Eintracht Frankfurt is not yet getting going this year. Coach Dino Toppmöller explains why and at the same time appeals to those around him.
Patience required during integration: Dino Toppmöller (left) and Sasa Kalajdzic (right). IMAGO/Laci Perenyi
They had to wait a long time in Frankfurt for the reinforcements they longed for for the offensive. To be precise, the first 16 games of the season. Sasa Kalajdzic has been there since the beginning of January, as has Hugo Ekitiké since the end of January. But in the last few weeks the attacking game has not taken the hoped-for step forward, quite the opposite. In the last third, the team has remained very harmless and lacking in ideas over the past few weeks. “We have to get into the final third quicker. We have to take credit for that,” says coach Dino Toppmöller.
The 43-year-old had also hoped that the new wheels in the Waldstadion would mesh more quickly. “Unfortunately, when you integrate new players, it’s always wishful thinking, including from me as a coach, that everything works straight away,” admits Toppmöller.
Toppmöller expects compensation for Cologne
One goal was to use more high balls with the arrival of the 2-meter man Kalajdzic. The plan is still awaiting implementation. With only 195 crosses, Eintracht still clearly hit the fewest in the league. This calendar year there are only 30 – that is also the lowest number.
“It’s about coordination and automatisms, which unfortunately take time,” explains Toppmöller. But this does not result in an excuse. “At the end of the day, it’s about showing that we want to win more than the opponent does,” emphasized Toppmöller, who in this regard expects “first and foremost a good reaction to the weak performance in Cologne.” A kind of compensation.
Flexible Marmoush should harmonize with Kalajdzic
The individual condition of the new arrivals makes things even more difficult. “Sasa Kalajdzic has played very little in the last two years, you can see that,” said Toppmöller, who still hopes that the Austrian will get along better alongside Omar Marmoush from now on because the focus is no longer just on him.
Since Kalajdzic is expecting young talent these days, it is still unclear whether he will be able to take part on Saturday against VfL Bochum (3:30 p.m., LIVE! on kicker). “If Sasa plays, it will be the first time he will be on the pitch with Omar,” said Toppmöller, who can’t quite hide his wishful thinking here either. “My hope is that it will harmonize and work perfectly right from the start.” This situation is not entirely new for the duo. In the 2021/22 season, both played together in nine games for VfB Stuttgart.
After Marmoush mostly acted as a striker in the first half of the season due to a lack of alternatives, his role alongside Kalajdzic and/or Ekitiké is likely to change. “We have all the options because Omar has this profile that he can play as a double leader, as a hanging leader, on the outside, he can make deep runs from the second row,” explains the head coach, who has the concrete plan for the weekend didn’t want to reveal yet.
“The stars are not playing from heaven yet”
In addition to patience, Toppmöller also asked for a differentiated view of the current situation this week. Cologne was a bad game and he had to face this criticism. Likewise, things haven’t been going well on offense lately. But of the last five games, his team won three and lost only one, which is the best result in this period after Leverkusen and FC Bayern.
Toppmöller recently experienced the emotional ups and downs at Frankfurt as a football location first hand: “After the Leipzig game I was asked about the Champions League, after the Darmstadt game we were idiots, after Mainz it was the Champions League again, we were back in Cologne the idiots.”
In this context, the head coach called for “expectations to be adjusted to what is currently possible.” The new additions are “super great, but not yet in a condition to play the stars from heaven”.
2024-02-09 15:13:11
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