This weekend, the Bundesliga turns into the final stage of the year.

An important part of the season begins for Eintracht.

She has seen a lot in the past few months.

She almost made it into the Champions League in the spring, almost completely replaced her sporting management team during the summer, and also lost her best goal getter - and now the Frankfurters who used to fly so high have to be careful not to crash-land and into the incalculable fight against the Getting involved in descent.

Marc Heinrich

Sports editor.

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Before the away game on Sunday in Freiburg (3:30 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the Bundesliga and at DAZN), Oliver Glasner asked the part of the public who are increasingly critical of his actions what his superiors had in dealing with him in the past few weeks possessed: patience.

The 47-year-old, who was brought in with the aim of developing the team, is responsible as a coach for a team that did not do its job very well from the first day of the competitive game and in many places still looks unfinished even after 16 weeks of joint effort leaves behind.

This applies in particular to the storm and the right-hand side, which resembles a large-scale construction site.

During the international break, Glasner was able to take a breather for four days with his family at home in Austria, convinced that there was no immediate harm on the Main.

There is a lot of work waiting for him.

Six Bundesliga appearances remain in order to improve the position in the national ranking.

During the break, he regained optimism - also when looking at the numbers.

Fresh level of trust

"Of the past eight games we won five, played one and only lost twice," said the coach, who admitted that the "emotional state" was different for many. "The how is not that important," he added, considering the mediocre quality of football that characterized most appearances, "in terms of the results it was a clear step forward." The coach knows that the criticism of him will be more audible in the end was articulated, although no one from the inner circle of the club wanted to go as far as some supporters who had already lost faith in an improvement and demanded his replacement.

The three (partial) successes secured late against Leipzig (1: 1), Piraeus (2: 1) and in Fürth (2: 1) guaranteed the coach in the management bodies a fresh measure of trust with which he now gets to work can make. But now Glasner also has to deliver. He himself made the mistake at times of speaking things more beautifully in front of the cameras than they actually are. He is also anything but satisfied. Glasner imagined a lot easier, as he confessed in an interview published on Friday in the Frankfurter Rundschau.

Nevertheless, he is convinced that he has the necessary know-how to turn things around and take a course in the league to areas where it is more pleasant to endure. Access to revive the slacking attack is seen as absolutely necessary in these gray November days around the professional camp. But it is not yet so far that Christmas wishes are discussed in detail; especially since it is unclear how they could be financed in the financially demanding times caused by the fourth wave of pandemics.

Glasner has to orientate himself to the realities for the time being - and they don't look glamorous before the seventh away game. So far, Eintracht have reached twelve points and are only four points ahead of first place, which would result in a transfer to the second division next May. How he would like to do it in order to succeed on Sunday at the formidable SC Freiburg, Glasner was only partially elicited.

Only one thing is clear: Gonçalo Paciência is not yet available again after his muscle injury, the recovered Sebastian Rode, on the other hand, is physically restored to the extent that he is an option for "20, 30 minutes or half time", said Glasner, who considers a consistent approach to be appropriate when looking outside the box: When asked whether Bundesliga operations should from now on run according to 2-G rules, he identified himself as a “huge fan” of the vaccinations.

They are the "only sustainable way out" of the crisis.

And society should “do everything possible” to achieve a vaccination rate that approaches the 90 percent mark mentioned by many medical professionals.

Glasner himself had himself boosted with the third injection during his short vacation.

In this respect at least, he feels armed for what may come.