Football Season Guide

At the time of the league's suspension due to Covid-19 pandemic, Fortuna Sittard were in third last position (26 points in 26 rounds!), clearly inside the relegation zone. In particular, they paid a for terrible start to the season in which they scraped together just 3 points out of the first 8 rounds. Coach Ultee encountered great difficulties in finding the system of play that suited the players at his disposal best, so that he used many formations and inevitably generating confusion in the squad. Between the last winter and especially this summer transfer campaign, the squad has completely changed. Of the 33 players who passed through Sittard last season, 18 have left. Many of these were regular players like defenders Gregoire Amiot, Wessel Dammers and Felix Passlack (arguably their best defender), forwards Vitalie Damascan and Amadou Ciss (last season Fortuna's top scorers, both with 6 goals), but the biggest loss was in midfield with the sale of Mark Diemers, the star of the team. With regard to purchases, apart from the arrival of three players with previous experience in the Eredivisie, such as Ben Rienstra, Emil Hansson and Zian Flemming, the others are almost all players from foreign leagues who were struggling for game time. Another major change saw the inexperienced and disappointing Sjors Ultee replaced by Kevin Hofland, another coach with virtually no experience.