Eintracht Frankfurt fans could be forgiven for being somewhat disappointed with the signing of Bas Dost. After losing their two star forwards, Luka Jović and Sebastien Haller, for a combined fee of £99 million, Frankfurt were reluctant to splash their cash. Head Coach Adi Hütter seemed satisfied with both Gonçalo Paciência and Dejan Joveljić as his goal-scoring options. Despite both having immense promise, it was a big burden to ask the two young forwards to replace Jović and Haller and Frankfurt scored a goal apiece in their first two Bundesliga games, registering a win and a loss. Yet there had been rumours throughout the summer linking them with Dutch target-man Dost. They moved relatively late in the transfer window and signed him for £6.3 million. This tactical analysis and scout report will look at how Dost will fit into the tactics employed by Hütter, and highlight his unique abilities as a forward.
Background
Dost is familiar with the Bundesliga, having scored a respectable 36 goals in 85 appearances for Wolfsburg. In fact, he has scored goals freely wherever he’s played, scoring an incredibly impressive 93 goals in 127 appearances for Sporting in Portugal.
So far in his professional club career, Dost has scored 181 goals in 320 games, and he started off his Frankfurt career scoring on his debut in a 2-1 win over Fortuna Düsseldorf. He has made 18 appearances for the Netherlands but has only scored once in 18 games.
At 30 years old Dost is a player who is likely coming to the end of his prime years, and that is a stark contrast compared to the two forwards who left Frankfurt this summer. Both Jović and Haller were signed as young strikers with plenty of potential for big future transfer fees.
Despite this, Dost is a clever forward with an excellent track record and is a low-risk signing for the German side.
Positioning
Sporting predominantly played a 4-2-3-1 or a 4-3-3 last season, and Dost was used as the focal point, playing as a centre-forward. He may not play this way for Frankfurt, who have played with two strikers in all three of their Bundesliga games thus far this season. Last season Frankfurt predominantly used a front two as well, but with Ante Rebić leaving for AC Milan, and André Silva moving the other way, its not clear if Hütter will use a front two or three.
Dost could form a good partnership with Paciência, who likes to drop deep, or wide to receive the ball. However, he has shown he is a handful for defences when playing without a partner.
He is a forward who plays very far up the pitch, and very centrally. He rarely drops in to contribute to build-up play and is more concerned about being in the right areas to poach from. Paciência is a very different striker and his desire to drop into deeper positions would act as an excellent link between the midfield and Dost. Although Dost can play by himself, Paciência has always been used alongside another forward.
We can see Dosts high positioning by looking at his heat map from last season. It shows just how forward he plays and how oriented he is towards the 18-yard-box.
