In the short term, Hugo Larsson plans to return to the starting eleven, in the long term he wants to make the jump to the Premier League. And in between? He still sees a lot of development potential that he wants to exploit in the Eintracht jersey.
At the age of 19, he is already a key player in Frankfurt’s midfield: Hugo Larsson. IMAGO/Treese
The negative mood surrounding Eintracht seems to have left Hugo Larsson almost without a trace. In a media round on Wednesday, he appeared to be in a good mood and full of confidence. Since the Swede doesn’t yet have a good command of the German language despite weekly lessons, a simple recipe helps: “Don’t press the button to translate.”
Larsson doesn’t feel any “negative cloud”
Larsson doesn’t feel any of the “negative cloud” that goalkeeper Kevin Trapp recently reported after the 1-1 draw against Bremen. Instead, he says with conviction: “I don’t want to talk about the fact that we could miss the European Cup. Because I’m really convinced that we’ll finish sixth.”
In order to achieve this goal, it will also depend on himself. On Saturday in Stuttgart (6.30 p.m., LIVE! on kicker), the midfielder is expected back in the starting line-up after recovering from an adductor injury; he recently came into the game as a joker against Bremen.
“I had a good feeling. I think I’m ready for 90 minutes,” says Larsson. He sustained the injury on matchday 21 against Bochum and suffered a setback in the third game after his return. The youngster reports that he had never been injured before.
An extraordinary gift
Despite his recent absences, the 19-year-old is the high-flying starter of the season at Eintracht. Even at such a young age, Larsson has a better understanding of the game than most 30-year-olds – an extraordinary gift. Of all Frankfurt midfielders, he has the best pass rate at 86.9 percent. In the first half of the year, the 7.5 million euro signing from the top Swedish club Malmö made it straight away National Class the kicker rankings. Coach Dino Toppmöller is also enthusiastic. He believes the eight-man can become one of the best midfielders in Europe.
In the kicker interview shortly before Christmas, the coach said: “He has what it takes. His talent and mental stability are outstanding. All of our players have talent. The question is: How do you deal with setbacks? I take my hat off to them “How Hugo overcomes resistance. He lives football with everything he has. This is also evident in the individual video analyses. He asks questions, wants to know everything and says afterwards: I love it and want more of it.”
My body is not completely that of a man yet.
There’s no question that Larsson is much more mature than most teenagers his age. He is currently working with the analysts on improving his posture when receiving the ball so that he can play even more balls quickly into the depths. “I work a lot with the analysis team and watch my games again afterwards. Then we try to find things that I can improve. They help me a lot, and I’m very grateful for that,” says Larsson.
He knows that he still has to improve physically. “My body is not completely that of a man yet.” At 1.87 meters he is still quite lanky. A stronger stature should also help him win more duels than before. With 44 percent of duels won, his rate is rather moderate.
More goal participation than goal
In the future, he also wants to work on getting into the penalty area more often and increasing the number of goals he participates in. “That can get a lot better and is important for a player in my position,” he knows. He currently has two goals and one assist, with his wonderful goal against Bayern (5:1) being an exclamation point.
Even though he harmonized perfectly with Mario Götze on the double six in this game, the interaction and division of tasks worked better overall with the more defensively inclined strategist Ellyes Skhiri. There is still a small hope that the Tunisian, who has a calf injury, can play on Saturday. He has now completed at least parts of the team training. “We get along well on and off the pitch. Together we are a good combo,” emphasizes Larsson.
After coming on as a substitute, Hugo Larsson helped to make up for the deficit against Bremen. IMAGO/Eibner
Since Skhiri played in the Africa Cup of Nations at the beginning of the year and then took a break due to injury, they didn’t play together too often in the second half of the season. One thing is clear: if both are fit, they raise the quality in the midfield to another level. Eintracht now has to hope for that in the final spurt.
Larsson summed up that they didn’t get the “easy points” this season, but they did show strong performances against the good teams. That gives him hope before the difficult away game in Stuttgart. In fact, there were wins against Bayern (5:1) and Leipzig (1:0) as well as defeats against Leverkusen (0:3) and Stuttgart (1:2). The SGE only got one point in two games against Borussia Dortmund (3:3; 1:3). A mixed yield.
Dream Premier League, role model Rice
Regardless of the position at the end of the season, Larsson sees Eintracht as the right club for his further development. He is aware of the rumors surrounding him, but there are currently no plans to say goodbye this summer.
“I still have to develop in a lot of things. This is the perfect club for that. I’ve signed a long-term contract and I’m very, very happy here,” affirms Larsson.
However, he makes no secret of the fact that it is “a dream” to play in the Premier League one day. His sporting role model is also on the pitch there: Declan Rice (25, Arsenal FC). “He’s a similar type of player to me. He does a lot of good things offensively and defensively, I look up to him,” says Larsson. If he continues his positive development in Frankfurt, the chances are certainly not bad that he will meet Rice on the pitch in the Premier League one day. Maybe even at eye level.
2024-04-10 18:13:04
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