Dino Toppmöller on ...
...upcoming opponents 1. FC Köln: ““We’re going up against a tough opponent. As a team, Köln make more intensive runs than anyone else and they always cover around 120 kilometres. I’ll certainly be asking Ellyes Skhiri a couple of questions. He was in Köln for a number of years and knows the coach, whom I hold in the highest regard, really well. We need to be as fresh as possible in order to hold our own in that regard. Our experiences against Mainz and Sofia will help us do that. It’ll be a big challenge, but it’s one we’re approaching once again with a great deal of confidence.”
...personnel: “Jakic has concussion and will definitely be out. Aaronson got a knock on the leg, but it doesn’t look too bad. Pacho got a hit on the back of his head but he’s been given the green light. Ansgar Knauff is suspended after his sending off against Mainz. Sebastian Rode has trained at a really high intensity. He’s available again and is generally always a candidate for the starting line-up. Farès Chaibi is also an option.”
We’ve got a huge amount of talented young players out on the pitch.
Head coach Dino Toppmöller
...the team’s development: “Omar Marmoush has done well so far, and I’m pleased Jessic Ngankam was able to help us with his goal. We’ve got a lot of good attacking players. There’s a reason I was asking for patience: it’s because it’s a process and we need time to get in the groove. Players enjoy playing for a club like Eintracht Frankfurt. They’re eager to learn and we want to develop them. At the moment we’re not really doing that in training because there’s a lot of recovery on the agenda, as well as training for substitutes and video analysis.”
...young players: “We’ve got a huge amount of talented young players out on the pitch. That being said, it’s important that we have a good spine to support them, such as Trappo, Seppl, Robin and Mario. It’s a spine with a certain experience that can help the youngsters grow. Nevertheless, the mentality the players showed against Sofia was incredible, everyone knew how important the game was. But now our full focus is on Köln.”
...the back line’s development: “Since the training camp we can see that we’ve developed in that we don’t let the opposition have many chances at all, and that our positioning is good when it comes to counter-attacks. We want to continue that because there are always things we can improve. We want to make the defence so watertight in front of Kevin Trapp that we’re able to win games like the one against Darmstadt 1-0.”
