‘Tough feedback’ – how Frankfurt turned Ekitike into £69m star

Eintracht Frankfurt’s Timmo Hardung smiles, “Strikers are always more shiny.”

Hardung is aware of the Bundesliga club’s nearly $ 300 million profit from forward sales over the past six years that attracts headlines and interest.

“It’s the toughest part of our sport to score a goal, so obviously they draw a lot of attention”, he says. However, I believe we were able to develop and improve a lot of players.

Of course, Hardung is correct that the Frankfurt ranks haven’t just seen the blossoming of strikers.

Ecuador international Willian Pacho is a prime example – signed from Royal Antwerp for just under £12m in July 2023, the defender left a year later to join Paris St-Germain for almost £35m.

However, it is frequently, and for good reason, that forwards are mentioned.

Andre Silva (RB Leipzig), Randal Kolo Muani (PSG), Omar Marmoush (Manchester City), and Hugo Ekitike (Liverpool) have all passed through the club for large profits since Luka Jovic joined Real Madrid, and Sebastien Haller moved to West Ham in the summer of 2019.

“I wouldn’t say we do anything more specific with them than with any other position”, adds Hardung. However, we make an effort to play offensive football, creating lots of chances, and I believe we’re a good team because we give players the chance to score their goals.

Our strikers have the best chance to shine because we press high and attack the goal as much as we can.

That was the case for 23-year-old Ekitike, who will return to Deutsche Bank Park with Liverpool in the Champions League on Wednesday.

Ekitike had a short-coming with PSG after coming to them from Reims 18 months prior to his first loan spell until the second half of the 2023-2019 season.

The Frenchman made his move to Frankfurt soon after posting 15 goals and eight assists in the Bundesliga last season, which ranks him as the top-fourth most goalscorers among players under the age of 23 in Europe’s top five leagues.

” We just saw his potential, “says Hardung”. We recognized his weaknesses, and we thought it might be very appropriate for the type of football we want to play.

Although PSG is a large club, we saw the opportunity there and made the deal work. “He was a young football player who had a difficult time.

Ekitike scored more goals in his one full season at Frankfurt than he did in any other campaign of his career, despite underperforming his expected goals tally (xG) by 6.6% and having a shot conversion rate of 12.8%.

The Frenchman, who is fifth in the division for most dribbles, had more shots, and scored more goals from fast breaks than any other forward, and was also ranked fifth overall in the league in terms of overall play.

” It was a lot of work from us, but also from him, “adds Hardung.

We try to be honest with players because that is the only way to bring them forward, despite the fact that he obviously had to do the hard work, training, and listening to some difficult feedback.

“He was able to use that feedback to develop a strong work ethic and training efforts.” ]He] improved every day, gave it his best shot and then the rest was done by his talent”.

In an effort to encourage the development of young stars like Ekitike, Frankfurt has made an investment in the “team around the team.”

Additionally, psychologists, nutritionists, and other experts collaborate with players on a personal level in addition to video analysts, performance and athletic coaches, performance and athletic coaches, and performance and athletic coach coaches.

“The further you reach up to your ceiling, the more you have to look for percentages to improve a little bit here, a little bit there”, explains Hardung.

Ekitike was given more speed and physicality than he had when he first started playing in the Bundesliga because he was lacking in minutes when he first arrived.

We have a lot of runs, intensive runs, and sprints, according to Hardung. “So you have to prepare to be able to do that and not to get exhausted too early in the game, because you still want to have them fresh and ready to score 1-0 in the 80th, 90th minute.

You must put in some effort to accomplish this, they say. He has done that, too.

The staff also worked closely on” details “to help Ekitike improve his scoring chances.

Ekitike left after Marmoush left for Manchester City for £59m, having previously joined Frankfurt for free a year and a half earlier.

Including Ekitike, the top eight most expensive departures from the Bundesliga this summer headed for the Premier League – among them were Florian Wirtz and Jeremie Frimpong from Bayer Leverkusen to Liverpool, Benjamin Sesko from RB Leipzig to Manchester United and Nick Woltemade from Stuttgart to Newcastle.

Hardung understands why German clubs are placing orders for top-flight purchases in Germany.

He claims that our league is “very competitive.” That can show Premier League clubs players who play well in the Bundesliga can have a good impact. “

However, Frankfurt’s main goal is not to hire players with high potential resale value.

The 35-year-old Hardung explains that “we’re not necessarily looking for a selling market after that.” We want to be successful, right? We are a large, traditional club. We have ambitions. That’s our primary goal, to get a competitive football team.

Because we can’t spend the money that other clubs can, we felt like doing that would work best for us.

These techniques are working, according to the evidence. Frankfurt won the Europa League in 2022 and have gradually improved their league performance since, finishing third in the Bundesliga last season, a joint club record, with the division’s youngest average team.

Although it may not be their intention to sell their stars, Frankfurt is always on time and the hiring process begins soon.

According to Hardung, “the preparation of the next transfer window begins the day after the transfer window closes.” “What changes may happen in the future and how do we react to that”?

Jonathan Burkardt, who scored 17 Bundesliga goals for Mainz last season and won five German caps, took the place of the departing Ekiti this summer.

The 25-year-old, signed for £18m, has scored four goals in his first six league games and three in two Champions League matches so far this season.

What do we really want, is the first question we ask ourselves. “,” asserts Hardung. “It’s important to really analyse your squad, look for the strengths and abilities you are missing or you want to add”.

According to Hardung, Frankfurt have the resources to monitor the “whole football world,” identify key performance indicators, develop algorithms to meet club needs, and screen that database for targets.

Players who comply with the requirements will be flagged before subject to a more “qualitative” evaluation.

“Then the scouting department really kicks in”, adds Hardung. “Watching film, technical filming, and technical scouting, in an effort to make the shortlist even shorter,” he said.

The final section will always be live scouting, but we’re trying to make it as efficient as possible. We won’t have a list of 100 players to watch live, just a few we think will find interesting from the data and movies, “but trying to make it as efficient as possible.”

“The last step would be us driving out, watching the players live, before making the final decision – which player we feel like we should really commit to”.

Hardung thinks Frankfurt’s reputation for producing talent helps them demonstrate that they “walk the talk” when looking to hire future stars.

If you sit down with players, agents, or families to paint them a picture of what you want to do, of the philosophy and strategy you use, and if you have a track record of players who have followed that path, he says, it helps.

Underpinning all their work is a humble nature. The club “knows our spot, know our place, know where we come from, and also know our strength,” according to Hardung. Making life as difficult as possible for supposedly bigger teams, like Liverpool on Wednesday, is one way to do this.