Frankfurt / Main (dpa) – First unnecessary cup-out, then massive bankruptcy, now unsatisfactory zero number: Champions League coach Oliver Glasner is quickly in demand as a crisis manager at Eintracht Frankfurt.
At the latest after the proliferation of opportunities in the sobering 0-0 draw against FC Augsburg, the defensively thinking Austrian should have realized what his greatest task at the emotional location on the Main should be: to somehow replace the striker André Silva, who was so successful with 28 goals and who migrated to Leipzig .
Eintracht must “find itself again”
“We are in the process of rediscovering ourselves. Eintracht had to find itself again and again, ”said Glasner, whose ex-club Wolfsburg is already on top again with six points, while he has to explain the unsatisfactory stuttering start with a Bundesliga point and a cup failure at Waldhof Mannheim. Rafael Borré, who is just 1.74 meters tall, was brought in to replace Silva, but has to get used to the Bundesliga and is nowhere near as strong as his Portuguese predecessor. The Colombian also has to prove his enormous strength at the end of the course.
“He’s a different guy,” said Glasner. It is unlikely that the 46-year-old will contact sports director Markus Krösche and demand further short-term reinforcements by August 31. “It would be too easy to say that we are going to put a great player in there and we would have won,” said Glasner. In the coming weeks he wants to focus primarily on the standards that are still expandable. “Then I am confident that we will score enough goals,” said Glasner.
Fans as encouragers
Apart from the poor result, the football afternoon in front of 22,000 fans was an encouragement. The Eintracht acted game-determining, shot 21 times on goal and did not allow much, only the great redemption was missing. “It was of course easier with André Silva. The goal is that we compensate for that, ”said EM participant Djibril Sow, who knows the mechanisms of Eintracht and can see more movement in his own attack without the star striker.
The newcomers Borré, Jesper Lindström and Jens Petter Hauge all showed a decent performance as starting eleven players. But the final consequence that made Eintracht last season and brought it to the European Cup did not materialize. “It is a learning process that the younger players at the front are even more specific. But the potential is there. With these fans, it will be easier to score goals and win games again in the future, ”said Sow.
Change after the departure of the “buffalo herd”
Glasner recalled the upheaval after the departure of the so-called “buffalo herd” around Sebastien Haller, Ante Rebic and Luka Jovic – and that Silva did not meet 28 times directly in his first season on the Main. In general, Glasner did not sound like someone who is still without a win after three competitive games and who has already given away his first chance for the title in the cup.
“The goal was missing, we have to chalk that too. But I’m going home with a positive and good feeling, ”said Glasner, who pointedly emphasized that he was“ very relaxed ”. After almost a year of abstinence due to corona, the fans quickly put away their frustration – and a few minutes after the zero number they sang again about the “European Cup this year”.
