Gladbach. In the second half of the previous season he had to be content with eight short appearances; the longest was over 23 minutes. In total, the striker’s statistics showed 26 competitive games in the 2022/23 round. The bottom line is that his playing time was only 409 minutes – out of a possible 2,340. The nine-time national player was a part-time worker.

In the group phase of the Conference League that begins this month, Alario, who enjoyed 42 goals in 126 Bundesliga games, mostly in a joker role, during his time at Bayer Leverkusen, will not be able to gain any match practice. Toppmöller did not appoint him to the squad for international business. This is also a sign that it will take some time before Alario can get back on track after a four-month injury break. And even then it is by no means certain whether he will find his place in the team. Toppmöller attests to Alario’s “high quality in the final third” and praises him as “one of the best finishers” in the Bundesliga.

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The coach just wonders “how often we dominate the opponent so much” that we can afford to have a pure penalty area striker. And if there is only room for one striker on the field, he has to be quick, put the opponent’s defenders under pressure early and be able to create gaps with long runs. Alario does not provide all of this to the extent required. Which in turn limits its possible uses. Whether his new attempt will lead Alario to his goal is therefore questionable for various reasons. However, he only has one chance left to make a change for the better.