Toppmöller on Marmoush, Ekitiké, and Matanovic: “I want all three of them on the pitch.”

For a brief period in last night’s narrow 1-0 win over Rigas FS, a potentially devastating Eintracht Frankfurt attacking trident of Omar Marmoush, Igor Matonovic, and Hugo Ekitiké were all on the pitch at the same time. It didn’t last terribly long. Ekitiké came on in the 58th. Matanovic exited proceedings in the 73rd. Not much transpired in the 15-minute-interval.

Eintracht trainer Dino Toppmöller – who is on record as saying that he’s quite keen to incorporate some of the new summer signings into the squad – nevertheless revealed that he liked the idea of playing all three of them together when speaking at a Friday presser. German football lovers themselves salivate at the idea, given Eintracht’s recent history of attacking trios with catchy names. 

The famed “Büffelherde” (Luka Jovic, Anté Rebic, and Sebastien Haller) propelled the RheinMainAdler to new heights in 2018 and 2019. The so-called “Krokodil” (Bas Dost, Gonçalo Paciencia, and André Silva) proved more of a flash-in-the-pan, though Daichi Kamada’s eventual inclusion ultimately lent the trident some weight. 

German football watchers – not to mention journalists at two of Germany’s major papers-of-record based in Frankfurt (the FAZ and Rundschau) – are currently toying with ideas such as the “Ma-ma-tiké Axis”. Toppmöller dropped strong hints at the presser that headline writers in the Bundesrepublik better get their creative juices flowing. 

“Basically, I would like to have the three of them on the pitch together,” Toppmöller said, “because they can complement each other quite well with their qualities.”

“But that’s the crux of the matter that we have to solve,” Toppmöller nonetheless continued, “because one or the other might not feel comfortable with his positioning

“We will continue to work on it and try to get it right,” Toppmöller cheerfully concluded.