Dino Toppmöller Tactics At Eintracht Frankfurt 2025/2026

Looking back ten years to the 2015/2016 season, Eintracht Frankfurt were in deep trouble.

After conceding a late goal against Werder Bremen on the last matchday of the season, the club dropped to 16th in the league and had to participate in the relegation play-off.

With the club on the edge of going down once again, not many believed in a turnaround in Frankfurt, but the club proved the doubters wrong.

Over the last ten years, Eintracht Frankfurt have established themselves as one of the best clubs in Germany, winning the DFB-Pokal, the UEFA Europa League, and being very successful in the league as well.

Their most significant accomplishment was qualifying for the UEFA Champions League via the Bundesliga table last season, the second time the club had qualified for the competition in the last 10 years.

Another impressive thing about their run is that they had multiple managers over the years; it wasn’t just one person doing an amazing job.

The club managed to establish sustainable growth in their organisation.

The start of the season has been impressive for both current coach Dino Toppmöller and his team, with convincing wins across all competitions.

Over the last couple of weeks, Eintracht Frankfurt have started to struggle, dropping back to seventh in the Bundesliga and losing a couple of games in the Champions League as well.

In this Eintracht Frankfurt tactical analysis, we will examine Dino Toppmöllers tactics, the style of play Eintracht Frankfurt are trying to establish this season, and where their struggles lie.

Variability In Eintracht Frankfurt Formation

For the longest time, Eintracht Frankfurt have played with three centre-backs as the core of their formation, but when hiring Dino Toppmöller, Die Adler chose a coach who prefers a back-four and shifts the focus more toward a possession-based playing style.

This was just the obvious next step in their transition into a top team in the Bundesliga.

After trying to establish his back-four in Frankfurt, Toppmöller still brought back the back-three, especially in games when his team needs to defend a lot, simply because it’s a better fit for their squad.

In the game against Barcelona, Toppmöller and his men were the underdogs, forced to defend for the majority of the game, and the tactical answer to that fact was defending in a very compact 5-4-1 block.