Frankfurt host Köln after 0-6 in Leipzig, without a home league win since March

Eintracht Frankfurt open the sixth Bundesliga matchday at home to 1. FC Köln on Friday (20:30 CEST), after last Saturday's 0-6 defeat at RB Leipzig. Coach Adi Hütter called it "a very, very important game, possibly also one that sets the direction".

Frankfurt are 14th with five points and have conceded 16 goals in five games; only Union Berlin (17) and Borussia Mönchengladbach (18) have let in more. Frankfurt have one point from two home games and, as the Darmstädter Echo notes, have not won a home league game since a 1-0 against Heidenheim on 14 March. "It can't be that we haven't won at home for more than half a year," Hütter said.

Köln are 10th with seven points, all of them taken at home. They have lost both away games, including 1-4 at Stuttgart, but arrive after beating Gladbach 2-1 in last Sunday's Rhine derby, with Said El Mala scoring the winner.

Koch stays captain

Hütter took captain Robin Koch off at half-time in Leipzig, along with team-mate Keita Kosugi, with his side 0-4 down. "I then relieved Robin Koch as well, because I expect something completely different from a leader and captain," he said afterwards, according to the FAZ. "If you concede 16 goals and keep having situations like that in defence, at some point I send a signal." Koch, 30, has played 97 Bundesliga games for Frankfurt and had been substituted only eight times before that night.

On Wednesday Hütter ended the debate. "He will play, and he will remain captain," he said. "I want to strengthen the leaders." Koch is "certainly not the main culprit", the Austrian added, but "the performance principle applies": "He has to look for duels and win them." Hütter also demanded a "069 mentality", named after Frankfurt's dialling code: "We are too comfortable for many opponents. We are too pleasant to play against."

Köln without Skhiri

Köln coach René Wagner is without midfielder Ellyes Skhiri, who returned to Köln from Frankfurt in the summer and was stretchered off before half-time in the derby after a foul by Gladbach's Florian Neuhaus. The club announced an ankle injury and "a longer break"; Bild reports he is likely to miss the rest of the year with a torn ligament. Wagner called it "a brutal blow for us". Strikers Thijs Dallinga (cruciate ligament) and Ragnar Ache (muscle) are also out, and t-online, citing Express and Bild, reports that Imad Rondic has a thigh injury.

Köln have let leads slip against Werder Bremen and Gladbach this season, WDR noted, and Wagner is relaxed about it: "If we score one more than the opponent, we still win games." Wagner's time as Köln coach began, as interim, with a 2-2 in Frankfurt after trailing 0-2. Benjamin Brand referees.