Our next opponents: The captain on farewell tour

Position

As with Bayer 04, the winter break was at least a little bit longer for Eintracht Frankfurt than for many other Bundesliga teams. The reason: Both teams meet in the second round of the DFB Cup and the original date of the tie was moved from Christmas Eve to 12 January. That means two games within 10 days – SVB versus SGE. The team from Hessen could definitely go into the festive break with confidence after their last Bundesliga game. A convincing performance in the 2-0 win against FC Augsburg that ended a barren run of nine Bundesliga matches without a win. A statistic that does actually sound worse than it is. Because it is very difficult to beat Frankfurt this season. Eintracht have only lost two games and they have put up excellent resistance against top teams like Leipzig, Dortmund and Mönchengladbach with a point gained from each match. The draw is like a leitmotif through the season for the Frankfurt team. Eight of thirteen Bundesliga matches have ended all square – the highest number in the league. Accordingly, Eintracht Frankfurt are currently mid-table in ninth place.

Personnel

Eintracht Frankfurt officially announced a departure on Christmas Eve: Striker Bas Dost is set to join the Belgian champions Club Brugge in the New Year. That leaves coach Adi Hütter with just one real centre forward in the squad in André Silva. Dost is the second highest scorer for the Hessen team with four goals this season. Hütter can now look forward to the recovery of summer signing Ragnar Ache who has only played two games for the team so far due to injury. Ache will not be available for either match against the Werkself following his thigh injury. The hopes up front rests solely on Silva who has been in very impressive form to date

There is another winter departure at Frankfurt – albeit only after the games against Bayer 04. The captain David Abraham is set to return home to Argentina after the clash with Schalke on 17 January. That means he has four games left to play in an Eintracht shirt and the long-standing leading player will definitely be incredibly motivated.

While Abraham can play against the Werkself, Frankfurt will have to manage without another important key player. Midfielder Sebastian Rode, one of the absolute key performers in the team, picked up his fifth yellow card in the last match of the year against Augsburg and is therefore suspended for the game on Saturday.

PERFORMERS

The public perception that Frankfurt are a very strong team is somewhat limited. But Eintracht have readjusted their system after the departure of the 'buffalo herd' of Luka Jovic, Ante Rebic and Sebastien Haller and now they try to take a more refined approach in place of physical force – and that has proved to be successful: Frankfurt have created the fourth most goalscoring opportunities in the league this season. In central midfield there are several players who are very good on the ball. The Japanese Daichi Kamada has already laid on six assists this season with only FC Bayern player Kingsley Coman clocking up more. In addition, after returning from loan, Aymen Barkok has increasingly demonstrated his potential and his excellent technique and has now secured a regular slot in the Frankfurt attack. Amin Younes is set to play a bigger role at Eintracht in January. The five-time Germany international, currently on loan from Napoli, started in the last two games before Christmas and his dribbling at pace and excellent ability fit in brilliantly with the Frankfurt style of play.

Problems

Eintracht are very good in possession. But as soon as the team from Hessen have less of the ball in a game then there is room for improvement. The best example: Frankfurt frequently manage to get a result after going behind (eight points picked up) but equally have problems as soon as they are in the lead (13 points dropped) – usually from situations where the opponents have the ball. Just before Christmas, Frankfurt gave away a 1-0 lead at Wolfsburg and ended up losing 2-1 and, four days later, Eintracht with 3-1 up against Borussia Mönchengladbach on 90 minutes but ended up only taking a point. However, that is not just due to the defence. Turnover play is not really working as desired – Frankfurt have not scored a single goal from a counter-attack.

Prediction

Eintracht Frankfurt have shown they can compete with top teams in the league and are incredibly difficult to beat. It is very possible that Eintracht will make up ground in the table in the coming weeks and get into a European qualification spot. After the game against the Werkself, there are five games in January against teams from the bottom half of the table – teams where Frankfurt can usually find it easier given their style of play.