Football Season Guide

Having achieved a rather unexpected survival in their first season in the top flight of the Dutch football, minnows FC Emmen were heading towards another great result in the last campaign. In fact, when the Eredivisie was stopped due to the Covid-19 pandemic, they were comfortably sitting in 12th place in the table, mainly thanks to their impressive home performances. They obtained 9 wins, 2 draws and 2 defeats in front of their supporters, with only Ajax, AZ and Feyenoord doing better than them as hosts. Coach Dick Lukkien, the mastermind behind their promotion to the Eredivisie and the subsequent consolidation, will start his 5th season in charge and will have to deal with a smaller squad compared to the previous campaigns. Over the summer, Emmen lost the usual group of loanees – vital for the survival of the club. Among them were injury-prone left-back Beste, midfielder Ugrinic and winger Frei who were the only ones to have left a mark in the past campaign. They got rid of a wide number of players who never really managed to fully display their qualities due to injuries - goalkeeper Hamrol, midfielder Marinus and forward Arias, to name a few. But they also lost three regulars in left-back Burnet, holding midfielder Hiariej and centre-back Heylen. As usual, in terms of new signings, Emmen looked for a mix of experience and young talents with experience going straight to the XI. So, Cavlan returned to the club after a short, and unimpressive, stint at Austria Wien and he will be asked to act at left-back. Tibbling, back in the Eredivisie after some time in the Superligaen, will have to provide strength in the middle of the park. However, young Sabani, Bernadou and, in particular, Sidibe, all schooled in bigger clubs, will be given the chance to display their skills. The feeling is that FC Emmen are still missing a prolific centre-forward as Kolar scored only 4 in the past campaign and they had to rely mostly on goals coming from the wingers or their attacking midfielders.