Eintracht Frankfurt - Mijat Gacinovic Between madness and genius
After the 1-0 home win against Eintracht against Nuremberg last Sunday was despite the success, controversial about a player. And not for the first time. We are talking about Mijat Gacinovic. Lost balls, botched counter situations, etc. Despite these known weaknesses, I believe that he is often seen too negative by the fan base.
Gacinovic's entry into the SGE
When Mijat Gacinovic switched to harmony in the summer of 2015, hardly anyone had him on the screen. A young winger (then twenty years old), who played the Serbian Novi Sad before his engagement at Eintracht in his native city. Many will have felt like me when former coach Niko Kovac brought him in the relegation matches against Nürnberg: Who is Mijat Gacinovic and what is he doing in such important games in the squad? In his seven Bundesliga appearances in the 2015/2016 season, he did not manage to leave lasting impressions in a total of 327 minutes of use. Except for a yellow card maybe.
However, the relegation games against Nuremberg then became "Mijat Gacinovic Festival". With a great goal in the first leg and a goal forward to the important goal in the second leg, he kept the team almost single-handedly in the first class. Logically, he played with it great sympathy in the fanbase. But this should not be lasting for many fans.
What's wrong? - An analysis
When you talk about Gacinovic, you'll often find negative images in your head besides the legendary run to the 3-1 final in the 2018 Cup final. Ball losses in the construction game, which lead in direct succession to conceded, miserable Torabschlüsse and complete headlessness in many situations. Time and again it says: If Gacinovic manages to bring constancy into his game, then he can be a big one. That's been the case for three and a half years now. He is now 24 years old and has left the talent age. He still misses the constancy far too often.
An offensive player is scored at points scorer, but Gacinovic suffers a similar fate in the fan base as a Mesut Özil suffered long years in the DFB team (I refer to Özil's reputation before Erdoğan scandal). Both players fulfill similar roles. They are creative minds who can use smart passports to initiate dangerous situations. They are, so to speak, a source for the template donors. As was the case with Özil, so it is with the Serbian international: Many do not see how he works for his team, because he does not reward himself with Zählbarem. And so mistakes are all the more noticeable. A key reason why many see the two players critically. There is a difference, however, between Özil and Gacinovic: Özils passes came in the national team mostly, while Gacinovic just too often sloppy plays.
He is a player with a very high gaming intelligence. Unfortunately, it seems often, his head works faster than his feet - this was recently confirmed by his coach Adi Hütter. He sees the gap to the deadly pass on the incoming striker and his pass lands exactly at the defender. Or in the side. Or in the gate. If he can manage to stop such mistakes and simply develop more calm on the ball so that his feet come from behind his head, he may indeed be an extremely important player for concord. One thing makes Gacinovic absolutely outstanding: the aggressive start in pressing. Apart from Filip Kostic, hardly any player wins so many balls at Eintracht and thereby initiates dangerous counter situations. So if he is far away from the opponent's goal, he seems to work better. This once again suggests that it is he who stands in the way. He puts too much pressure on the crucial situations and thus loses his lightness and liveliness. What Gacinovic needs is a series of achievements to get on the right track.
Important for the team
Why do I have a positive image of him despite all this? Mijat Gacinovic is a model professional. In his three and a half years in Germany he has succeeded in an impressive way to speak a near-perfect German and at the same time to increase his market value (according to transfermarkt.de) more than sevenfold: from 1.25 million euros to nine million.
By contrast, David Abraham, who has been playing continuously in Germany since 2013, still gives every interview in Spanish - and that for a long time as a team captain. How many times have you been annoyed by such professionals in the past? For example, Theofanis Gekas, who played in the relegation season 2011 at the Frankfurters, did not speak a single word of German. Such players can not signal to a club more clearly that they see no long-term future in the club than not to learn the language spoken there in the country. Sure, that's how the business works. Players come and players go. But Gacinovic makes such a committed impression that I would not be surprised if he sees his future long term in the Main metropolis. Thanks to his, for me, impressive language skills, he often acts as an interpreter for his country colleagues and friends Luka Jovic, Filip Kostic and the Croatian Ante Rebic. These are all functions that are not to be underestimated off the field. He was also ready to switch to defensive midfield without complaining when Kovac thought it necessary. A task that Gacinovic accepted and mastered solidly. Listlessness is a foreign word for the Serbs. Even if he does not succeed, he always gets completely clean and gives everything. Gacinovic works a lot for the team and the community, emphasizing time and again that he would like to play more successful, score more points and score more goals. And we all wish that too - most wonderful.
My appeal to the fan base is that, despite its too-moderate performance, you do not forget what Gacinovic does for the team. Both on and off the court. Criticism must be allowed and important, but in my eyes a player who is so willing to learn and committed is not worthy of contempt.