Eintracht Frankfurt: The situation is serious, but not hopeless

Over the past few days, Oliver Glasner has been able to determine that he is under internal surveillance more than ever.

The Eintracht coach has been in the football business long enough to be able to classify what it means when the direct superiors feel obliged to publicly jump to the side of the most important club employee in the sporting field: The situation is serious - but (still) not hopeless.

Marc Heinrich

Sports editor.

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However, the cooperation between the Frankfurters and the Austrian coach will not be able to cope with too many setbacks if it is not ended well before the actually agreed term. By mid-2024, the 47-year-old and the club tied together in the summer, with the intention of taking the next step in development, increasing Eintracht's national rankings and being regularly represented in European Cup competitions internationally. The interim conclusion after four months of working together is poorer than all those involved had hoped.

Due to the 1-1 draw against RB Leipzig on Saturday, the team and coach missed the opportunity to get between themselves and the three teams at the bottom of the Bundesliga table;

With the victory of FC Augsburg over VfB Stuttgart on Sunday, the Bavarian Swabians moved up to the Frankfurt team on points (9), who now did not fall back on the relegation rank solely because of the better goal difference.

Glasner knows what it will ultimately mean if it continues like this.

Markus Krösche made a secret of his dissatisfaction when he said that “we are making too little progress”.

Axel Hellmann warns

Exactly in order to shape this process and to let the players develop in such a way that they collectively achieve a performance that corresponds to their potential, an ambitious coach like Glasner, who previously worked at ASK Linz both in Wolfsburg and in his home country, quickly became Was able to celebrate successes, committed. The words of Axel Hellman should also make Glasner prick up his ears: “We shouldn't be fooled by the last-minute compensation. With us, not many cogs mesh as well as they should. There is still a lot to do, ”said the board spokesman.

In order to counter the growing excitement in the offices of power on the upper floor of the new professional camp, it would help Glasner if he and the most recently unorganized professionals on this Thursday (6.45 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the Europa League and on TVNOW) Achieve a result that - at least in the short term - would help reduce the growing unrest: At Olympiacos Piraeus, Eintracht can make it clear three game days before the end of the preliminary round in the Europa League.

In Group D, Frankfurt are at the top after three games. A draw against Fenerbahce Istanbul, a 1-0 win in Antwerp and the 3-1 win in the first leg against the Greeks resulted in a total of seven points; Piraeus has six points, Istanbul has two and Antwerp has only one. With a victory in the Giorgios Karaiskakis Stadium, Eintracht would not be able to take second place and overwintering in the prestigious competition would be assured.

But if possible, there should be more on the credit side of the billing in December: Because the eight group winners are directly qualified for the second round for the first time and can save the two games of the second round, while the eight runners-up in the duel with the eight group thirds of the champions League determine the other round of 16 participants; The Frankfurters would like to save themselves this detour.

It is quite challenging to find the right route for the second confrontation with the extremely defensive opponent 14 days ago. The team has to be ready to invest a lot in order to assert itself, at the same time the squad, which is currently decimated by injury concerns, will also be aware of the fact that just 72 hours later, with the clash with the game association Greuther Fürth, an encounter is imminent has.

The changeover did not work in mid-October.

The bankruptcy in Bochum followed the gala against Olympiakos.

Regardless of the outcome in Piraeus, Eintracht should not lose under any circumstances if they want to experience an international break, in which the main focus is on

the Eintracht want to manage the connection to the rear table middle field of the league.

Otherwise, the focus of the discussion will certainly be on

guide the Frankfurters from now on.