What a season for Eintracht Frankfurt! Even in season 1 after coach Niko Kovac, Frankfurt under Adi Hütter reached the semi-final of the Europa League and finished 7th in the Bundesliga to qualify for Europe again. Especially the European campaign was brillant: Full of attacking football with great wins and outstanding fan support. Even the lost semi-final (against eventual winner Chelsea) was a great fight and only decided by penalties. Unfortunately, success for medium-sized clubs is usually double-edged: They lost Jovic (to Real, 60mn) and Haller (West Ham, 40mn). That’s clearly quality lost, but the financial benefit is huge. (Especially Jovic is an overpay IMHO. He is great, but also benefitted from the high-pressing Frankfurt system and teammates. We’ll see if he plays at all in Madrid).

On the plus side, they added Durm (left wing back from Huddersfield), Kohr (central midfield, Leverkusen), Sow (Young Boys Bern, central midfield), and young striker Joveljic (Red Star Belgrade). Kamada (attacking midfield) returns from loan as well. They also did their homework well and made the loans of Hinteregger, Kostic, Rode, and Trapp permanent. That’s really good news, both in terms of new potential and consistency. As a replacement up front they already added Pacienca last season, knowing that Haller will at some point probably leave. Smart and forward-thinking move.

Frankfurt plays a pretty distinctive, very aggressive (sometimes borderline dirty, at the minimum very physical) way with focus on pressing and gegenpressing. For this, they need depth which means their transfer window was really good I think. They turned Jovic and Haller into 4 quality players and made all relevant loans permanent with cash to spare. They lost a little quality up front but are now in a better position to deal with the additional European games. I think they’ll again qualify for the Europa League, maybe even a little more comfortable than last year.

Title odds: 101:1

Relegation odds: 34:1

Final expected finish: 6

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