“One of the quickest teams in the league”

Matchday 12 will see VfB travel to Eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday evening for what promises to be one of the top Bundesliga games of the weekend. Other than long-term injured Nikolas Nartey and Roberto Massimo, the VfB head coach will be able to call on a full squad for the trip north.

Hoeneß was full of praise for Maximilian Mittelstädt, who made his second start in the recent Borussia Dortmund home game. “Maxi’s settled in nicely with us and has consistently added to the team after coming back from injury,” the coach said. “He’s always positive and gives it everything he’s got.”

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Saturday’s opponents are on a good run, having lost just one of their 11 Bundesliga matches this term. Eintracht are a particularly tough nut to crack on home turf, going unbeaten in their past 15 league games at Deutsche Bank Park, so the lads from Cannstatt know what they will be up against.

“It will be a capacity crowd under floodlights, and a nice way to kick off the last group of games before the winter break,” said Hoeneß. “We’re expecting a tough opponent who’ve only lost once in the league this season and are on good form in the Europa Conference League and the DFB Cup as well. There can’t be many tougher tasks than playing Eintracht away.”

Hoeneß spoke in particular of the Eagles’ flexibility, saying: “They’re a very adaptable team with and without the ball. They’re one of the quickest teams in the league and they can get out of difficulty with their technical skills. We’ll need to be adaptable as well if we’re going to come to terms with how they attack us.”

The coach will be looking for his players to keep a close eye on Omar Marmoush, who joined SGE in the summer and played for VfB on loan during the 2021/22 season. “Frankfurt have recruited a lot of good players. Omar Marmoush plays a crucial role down the middle, and they’ve got Ellyes Skhiri, Hugo Larsson and Fares Chaibi who are all on good form,” said Hoeneß, before adding: “We’ve got our own quality in the ranks, though, and want to show that in the remaining games before the end of the year. We need to be absolutely on the ball and dig as deep as we can to pick up more points.”