Eintracht Frankfurt head coach Dino Toppmöller has given an insight into how he adjusted his team tactically following the departure of star striker Omar Marmoush for Manchester City in January, and how he wants to emulate Bayern Munich.
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The Eagles were third in the Bundesliga standing over the winter break in 2024/25, helped in large part by Marmoush’s 15 goals and nine assists in 17 games, but the Egyptian’s transfer to the English Premier League threatened to derail Eintracht’s season.
Toppmöller had other ideas, however, as he revealed in an interview with Eintracht.tv to discuss his tactical approach.
“I don’t have a preferred formation,” said the 44-year-old. “At the end of the day it always depends which players you have in your squad, or who’s in top form at the time. We started 2024/25 largely with a 3-4-3 formation with Omar Marmoush and Hugo Ekitiké.
Watch: All of Ekitiké's 2024/25 goals and assists
“We knew that the pair of them worked best as a strike partnership. But we also operated in a 3-4-3 with the two of them, whereby Omar dropped a bit deeper into the half-space, but we knew we had to play with the two of them in attack.
“As a result, Mario Götze suffered a bit because that forced him to move out wide a bit more. But when Omar left us we decided to move Mario back into the middle in what became a 4-2-3-1 formation.
“That set-up worked so well, and the boys were so fresh mentally and so well trained that we were able to switch up our formation during games.”
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It worked so well, in fact, that Frankfurt finished the campaign in third place, thereby securing UEFA Champions League qualification for the first time ever via their league placing.
While they scored fewer goals in the 17 games without Marmoush than with him (28 compared to 40), Frankfurt’s counter-attacking style proved a recipe for success. They had a league-high 53 shots and 12 goals from in transition over the campaign, compared to 28 and eight the previous year.
Now, Toppmöller has set his sights on further improvement and is taking inspiration from Bundesliga champions Bayern.
Watch: Frankfurt's top 5 goals in 2024/25
“Why did Bayern score 15 times from high pressing situations [compared to Frankfurt’s seven]?” he asked himself.
“Bayern are a lot calmer than we are when they have possession. That means that when they have the ball they have a chance to recover. So when they lose it and start counter-pressing, they have more power and more energy.
“So that’s probably why they score more goals than anyone from counter-pressing situations. That’s something we want to improve upon in order to become an absolutely top team - being better in possession.”