Why Krösche is signing another striker

While Hugo Ekitike is close to completing his move to the Premier League, Eintracht Frankfurt are looking to sign Croatian striker Franjo Ivanovic, as reported by multiple credible sources. This comes as a surprise to many fans, who wouldn’t have thought that Krösche would want another striker, already having signed Jonathan Burkardt (and Elye Wahi a few months ago). Honestly we also believed Jonathan Burkardt would be the only Ekitike replacement. However, signing another striker actually makes sense. Here’s why…

First of all, none of our strikers have proven to be consistent goalscorers for Eintracht Frankfurt yet. Batshuayi has done a decent job as a backup, but he will continue to be a substitute. Elye Wahi is yet to show any output at all in an Eintracht shirt. Obviously, our new signing, Jonny Burkardt is Bundesliga-proven and the club believe that he can play a key role next season, but his injury history leaves some doubts.

With Omar Marmoush and Hugo Ekitike in the squad, this was very different last season. Marmoush had already played an outstanding first season at the club and Ekitike had shown his potential in the final games of that campaign. Additionally, Eintracht didn’t compete in the Champions League, meaning they had weaker opponents and less funds for a potential new striker.

Even though Toppmöller is very flexible tactically, playing a variety of formations each season, he always likes to have two strikers up front. As his best striker was sold in each of his first two seasons, this was not always possible, but when Toppmöller had the possibility to play with two strikers, he often did. This might have to do with his past, as Toppmöller was a striker himself during his playing days (also scoring goals for Eintracht Frankfurt). When you’re playing a system with two strikers, only having three of them in the whole squad is simply not enough.

With Franjo Ivanovic we would get a striker with a well-rounded skillset, who could play in a variety of attacking setups. Should the transfer go through, we will publish an extensive scout report on the 21-year-old.