Oscillates between genius and madness: Outstanding individual achievements and grotesque mistakes alternate with Junior Dina Ebimbe.
The only slight doubts that existed on Saturday grew again on Sunday. With a 6-0 win at Darmstadt 98, TSG Hoffenheim moved within striking distance of being able to overtake Eintracht Frankfurt in the fight for sixth place in the Bundesliga. If Hoffenheim beat Bayern Munich on the final day of the match and Frankfurt lost against RB Leipzig, the clubs would swap places in the final table.
It would have been easy for Eintracht to dispel all doubts on Saturday, but that wouldn’t have suited this bizarre season in which they were more likely to rely on their flighty competitors than on their own abilities.
As a clearly better team, the Frankfurt professionals were content with a 1-1 draw at Borussia Mönchengladbach, which pretty much represented the entire season: Eintracht showed their potential, showed good approaches, but lost their way due to hair-raising individual mistakes and inefficiency in the end Yield – and ultimately reached the destination of Europe.
Sporting relevance of the last home game
They are assured of seventh place, which means participation in the Europa League if Bayer Leverkusen wins the DFB Cup final against 1. FC Kaiserslautern. If the second division club managed a sensation against the new champions, it would lead Eintracht into the Conference League.
Junior Dina Ebimbe embodied all of Eintracht in one person at Borussia Park. The Frenchman initiated Hack’s Gladbach lead in the ninth minute with a grotesque positional error and equalized in the 36th minute after an outstanding individual performance.
The last game of the season on Whit Saturday in the Frankfurt Arena against RB Leipzig, which was primarily intended as a farewell game for Frankfurt football heroes Sebastian Rode and Makoto Hasebe, still has a sporting relevance.
With a win and confirmation of sixth place against the Frankfurt fans’ favorite enemy, the hope of a Champions League participation would remain alive (if Dortmund wins the final against Real Madrid), and the entire season would be given a rosy tinge. A drop to seventh place meant a thick black line under a season with many gray moments.
The mood among the fans in recent months has already been unusually bad in relation to the place in the table. Many blamed coach Toppmöller for the team’s many half-baked performances and denied his competence. Doubts about the coach also arose in the management committees.
Of course, sports director Markus Krösche was and remains loyal to Toppmöller, who signed the newcomer to the Bundesliga head coach as his absolute preferred candidate and will stand by him for as long as possible before sticking with Toppmöller damages himself.
Holzer supports Krösche
Krösche’s benevolent attitude towards the coach is particularly supported by the chairman of the supervisory board, Philip Holzer, who signed Krösche. A successful end to the season against RB Leipzig would relieve a lot of the pressure that has built up in the Eintracht atmosphere in recent months. Krösche and Toppmöller could continue their work much less burdened.
The sports director’s transfer policy is not perceived by many in the Eintracht environment as the ultimate. The impression has arisen that return prospects are more important than the current performance of the squad, which explains the high fluctuation and the surplus of young players in the squad.
But that’s only true to a limited extent: Krösche couldn’t have foreseen that the experienced professionals needed for a healthy mix would almost all be unavailable: Rode and Kalajdzic were permanently injured, Hasebe was more or less discarded by the coach, van de Beek was an absolute mistake. And if transfer fees appear to be disproportionately high for Frankfurt professionals, why shouldn’t the sports director take action?
Markus Krösche (left) is benevolent towards coach Dino Toppmöller.dpa
Krösche emphasized several times in media discussions that he was a fan of changing a squad as little as possible. This summer, unlike before, he has the freedom to prove it. The most sought-after Eintracht professionals Marmoush, Pacho and Larsson have moved a little out of the scouts’ focus after a less than exhilarating second half of the season.
There is an urgent need for action at Eintracht in the position of “aggressive leader”, as Bayern coach Ottmar Hitzfeld christened his midfielder Mark van Bommel. Skhiri and Götze have the necessary experience and ball security to give their young colleagues support, but they do not have any inspiring charisma. In order to be able to keep up in Europe, first-class solutions would also be necessary for the two wing lanes; Max, Nkounkou, Knauff, Ebimbe and Buta either cannot rise above a certain average level or are too flawed for higher international tasks.
Otherwise, the substance in the squad is not so bad that Eintracht would have to worry about embarrassing themselves in the Champions League (if Dortmund wins the final against Real) or in the Europa League. Especially not in the Conference League. How much scope Eintracht will have to invest in the squad depends on the European competition it reaches.
In the Champions League you can expect at least 55 million euros (maximum if you win the title 140 million euros), in the Europa League between 25.5 million euros and 60 million euros, in the Conference League between 16.5 and 40 million euros. Not bad financial conditions for a successful future. It just needs to be designed.
