Before the extremely important home game against FC Augsburg, Eintracht keeper Kevin Trapp is looking for positive approaches – and he finds them. His credo is: “Think less, do more.”
As a rough rule of thumb for Frankfurt, the closer the end of the season gets, the lower the entertainment tax is in the Bundesliga. Who knows, maybe some admission tickets can even be tax deductible if the tax officer has a Eintracht heart and turns a blind eye for once.
“We have an incredibly great opportunity”
“It feels like we sit there at the same time every year and say: What is actually happening right now,” says Trapp. He explains: “Last year we didn’t win ten Bundesliga games in a row. Under Adi Hütter we lost the Champions League, under Oliver Glasner we came eleventh in the first year. I would be happy if I could sit here and say : We’re on a roll.” In the first year under Niko Kovac (2016/17), Frankfurt even had the worst team in the second half of the season (13 points).
This season it should finally be the other way around: After the huge bloodletting in the summer, the winter transfers should also contribute to the second half of the season being more successful. But that almost certainly won’t happen. The SGE currently has 15 points in the second half of the season. So there are still twelve points missing to reach the 27 points from the first half of the season. Given the current form crisis and the tough remaining program, this seems utopian. But two wins might be enough to defend sixth place. That is the goal.
Trapp doesn’t want to talk about defense because that sounds too negative to him. Rather, he emphasizes: “We have an incredibly great chance of playing internationally again next year. We should look forward to that, we still have five highlight games.” The goalkeeper shows understanding for the criticism from outside. But he is experienced enough to know that what is important now is to think positively. “I already said to the coach before: This is his first coaching position and we are in 6th place on matchday 29. We can’t have done that much wrong. We don’t have to look at others and we have the privilege of being ourselves “We are responsible for whether we play internationally next year or not.”
“You don’t win a game like that – no matter who you’re against”
Nevertheless, it is obvious that the team will have to show a different face against Augsburg. Trapp also understands this. “We know that a performance like the one in the first half against Stuttgart is unacceptable. You don’t win a game like that – no matter who you’re against,” emphasized the 33-year-old. He calls for a focus on what’s important: “Sometimes you think too much instead of just doing it. On Friday it’s not about tactics, but about bringing what we can onto the pitch. We also have a lot of physical strength strong team that can run a lot and carry a stadium along. That’s what matters.”
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This is of course not a new finding. It is and remains a big mystery why the team so rarely brings the basics onto the pitch for more than 90 minutes this season. When has it ever been possible to cut off the opponent’s breathing room through maximally aggressive and compact pressing in the atmospheric Waldstadion? Not very often. The home games against Cologne (1:1), Freiburg (0:0), Bochum (1:1), Wolfsburg (2:2), Union Berlin (0:0) and Werder Bremen (1:1) all ended in a draw Draw. This, as well as the often sluggish style of play, causes understandable frustration among the fans.
Frequent changes are not the sole explanation
In his analysis, Trapp refers to the upheaval in the summer, the many young players and frequent changes in personnel. “I can’t remember a time when we played two or three games with the same team. We have to keep changing,” says the goalkeeper, but also emphasizes: “That’s not the only reason.”
It remains hypothetical how the games would have gone if, for example, the midfield duo Hugo Larsson and Ellyes Skhiri, who worked so well in the first half of the season, could also have played together so often in the second half of the season. Or how the season would have gone with a healthy captain Sebastian Rode and without Sasa Kalajdzic’s serious injury. That certainly cost some points. But it is also true that we should have been able to win against teams like Union Berlin and Werder Bremen recently. Despite a few failures, there was still a really good Bundesliga team on the field.
If Mario Götze, Eric Junior Dina Ebimbe and perhaps Hugo Ekitiké return to the starting eleven on Friday (8.30 p.m., LIVE! on kicker), coach Dino Toppmöller will be able to send an eleven onto the field against Augsburg that is individually significantly better than him Opponent. It is then the responsibility of the professionals to finally convert this quality into three points and thus distance at least one pursuer in the fight for sixth place.
2024-04-16 17:13:35
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