Bundesliga 2025/26 Tactical Previews: Eintracht Frankfurt | OneFootball

In the 12th installment of our Bundesliga tactical previews to be released here on Get German Football News, it’s time to take a look at Eintracht Frankfurt. Europa League heartache means little to this club as they’ve got Champions League football to look forward to this season, a very exciting team off to a great start to competitive play, and (observed below) forklifts of money with which to build the future. Dino Toppmöller’s SGE – led by their new Lautern-born captain – get set for another great campaign.

The famous “moody diva” unequivocally found some stable meds in recent years and now sings loudly and proudly on the regular. It’s actually not an exaggeration to call Eintracht title-contenders this year. Note that the same was said of Oliver Glasner’s 2022/23 team that entered the World Cup break in fourth place and numerous other sides in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Eintracht have never captured a national championship since the formation of the Bundesliga. The stars don’t align and they might not this time.

Still plenty of positives to report.

Eintracht Frankfurt

As much respect as administrators such as Markus Krösche and Timmo Hardung deserve, how hard does this front office tandem really need to work when larger financed clubs just keep throwing huge amounts of money at them? It’s absurd. Randal Kolo Muani, Omar Marmoush, and now Hugo Ekitiké. That’s nearly €300m that just fell into their laps. They didn’t even pay money to pick up Kolo Muani and Marmoush. They both arrived on frees. Eintracht needs to have some sort of “fan appreciation night” in which no one pays for admittance. That’s only fair.

Major personnel shifts, Frankfurt

Estimated Summer Transfer Balance = +€61 million

After confirming Danish fullback Rasmus Kristensen’s permanent capture from Leeds last spring, there were two major marquee signings this summer. It took some time to negotiate the final terms of German striker Jonathan Burkardt’s purchase from Mainz and Japanese attacker Ritsu Doan’s acquisition from Freiburg, but both deals eventually went through. The two offensive additions ended up costing the SGE a combined €44m.

On the departure front, the RheinMainAdler pocketed nearly €100m from Ekitiké’s sale to Liverpool. Defensive stalwart Lucas Silva “Tuta” Melo’s Qatar move earned the Hessians around €15m. Krösche and Hardung ensured that sales of strikers Igor Matanovic to Freiburg and Nacho Ferri Julia to KVC Westerlo both contained buyback options. Krisztian Lisztes was also parked back in Hungary.

Plenty of quality stuff Krösche and Hardung, but note that there have been a series of failed transfers as well. The SGE administrative team carried quite the “strike list” into the summer and wished to offload five players that are still with the club. Mahmoud Dahoud, Aurelio Buta, Eric Junior Dina Ebimbe, and Hrvoje Smolcic remain on the roster. Smolcic saw a transfer collapse, as did fellow central defender Auréle Amenda.

Notes from camp, Frankfurt

Quite the busy pre-season slate for the new German Champions League representatives. In something of an emerging tradition, there was a scrimmage against cross-town rivals FSV Frankfurt. Toppmöller’s larger club beat die Schwarzen Teufel 3-2. Can Uzun sparkled on the left wing and was involved in all three goals. The young Turkish international scored one and set up two others. After the FSV test, again just like last year, it was off for a short USA tour. Frankfurt headed to Kentucky again. No clue why they keep doing this. Perhaps it has something to do with a plethora of bourbon distilleries.

Toppmöller’s crew drew Aston Villa in their first Louisville match with goals coming from January transfer flop Elye Wahi and and a young kid named Abu Bekir Is. Another unknown from the Frankfurt reserves – 18-year-old German-American winger Harvey Dills – added a goal in the actual exhibition against Louisville’s MLS side. Burkardt scored his second pre-season goal in the 5-2 victory. Werder Bremen linked Elias Baum started at left back and scored the opening goal. Massive pre-season “winner” Niels Nkounkou relieved Baum and polished things off with a brace off the bench.

Burkardt and Wahi again netted goals as the German club headed north to take on Philadelphia Union in West Chester. Another big winner from camp, USMNT international Paxten Aaronson, actually didn’t start against his former academy side. The youngster did play the second half. Frankfurt remained active offensively throughout this one. Toppmöller complained afterwards that, with better finishing, his team should have scored “two to three more goals”. It was back across the pond after the USA tour wrapped in the Keystone State.

Frankfurt and Fulham played a secret exhibition behind closed doors on the morning of August 9th. It’s known that Wahi grabbed a brace and Doan opened up his (unofficial) Frankfurt account in the classified encounter. Burkardt, Fares Chaibi, and Ansgar Knauff got some early looks in during a public friendly later that night at Craven Cottage. Otherwise, the hosting Londoners dominated proceedings en-route to a 1-0 win. Nkounkou did force a strong save out of former German international Bernd Leno late.

Winners from camp, Frankfurt

Johnathan Burkardt, LS

Johnny has always loved Eintracht and one can tell he loves playing for them too. With so much horrendous injury luck behind him, it proved an absolute pleasure to watch the former Germany U21 captain play the season of his life last year and make his German national team debut. Thus far in SGE colors, he’s factored into every last test fixtures. Burkardt could have added plenty of more pre-season goals as he struck the goal-frame on numerous occasions. The Darmstadt-native is ready to prop up the numbers in desperate need of rescuing with the departures of Omar Marmoush and Hugo Ekitiké.

Naturally, those remain huge boots to fill. Marmoush (25 scorer points) remained the squad’s top scorer last year despite only playing half a season. Burkardt managed only 21 scorer points (four assists to go along with his 18 goals) throughout the course of a full year spent representing Mainz. In terms of Ekitiké’s electric creativity, obscene dribbles, and finishes from all positions…..of course we have to keep it real. Johnny isn’t that type of €100m player. One can still see him bringing his straightforward efficiency to this team. In point of fact, he’s done so already.

Can Uzun, ATTM

Known more as a centralized attacker, the 19-year-old “über-talent” actually struggled whenever Toppmöller deployed him on the wing last season. For all his skills, Uzun isn’t the fastest player. Whenever not working central, he also seems uncomfortable in ground duels. The performance in the first friendly certainly blew away plenty of pre-conceived notions. Uzun did appear much more average in the same position against Villa, then proceeded to miss most of the rest of training camp with injury.

It still looks to trend upward for him. Uzun proved last season that he doesn’t need to feature regularly to make an impact. Despite playing for less than 30 minutes in 19 of his 31 competitive appearances last season, Uzun scored five goals and contributed three assists for a Bundesliga third-place finisher with one of the deepest rosters in the league. Provided he can keep fit this season, he’s set to get more playing time and surely prepared to make the most of it. Excellent drive on this lad.

Elye Wahi, LS

The author is as shocked as everyone else. The French flop appeared to be every bit as awful as he was last spring in the first friendly. The manner in which Wahi squandered chances in the penalty area was downright grotesque. The goal in the second friendly counted as nothing more than a close-range poach. It nevertheless gave the 22-year-old confidence and pretty soon he was knocking them home on the regular. One wishes one knew something more about the brace scored in the first Fulham friendly, but that was of course private.

Paxten Aaronson, ATTM

True, Doan’s acquisition does push the 21-year-old further down the depth chart in the ten slot. Doan, Uzun, and even Mario Götze are now ahead of him. Aaronson can still play as an eight, six, or even high up in attack on the left flank.Paxten can catch up with his elder brother Brenden before too long. Or Brenden can experience one of his tanks and meet Paxten half-way. Whichever way one wishes to look at it. Paxten still has plenty of time to improve. Like RB Leipzig’s Nicolas Seiwald, his slow-to-develop physical features suggest he’s a late bloomer.

Niels Nkounkou, ATTM

Too early to bust out the Filip Kostic comparisons again? Most assuredly. The highly anticipated Pokal start didn’t end with Nkounkou getting his name on the scoresheet. Moreover, Nathaniel Brown and Arthur Theate still lie above the 24-year-old on the depth chart. He probably doesn’t quite fit into any of Toppmöller’s plans on the left rail, but a lot can happen over the course of a three-competition year. Someone like Nkounkou would actually count as the perfect partner for Uzun on the left due to his pace. Perhaps that might work as the SGE trainer’s UCL strategy.

Losers from camp, Frankfurt

Ansgar Knauff, RW

This is certainly something of a German tragedy. Knauff was really coming into his own (again) for both club and countrybefore getting hit with injury. Now Doan’s arrival appears to leave him squeezed out. The 23-year-old has barely made a mark in the test fixtures and doesn’t look likely have a regular place in Toppmöller’s plans. It might be the case that this heavily-capped (30!!) Germany U21 international has plateaued. Few ever expected him to develop into a senior German national team member. We may have already seen his best days.

Hrvoje Smolcic, CB

One might as well compose an amalgam section for all of the players trying to move on here. Smolcic’s failed transfer is noted above, as is Auréle Amenda’s. For that matter, so is everyone else who has no future with this team but is still here. Probably the only way to end up filling this section in the end is to mention Mahmoud Dahoud. Talk about a German tragedy. Mo even got off to a nice start last year, proudly switching his allegiance back to Germany and scoring a goal and registering an assist in a matchday nine rout of Bochum. That was pretty much all.

Michy Batshuayi, LS

Apparently, he still plays for this team. One could be forgiven for have forgotten that. Barely any action in the preseason friendlies. Ten minutes in the Pokal. Were there really three goals from the “Bat-Man” in his ten league appearances last spring? The author doesn’t remember any of them. Even after re-reading the match reports, the memories simply aren’t surfacing. If someone has said that Wahi or Jessic Ngankam scored for this team, he would have believed that before Michy. The mind is a strange instrument.

Tactical Scout, Frankfurt

A quick trip over to the Palatinate to face FV Engers in the Pokal didn’t end with Eintracht sealing up a quick victory. We found out later that Toppmöller had subjected the side to a late internal scrimmage this weekend, leading to some regulars like Mario Götze and Ellyes Skhiri getting the day off. The opening 4-2-3-1 functioned well enough in terms of forward play in the opening 45. Loads of squandered opportunities from the likes of Burkardt, Uzun, Fares Chaibi nevertheless kept it scoreless until shortly before the break.

Lineup—Frankfurt (DFB Pokal)

Jean-Matteo Bahoya stuffed home a rebound in the 44th. One minute later, Uzun set up Doan for the 2-0. Doan made in 3-0 with his second goal of the afternoon eight minutes after the re-start. The favorites then took their foot off the gas for a good long while until Doan narrowly missed out on a hat trick 10 minutes from time. Wahi and Aaronson then added their first official goals in SGE colors at the death to complete the 5-0 win.

Decent extension of what we saw in camp.

Lineup—Frankfurt (Projected)

In all likelihood, we’ll probably just see the 4-3-2-1 with regulars such as Skhiri, Theate, and Brown back in action against hapless Werder Bremen. Note that Zetterer’s SGE transfer should be wrapped up in time for him to suit up. This 4-4-2 is more on the adventurous side and takes into account Wahi’s superb camp as well as Uzun’s return from injury.

Hopefully, we’ll see it in action at some point this season.

GGFN | Peter Weis