Simply not enough: Eintracht Frankfurt 1:1 Borussia Mönchengladbach

 
Can you be both encouraged and disappointed at the same time?  Eintracht's performance vs. Borussia Mönchengladbach on Saturday was as good a performance as we've seen in the last 7 weeks, which is why it is also disappointing to come away with only 1 point.  Die Adler played hard, they played with passion, and they displayed (for the most part) interest and passion to bring home 3 points.  They were the better team.....mostly.  They also displayed too many lapses in focus to put this game away and bring home the three points.  In a game Eintracht needed points, they did enough to bring home 1 at the friendly confines of Deutsche Bank Park.  Are they gaining late traction?  Is this a sign of turning things around?  That remains to be seen, but let's look at what happened in the most recent game in this frustrating streak of results.

What went right:

Defensive Pressure:

Eintracht really disrupted Mönchengladbach's attack with their pressure. That not only limited the touches that Florian Neihause (29) and Marcus Thuram (52) got, it also disrupted many of the passes downfield allowing the defense to get back and recover.  The pressure seemed to really get to both fullbacks Joe Scalley and Ramy Bensebaini.  Scalley (19 possessions lost on 59 touches) was often caught deep in his own end with few options to go to as RKM, and the Eintracht midfield applied pressure.  Bensebaini (23 possessions lost on 73 touches) wasn't much better.  The pressure forced Daniel Farke's side to play from the back, but the midfield marking of Sow and Rode kept the counter at bay (mostly). 

Part of the reason that Mönchengladbach only managed 4 shots was Eintracht was pushed up soo high that they barely broke into the final third.  Die Fohlen managed only 45 touches in the final third the entire night, and only 14 touches inside the box.  

You can see from this sequence how the combination of marking and trapping essentially took the midfield out of the attack.  The sequence ended with Lenz deflecting the ball for a turnover without possession even taking place across the midfield line.  Oliver Glasner put together a near-perfect defensive game plan for this game, and it was executed really well.  There was one time that Hasebe and Tuta got caught high AND Mönchengladbach was able to make a good combination pass, and it cost Eintracht badly.

The Transition Game.

Eintracht had no problem moving the ball down the field and into the attacking third.  By contrast, Eintracht had 240 touches into the final third, and 35 in the box.  It was more than just quick counterattacking play, however.  Eintracht was able to progress the ball forward and a variety of ways.  Long forward runs, deep passing, slow build-up, quick-hitting combos, they were all there.  The possession stats show how varied the attack was.  59% possession, 623 passes attempted, 90 of which were longer than 30 yards.  This was a totally dominating effort, especially in terms of winning the ball back, progressing it down the field, and creating chances. In the second half, Eintracht only allowed 1 shot (a soft header by Eveldi off a free kick). 

What went wrong?

Finishing.  

The finishing was atrocious.  Eintracht had 10 shots inside the penalty box including some point-blank misses by RKM, and Ebimbe.  There were some tough misses by Tuta and an RKM shot that was saved by the woodwork.  Credit to Jonas Omlin who also made some a couple of tough saves.

Set Pieces and Corners.

Eintracht had 10 corners, 6 in the second half.  Even though there were a few close plays they couldn't get one play in the back of the net.  The corners seemed to have little imagination to them, as Eintracht was lobbing it up hoping someone could get on the end of it.  But without Evan N'Dicka on the pitch, there was really little threat to actually go up and get a head on it.  The set pieces and corners seemed extremely bland from a team that was at a significant height deficit entering the game.

Final Thoughts:

• Glasner:  "That's encouraging. This team has a great character. Everything else shouldn't influence us. If we keep going like this, the victories will come again." 

• Krösche: "The performance and the dominance give us hope," 

I tend to agree with both of these statements.  The effort and the execution were there, and the game literally came down to being unable to make 1 play.  1 play on defense, and this game is 1-0.  Finishing 1 of the chances in front of the net, it's 2-1.  This is often the way in the game of Fußball, but Eintracht played well enough to win.

Thanks again for reading.

#Nur Die SGE.

Brian.