Our next opponents: Only PSG and Barca top Eintracht trio

Position

Two months of eleven games with ten wins and one draw: Between 30 September and 29 November no other team in German professional football had a similar run as Eintracht Frankfurt. While the leaves on the trees were changing colour, Eintracht Frankfurt were continually picking up points. The team under coach Adi Hütter got everything right at times: Jovic, Haller and Co. produced brilliant performances in the Bundesliga (7-1 against Fortuna Düsseldorf) and in the Europa League (4-1 against Lazio, 4-0 against Olympic Marseille). It must have been clear in Frankfurt that it wouldn't carry on like that forever – despite that, the two recent defeats against Wolfsburg and away to Hertha Berlin have had a sobering effect in the camp of the holders of the DFB Cup. Eintracht will not be able to defend that title as they were knocked out in the first round by Regional League outfit SSV Ulm. In spite of the recent setbacks, the supporters can be more than satisfied with the team's performances in the other two competitions: Frankfurt are fifth in the Bundesliga on 23 points and in the Europa League were already group winners ahead of the last group match without having lost any points.

Personnel

Not many people believed Eintracht Frankfurt would have had such a successful season to date given the departure of the winning coach Niko Kovac to FC Bayern. His successor Adi Hütter has already confounded those critics – and he has also managed to raise Frankfurt's approach the game to a new level. While the Frankfurt game under Kovac mostly focused on high tactical discipline and a solid defence, Hütter has brought attacking football back to Frankfurt. Only the two Borussias from Dortmund and Mönchengladbach have scored more goals in the current season than the team from Hesse. The key players in that success are Ante Rebic, Luka Jovic and Sebastien Haller (pictured above from left to right), who have proved to be unstoppable at times for opposition defences and they complemented each other brilliantly with different qualities. 24 of Eintracht's 30 goals in the Bundesliga have been scored by the trio with only Mbappé/Neymar/Cavani (Paris St. Germain) and Messi/Suarez/Dembélé (Barcelona) scoring more often in Europe's top leagues. Frankfurt's attack is in the best of company – and equally so with the leaderboards in the Bundesliga: Jovic and Paco Alcacer are equal top scorers in the league, Haller and Marco Reus top the rankings for assists.

Problems

Even though the recent two defeats were not primarily down to defensive performances: The skipper David Abraham was sorely missed in both games. The Argentinian, with his routine and mentality an eminently important part not only of the defence but also the structure of the team, is ruled out at the moment with a calf injury. It appears highly likely that the 32-year-old will also miss the game against Bayer 04. As midfield enforcer Lucas Torro is also a long-term absentee, Hütter is slowly running out of options in central defence so that the actually more attacking-minded Mijat Gacinovic has already had to help out there. That runs the risk of the Eintracht game being too much on the front foot and leaving gaps at the back.

POTENTIAL

 Not for the first time in recent years, some experts predicted a difficult season for Eintracht Frankfurt in the summer and particularly after the exit from the first round of the DFB Cup, meaning they were unable to carry on from the success of last season – and once again it doesn't look like that will happen. Together with sporting MD Fredi Bobic and sporting director Bruno Huebner, Niko Kovac succeeded in building a powerful team over a number of transfer windows that was capable of competing at the top in Germany and also could hold their own on the European stage. Hütter is now benefiting from that. The Austrian is on course to further improve the team and also establish Eintracht Frankfurt in the top third of the league. The problem: After the departure of coach Kovac, it is possible players will follow the siren call of bigger clubs. Cup hero Rebic attracted the attention of several top clubs in the summer and Jovic and Haller are also currently the subject of rumours of potential interest from other clubs.

Prediction

Eintracht can pose problems to any team on a good day. Another run like the one in the past two months will be hard to repeat and therefore there is still a question mark over whether they can compete with the strongest squads of the teams from Munich and Leipzig over the long term. Nevertheless, renewed qualification for the Europa League should be realistic at the end of the season – not via winning the DFB Cup like last season but rather finishing in an appropriate position in the Bundesliga table.