Guest Post: The Eredivisie thus far

Regular guest Joep Smeets is back to fill us in on the Dutch league and its rather topsy-turvy start. How about AZ Alkmaar, eh? Eh?

When I was asked to write an update on the Dutch league it took me a little bit by surprise. After my preview, I was operating under the assumption everyone here had been meticilously following the going ons in the Eredivisie. But for the few of you who haven’t tuned in to see some Low Country football at its best (hey, our only competition for that title is Belgium), here’s your much needed update.

Demy De Zeeuw

There have been a few “stories of the season” so far, the most relevant one probably being AZ struggling to win at times, let alone play in the dominating fashion that took them to the title last season. In my preview, I wrote AZ suffered two major losses in the offseason, and both have had a large impact on the performance of Holland’s only Champions League contender. Midfielder Demy de Zeeuw, who left for Ajax, has quickly become the only steady midfielder in Amsterdam and his presence is sorely missed in Alkmaar.

More importantly, Louis van Gaal’s departure to Munich has left Ronald Koeman in charge. Koeman may be the only current coach in the Erevidisie who has ever won the whole thing, but the former ausputzer has managed to turn last years most dominant defense into an inept unit which struggles against every two bit striker. AZ, now more than ever, is relying completely on its class up front, but with faltering form in the striker department as well, AZ has already lost more games than it did last season.

Of course, Ronald did already win his usual piece of shiny silverware so he has already lived up to his reputation as a guarantee for at least one prize. The fact that that prize was the massively unimportant Johan Cruyff schaal – the Dutch equivalent to the Carling Cup – should worry AZ fans deeply.

Ajax meanwhile, are doing the same thing as AZ, albeit with more success. They are depending on striker Luis Suarez’s production, who has scored 10 in 7, including four last week against the promoted VVV. Beating on a newly promoted team doesn’t necessarily sound impressive but VVV, especially star midfielder Keisuke Honda, have been one of the leagues most pleasant surprises who hadn’t lost a game before Ajax came to visit. Suarez finally seems to have found some consistency, and barring injury or a winter transfer, Ajax could ride his goal scoring prowess all the way to the title.

Another pleasant surprise has been the renaissance of Feyenoord. The 2002 UEFA Cup winner had been in a tailspin for years but finally seems to have gotten it act together. Because of financial troubles Feyenoord has thrust numerous home-grown players into the starting eleven and this finally seems to be paying off. Although still dropping points against their only quality opponents so far in PSV and Twente, Feyenoord is at least finally beating the teams it is supposed to beat again, which puts them to a respectable fourth position.

They might even end up there towards the end of the season. I’ve mentioned the rise of several well managed provincial sub top clubs before. Twente seems to be here to stay, but Groningen and Heerenveen are finally buckling under losing their best players every year and are having absolute shockers of season openers, finding themselves at 16th and 17th place respectively. This is even worse than Roda (HAH!) who barely escaped relegation last year but got a big win last week to keep them out of trouble for the time being.

So far, the Eredivisie is shaping up into a very open league, without any clear cut favourites for the title and unexpected results virtually every weekend. Having said that, even in the gung-ho Eredivisie boring consistently usually wins the day, meaning PSV will probably scrape its way to the title.