Ansgar Knauff has a unique selling proposition at Eintracht. The 21-year-old is the only professional to have scored as a left winger so far this season – on November 5 in the 2-1 win in Augsburg. Christopher Lenz and Philipp Max, who has been absent since mid-April due to a thigh injury and has now returned to team training, have not yet had this pleasure in their work sector. With regard to the goal threat he poses, Lenz has had a particularly long period of suffering: In his 91 Bundesliga games, the 28-year-old has never found himself among the goalscorers, so considering his workload he is pretty much alone among the Bundesliga players.
But even Knauff cannot be really happy about his unique sense of achievement. On the one hand, this is a modest return for an offensive player who has made 33 competitive appearances this season. In addition, Knauff has lost his regular place in the team. He was in the starting eleven 14 times in this first division round, he was substituted on ten times and five times he was ignored by coach Oliver Glasner. Not enough for Knauff with his good sporting disposition and his promising history.
A year ago, the native of Göttingen was still on everyone’s lips. As a loan player from Borussia Dortmund, he had made a huge career leap in just a few months: from BVB reserves in the third division to the European stage with Eintracht. Knauff scored important goals, one against Barcelona and one against West Ham United. To crown his brilliant rise, he won the Europa League with the Frankfurters and was voted the best young player in Europe. More is hardly possible. His bold style of play and his carelessness made Knauff an unmistakable constant in the Eintracht game. The expectations of him for this season were high.
More of an emergency solution
Today, the former high-flyer can look back on a fairly deep fall. On the right wing – where Knauff prefers to play – he has lost his permanent place to Aurelio Buta or Eric Junior Dina Ebimbe. And on the left, Knauff is more of an emergency solution. The self-confident newcomer of the previous season has become a supplementary player who has lost his looseness and momentum. Who now often stands in his own way. The scene in the previous game at Schalke 04 (2-2) was significant when substitute Knauff didn’t take the chance to make it 3-1 because he hesitated in a promising position and finally slipped. His unsuccessful appearance says a lot about his current standing.
Nevertheless, Knauff’s future should lie in Frankfurt. After talks with those responsible in Dortmund, the U-21 national player has the impression that he is in better hands with Eintracht in the future. And Frankfurt’s sports director Markus Krösche also believes that Knauff is capable of reversing the trend in its faltering development. In the new season, the winger should build on his good start in Frankfurt under the new coach and bring his potential back to bear. However, both clubs still have to agree on a transfer fee for Knauff.
BVB apparently has an amount of around seven million euros in mind, while Frankfurt is said to be aiming for around five million euros. As things stand, it is likely that both sides will reach an agreement. Eintracht may also have to conduct transfer negotiations with RB Leipzig. A good week before the cup final in Berlin against the Saxons, RB is said to have expressed interest in signing Eintracht offensive player Jesper Lindström.
As far as Lindström and Knauff’s teammate Tuta is concerned, Krösche apparently does not have to take action. Recently, rumors had surfaced that the 23-year-old Brazilian, who is contractually bound to Eintracht until mid-2026, wants to leave the club this summer. “I see myself 100 percent in Frankfurt,” said the central defender on Wednesday, but he and his advisor were “not thinking” about changing jobs at the moment. Since the day before last, the 3-0 home win over Mainz, Tuta has taken the position of chief of defense in the back three instead of Makoto Hasebe.
If he were allowed to choose, he would prefer the right-back role. Either way, the defender hasn’t made the progress that Eintracht hoped he would make as he matured. In the central position in the defense network, the South American could not be recommended for a permanent solution. Too often he made individual mistakes. “It’s a season of mixed feelings for me,” he said. “Positive and negative – there was something of both.”
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