Experiencing the same thing over and over again, but nothing changes – this is called a time loop. Eintracht is caught in the middle of it. She experiences the exact same process in a game three, four times, five times. In a few minutes, sometimes five, sometimes fifteen, their opponents score several goals. In Gladbach there were four, and in Leipzig also four in a quarter of an hour. In Cologne, the people of Frankfurt lost their heads. They never found him in Madrid, against Liverpool or Bergamo. Just like on Saturday in the beautiful Central Stadium.
Coach Dino Toppmöller then said: The opposing attack line has “brutal quality”. That may be so. But it is long overdue that each of these players, whether they are Julián Álvarez, Florian Wirtz, Ademola Lookman or Yan Diomande, play their best game of the season against Eintracht. In his analysis, the coach spares his young team – probably in the hope that their unstable self-confidence will not hurt them any more than the strikers did before.
That doesn’t work at the moment. After conceding goals in Leipzig, the Eintracht defenders shouted at each other and their goalkeeper stormed towards them. The team is insecure, they play insecurely, they blame each other. Even though captain Robin Koch said after the game that that’s just what happens after a game like this. He also said: Everyone has to question themselves, it has little to do with tactics.
The fairest team in the league concedes the most goals
Coach Toppmöller expressed himself clearly for the first time this season in the Leipzig catacombs: his team finally had to play dirty and grow up. “That was a catastrophic performance,” said the coach.
Especially on defense. The decisive 2-0 is the ultimate goal conceded by Eintracht in 2025/26. A goal with a pattern: a player at the front loses the ball, the defense at the back is completely out of order. The opponent attacks on the right side of the defense, where Nnamdi Collins does not attack the opponent. The other teams know this, regardless of whether they are called Union Berlin, Wolfsburg or Leipzig. Every time after the game one of their players stood in front of the microphone with a mischievous smile. Once his name was Ilyas Ansah, once Patrick Wimmer, and on Saturday Christoph Baumgartner, he said: Well, you know the Frankfurt defense.
In Leipzig, too, she never once managed to stop an opponent’s attack with a foul. Eintracht is the fairest team in the Bundesliga. And it has the worst defense – ahead of Heidenheim and Augsburg.
Sports director Markus Krösche has seen enough of this: “We make far too many simple mistakes. All goals had to be defended. This has been the case over the last few weeks. (…) It was up to us. We are not stable enough to cope with setbacks.” Toppmöller apologized to the fans after the 6-0 defeat. The coach coached Frankfurt to third place in the Bundesliga last season, the best result in the club’s recent history. Many people still remember that.
What is fresher, however, are the thoughts of the same patterns: 29 goals conceded in 13 Bundesliga games, plus the heavy defeats in the Champions League. “We don’t have a coaching issue,” said Toppmöller’s boss Krösche in Leipzig. Toppmöller remains firmly in the saddle. At least that, this topic, was new on Saturday. Otherwise a lot of things were as usual: a desolate defense and a short phase in which Eintracht was completely out of control. Toppmöller has already tried a lot this season. He changed the goalkeeper and the system. He hasn’t found the key out of the loop yet.
But when do the Frankfurters want to break out? This Tuesday in Barcelona, in the Champions League?
Without Burkardt the offensive is harmless
Then they will play without a striker, as Toppmöller already made clear in Leipzig. Jonathan Burkardt is out until Christmas, his replacement Michy Batshuayi injured his foot. At half-time, Toppmöller brought on substitute striker Jessic Ngankam, who did not play for a long time due to injuries – and when he was fit, he sat on the bench or in the stands. Elye Wahi, Eintracht’s record purchase, is also in the squad. The Frenchman didn’t even travel to Leipzig, even though his competitor Knauff was missing due to a cold. The fact that he doesn’t get a chance, even if three attackers in front of him fail, speaks volumes.
Since Burkardt left, the Eintracht offensive has been harmless. Batshuayi let the ball roll through his legs in Leipzig when he only had to shoot it into the goal from a few meters. He scored a last-minute penalty against Wolfsburg, and Eintracht remained goalless against Bergamo and Leipzig. Despite all the defensive weaknesses, that was often the way out of the loop: no matter how bad things are at the back, someone at the front will score.
Question for the coach: Who will storm in Barcelona? Knauff will be back then, said Toppmöller. And Can Uzun, who was supposed to play ten minutes in Leipzig, who was spared by Toppmöller when the game was lost. At the end of the game, Uzun sprinted across the pitch, all bundled up. He is now the great hope. They are hoping to at least aggressively break out of the time loop before Christmas.
