There was a glimmer of hope for Eintracht Frankfurt on Wednesday: Jesper Lindström took part in team training without restrictions for the first time after suffering a serious ankle injury at the beginning of March. And the 23-year-old Dane acted in the way he is known and appreciated. Brisk, dribbling and with a positive body language. But Lindström was rather an exception during the midday practice session. The series of failures – Eintracht won only one of the nine games without Lindström – is obviously depressing the mood of the Frankfurt professionals.
Peter Hess
Sports editor.
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During the almost one and a half hours in which coach Oliver Glasner had different forms of play completed, there was no laughter, no flax, no teasing, it seemed joyless how the Eintracht players did their work. Coach Glasner tried for a long time to persuade his team to be more playful and committed with understanding, uplifting words. Towards the end of the training session, it burst out of him once again: "Don't play backwards, you should play forward." With a powerful shot forward, the Austrian wanted to underline his loud words. The fact that he unintentionally caught midfielder Daichi Kamada with the ball somehow fit into the bankruptcy, bad luck and mishap picture that Eintracht is currently giving.
On Saturday in the home game against FC Augsburg (15.30 CET in the F.A.Z. live ticker for the Bundesliga and on Sky), the Frankfurters once again have the chance to turn the botched second half of the season for the better. But the hopes were not fulfilled against VfB Stuttgart, VfL Bochum and Borussia Mönchengladbach. All these encounters in the home stadium ended 1-1, the away games in between with defeats. And with every winless game, the question mark grows as to whether the "phase", as sporting director Markus Krösche calls the present and recent past, will last until the end of the season. The last Bundesliga win was on 18 February, a 2-0 win against Werder Bremen. After that, only the 2-0 cup victory over Union Berlin eased the frustration until today. The prospect of reaching the DFB Cup final by beating VfB Stuttgart (3 May in the F.A.Z. live ticker for the DFB Cup and on ARD) is what gives the team something like support.
But is Eintracht still capable of powerfully turning the tide and straying from the disastrous course? Sporting director Krösche has unequivocally demanded this. The time for excuses is over, every match should be won by the end of the season. But this expectation seems unrealistic at the moment. Eintracht also had good phases in the many games they did not win, proving that they had not completely forgotten how to play football. But a lack of luck and the fatal tendency to make wrong or unfortunate decisions in the penalty areas destroyed any good approach.
In the meantime, the self-confidence of some players has been permanently disturbed. Even experienced professionals such as Makoto Hasebe, Djibril Sow and Sebastian Rode have lost some of their sovereignty. The fact that, after many months without injuries, professionals with injuries are now absent again and again does not make the situation any easier. On Wednesday, Mario Götze, Evan Ndicka and Philipp Max did their running laps alone. Kolo Muani and Tuta shortened the team training so as not to take any risks. All the ailing pros will probably be able to play on Saturday (Max probably won't), but the preparation is disrupted in any case.
Jesper Lindström is also a candidate for the squad against Augsburg after Wednesday's impressions. Not as a member of the starting eleven, but maybe to give an impetus after 70 minutes. The importance of the Danish attacker for the statics of the Eintracht game had perhaps been underestimated recently because he was no longer so successful in finishing. But his deep runs have given his colleagues room for their own actions. There is currently no sign of offensive diversity at Eintracht. If Kolo Muani doesn't score, no one scores.