There is great confidence that negotiations with Adi Hütter will soon result in a contract signing. One issue the new coach will need to address: the team’s lack of scoring threat on the counterattack.
Is Adi Hütter the new coach of Eintracht Frankfurt? Not all details have been finalized yet, but an agreement is expected. While a breakdown in negotiations is still possible, it is rather unlikely. If everything goes smoothly, Hütter could return to his former club as early as the beginning of next week.
Krösche’s vision aligns with Hütter’s
The 56-year-old coached Eintracht from 2018 to 2021, leading the Hessians straight to the Europa League semifinals in his very first year. “We want to bring a certain intensity back into our game, a mix of counter-attacking football and possession-based football. We need to master both aspects to be able to regularly compete for international spots,” sporting director Markus Krösche recently explained.
That fits Hütter, who, while he wants his team to have the ball, is not a typical possession-based coach. The coach demands that the team play quickly forward. Compared to his early days in Frankfurt, Hütter has evolved during his time at AS Monaco, which he coached from July 2023 to October 2025. Despite his offensive drive, he placed greater emphasis there on a solid back line. Finishing second and third, he led the Monegasques to the Champions League two years in a row.
Only three counterattack goals in 2025/26
Frankfurt scored 61 goals last season, just seven fewer than in the highly successful 2024/25 campaign, when they finished third. What is striking, however, is that only three goals were scored on counterattacks. The last time there were so few was in 2016/17, when only two goals came from counterattacks. The discrepancy compared to the 2024/25 season is enormous: thanks primarily to Hugo Ekitiké and—until his departure in January 2025—Omar Marmoush as well, Frankfurt was the league’s most dangerous counterattacking team (13 counterattack goals).
Manager Krösche analyzes: “Last season, significantly more teams defended deeper against us. As a result, we inevitably had more possession. But we made relatively little of it; we played too slowly. Consequently, we had fewer transition moments, some of which we didn’t capitalize on consistently.” That said, the sporting director sees “enough speed in the attacking line.”
Under Riera, the goals-per-game average dropped significantly
Jean-Matteo Bahoya (36 km/h), Ansgar Knauff (35.7), Elye Wahi (34.8), who was on loan for the past six months, Ayoube Amaimouni-Echghouyab (34.4), Jonathan Burkardt (34.4), and Arnaud Kalimuendo (34.2) all averaged over 34 km/h up front—and thus faster than most center backs. But especially under former coach Abert Riera, the team played too many lateral and backward passes.
Until Dino Toppmöller was fired after Matchday 18, the Hessians had averaged 2.1 goals per game; under Riera, however, that figure dropped to 1.5. By the way: In the three seasons under Hütter, Eintracht averaged 9.3 counterattack goals. They were most effective on the counterattack in their first year with the “Buffalo Herd”—the trio of Sebastien Haller, Luka Jovic, and Ante Rebic—scoring twelve counterattack goals.