PSV didn’t play well against RKC but kept the three points in Eindhoven nonetheless. Now they are off to relegation candidate FC Emmen. Could this be the match where PSV works on its goal difference?
Roger Schmidt had to play the home match against RKC Waalwijk without the injured Cody Gakpo and Mario Götze, and let Ibrahim Sangaré and Donyell Malen start on the bench. Philipp Max stayed home due to sickness.
PSV started with the following eleven: Mvogo; Dumfries, Teze, Baumgartl, Boscagli; Rosario, Thomas; Ihattaren, Mauro; Madueke and Zahavi. Delanghe, Fein, Guti, Van Ginkel and Unnerstall were the other substitutes.
Fred Grim started in the usual 4-3-3 formation with these eleven: Lamprou; Gaari, Meulensteen, Touba, Lutonda; Azhil, Oosting, Tahiri; Sow, Stokkers and Daneels.
First Half
PSV again started weakly, and not with the vollgasfussball everyone’s looking out for. In the first 15 minutes, nothing happened to write home about, except for Denzel Dumfries’ bodycheck in the 14th, where he was lucky that the referee didn’t see his elbow in Ayman Azhil’s face.
PSV got a couple of chances but didn’t become really dangerous. Eran Zahavi blew up one opportunity and headed another one wide. Mauro Júnior also blew up a chance when he passed the ball behind instead in front of Noni Madueke, who thereby overstretched his hamstrings and had to be replaced by Donyell Malen.
In the 26th minute, Sylla Sow picked up a deep pass from Anas Tahiri just over the centre line, speeded up and gave a great pass on to Lennerd Daneels. The former PSV Academy player shot it straight against Yvon Mvogo, who turned it into a corner kick.
This corner kick resulted in two more enormous chances, and this time Mvogo needed the goal post and Jordan Teze to keep his sheet clean. In the 29th minute, the Swissman used his foot to keep Finn Stokkers from scoring the opening goal.
Two minutes later Malen fired his first shot on target, but Kostas Lamprou didn’t have much trouble stopping it. Zahavi’s shot wasn’t strong enough to surprise him either, but in the 44th minute, he managed a free-kick just outside the penalty box. He kicked it beautifully in the short upper corner and ensured his squad led 1-0 at half time.
Second half
PSV began the second half with the same eleven, while RKC with Luuk Wouters for Thierry Lutonda. The first good chance was for Denzel Dumfries, but his shot went in the net on the wrong side of the goalpost.
In the counter-attack, Azhil aimed just beside the crossbar. In the following attack, Jordan Teze passed the ball beautifully behind the enemy lines, but Dumfries failed to control it. Zahavi worked his next chance over the bar, while soon after he headed Mohamed Ihattaren’s assist over as well. Érick Gutiérrez then replaced Mauro, and Ibrahim Sangaré came in for Ihattaren in the 64th minute.
Even though it was a terrible match to watch, with a PSV that had a hard time to keep the ball in the team, it took them just one more solid attack to finish the game. Timo Baumgartl passed the ball to Teze, who passed it to Ryan Thomas. Thomas passed it to Dumfries, who passed it back to Thomas, who then gave Pablo Rosario the chance to score his first goal of the season: 2-0.
Marco van Ginkel then replaced Thomas, and Adrian Fein came in for Zahavi, with 16 sleep-inducing minutes left on the clock. Two half-chances for Malen brought a moment of tension, but the focal point really was for the referee to blow his final whistle.
The upsides for today were the fact that Baumgartl, Mauro, Thomas and Zahavi all could make a serious amount of minutes, that Fein, Guti and Van Ginkel also got some time and that PSV kept the three points in Eindhoven with a clean sheet.
Watch the full resume here.
Next opponent: FC Emmen (away)
PSV’s next match is in and against Emmen, the number last of the Eredivisie today. The red-white club plays their home matches at De Oude Meerdijk, a stadium with a capacity of 8.309 visitors. FC Emmen has a budget of €8,2 million and Dick Lukkien has been head coach since 2016.
History
FC Emmen is the local Football Club of Emmen, a town in the North-East province of Drenthe. The club was established in 1925 and became a professional club in 1985, after which it played 33 seasons in the Dutch second league.
Before their era of professional football, the club also celebrated regional successes and titles. One of their best years was 1975 when they became champions of the C-class during their 50th anniversary.
Since their start of playing professional football, the club reached the playoffs for the Eredivisie 12 times. They already had nine different chairmen since 1985. Some of them did better than others, but the management, in the long run, was able to keep the club from relegations or even bankruptcy.
Current chairman Ronald Lubbers has managed to clean up FC Emmen financially and sporty wise. Under his governance, the club even managed to promote to the Eredivisie for the first time in history and has stayed in since 2018.
The biggest outgoing transfers so far were Bas Dost (moved to Heracles Almelo €312.500,-), Jelle ten Rouwelaar (moved to PSV for €3.000.000,-) and Kjell Scherpen (moved to Ajax for €2.000.000,-). The biggest incoming transfers were Simon Tibbling (€350.000,-) and Marko Kolar (€500.000,-).
Club top scorer – by far – is Michel van Oostrum, who scored 339 goals during 11 seasons. Bas Dost is one of the best known former strikers, who scored six goals in 23 matches. Wout Weghorst also played two seasons for the Emmenaren; he scored 19 times.
Facts and Figures
PSV and Emmen only played seven matches against each other in their entire histories. PSV won five matches and never lost, but drew twice in 2019. The biggest away victory took place in November of 1982 when they beat FC Emmen with 1-7 during the KNVB Cup match. The biggest home victory was 6-0 and took place on 20 October of 2018.
With 25 goals scored and only five conceded, PSV should have a really easy night against a club that’s in the terrible state they’re in at this moment. Ajax gave FC Emmen the biggest beatdown of the season (0-5) on 28 November, and it’s time for the Eindhoven side to work on their goal average; what better moment than Tuesday to score more than their arch-rivals, Ajax did?
Familiar faces
When a club is this small in stature, one can figure there aren’t many similarities with PSV. Only very few players wore the jerseys of both clubs: Jürgen Locadia played for the FC Emmen youth from age seven to ten, Tim Matavž played in Emmen from age 19 to 20 Jelle Ten Rouwelaar came over to Eindhoven when he was 21.
Jurrie Koolhof, former PSV striker, was assistant coach in Emmen during the season of 2002/03. Current PSV Under 21 coach Peter Uneken played there between 1993 and 1999, while Género Zeefuik quit his professional career at FC Emmen in 2008. He scored two goals in seven matches.
Current situation
FC Emmen are playing their third ever season in the Eredivisie, and it’s the least of all three so far. With only six points from 18 matches you can figure out the pressure weighing on head coach Lukkien. His squad scored only 17 and conceded 45 goals already.
The last time the red-whites were victorious was against FC Groningen, on 15 December last year. They lost five matches after that, including the KNVB Cup match of last Wednesday but managed to take home a point on Saturday from Den Haag.
When the number three comes over to play against the last in the list, you can expect them to ‘park the bus’. In that sense, there’s not much too look forward to. However, when PSV manage to play with high intensity from the start and score at least two goals in the first half, then it could become entertaining.
Strengths and weaknesses
The management decided to bring in new players in order to turn the tide. Winger Kerim Frei came back from Basaksehir, his brother Elias also joined as left-back. Defender Jean-Pierre Rhyner came over from Cádiz, midfielder Jari Vlak left FC Volendam for Emmen and Peruvian talent Didier La Torre is attracted for one of the striker positions.
There aren’t many strong sides to point out if you’re ranked this low. Glenn Bijl is one of the better right-backs in the Eredivisie, but he’s injured so he won’t play. Former Ajax-back Ricardo van Rhijn should be good enough for a team on the bottom of the Dutch competition, but he stayed on the bench even after Bijl left the pitch injured last weekend.
Sergio Peña is a sure shot on the midfield, but he hasn’t scored a goal or even given an assist in 16 matches. Nikolai Laursen is a PSV Youth exponent who plays as a striker, but he only hit home twice in 15 matches. Michael de Leeuw is top scorer with six goals, while PSV Youth exponent Sekou Sidibe only played three matches this entire season.
Newcomer Jean-Pierre Rhyner is suspended, while Lentini Caciano, Luciano Carty and Collin Seedorf and sure-shot Marko Kolar are all injured. Head coach Lukkien expressed enthusiasm about the newcomers, but it looks impossible that they would be able to bring a lot of stability in so few weeks of training.
Situation PSV
It’s becoming more and more incomprehensible why Roger Schmidt can’t shape his squad in such a way that these craters of space will vanish. PSV have conceded four goals in the last three matches against FC Emmen, three of which during the two away games with a draw as result. This space, therefore shouldn’t give away again this time.
Cody Gakpo, Mario Götze and Noni Madueke aren’t available due to their injuries. Marco van Ginkel didn’t travel to Volendam because of the artificial grass pitch there, so he probably also isn’t joining the squad to Emmen. This means the creativity again has to come from Ihattaren and Mauro Júnior, and Malen and Zahavi will probably have to make more minutes again.
Either way it will be a suffering if PSV doesn’t manage to score several goals, and kill the game fast. Schmidt surely wants to be able to give some players some rest in the last half hour, because he wants his key players to be fit for the top match against Feyenoord on Sunday.
Match information
Match: FC Emmen – PSV
Date: Tuesday 26 January 2021
Time: 20:00 (8 PM)
Location: De Oude Meerdijk, Emmen
Referee: Jeroen Manschot
VAR: Siemen Mulder
Broadcast: ESPN
Article by Joey van der Hart for Eindhoven News
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