Eintracht Frankfurt vs Hamburg preview - Schaaf plays down Meier issue

Posted Saturday, February 28, 2015 by PA

Eintracht Frankfurt coach Thomas Schaaf insists all is fine in the dressing room after criticism was levelled at top-scorer Alexander Meier following last weekend's 3-1 defeat in Mainz.

Meier was the Bundesliga's top goalscorer at the midway stage of the season, but he has added only one to his 13 goals since the turn of the year and has looked distinctly off colour in recent weeks.

"If Meier doesn't score, then you don't even notice he's played," said Frankfurt's director of sport Bruno Hubner in a scathing attack on his own player.

Although Schaaf agrees that Meier had "not delivered the performance we hoped for" in last weekend's defeat, he says the issue "has been dealt with."

"The harmony and the atmosphere within the troops is totally fine," Schaaf said at a press conference.

Meier will have to play a prominent role this Saturday since his deputy Haris Seferovic is suspended after picking up his fifth yellow card of the season last weekend.

Nelson Valdez, who has been out of action since the end of August after tearing knee ligaments, is back in training and could be an option.

Valon Behrami could come back into the Hamburg team with their coach Josef Zinnbauer saying he wants to pick up at least a point from the trip to the Waldstadion.

"He's not had any reaction to training and we are giving him some thought," Zinnbauer said. "But we must not forget that Valon recently had an operation."

He will slot into a team who showed a good reaction to an 8-0 defeat to Bayern Munich by picking up a point against Borussia Monchengladbach last weekend.

"We played like a team," said defender Petr Jiracek on his club's website. "Football is about 11 men playing together, and then it works.

"The fans saw that and now we want to show the same again in Frankfurt."