There are only a few constants in the Eintracht Frankfurt squad. Of the 16 players who were on the field in the 5-4 penalty shootout against Glasgow Rangers in the 2022 Europa League final, only three are still there: goalkeeper Kevin Trapp, Ansgar Knauff and Tuta. The latter is surprisingly developing into a top performer this season.
Tuta (front) is developing into a top performer at Eintracht Frankfurt.
IMAGO/Eibner
The central defender was often criticized for his fluctuations in performance. Former coach Oliver Glasner complained about Tuta and his defense colleagues: “It’s a question of quality. I don’t know how you can train quality.” Even under Glasner’s successor Dino Toppmöller, Tuta showed very mixed performances last season. Many expected that the defender would no longer be able to move beyond the role of a supplementary player.
The 150th competitive game for Eintracht
But Tuta cannot be ignored. Central defender Aurele Amenda, who was brought in from Bern for a fee of nine million euros, has to start at the back. Tuta was on the pitch from the first to the last minute in all seven competitive games; last Sunday in Kiel he made his 150th appearance in the Adler jersey. Only veteran Timothy Chandler (195) and the currently injured Trapp (351) are ahead of him. Tuta has seemed unusually stable so far, winning 60 percent of his duels on the first five match days (kicker grade average: 2.6). For comparison: in 2023/24 it was 54 percent (kicker grade average: 3.77).
Sports director Timmo Hardung knows that the years of training on the Main were no picnic for the defender. “At the beginning of the 2021/22 season he had a very difficult time and was not in the squad for several weeks. But he came out of this difficult time and has been a regular player ever since. His polyvalence is really important for us: He has already been on the team Six and played as a right-back,” explains Hardung.
Good technology, risky decisions?
Hardung attributes the 25-year-old’s occasionally high error rate to an unusual reason: Tuta’s footballing quality. “That sounds a bit strange, but his mistakes partly resulted from the fact that he wanted too much and made decisions that were too risky,” analyzes the 34-year-old. Tuta is a “very good footballer”, but also shows the necessary “defensive mentality”.
Surprising use on the six
The fact that the defender, who came from Sao Paulo in 2019, stabilized is also due to his new colleagues: Rasmus Kristensen (27) and Arthur Theate (24) help with international experience and leadership qualities. Meanwhile, Tuta is also brimming with self-confidence. In Kiel he surprisingly played in the six position in the first half, then switched back to central defense, where he replaced Amenda, who was in danger of receiving yellow and red.
He did an excellent job in both positions. Omar Marmoush made it 1-0 with a strong ball into the depths, and he made it 4-2 himself after coming forward from a corner. There is also no way around Tuta in the upcoming away game at Besiktas. He will probably play alongside Robin Koch in central defense. Unless Mother Nature has something against it. Tuta’s wife is heavily pregnant and expecting a child…
