DThe sporting management of Eintracht would never complain, but no member of the management has yet communicated that they are completely happy with the position on the right flank this season. Whoever got the chance to present themselves didn’t really convince. Erik Durm, Almamy Toure, Danny da Costa and Timothy Chandler had their good moments, Durm the least, Chandler the most, but over the course of the season there was a growing feeling: there can and must be more when the team want to go to Europe.
And this is how Eintracht reacted on the transfer market. Eintracht first entrusted Ansgar Knauff with the task of creating momentum down the right on Thursday, a 20-year-old talent who has made 16 rather brief appearances in the first team at Borussia Dortmund in the past ten months and 36 extensively in the second BVB team in the third division.
In the summer on the Main
Knauff received a loan contract until June 2023, it represents the immediate solution. The Frankfurt Bundesliga club sees Faride Alidou swirling on his right flank in the future in the longer term. But since the Hessians could not agree on a transfer with Hamburger SV, the 20-year-old will only move to the Main in the summer, when his contract with the Hanseatic League expires and he can leave the club with the diamond free of charge.
In his short career, Knauff has played much less with the professionals than Alidou, but made bigger headlines with the Champions League participants than his peer at the second division club HSV. In his second of four Bundesliga appearances, the whirlwind scored the 3-2 winner against VfB Stuttgart after coming on as a substitute, and he put on a goal for a team-mate in the 2-2 win against Cologne. And in his seven other brief appearances (three in the Champions League), Knauff revived the Borussia offensive with his dribbles.
The trade journal “Kicker” believed in the summer that the native of Göttingen, who joined the BVB juniors at the age of 15, could make the breakthrough this season and backed up the thesis with statistics. Extrapolated to 90 minutes, Knauff was by far the most successful dribbler in Dortmund (7.18), which says something about a colleague by the name of Jadon Sancho, and he was also by far the best provider of assists (4.10). But Knauff’s record had the flaw that he also suffered the most frequent ball losses (6.15). However, the usefulness of this statistic is immediately apparent when you learn that the talent had only been in the Bundesliga for a total of 72 minutes, which was derived from a very uncertain basis.
Unspectacular professional life
And indeed, Ansgar Knauff’s professional life turned out to be far less spectacular this season. Coach Rose let him play nine times, with no further entries in the success statistics, without much influence on the game. With the top-class competition in our own ranks, there are no good prerequisites for gaining further experience.
So Eintracht, BVB and Knauff agreed relatively quickly on a loan because it gives advantages to all parties. Eintracht sports director Markus Krösche said: “Ansgar fits into our team very well with his pace and his understanding of the game and would like to take the next step in development here. He is able to help us immediately on the wide lanes.”
Return to the starting eleven?
Knauff could play a few minutes this Friday (8.30 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the Bundesliga and on DAZN) in the home game against Arminia Bielefeld to get used to the new team. He will probably not be in the starting eleven. Eintracht coach Oliver Glasner is a friend of consistency in his personnel policy.
After goalkeeper Kevin Trapp and Filip Kostic have overcome their corona diseases, there is hardly anything against the return to the starting eleven, which has emerged in recent weeks. Including the hardship that crowd favorite Martin Hinteregger has to go to the substitute bench because of the top form of the almost 38-year-old Makoto Hasebe. For Eintracht, the dispute with East Westphalia has trend-setting importance. In the event of a win, the ranks after Europe remain within reach, in the event of a defeat the lead over Bielefeld, who are currently in relegation place 16, would only be seven points. In this strange season, there are only 14 points between third and 17th place after 19 matchdays.
