First flop for his club? Bundesliga signing must deliver now | OneFootball

If there's a club in Germany currently known for excellent transfer policy, it's Eintracht Frankfurt. Over the past few years, the Hessian club has repeatedly shown a golden touch, bringing in players like Hugo Ekitiké, Omar Marmoush, Randal Kolo Muani, and William Pacho, who all shattered the league for SGE and were then sold on for huge sums. Expensive purchases that didn't pan out, on the other hand, have been rather rare. Until now.

With Elye Wahi, SGE has, if one can say so after half a season, perhaps their first real concern in a long time. The Frenchman was brought in during the last winter transfer window for a hefty 26 million euros, making him the second most expensive purchase in Eintracht's history. While players like Ekitiké or RKM were able to show within a few months that they are something special, the newcomer from Marseille visibly struggled to bring his qualities to the pitch.

Last season, he managed just 494 minutes of play for Frankfurt and didn't score a single point.

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It might be a bit premature to call him a failed purchase after half a season, but the question remains: How can Wahi bring his qualities to bear in the future?

The situation is complicated. Toppmöller had SGE playing a 3-4-3 towards the end of last season. Alongside the striker, who was still Hugo Ekitiké last season, the other two offensive players had a lot of freedom to set up the goal scorer as best as possible.

After Omar Marmoush's departure, Ansgar Knauff increasingly grew into this role towards the end of the season and secured the CL with the new Liverpool striker. Now that Ekitiké is in England, could Wahi possibly step into the role of his French predecessor? Or not?

There's a problem. Jonathan Burkardt, SGE's new signing from Mainz, appears to be better suited for this role, according to 'FBref' statistics. The DFB national player was much more efficient in front of goal. While Burkardt was able to exceed his "expected goals" in the last 365 days, Wahi fell far short of the goals he should have scored. In addition, Frankfurt played a 4-2-3-1 in the pre-season, with only one striker set. Is the air getting thin for Wahi?

Not necessarily. Although the Frenchman was statistically less efficient than his competitor on the nine, he knows exactly where the goal is. Both in terms of expected goals and progressive balls that the 22-year-old receives per 90 minutes, he has statistically strong values. He hinted that he might be able to turn the balls he gets into goals in the pre-season games. In the test matches against Philadelphia United and Aston Villa, he scored a goal each.

While the competition is not sleeping - Burkardt also shone in the pre-season - and will probably start the new season, Wahi might not have to compete against the new SGE striker, but against the system.

If you look at those he should emulate in his development, they also worked quite well together: Marmoush and Ekitiké sometimes merged into "Hugomar" and even set up six goals for each other. So before Toppmöller decides against one of his strikers at the start of the season, it might be worth considering whether to decide against the four-chain system from the test games.

But whether with Burkardt or alone, he needs to ignite soon. And igniting, by SGE striker standards, means developing into a quasi-world-class number nine. Escaping to a wing position or into the offensive midfield is probably not a real option - especially because of Ritsu Doan coming from Freiburg. If he doesn't make the turn, he would be the first major, serious fail that SGE has produced in their recent transfer history in the attack. At the same time, he could also become the first Frankfurt striker to make it as an expensive late bloomer. Either way, Elye Wahi will be a first for Eintracht.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.

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