Eintracht Frankfurt was capable of winning all of their group stage matches in the Europa League. Thanks to the recent success, the side of Adi Hütter is one of the high-flying teams of the Bundesliga.
However, many forget that the start of Adi Hütter, who took over from Niko Kovac, was a stuttering one. Eintracht Frankfurt was overrun by Bayern Munich in a 0-5 defeat in the Supercup and was eliminated in the DFB Pokal by fourth division team SSV Ulm a debacle.
Obviously, Adi Hütter made the turnaround and surprised the league with his successful approach. How Hütter adjusted his ideas to the team and what tactics led to the success will be revealed in the following analysis.
Back to back-five
One of the main factors of Eintracht Frankfurt was the deployment of a system with a back-five. In the beginning of his time in Frankfurt, Hütter used a back-four in defence. As Frankfurt struggled to gain defensive stability with four defenders, the Austrian decided to switch back to a line of five defenders like in the previous season under Kovac.
The deployment of a back-five also makes sense due to their wing-backs. Danny da Costa is defensively extremely solid and can further stabilize the defence as a wing-back. Moreover, the dynamic defender can contribute to the offence with pacy long-line runs. Filip Kostić on the other side benefits from the space he gets on the wing, starting from a more defensive position. Even though being a learned winger, Kostić likes to move between the opposition winger and fullback. Thereby the Serbian has more space to start into in order to utilise his pace. Being tightly marked by the opposition full-back, Kostić often wasn’t capable of using his tempo.
Although Frankfurt is a center-focused side, it is difficult to stop their attacks as Kostić and Da Costa provide penetrating power on the wings. The Positions & Passing Network above shows that both wing-backs play a key role in the Frankfurt system by providing width.
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