Tactics Talk with Laura Feiersinger
The start of a new regular series on WFC, Eintracht Frankfurt and Austria midfielder Laura Feiersinger talks about her own role on the pitch, her toughest opponents and key games from her career.
As she prepares to embark on a new journey next season, Laura Feiersinger has arguably become one of the most underrated midfielders in Europe. Just after surpassing 100 caps for Austria, Feiersinger played a key role for her country in the last two European Championships during runs to the semi-finals and quarter-finals respectively, while she’s had a successful club career in Germany.
Daughter of former footballer Wolfgang, who won the Champions League with Borussia Dortmund and also played for the national team, Feiersinger grew up around sport and made an early impact in her career with Bayern Munich, where she won the DFB-Pokal and two Bundesliga titles and she’s been with Eintracht Frankfurt since 2019, helping them to a third-place finish in the league this season.
A tough midfielder who reads the game well, her role on the pitch has changed over the years, and in this first instalment of Tactics Talk, Feiersinger talks about how things have changed for her between club and country, some of her toughest opponents and key games from her career on the pitch so far.
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“When it comes to the national team, I would say my role has changed,” says Feiersinger. “When I was younger, I always played on the wing. I dribbled a lot and I really enjoyed the one vs one aspect on the field.
“I’d say around six to seven years ago, just after Euro 2017, it kind of changed a little bit. I became more of a central midfielder and when I came to Frankfurt it was similar. When I joined, I played on the wing, but now I enjoy playing as a six or an eight. When it comes to my position, I’ve really had to change the way I play.”
We will come onto a key game she played as a winger in the early days of her career, but for we discuss why that role has changed over the years, and the now midfield player believes there were several contributing factors over the years that have led her to becoming a central player.
“I think with the national team it was down to my coach,” she says. “He wanted me to play in the centre and with Frankfurt it was mostly because we changed the way we played. We changed our system, we started to play with a 4-4-2 with a diamond in the midfield, so we didn’t really play with wingers anymore.
“I kind of liked it because I always wanted to play more in the centre. After my big injury in 2013, I wasn’t as fast as I used to be. When I was younger I was very fast, after that I had to adapt my game a little bit and when I started playing in the centre I really enjoyed it because it was different.
“You can become a bit isolated on the wings a little and it always depends on your opponent too, plus the way your own team plays. Sometimes I would get a little bit impatient, whereas in the centre it’s more intense. You are always against someone, always around the ball. It depends on the system, the way a team is playing, especially if you’re being man-marked.”
She also admits her role now slightly differs between Eintracht Frankfurt and Austria because of the various degrees of success the teams have and the styles of their coaches.
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