Luka Jovic, Ante Rebic & Sebastien Haller: Frankfurt's formidable goalbrokers
"We have chemistry on the pitch," says Luka Jovic to explain how he, Sebastien Haller and Ante Rebic have been getting top marks this season for Eintracht Frankfurt.
They clearly have geography as they all know where the goal is, physics too because they sometimes score goals that defy gravity. If they keep scoring at their current rate, the only problem might be mathematics…
Along with Frenchman Haller and Croatian FIFA World Cup runner-up Rebic, Jovic — a Serb — has formed one of the most potent strikeforces in the Bundesliga this season, marking quite a change for a side that relied for so long on Alex Meier for goals, and struck just 45 in the whole of the last Bundesliga campaign.
Watch: A tactical look at Frankfurt's formidable front three
Five-star Jovic
Only league leaders Borussia Dortmund have scored more than the club record 26 times Frankfurt have bulged opponents' nets this season; 20 of those goals have come from the boots or head of their three forwards.
Add in their assists for other teammates, and only two of the Eagles' goals in 2018/19 have not involved one of their three in-form forwards. In a league where a magisches Dreieck - a magical triangle - has a long and celebrated history, have Frankfurt found themselves three ambitious and talented goalbrokers able to bring netloads of football's most precious commodity to Germany's financial capital?
There is little doubt that Jovic's stock has risen most sharply in recent weeks. Not that he was an entirely unknown quantity. In just nine league starts last season, the 20-year-old scored eight times, as well as a highlight-reel backheel winner against Schalke in the DFB Cup semi-final.
This season, though, he has stepped up a level or three. You could even say 'five', the same as the amount of goals he netted — only the third foreign-born Bundesliga player ever to do so — in a single-handed goal glut against Düsseldorf on Matchday 8. That haul has helped him to a league-high nine goals come the November international break.
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Kovac hails 'bulldozer' Haller
Almost unknown in his native country, the French forward's self-imposed exile to the Netherlands, and more specifically a goal-every-other-game ratio with Utrecht was what directed Frankfurt's gaze in his direction before they signed him in summer 2017.
Given he is a linebacker-esque 6'3", it is a surprise Haller managed to fly under the radar at all, though while his physical size may lead to him being pigeon-holed, there is so much more to this Eagle. Though former Frankfurt boss and current Bayern Munich coach Niko Kovac claims “A bulldozer couldn’t knock him over!”, you just need to watch in awe as he strikes his stunning 2017 bundesliga.com Goal of the Year to understand he has so much more in his locker than a battering ram.
Watch: Sebastien Haller's 2017 Goal of the Year winner
Haller: 'I'm a team player'
Blessed with a good touch for a small man never mind a big one, the 24-year-old — like Jovic — already made a positive impression last season. "Things are very tight in the Bundesliga and you need a matchwinner, and he is one of those," said Jan Age Fjortoft, a skilfull rangy front man for Frankfurt — sound familiar? — between 1998 and 2001, after catching a glimpse of Haller's qualities. "I'm sure he'll get a lot more goals."
The former Norway international has been proved right. After nine last term, Haller already has eight this — league-wide, only his teammate Jovic has more. Throw in the five assists that put him second only to Borussia Dortmund's Jadon Sancho in that category, and Haller has had a hand in more goals than any other Bundesliga player this season, making or taking one every 63 minutes on the pitch!
"I always want to score goals," said Haller, who played alongside Alassane Plea at French side Auxerre during the 2013/14 season as both tried — and at the time failed — to make a name for themselves. "But I'm a team player first and foremost."