Everything you need to know about our friendly against Aston Villa
Eintracht Frankfurt will face Aston Villa in a pre-season friendly tonight. The two European top clubs will meet in the Lynn Family Stadium in Louisville, Kentucky at 7pm local time (1am CET). The game will be available to watch on Sky, DAZN and EintrachtTV+ (all require a paid subscription).
Personal Update
Jonathan Burkardt will miss the match due to a cold. Elias Baum is also ruled out, as he’s suffering from thigh issues. Our two Brazilians, Tuta and Kauã Santos, are still recovering from their injuries. Ellyes Skhiri and Arthur Theate are also not fully fit – they might come on for a few minutes.
What to expect
It remains to be seen whether Toppmöller will field his best lineup already or give chances to young, unproven players. I believe the latter is more likely.
Here’s how Toppmöller could line up, using his best available players in a 4-2-3-1 formation:
Batshuayi
Uzun - Götze - Knauff
Larsson - Hojlund
Brown - Koch - Amenda - Kristensen
Trapp
Even though we might not see Toppmöller’s strongest lineup yet, we can expect to see glimpses of his tactical approach and potential plans for the upcoming season. One area to keep an eye on is the back line. In the match against FSV Frankfurt, Toppmöller used a back four – if he sticks with that setup again, it could hint at a shift towards a new formation.
Aston Villa are currently one of the top teams in the Premier League, finishing sixth last season and 4th the season before. Last season they also reached the quarterfinals of the Champions League, being eliminated by PSG in a tight match. However, they’re not expected to play all of their top players, as seen in their two previous friendlies where they lost to Walsall and Hansa Rostock. The match might look like a clash of two European top clubs at first glance, but at the end of the day it’s just an early pre-season friendly.
We must also consider the players’ fatigue. Toppmöller’s boys were pushed to their limits in training – the coach took little consideration for the match against Villa. He explained that "It’s about pushing our boundaries. There’s physical fatigue, but it starts in the mind first".
