Well Kovac turned Frankfurt into a possession team since the winter break. Against Hoffenheim and Nagelsmann last week they had 64 % possession and all games combined over 53 %. After the defensive minded last season and beginning of this season he really showed how to progress to be a possession team which tends to attack over the wings. Nagelsmann for example turned Hoffenheim into a non possession team over the last week but both are getting results with their "new" style of play. Although Hoeneß was the driving force behind the Guardiola signing and i think the Sammer departure was based on health issuses. Still i also think that Hoeness plan of appointing former players to key positions regardless of their experience and his problems with sharing the control are problems for Bayern. His ignorance of tactics and modern training methods of football and all the other "new" stuff is just ridiculous and can cause a major stepback in development. The problem is you wont see this too fast as the league is too soft.
Good post and honestly I see some posting here (some of them Bayern fans) and you know for certain that they've seen little of Eintracht Frankfurt under Kovac. They seem pissed off because Kovac is not Tuchel (who had a conversation with Pep once & so must be world class) or Nagelsmann (who's a one trick defensive & counter attacking pony).
When Bayern played in Frankfurt last December for the first time in years I saw a Frankfurt team retain and hold possession for long periods against Bayern. Bayern won the game 1 nil but had few opportunities and only won it because the referee bottled sending off Vidal after 5 mins (who went on to score the winner).
Kovac has done a fantastic job at EF with next to no financial resources. He's brought in excellent players on loan (Jesus Vallejo, Jovic), bought potentially very good players and developed them into far better players (Marius Wolf, Ante Rebic) and mixed in experience (Boateng) to create a team which holds possession, plays attacking football and competes with the best teams in the Bundesliga. My understanding is that the players at EF have completely bought into his philosophy and think he's a fantastic coach.
I know it's all ifs, buts and maybes but if Eintracht this season had not conceded last minute goals to Hoffenheim (A), Dortmund (A) and Schalke (H) they would be in second place at the moment. As things stand they remain fifth competing with Leverkusen tomorrow for a Champions League spot with five matches left and a cup semi final at Schalke next Wednesday. Ask any Frankfurt fan if they'd have taken this at the start of the season and most would have laughed at the ridiculousness of the question.
But the moaners out there wonder about Kovac.
Has he even met Pep?. . . they wonder.
What about possession style tiki-taka?
It's all nonsense. The job of a manager is to get the best results out of the players he has at his disposal.
Tiki-taka was the future once. . . You can't win football matches without playing possession (and usually exciting) football mixed with bringing in the right players.
For the Pep lovers. . . No doubt he'll spend another 300-400m over the summer to put a team into the QF of the CL next season.
Kovac will be a different manager at Bayern because Eintracht Frankfurt (and any other Bundesliga team) are literally in the same league as Bayern in name only at the moment.
Only time will tell.
