Roller Coaster: The Duality of Eintracht Frankfurt in 2022

I'm going to have to stop writing.  Every time I start writing again, Eintracht stops winning.  I start writing something criticizing their play, and they win big games.  This team is soo up and down, I can't get one blog post written before something changes.  I feel pretty sure we don't need to worry about the curse of the Diva, we need to start worrying about the curse of OnTheWingsOfDerAdler.com.  Seriously.  Look at it.  Last year I wrote that it was time to believe, and Eintracht go 2-3-1 down the stretch.  This year I write that it's time for them to make a push, they go 0-2-1 in the Bundesliga.  After blasting Hertha,  taking down Real Betis, and winning a hard-fought game against Bochum, Eintracht has been winning huge games in one league and has been disappointing in the other. There are soo many things that make this version of S.G.E. frustrating.  We watch exciting, gutsy performances mid-week, and uninspired performances on the weekend. They aren't producing goals at a high rate and although they are a good defensive team, they aren't a great one.  They are just good enough to give up 1 goal a game. Despite Kevin Trapp's brilliance (and he has been brilliant this year), this team is struggling to keep clean sheets and earn 3 points in the Bundesliga, while not losing a single game in Europa League.  There were unbelievable wins over the giants of Barcelona and losses to Armenia Bielefeld. But why? It's easy to play the blame game.  It's easy to point the finger, but let's take a look at the duality of Eintracht Frankfurt this season.

Lack of experience/quality depth:

The Eagles have done a terrific job developing attacking talent over the last few years and have been able to restock, retrain, and sell on some fabulous players.  It's never easy, but easier when you can pair a striker with Filip Kostic. Eventually, Kostic will figure out how to get him the ball where he needs it.  This year was much bigger than just finding a striker and plugging him in though, and the results in the Bundesliga have shown that.  Borré (27 starts, 2,288 minutes), Lindstrom (26 starts, 1,976 minutes played) Lammers (460 Minutes), Hauge (949 Minutes), Jakić (1,834), and Knauf (669 Minutes) have been needed heavily in their first debut Bundesliga season.  The team has been up and down all season juggling the two campaigns, and even crafty veterans like Kostic and Kamada have shown some tired legs and inconsistency.  Seven Eagles (Trapp, N'Dicka, Kostic, Sow, Borré, Hinti, and Tuta) have logged 3,000 minutes this year.  The midfield pairing of Kristijan Jakić and Djibril Sow has had to carry the lion's share of playing time across the season.  Rode has finally started to find form after missing a good chunk of the Hinrunde with a knee injury.  The new guys have been terrific in the Europa League, but not quite good enough in the Bundesliga.  Now sitting 9th in the table, with a chance to qualify for Champions League with a win against Rangers on May 18th, the team has both made huge strides and lost ground in the Bundesliga at the same time.  Without some key additions in the offseason, or making the loan deals of several of these new players permanent, it could be an early exit from Champions league and a similar standing in the league next year.

Rafael Borré

It's easy to place a lot of blame squarely on him.  After the strikers that have come through Frankfurt recently, a lot was expected of Borré.  It's easy to say he's underproduced, and no one would disagree with you for that opinion. As we've seen with all of those players though, your first year in the Bundesliga requires a steep learning curve.  Borré needs to be better, but mostly he needs to find better positioning.  He's often tracking back a little too far, holding up play a little too deep, and unable to get back into a shooting position within the 18.  Some of that is the service he's not seeing, but some of that is him playing too deep and failing to get into open spaces in front of the net. Borré ranks 63rd in the Bundesliga in Shots/90 minutes of play (1.83), and his average distance per shot (13.6 yards) ranks 57th.  Compare that to what Andre Silva did a year ago (3.58/90; 12.6 yards per attempt) and you can see where a large amount of the dropoff in goal output has gone.  It's not just that he's not getting the goals, he's not getting into position to get shots.  Silva in his first year with the club (3.09/90; 11.6 yards per attempt) was taking better advantage of the space created by the Dopplezehn.  Borré has gone huge stretches without scoring a goal or assist this year, and only has 3 goals and 2 assists in his last 20 appearances across all competitions.  But.....haven't we seen this before?  

First Season with Eintracht:

• Alex Meier: 34 appearances (27 starts) - 2,456 minutes played - 9 goals, 8 assists - .33 Gls/90
• Sebastien Haller: 36 appearances (30 starts) - 2,752 minutes played - 13 goals, 6 assists - .43 Gls/90
• Luka Jovic: 27 appearances (11 starts) - 1,154 minutes played - 9 goals, 1 assist - .70 Gls/90
• Andre Silva: 37 appearances (28 starts) - 2,495 minutes played - 16 goals, 4 assists - .58 Gls/90
• Rafael Santos-Borré: 43 appearances (40 starts) - 3,319 minutes played - 10 goals, 6 assists - .27 Gls/90

While I'm not saying that Borré will explode like Haller, Jovic, Meier and Silva did, the first year is too early to evaluate him.  All of these players saw significant jumps in their productivity from year 1 to year 2, and the same should be expected from RSB. It's not unthinkable that he could produce 15-20 goals next year. Borré could be adjusting to a new level, and a new responsibility.  He's played 2,000 more minutes than he ever played at River Plate and is getting little relief from Lammers (21 aps, 7 starts, 744 minutes played, 2 goals 0 assists), Gonçalo Paciência (24 aps, 4 starts, 614 minutes played, 4 goals, 1 assist), and Ragnar Ache (16 aps, 1 start, 266 minutes played, 0 goals, 1 assist).  While Borré needs to be better, Eintracht could really use another striker to take some pressure off of him.

The back 3.

The first team of Hinti, Evan N'Dicka, and Tuta have been extremely solid as a unit.  They are tuff, rugged, athletic, smart and work well off of each other.  Although it took Hinti a little while to work off all the offseason Krombacher he'd been drinking, he had just rounded into form before he was lost for the season.  The problem here is also quality depth. The ageless wonder Makato Hasebe has provided the bulk of the rotation minutes.  Logging in 1,546 minutes over 23 appearances (15 starts), Hasebe has stepped up each time his number is called.  The team, however, has not.  Eintracht has posted a record of 4-2-5 with Hasebe in the starting 11, and has been outscored 14-18 over those appearances. The team is 1-1-3 when he comes off the bench, including the Matchday 18 loss to Dortmund, who scored 2 goals after Hasebe subbed on for Daichi Kamada to solidify the defense. Almamy Touré has provided 925 minutes this year and will be needed even more over the last 3 games.  Touré is a good defender and can get the ball downfield and help in attack.  Stefan Ilsanker has been almost non-existent this year. Eintracht needs to pick up another quality defender this summer.

Im Hertzen vom Europa......

It's going to be a wild game.  I know Die Adler faithful are going to pack Seville and blow the doors off the place.  Auf gehts jungs, and lets go get some hardware.

Thanks again for reading.

Forza S.G.E.

Brian