2023 has come to an end and the Bundesliga enters its traditional Winterpause, which gives us here at Bundesliga Fanatic the ideal opportunity to take a closer look at each of the eighteen clubs and rate their performance in the first half of the season. Next we run the rule over Eintracht Frankfurt.
The story so far
To say that the Frankfurt squad saw an overhaul in the summer would be an understatement with Randal Kolo Muani, Jesper Lindstrom, Daichi Kamada, Djibril Sow, and Evan Ndicka all moving on to pastures new. The team could have been excused if they had struggled to find their feet in the Hinrunde, but new coach Dino Toppmöller managed to gel his new charges into an improving unit that finished in a respectable sixth place at the winter break.
They were resilient in the opening five matches going unbeaten, but winning just once (the opener against Darmstadt. Matchday 6 brought their first loss at VfL Wolfsburg, but they responded with another five-match unbeaten run (winning three).
The end of November/ start of December however brought a four match streak that saw four successive defeats. Eintracht lost to VfB Stuttgart at the Deutsche Bank Park before losing again at home to PAOK in the Europa Conference League. The following match saw them lose at Augsburg before they were then dumped out of the DFB Pokal by 3.Liga side 1.FC Saarbrücken.
The hit and miss nature of the Adler however came to the fore in their next game when they stunned everyone with a 5-1 demolition of champions Bayern Munich. The Rekordmeister had no answer, Harry Kane for once didn’t get a sniff and Junior Dina Ebimbe was the star of the show.
The following game brought another European defeat away at Aberdeen, before Leverkusen comfortably beat Frankfurt at the Bay Arena to show Bayern how it’s done. The year ended on a high with a dramatic 2-1 win at home to Borussia Mönchengladbach with both the Frankfurt goals arriving in second-half stoppage time. The gap to the top four is nine points, with Borussia Dortmund only three points ahead in fifth. All things considered, sixth place can be seen as a satisfactory way to end the year.
Tale of the tape
Record: 6-6-4, 24 points (1.50 per game), 6th in Bundesliga
Home Record: 15 points (4-3-1) Away Record: 9 points (2-3-3)
Goals: 26 (1.63 per game), Goals Against: 20 (1.25 per game), Diff: +6
xG: 21.3, xGA: 23.9
Highlight
This one’s easy! The matchday 14 demolition of Bayern Munich was without doubt the high point of the Hinrunde. The Bavarians arrived at the Deutsche Bank Park unbeaten and there was little indication as to what would transpire- especially with the hosts being on a poor run of their own.
They were 3-0 up before Joshua Kimmich pulled one back before the interval, but it wasn’t to put the Adler off their stroke and they added two more in the second 45 minutes to the astonishment of their passionate fans.
Lowlight
The DFB Pokal offered Frankfurt an excellent route to silverware this season (particularly with Bayern and Leipzig eliminated), but they became the victims of a third round giant killing when they succumbed to 3.Liga side Saarbrücken.
Stand-out performer
Omar Marmoush is the club’s top scorer with seven goals and new Swedish midfielder Hugo Larsson has impressed since arriving from Malmo in the summer, but the stand-out performer has been at the heart of the defence with Robin Koch becoming the new lynchpin in the Adler’s back line. Signed from Leeds United, the 27-year-old centre back ended the Hinrunde on a real high by netting the 97th minute winner against Gladbach.
Grade: B
So far, so good for Eintracht under new coach Dino Toppmöller. The ‘Launische Diva’ still shows both sides of their character going from thrashing Bayern to losing against seemingly lesser sides. The new players are settling in quickly, which has eased the pain of losing so many key men in the summer.
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