Eintracht Frankfurt’s Goal Machine
Mention ‘Strikers’ and ‘Bundesliga’ and the two names that spring to mind are Robert Lewandowski and Erling Haaland. Though, there is a striker that sits between them in the Bundesliga goal scoring charts and that is André Silva of Eintracht Frankfurt.
Though slightly overlooked in comparison to Lewandowski and Haaland, Silva is the second highest top scorer in the Bundesliga this season, with 23 goals to his name, two more than Erling Haaland who is the hottest property in Europe now.
Is the Portuguese striker’s form that surprising though?
Apart from a poor spell at AC Milan, Silva has shown he is capable of scoring goals frequently throughout his career and at 25 still has his peak years ahead of him.
In the 2016-17 season he scored an impressive 16 goals in 32 league games for Porto, and that caught the interest of Italian side AC Milan, who signed Silva for €38 million in June 2017. His time at Milan did not work out well, with only two goals in the 2017-18 season, which led to a loan move to Spanish club Sevilla, where he had a slightly better season scoring 9 goals in 27 league appearances.
Silva returned to his exceptional goalscoring form he showed at Porto when he joined Eintracht Frankfurt on a two-year loan in the 2019-20 season. The Portuguese striker scored 12 goals in the league and outperformed an xG of 10.5. This led to Frankfurt signing Silva on a permanent deal ahead of the current season and this season Silva has continued his goalscoring form.
Silva has scored 23 goals this season in the league, outperforming his xG of 19.4, and his goals account for 39% of his side’s league goals, which has helped Eintracht Frankfurt into a promising position in the league, where they currently sit in fourth place, which would qualify them to the Champions League.
Silva has struck up a wonderful relationship with Filip Kostić, who has assisted 7 of his league goals.
Silva has not just been on the receiving end of assists though; he has shown this season other facets of his game which have included assisting 6 goals himself this season.
Most of his goals come within the box, but that does not take away from how good he has been this season. He has a wonderful goalscoring trait of being in the right place at the right time and that is not due to luck, that is due to skill, as he can read the game remarkably well. Silva has shown he can score with either foot, while he has also demonstrated an aerial prowess with several headed goals this season. Also, he has shown he is a reliable penalty taker, scoring all his six penalties in the league this season.
Silva has shown he is a prolific goal scorer, and that special form is set to guide his club into the Champions League.
