Eerste Divisie: Maastricht vs Emmen FC! The stubborn coach is finally dismissed, is it dawn for the home team?

Today’s first match to discuss isEerste Divisie: Maastricht vs Emmen FC!

Normally, seeing this home team makes me worried because their management has been overly patient and tolerant, even though coach Hermans has been leading recklessly, they still let him act freely, showing no sign of progress.

But this game might be different,because their official headline news is that Hermans has been dismissed.

Maastricht’s lineup is actually decent and definitely shouldn’t be at the bottom of the table.

With Hermans gone, it might finally be a new dawn.

Why do I say Hermans was leading blindly?

Because he blindly pursued intense pressing without considering the team’s actual condition.

On the surface, Maastricht’s full-field pressing is extremely fierce, ranking first in the league with 20 tackles per game and second with 9.7 interceptions per game.

The problem is, the players don’t have the stamina to maintain that level, and such intense pressing inevitably sacrifices energy for other aspects.

For example, in attack, Maastricht has scored only 3 goals in 7 matches, the fewest in the Eerste Divisie.

The low scoring isn’t due to lack of chances, but mainly because they waste chances recklessly.

They’ve had 12 clear-cut chances but wasted 11 of them! That’s a 91.67% miss rate on prime opportunities! Naturally, the goals are few.

Fatigue plays a big role here; winning the ball is exhausting, and if stamina is insufficient when quickly transitioning to attack, technical execution falters, especially under opponent pressure.

Maastricht has always played a defensive counter-attacking style.

Even in their most glorious 22/23 season, their possession rate was among the lowest in the Eerste Divisie.

After losing key players like Van Bommel in recent years, their possession ability weakened further,this season their possession rate is just 42.1%, ranking fourth from bottom in the league.

Low possession means higher energy consumption because they are defending reactively.

Yet they still try to play such a high-intensity full-field press, which certainly leads to severe fatigue.

Currently, Maastricht is temporarily coached by assistant David Heijmans.

Though he is only an assistant,he experienced the successful era of VVV-Venlo a few years ago and knows how Maastricht succeeded back then.

Maastricht has lost three games in a row recently, and the last loss was the Limburg derby, which disappointed fans greatly. Today at home,Heijmans’ main goal will surely be to avoid a fourth consecutive defeat.

He will likely revert to the defensive counter-attacking style from years ago, aiming to avoid mistakes rather than seek glory.

Logically, since the previous defensive counter-attack succeeded and the current full-field press failed, it’s unlikely they will continue down the clearly wrong path.

Emmen, although recently performing well, may lack the ability to break down defensive counter-attacks.

This is because their players are too young and inexperienced.

How young?

Three of the five youngest starting lineups in the club’s history have been this season’s.

Their players have very little match experience, averaging only 21.53 Eerste Divisie appearances. Only the youth teams and the depleted Vitesse squad have less experience in the league.

In the last match against Dordrecht, among the 11 starters, only midfielder Congo (born 1998) and defender Moed (born 1999) are not from the 2000s generation; the rest are all post-2000s, very young.

Such a team, even when doing well recently, may get overconfident playing against a bottom-ranked team like Maastricht, so an upset by the opponent is possible.

Therefore, although there is a clear gap in reputation, status, and recent form between the two sides,

how do you think Maastricht will avoid continuing their losing streak? I hope they at least manage a draw.

Alright, for today’s other matches, I will share my written insights with you all tonight. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me. “Watch football with understanding,” see you then!

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