Eintracht Frankfurt’s Can Uzun receives praise after seizing another opportunity | OneFootball

Eintracht Frankfurt head coach Dino Toppmöller responded to the impatience of 19-year-old German-Turkish talent Can Uzun by awarding him a start in Sunday’s Bundesliga fixture against Holstein Kiel. By all accounts, the highly-touted summer signing answered the call. Working on the buttressing support axis opposite Mario Götze, Uzun made his presence felt on all three goals and did a spectacular job scoring Eintracht’s third.

Toppmöller’s tactics themselves were quite impressive. Uzun and Götze worked behind Hugo Ekitiké, The young Scandinavian tandem of Hugo Larsson and Oscar Højlund pressed forward at the right times. Wing-backs Nathaniel Brown and Rasmus Kristensen – one noticeable defensive error notwithstanding – worked as an excellent tandem.

Something similar being used against record champions Bayern Munich in next weekend’s league fixture remains unlikely. Toppmöller will likely turn to his newly acquired attacking tandem of Elye Wahi and Michy Batshuayi. A 3-4-2-1 against the Bavarians appears far too risky. A static 4-3-3 would make far more sense.

The SGE trainer nevertheless took the opportunity to praise Sunday’s tactical set-up in Sunday’s 3-1 win both in his post-match interview with DAZN and later at the post-match press conference. Toppmöller revealed that everything had worked as intended.

“It made sense to play with Mario and Can [Uzun] in the half spaces,” Toppmöller said in his interview. “But Hugo Larsson also pushed forward from the number 6 position to the number 10 position. Accordingly, he was also in the box for the 1-0. It worked.“

“Can has done very well in his last few substitutions and has had a very good week of training,” Toppmöller added at the press conference.  “We said that we wanted to take that into account and reward him, and he scored again. So we are all very happy.”

Uzun has now scored four league goals and registered two assists in his debut Bundesliga season. Overall, he’s scored five and assisted on three in 22 appearances across all competitions, earning three starts in the Bundesliga and three in the Europa League.

GGFN | Peter Weis