Eredivise 11/12 Thread

Tournament runs from August 5th 2011 until 6th of May 2012 including a winter break.

Defendingchampions are of course Ajax who took their 30th Dutch title in the previous season, in front of FC Twente and PSV Eindhoven. These 3 teams look like the title contenders for this year as well, possibly with Feyenoord and AZ Alkmaar clawing at the places below attempting to end in the top 4.

The only team to be promoted to the league this year is RKC Waalwijk as the other teams that were for relegation last season made it through their play off matches for another season in the top flight.

ADO Den Haag
Ajax (Last season Champions)
AZ Alkmaar
De Graafschap
Excelsior
FC Groningen
FC Twente (Cup and Super Cup winners)
FC Utrecht
Feyenoord
Heracles Almelo
NAC Breda
NEC Nijmegen
PSV Eindhoven
RKC Waalwijk
Roda JC Kerkrade
sc Heerenveen
Vitesse
VVV-Venlo

The League actually started yesterday but i was in a plane while the opening match between the two Rotterdam clubs Feyenoord and Excelsior was played. The Super cup was played last Saturday (30th july) which saw Twente beat Ajax 2-1.

Obviously i am rooting for Ajax, although looking at the schedule i am a bit sad compared to last season which had the 2 biggest games of the season placed in the last week of matches, which was Twente vs Ajax first in the Cup and then in the league where Ajax took the championship at home. Twente and Ajax possibly plays the same key match in round 32 of 34 this season, that is if the league gets as close as it did last year where coming in to the last round 3 teams were still up for the championship. As well as closely following Ajax i have good deal of interest in the clubs that feature danish national team players such as Thomas Enevoldsen and Nicklas Pedersen @ FC Groningen or Lasse Schöne at NEC. Who do you follow and why?

Currently in UEFA Competitions Ajax is directly qualified for Champions League group stage while Twente are placed in the non champions route for Champions league where they face Benfica for a spot in the group stage, meanwhile PSV and AZ Alkmaar are in the Europa League playoffs where also ADO Den Haag were featured but got beaten in the 3rd round.

Should be an interesting season. Obviously Ajax will be favourites to retain the title, but the likes of PSV and Twente should put up another strong challenge.

All the presumed top teams playing today, AZ-PSV in an hour, De Graafschap- Ajax in 3 hours and NAC Breda - FC Twente in 7 hours.

For Ajax Araz Ozbiliz and Jan Vertonghen is out, Vertonghen has been injured for quite a while and haven't really been featured in the pre season games, while Araz Ozbiliz have been showing great form including an 11 minute hattrick against Independiente

Kenneth Vermeer will take over shirt number 1# due to the sale of Stekelenburg to Roma (those italians are not worthy)

I might watch the Ajax game. I'm not sure though.

Surprised that Steklenburg went to Roma in a way. There had been rumours of Man United going for him before we signed De Gea, so I expected him to hold out until a top club came in for him.

Yeah I expected a Champions league club to come out and buy him.

From what I've heard though, Roma do have a lot of money in the bank now. Chances are that influenced his decision.

2-1 for AZ against PSV, PSV just pulled one back in the 46th minute. I think it could easily go both ways now. Hope to see Jozy Altidore feature in the 2nd half.

Just watching AZ v PSV now, what a strike that was for AZ second.

Altidore scored

Altidore is in the Eredivise now? Interesting...

Very happy about our result today, i have to admit that we wouldn't have a chance for the championship if Vertonghen left us and we didn't get a replacement, the only reason we won today was that Graafschap is a much much worse team than Ajax. 1-4 is a fairly misleading result with that defensive performance which reminded me very much of Arsenal all of last season playing without Vermalen. That said our offensive players showed they are ready to do what it takes. So we start on top having 1 goal more than AZ. Just gotta hold it there till may and the march for the 4th star can begin.

And yes Altidore was picked up as a replacement because Ajax bought their main striker from last season, imo AZ made a very good trade that way getting a better player in than they sold, i was hoping that it was Ajax he was gonna visit when i read about him going to Netherlands but it turned out to be Alkmaar which should be a very nice fit for him.

Altidore scores at his 48th club in 4 years.

He made a mistake by not going to the Eredivise as his first league abroad, no league teaches young players better than how professional football in Europe works. He might have had playing time 2 clubs now instead of 53 or so.

Another Ajax match day on the way. Against VVV today with Jan Vertonghen back in the squad.

Yesterday saw Twente trash Heerenveen 1-5. The same score as when Heerenveen visited Ajax last week with a win for Ajax of course.

Last weekend Nicolai Boilesen was benched for the entire match with C. Eriksen getting just about an hour, this weekend it could be the same as Boilesen starts on the bench while Daley Blind takes the Left Back position, not a tactical decision i agree with but it was warned before the season as both left backs are just 19 years old.

This topic sort off died on the count of i didn't want to talk to myself all the time, sadly there arent as many Ajax/dutch fans here as on EA

No matter, first "top 3" match of the season PSV takes on Ajax at 12:30 CET.

Opstelling
Ajax: Vermeer; Van der Wiel, Alderweireld, Vertonghen, Boilesen; De Jong, Janssen, Eriksen; Anita, Sigthórsson, Boerrigter.

PSV: Tyton; Manolev, Marcelo, Derijck, Pieters; Wijnaldum, Toivonen, Strootman; Lens, Matavz, Mertens.

PSV haven't had the best start to the season and Ajax is at number 2 spot one point behind Feyenoord who played yesterday.

Walking into the last round of the year for the Eredivise, with AZ Alkmaar having secured the top spot until the league starts again next year. Followed by PSV, Twente & Ajax. The 4 teams are also present in Europa League

A few games were played Saturday evening, including a 7-0 victory for Roda JC over (feeder club) Excelsior. But all the top teams are playing tomorrow, the big match of the weekend being Feyenoord vs Fc Twente, Feyenoord who has lost a bit of traction after their great season start, and Twente who has had the same problems as Ajax and PSV, unable to close games.

Top scorer of the league is currently Bas Dost who blasted in a phenomenal 5 goals against Excelsior last week for his club Heerenveen, Bas Dost was a target for Ajax during the summer but wasn't pursued after the club managed to pick up Kolbeinn Sigthorsson who is still injured.


For my club, Ajax who is facing Ado Den Haag in the last round it has been a difficult fall, with several key players falling to injury, including Nicolai Boilesen, Toby Alderwireld, Siem De Jong, Theo Janssen(in the squad not certain he is starting), Kolbeinn Sigthorsson. The injuries along with failures to perform from veteran striker Dimitry Bulykin have forced the team to play without a striker like they did in the 2nd half of last season after the sale of Suarez and the dispute between Mounir El Hamdoui and Frank De Boer. Last season that role of "false 9" was filled by Siem De Jong, but the chance has been given to Uruguayan Nicolas Lodeiro as well as A1 player Davy Klaassen who scored in his league debut against Excelsior after spending less than a minute on the field. Overall a dissapointment but unlike last season where injury problems weren't as present its better and there is hope for the spring part of the season still. I personally hope the club will pick up a striker in January, possibly sell Gregory Van Der Wiel (who has pretty much only been playing well in Champions League, although one can hope he shapes up with the Manchester United draw)

How good is Adam Maher?

He is excellent, he, Dries Mertens, John Guidetti and Bas Dost have been the fall seasons best players imo. Not sure if he is ready to move to a bigger club just yet, the dutch strikers generally need time to settle so if he did, it should be a club with patience.

Rei Andros wrote:How good is Adam Maher?

So good that loads of Dutch people want him to be taken to the Euro Cup at the age of 18. But he hasn't picked for which country he will play yet considering he has a dual-nationality thingy.
Honestly I've seen quite a few games of this guy he's really talented. Not sure if he has the potential to be at the top clubs, but sub-top definitely. However not yet, he should stay at AZ till his 20th-21th. Anyways, his one touch play is awesome, so is his dribbling and shooting he can also play with both feet quite well with the right being superior tbh.

Lebedynski scored today on his debut

4-0 for Ajax on a relatively cheap background with Ado Den Haag getting a red card in the 9th minute, goals by Christian Eriksen, Theo Janssen, Dmitriy Bulykin and Miralem Sulejmani. The first and last goal were excellent.

Manchester City owned Feyenoord player John Guidetti just scored a hat-trick against FC Twente. He is just 19 years old, future Swedish super star.

Edit: end of the match 3-2, Twente pulled 2 back in the 2nd half it looked very close to 3-3 towards the end but Feyenoord held. AZ Alkmaar lost 2-1 to NAC, which means they leave for the winterbreak with 38 points, followed by PSV (who has 34, 35 or 37 points after the match that begins in 5 minutes) and with 33 points both Twente and Ajax.

Will try to enjoy more posting with myself during this half of the season, which was kicked off today with the cup rematch between Ajax and Az Alkmaar.

Siem De Jong scored 2 on assists by Eriksen for ajax but a 2nd half penalty for AZ made it 2-3. Great that Siem De Jong is back, but the team looked shaky like they did in a Brazil last week losing 0-1 to Palmerias

They face each other in the league on Sunday with AZ having the home advantage this time.



Excellent video from the match today, with 23.000 kids in the stands.

Does Vertonghen often do roulettes like that? Impressive skills for a centre back.

BladeGunner wrote:Does Vertonghen often do roulettes like that? Impressive skills for a centre back.

Yes

Should read what i post more often, yes.

He is Vermalen 2.0, better shooting, heading, skills, defending. 6 months in PL he could be one of the best. Although how good he is can go to his head, having done a skill in defense a time or two and having to win the ball back, often does if he loses it. Often goes up with attack to score goals during open play (also freekicks and corners naturally)

Post away Mukhoo. People will read.

Muhkoo wrote:Manchester City owned Feyenoord player John Guidetti just scored a hat-trick against FC Twente. He is just 19 years old, future Swedish super star.

Edit: end of the match 3-2, Twente pulled 2 back in the 2nd half it looked very close to 3-3 towards the end but Feyenoord held. AZ Alkmaar lost 2-1 to NAC, which means they leave for the winterbreak with 38 points, followed by PSV (who has 34, 35 or 37 points after the match that begins in 5 minutes) and with 33 points both Twente and Ajax.

Hope so. We came really close to letting him go in the summer. Hopefully he can get on the bench and make the odd appearance for us next year, he'd count in the homegrown quota for the CL so it couldn't exactly hurt.

BladeGunner wrote:Does Vertonghen often do roulettes like that? Impressive skills for a centre back.

Related to Vertonghen and his attacking ability.

Zzonked wrote:

Muhkoo wrote:Manchester City owned Feyenoord player John Guidetti just scored a hat-trick against FC Twente. He is just 19 years old, future Swedish super star.

Edit: end of the match 3-2,
Twente pulled 2 back in the 2nd half it looked very close to 3-3 towards the end but Feyenoord held. AZ Alkmaar lost 2-1 to NAC, which means they leave for the winterbreak with 38 points, followed by PSV (who has 34, 35 or 37 points after the match that begins in 5 minutes) and with 33 points both Twente and Ajax.

Hope so. We came really close to letting him go in the summer. Hopefully he can get on the bench and make the odd appearance for us next year, he'd count in the homegrown quota for the CL so it couldn't exactly hurt.

It came more or less out of no where, and he is a genuine Feyenoord hero now, being part of the new Feyenoord that had to be built after the 10-0 thrashing PSV gave them last season and the general bad seasons they have had for a couple of years now. Could see him have a very big season, while Feyenoord are naturally Ajax rivals i appreciate players like Guidetti, he is what the modern Eredivise is about, raw talent development and taking your chances.

The league is on the move again.

Last night Twente with Steve Mclaren on the bench again won 5 - 0 against RKC Waalwijk, Luuk De Jong scored 2, although not sure if first should have been a freekick or the goalkeeper is just bad (5th goal says he is bad) as he ran directly into the jumping goalkeepers path who looked like he had 2 hands on the ball. 2nd goal from him was a penalty, and also an assist for the 2nd goal.

AZ - Ajax playing at the moment after first half its 1-0 for AZ after a free-kick by Rasmus Elm in a good spot after a sloppy tackle from Vertonghen (Yellow card), good stuff considering the very windy conditions. Ajax came close a few times but it has been AZ's first half which also required Vertonghen to clear it off the line once and some good containment after Vermeer went way out of his area on another occasion.