Eredivisie 2020-21

Cheimoon

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With the news of Götze signing for PSV, I figured it would be time for another Eredivisie thread. The excitement! The quality! The 20 posts! Well, maybe we'll get to page 2.

It was promising to be a big fight for the top spot by a couple of quality teams (Ajax, AZ, Feyenoord, PSV), but so far, results are a little disappointing.
  • Ajax (9 pts in 4 games) seems to still be looking for their rhythm this season. They have to adapt to couple of big departures, including Ziyech, Van de Beek, Veltman, and Dest. They did get Klaassen back (well, he was good at Ajax previously), but the biggest new name to watch might be Antony, a winger bought from São Paulo.
  • AZ (3 pts in 3 games) could have won it last year had the league been completed: they were equal in points with Ajax and had beaten them home and away, but Ajax's better goal difference gave them the Champions League spot. They 'only' lost Idrissi and Wuytens from last year's core team and got some decent new players, but somehow it's not clicking so far this year. Last weekend, they even let Sparta come back from 0-4 to a 4-4 final score. I'd back them to get their act together again (Arne Slot looks like a great coach), but they are losing a lot of ground quickly already.
  • Feyenoord (10 pts in 4 games) did pretty well during the transfer period. I'm not aware of main players they lost (Karsdorp?), and they strengthened their squad. They were on a very strong run after Advocaat had taken over from Stam mid-season, and they seem to have carried that form into the new season.
  • PSV (10 pts in 4 games) was supposed to really kick on this season under their new coach Roger Schmidt, but so far he has not been able to really implement his style in the team. They're not losing games yet, though, so nothing's lost yet. They also did not lose a lot of players (Lammers to Atalanta is the main one) and made some pretty good signings (Götze obviously, but also Van Ginkel (if he stays fit) and Max). They really need to get their goal act together though.
Other than that, the league is of course enjoying the return Arjen Robben (who played a whole of 20 minutes so far before going off injured...), and the subtop is as interesting as always. I'd bet on PSV, Feyenoord, and Ajax for top three , for old times' sake, and AZ in 4th. But if anyone wants to predict who will come after that, be my guest! I'd say Heerenveen (currently joint top), Vitesse, Utrecht, Twente, Groningen, Zwolle, Willem II (given last year's performance), and Heracles could all be in the mix for the Europa League play-off spots - depending on how quickly their coaches get their acts together and how each team will be affected by injuries in the course of the year.

At the bottom, though, I would not except the current bottom five (ADO, Emmen, Fortuna Sittard, Sparta, RKC) to make it anywhere further up the table, and I'd expect VVV to join them there as well. RKC have made some decent acquisitions and should be able to do a little better than last year (dead last and only not relegated because of COVID-19), so there might even be some excitement for 18th place this time round.

If anyone wants to waste a perfectly good hour, there is a full overview of this summer's Eredivisie transfers available here: https://www.transfermarkt.com/eredivisie/transfers/wettbewerb/NL1.
 

André Dominguez

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Curious to see how Jesper Karlsson will develop: he seems an interesting player with potential and good vision, was one of the emerging talents from Sweden.

PSV moved well on the market: Sangaré was really a bargain because he has tons of potential, and Max is still a very solid left back.
 

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There are probably some others I overlooked as well in my OP. Also, here are the transfers related to the English leagues:
  • ADO Den Haag got Ravel Morrison from Sheffield Utd and Kees de Boer from Swansea U23.
  • Ajax lost Hakim Ziyech to Chelsea, VdB to Man Utd, and Joël Veltman to Brighton, and loaned Carel Eiting to Huddersfield. They got Maarten Stekelenburg back from Everton (wasn't that a while ago?).
  • AZ got Juan Familia-Castillo from Chelsea U23 (loan) and Bruno Martins Indi from Stoke (loan).
  • Feyenoord loaned Liam Kelly to Oxford again.
  • Fortuna got George Cox from Brighton U23 (bought after last year's loan), Veron Parkes from West Ham U18, and Jaroslaw Jach from Palace (loan).
  • Groningen got Ko Itakura from Man City (loan continuation) and lost Mike te Wierik to Derby.
  • Heerenveen got Erwin Mulder from Swansea and Jan Paul van Hecke from Brighton (loan).
  • Heracles got Luca de la Torre from Fulham and lost Stephen Sama to Accrington.
  • PSV got Marco van Ginkel from Chelsea (loan).
  • Utrecht got Daniel Arzani from Man City (loan).
  • Twente got Nathan Markelo from Everton U23 (loan), Luka Ilic from Man City (loan), and Halil Dervisoglu from Brentford (loan).
  • Vitesse got Armando Broja from Chelsea U23 (loan).
  • Zwolle got Slobodan Tedic from Man City U23 (loan) and lost Gustavo Hamer to Coventry.
Lots of loanees from Man City this year. Are they the new Chelsea?
 

United Junkie

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If feyenoord loses Berghuis then they are fecked. They have no attacking options whatsover besides Berghuis. Dick Advocaat is doing real magic with the material he's got.
 

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I contemplated starting this thread a few times, good to see you did it @Cheimoon.

We are winning the league this year with our main man Steven Berghuis who's scored 6 in the first 4 games. Not really of course, but we started out well enough. If people want to check out the, honest to God, worst professional player to over take to the field, look at our back up striker Robert Bozenik. He is so hilariously bad. Makes Lukaku's first touch look like Dennis Bergkamp.
 

Ludens the Red

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Now that entire Ajax super team have moved on. Who are the new up and coming kids on the block?
 

KirkDuyt

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Now that entire Ajax super team have moved on. Who are the new up and coming kids on the block?
Anthony and Kudus are touted as brilliant prospects. The acadamy players Ajax has in their team now are decidedly average if you ask me.

Psv buying Götze is exciting and kids like Ihatarren, Malen and Gakpo could go on to do well.
 

NL_Memphis

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Now that entire Ajax super team have moved on. Who are the new up and coming kids on the block?
None of the Ajax players currently feel like they have the potential of De Jong and De Ligt, which isn’t that strange of course. Anthony and Kudus are great signings and they will probably give them a nice profit, but they were still signable for Ajax so that says something about them. (Could be hidden gems of course.) The biggest talent from the Ajax youth is Gravenberch, a midfielder who distinctly reminds me of Pogba. He’s best when he doesn’t dribble too much, but he wants to prove how good he is.

PSV probably has the biggest talent in the division. Malen would have left to a big club if not for his ACL injury last season. He has all the attributes to be a top striker, but right now he has difficulty with the two striker system that Schmidt wants. Still 4 goals and 2 assists in 6 games. Gakpo is a winger who doesn’t have the talent of Memphis or Bergwijn, but has surprised everyone with how easily he can create goals. In that he reminds me of Gnabry. Lastly there is Ihattaren, who has the talent to be one of the best in the world. A number 10 who just turned 18, he has a lot to prove and the last few months have been very difficult for him with the death of his father, being benched by Schmidt for being overweight and not pressing enough in training and not getting his national team debut, now it’s up to him to show that he is the real deal.

Feyenoord is really lacking in youth prospect right now and AZ still has the same talents as last year in Boadu, Stengs, Wijndal and to some extent Koopmeinders. Stengs and Wijndal were pretty decent for the national team yesterday, but all of these talents need to show that they’re ready for the next step and can perform on a consistently high level.
 
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Lay

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Only seen clips but they Antony for Ajax looks so damn good
 

Cheimoon

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I contemplated starting this thread a few times, good to see you did it @Cheimoon.

We are winning the league this year with our main man Steven Berghuis who's scored 6 in the first 4 games. Not really of course, but we started out well enough. If people want to check out the, honest to God, worst professional player to over take to the field, look at our back up striker Robert Bozenik. He is so hilariously bad. Makes Lukaku's first touch look like Dennis Bergkamp.
I actually think you stand a decent chance; Advocaat really got you performing consistently and reliably. I think you would need Ajax and PSV to drop points while they haven't clicked yet though (like AZ is doing now), cause I think they're both likely to go on huge winning streaks once they really get going (here's hoping Ajax never do ;) ), and Feyenoord might not be able to match that.
PSV probably has the biggest talent in the division. Malen would have left to a big club if not for his ACL injury last season. He has all the attributes to be a top striker, but right now he has difficulty with the two striker system that Schmidt wants. Still 4 goals and 2 assists in 6 games. Gakpo is a winger who doesn’t have the talent of Memphis or Bergwijn, but has surprised everyone with how easily he can create goals. In that he reminds me of Gnabry. Lastly there is Ihattaren, who has the talent to be one of the best in the world. A number 10 who just turned 18, he has a lot to prove and the last few months have been very difficult for him with the death of his father, being benched by Schmidt for being overweight and not pressing enough in training and not getting his national team debut, now it’s up to him to show that he is the real deal.
PSV's offence looks great as usual, but I think their biggest doubts are in defence - including their keeper. Also, I'm hoping Götze won't push Ihattaren to the bench too much, that would be a pity for his development - although it might motivate Ihattaren to really push on. (It seems he might need that, from some recent news I've read.)
Feyenoord is really lacking in youth prospect right now and AZ still has the same talents as last year in Boadu, Stengs, Wijndal and to some extent Koopmeinders. Stengs and Wijndal were pretty decent for the national team yesterday, but all of these talents need to show that they’re ready for the next step and can perform on a consistently high level.
That's why I would back AZ (with Slot also still at the helm) to get it together soon. Pretty exciting time - and a couple of potential key Dutch internationals in there.
 
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United Junkie

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I contemplated starting this thread a few times, good to see you did it @Cheimoon.

We are winning the league this year with our main man Steven Berghuis who's scored 6 in the first 4 games. Not really of course, but we started out well enough. If people want to check out the, honest to God, worst professional player to over take to the field, look at our back up striker Robert Bozenik. He is so hilariously bad. Makes Lukaku's first touch look like Dennis Bergkamp.
Remember Vejinovic? No joke, but even I was a better baller than Vejinovic. He was so shit. Even RKC wouldn't want a player like that around. Feyenoord has the knack of almost always buying the wrong players. They're super terrible in the transfer market. Same with the 20 million pound offer from Newcastle for Jorgensen. They were so arrogant thinking they could get more out of him. Now he's not even worth 2 million. Their just pissing money away they dont have.
 
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KirkDuyt

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Remember Vejinovic? No joke, but even I was a better baller than Vejinovic. Feyenoord has the knack of almost always buying the wrong players. They're super terrible in the transfer market. Same with the 20 million pound offer from Newcastle for Jorgensen. They were so arrogant thinking they could get more out of him. Now he's not even worth 2 million. Their just pissing money away they dont have.
God, everytime I see Jorgensen now, my soul dies a little. Yes I remember Vejinovic and Charisteas and Jhonny van de Beukering who's parents werent even bothered to check how you spell Johnny.

Im half afraid that they will make the Jorgensen mistake on Senesi, since some clubs were willing to offer good money for him, though he's started strong this season, which bodes well.

I' m also hally with Teixeira so far, didn't expect anything from him, but looks the real deal. God knows we need creativity.
 

United Junkie

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I actually think you stand a decent chance; Advocaat really got you performing consistently and reliably. I think you would need Ajax and PSV to drop points while they haven't clicked yet though (like AZ is doing now), cause I think they're both likely to go on huge winning streaks once they really get going (here's hoping Ajax never do ;) ), and Feyenoord might not be able to match that.
I still believe if it werent for Corona - feyenoord would've been made champions last season. It was just a matter of time Ajax or AZ were going to spill points and considering the tough fixtures they still had left there was no way they would get 3 points out of every match. Feyenoord though would win every match. That's what I still believe.

Robbery! Now we just have to wait for another 17 years again.
 

Cheimoon

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I still believe if it werent for Corona - feyenoord would've been made champions last season. It was just a matter of time Ajax or AZ were going to spill points and considering the tough fixtures they still had left there was no way they would get 3 points out of every match. Feyenoord though would win every match. That's what I still believe.

Robbery! Now we just have to wait for another 17 years again.
I think it might have been AZ first and Feyenoord second. Feyenoord would absolutely have won the cup though. (And Willem II wouldn't have made it into Europe. Although whoever would have replaced them probably would have dropped out in the play-offs also.) But now we have Ajax in the CL again. Urgh.
 

Ajaxsuarez

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The biggest talent from the Ajax youth is Gravenberch, a midfielder who distinctly reminds me of Pogba. He’s best when he doesn’t dribble too much, but he wants to prove how good he is.
It's actually the opposite. He's at his best when he dribbles more. What he lacks (so far) though is intensity in his actions. Saw it very prominently in one moment vs Groningen where he easily got past his man, had like half the pitch ahead of him to run into, and seemed to run at 60% pace instead of attacking the space and opportunity in the way he should have. by the time he did reach the final third, Groningen had set up solidly again.

In a sense that's also a big concern because that's basically similar to Pogba, in that he's a brilliant footballer who has all the ingredients but lacks an intensity to really make his mark on the match enough.

But he's (just turned) 18. At this age Frenkie was still 2.5 years off becoming a starter at Ajax.

Anthony and Kudus are touted as brilliant prospects. The acadamy players Ajax has in their team now are decidedly average if you ask me.
While this is true in the strictest sense (outside of Gravenberch), that's largely because the actual talents around first team age aren't being given any minutes by Ten Hag.

Gravenberch, Rensch, Unuvar are all indisputably top-top talents who are in and around the first team.

There's also Taylor whom I'm a big fan of, but I know some other people don't view him quite as highly as I do.

Hansen has potential but I flip-flop on whether I view him massively. I'd say he's, purely talent-wise, more talented than a Malen who's been mentioned in this thread though.

We have a few other top-talents in the 15-17 category as well, but they're still way off the first team (an Aertssen, Misehouy, Rijkhoff, Kalokoh)
 

KirkDuyt

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It's actually the opposite. He's at his best when he dribbles more. What he lacks (so far) though is intensity in his actions. Saw it very prominently in one moment vs Groningen where he easily got past his man, had like half the pitch ahead of him to run into, and seemed to run at 60% pace instead of attacking the space and opportunity in the way he should have. by the time he did reach the final third, Groningen had set up solidly again.

In a sense that's also a big concern because that's basically similar to Pogba, in that he's a brilliant footballer who has all the ingredients but lacks an intensity to really make his mark on the match enough.

But he's (just turned) 18. At this age Frenkie was still 2.5 years off becoming a starter at Ajax.



While this is true in the strictest sense (outside of Gravenberch), that's largely because the actual talents around first team age aren't being given any minutes by Ten Hag.

Gravenberch, Rensch, Unuvar are all indisputably top-top talents who are in and around the first team.

There's also Taylor whom I'm a big fan of, but I know some other people don't view him quite as highly as I do.

Hansen has potential but I flip-flop on whether I view him massively. I'd say he's, purely talent-wise, more talented than a Malen who's been mentioned in this thread though.

We have a few other top-talents in the 15-17 category as well, but they're still way off the first team (an Aertssen, Misehouy, Rijkhoff, Kalokoh)
Ah yes, I meant mostly the 20-22 year olds. Always plenty of brilliant kids in the lower teams. Is Unuvar ready for first team football in your opinion? I've not seen much of him.
 

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AZ has Aboukhlal and Taabouni coming up as well, great youth system. Kudus is a really good player - he could be massive for Ajax this year. Furthermore expect Per Schuurs also to make his (defensive) mark this year.
 

RedPed

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Ajax currently smashing VVV for 8. Nice little workout for them.
 

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Are they playing against their coach? Have they been snorting Gouda before kickoff? Even Bayern can't maul relegation fodder that badly. What's the story behind the scoreline?
 

RashyForPM

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Honestly, I think I’d score in this game if I was an Ajax striker. Anyone else think they would too?
 

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Venlo fans apparently heard to sing, "We're gonna win 13-12!"
 

RedPed

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Thought VVV were pretty decent. They won me a few quid many times whilst in the Eerste.
 

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Five goals for Traoré, who I see described as average everywhere. Really curious what's happening with VVV here. They've been pretty stable since they're back in the Eredivisie.
 

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Five goals for Traoré, who I see described as average everywhere. Really curious what's happening with VVV here. They've been pretty stable since they're back in the Eredivisie.
I don't think you can really judge anything from this game. Just a crazy game all around.