Martin Daxl cheers with the Eintracht Frankfurt players. Image: Kessler sports photography / Jürgen Kessler
Analyse
The year 2023 is currently not that of Eintracht Frankfurt. In 2022, the Hessians caused incredible euphoria around the club with their Europa League victory and their entry into the Champions League round of 16. Sadness prevails at the moment.
The SBU has been without a win in nine Bundesliga games, and they got their last three on February 18 against Bremen. After that, there was only one more success: victory in the DFB Cup quarter-finals against Union Berlin in early April.
Last Frankfurt final 2018
If Eintracht manages to reach the next final after the triumph in 2018 in the semifinals against VfB Stuttgart on Wednesday evening, the year could still get a positive note. However, if you have seen Frankfurt on the pitch in the past few weeks, observers and supporters wonder how this is supposed to work. The offensive is completely out of shape, the defense error-prone and unfocused.
Martin Daxl, potential and personality trainer at SGE, already had a premonition in January why the second half of Eintracht could be much bumpier than the successful year 2022.
“We performed in the first half of the season and got great results. But that’s history, football is everyday business. The subconscious expectation could be a disruptive factor“He said in the club’s own podcast “Eintracht vom Main”.
Although Daxl has no influence whatsoever on coach Oliver Glasner’s sporting decisions, behind the scenes he played a large part in the success of the past year.
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Frankfurt boss Krösche knows Daxl from SC Paderborn
Sports director Markus Krösche brought Daxl to Eintracht in the summer of 2021 as a potential and personality trainer. He knew the 62-year-old from their time together at SC Paderborn when Krösche was still a player there. In the meantime, Daxl was also drawn to TSG Hoffenheim and Hamburger SV before Krösche steered him to Hessen when he took office in 2021.
IAccording to his own statements, dealing with the players is about “what I can do even better, what bothers me and how do I get it implemented?”
Mario Götze (left) and potential coach Martin Daxl (3rd from left)Image: dpa / Arne Dedert
Translated into everyday life, this roughly means: The stars of Eintracht should not lose the fun of football, because without it no player can achieve the maximum quality. Daxl said in the club podcast: “The source of lightness is fun. When we’re happy, we have a different speed of action, different facial expressions and gestures.”
Eintracht Frankfurt: Daxl works in close consultation with Glasner
He has not worked out a concrete plan for this. For newcomers, there are one-on-one talks or a presentation for a larger group “so they know I’m not the greenkeeper.” Instead, he’s with the team three to four days a week and during games.
In consultation with coach Glasner, he then talks to the players on the pitch or during a walk for reflection coaching. The main thing there is to give the players feedback on their human behavior in certain situations.
One of his guiding principles to the players is: “Always stay in the plus.” In top-level sport, that would mean always thinking about your strengths, staying true to yourself during the game and “Telling my teammates: ‘That was a good ball, you’ll do the next one even better’.”
According to Daxl, analyzing everything and only saying what was not going well is not effective.
Eintracht Frankfurt: Glasner conjures up the magic of the triumphs in 2022 and 2018
There weren’t really many good balls to admire at Eintracht in the past few weeks. “We’re not currently able to get our attacking players into crystal-clear final positions,” said coach Oliver Glasner after the sobering 1-1 draw against FC Augsburg on Saturday.
Nevertheless, at the press conference before the Stuttgart game, he showed great anticipation for the semi-finals, and the atmosphere in the team was also good. The Euro League victory in 2022 and the cup triumph in 2018 would have been engraved in the hearts of the players. “Once you’ve experienced it, it’s a bit addictive,” Glasner said.
However, he rejected inquiries about his future. “Two weeks ago it was said that I was going to Real Madrid or Chelsea FC, and now I had to answer whether I’m afraid of staying on as a Frankfurt coach.“That is incomprehensible. Even ninth place in the league is not a “complete disaster”.
Eintracht Frankfurt: Rumors about star departures are distracting
But not only the future of the coach has been discussed in recent weeks, but also that of numerous players. The rumors annoy Daxl as they can negatively impact player performance.
At Eintracht it is only officially clear that Daichi Kamada will leave the club in the summer. In addition, however, Evan N’Dicka, Djibril Sow, Jesper Lindström and, above all, star striker Randal Kolo Muani are always considered candidates for a change. They are linked to top clubs on an almost weekly basis.
Randal Kolo Muani could leave Eintracht Frankfurt for 100 million euros. Image: imago images / eibner-Pressefoto/Grant Hubbs
That could be one reason for Eintracht’s drop in performance in the second half of the season. Already in the winter transfer window, Daxl explained the influence on players who are confronted with transfer rumors:
“When you have to deal with a situation that is extremely important, there’s a certain power. You can’t push that away. When that thought is there, the focus can shift.”
It would be ideal if the player in question made a fixed appointment with his advisor to think about his future in concrete terms. A specific date and time are important for the subconsciousso that the questions about the future, which cannot be answered at the moment anyway, would not waste energy.
Eintracht Frankfurt: Board spokesman Hellmann appeals to the team
But there is already a fixed day for the cup final in Berlin: June 3 at 8 p.m. Frankfurt’s board spokesman Axel Hellmann therefore appeals to his team: “It is clear and necessary that we tighten up in time and recognize this huge opportunity, as do the players.”
A win would see Eintracht qualify for international business again – a goal they are likely to miss due to their poor performances in the Bundesliga.
“For me, the ability to deal with defeat is the next step towards a big win. For me, under the leadership of Oli, this is implemented excellently in the entire coaching team,” praised Daxl coach Glasner in winter.
After the disappointments of the past few weeks, this big victory should ideally come on Wednesday evening and then again at the beginning of June in the Berlin Olympic Stadium.
