The Eredivisie season is back and so is our Player of the Year tournament. Every week Will Burns and Steve Davies select the best 11 from that week’s action and each player is awarded one point. One member of the team will win the ‘Player of the Week’ award and be awarded two points. Check the current standings here.
More next week. Remember to keep an eye on the standings of the Player of the Season tournament by clicking here.
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Welcome to week two of the Total Dutch Football.com Eredivisie Player of the Year tournament. Every week Will Burns and Steve Davies select the best 11 from that week’s action and each player is awarded one point. One member of the team will win the ‘Player of the Week’ award and be awarded two points. Check the current standings here.
Our Player of the Week award goes to Daniel Crowley of Willem II after his performance in the 4-4 thrilling draw against Fortuna Sittard. The 21-year old midfielder scored the fourth of the Tilburgers goals that cancelled out two goals from Fortuna’s Andrija Novakovich. The USA striker, on loan from Reading, has four goals in six games.
PSV dominates the Team of the Week claiming six places after their 3-0 crushing of Ajax. Denzel Dumfries, Angelino, Jorrit Hendrix, Pablo Rosario, Steven Bergwijn and Hirving Lozano were all influential in the win that fires PSV top of the Eredivisie five points ahead of the Amsterdammers in second.
More next week. Remember to keep an eye on the standings of the Player of the Season tournament by clicking here.
Click the name above to follow Will on Twitter.
Welcome to week one of our Eredivisie Team of the Week which leads into our 2016/17 Eredivisie ‘Player of the Season’ competition. All players have performed so well this weekend that Will Burns has selected them in the team of the week. Each player in the eleven receives one point and whichever player is declared ‘Player of the Week’, he receives an extra point.
ELOY ROOM – VITESSE: A Fran Sol goal was the only thing that spoiled the fantastic outing for Eloy Room in his side’s 4-1 away win to Edwin van de Looi’s Willem II.
GIOVANNI TROUPEE – FC UTRECHT: At only 18, on his first start for Utrecht, the attacking Troupee was very impressive, defending well and forcing Jetro Willems into some difficult decisions.
ERIC BOTTEGHIN – FEYENOORD: FC Groningen rarely threatened due to Botteghin’s defensive play and great reading of the game.
DANIEL SCHWAAB – PSV: A solid performance from the experienced German that may force PSV fans to ask ‘Jeffrey who?’
LUCAS WOUDENBERG – FEYENOORD: Another youngster that impressed and deserving of claiming the left-back spot in the TOTW.
DAVY PROPPER – PSV: Lead the midfield to inspire a PSV comeback against a plucky FC Utrecht side in the 2-1 win.
TONNY VILHENA – FEYENOORD: Dominant performance in midfield and bagged himself a goal in the 5-0 demolition of FC Groningen.
DALEY SINKGRAVEN – AJAX: Finally looked settled in the Amsterdammers line-up and provided a great goal to give Ajax the lead in the 3-1 away win against newly promoted Sparta.
MITCHELL VAN BERGEN – VITESSE: Did anyone forget this kid is only 16 years old when watching him on Saturday?
NICOLAI JORGENSEN – FEYENOORD: A great performance for the Danish international in his league debut since his move from FC Copenhagen. Capped off with a goal.
ELJERO ELIA – FEYENOORD: The former Southampton winger notched a hat-trick and deserves the PLAYER OF THE WEEK award. Not even a dislocated finger could stop him on Sunday.
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Welcome to week seven of our Eredivisie Team of the Week which leads into our Eredivisie ‘Player of the Season’ competition. All players have performed so well this weekend that Martijn Hilhorst and Will Burns have decided they should be in our team of the week. Each player in the eleven receives one point and whichever player is declared ‘Player of the Week’, he receives an extra point.
GINO COUTINHO (Excelsior)
RICARDO VAN RHIJN (Ajax)
ERIC BOTTEGHIN (FC Groningen)
JOEY VAN DEN BERG (Heerenveen)
SIMON POULSEN (AZ Alkmaar)
MARKUS HENRIKSEN (AZ Alkmaar)
DAVY KLAASSEN (Ajax)
MUSTAFA SAYMAK (PEC Zwolle)
ELVIS MANU (Feyenoord)
VALERI QAZAISHVILI (Vitesse)
KOLBEINN SIGTHORSSON (Ajax) – Player of the Week
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Welcome to week four of our Eredivisie Team of the Week which leads into our Eredivisie ‘Player of the Season’ competition. All players have performed so well this weekend that Martijn Hilhorst and Will Burns have decided they should be in our team of the week. Each player in the eleven receives one point and whichever player is declared ‘Player of the Week’, he receives an extra point.
JEROEN ZOET (PSV): Third week in a row for Zoet after keeping a clean sheet in the 2-0 victory of Vitesse when his team-mates did not really impress.
TOM HIARIEJ (FC Groningen): Helped defeat Ajax 2-0, Lasse Schone hardly got a kick due to Hiariej’s marking and winning nine tackles.
ERIC BOTTEGHIN (FC Groningen): Great performance keeping Kolbeinn Sigthorsson at bay, and adding a goal in Groningen’s 2-0 win over Ajax.
WILFRIED KANON (ADO Den Haag): Created two of his sides goals in the unfortunate 3-2 defeat to Cambuur on Saturday evening.
PELE VAN ANHOLT (Heerenveen): The want-away left-back performed well and kept Tommy Oar out of the game in Heerenveen’s 3-1 win over Utrecht.
JEFF STANS (Excelsior): Netting twice, Stans scored the ‘Goal of the Week’ and with a wonderful volley in Excelsior’s superb 3-1 win over Heracles.
ERIK FALKENBURG (NAC Breda): Falkenburg bossed the midfield and notched a spot-kick in NAC’s 3-1 win over PEC Zwolle.
ERIK BAKKER (SC Cambuur): Scorer of two of the goals to defeat ADO 3-2 and held strong in the midfield with two great tackles.
STEVEN BERGHUIS (AZ Alkmaar): A goal and an assist as he tore FC Dordrecht’s defence apart in AZ’s 3-1 win.
MUAMER TANKOVIC (AZ Alkmaar): The former Fulham striker is in our ‘Team Of The Week’ for the second time this season, with a great goal to boot in the 3-1 win for AZ over Dordrecht.
MARK UTH (Heerenveen): Uth made all the Heerenveen fans forget about Alfred Finnbogason as he hit a hat-trick against Utrecht to become our Player Of The Week.
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Welcome to week two of our Eredivisie Team of the Week which leads into our Eredivisie ‘Player of the Season’ competition. All players have performed so well this weekend that Martijn Hilhorst and Will Burns have decided they should be in our team of the week. Each player in the eleven receives one point and whichever player is declared ‘Player of the Week’, he receives an extra point.
JEROEN ZOET (PSV): Kept out the exciting Adnane Tighadouini for the first half and held strong throughout, was unlucky not to keep a clean sheet.
RUBEN LIGEON (Ajax): The youngster is performing so well he may keep Ricardo van Rhijn out when he returns from injury.
ERIC BOTTEGHIN (FC Groningen): Second week in a row for the Brazilian, who is proving unbeatable in the air for Groningen.
RAMON LEEUWIN (FC Utrecht): Settling in fine at Utrecht after summer move from SC Cambuur, looking very comfortable tackling and carrying the ball forward.
ELSO BRITO (Excelsior): Left-back Brito is a constant threat for Excelsior down the left-wing and won five tackles in their 3-2 win over Go Ahead.
LASSE SCHONE (Ajax): An excellent performance from Schone in Ajax’s 3-1 win over AZ, providing an assist and scoring a superb goal.
KAMOHELO MOKOTJO (FC Twente): It did not take Mokotjo long to settle in at Twente with a wonderful goal this week.
JENS TOORNSTRA (FC Utrecht): Toornstra was influential in Utrecht’s 2-1 over Willem II, scored an excellent goal too.
GEORGINIO WIJNALDUM (PSV): Wijnaldum was outstanding for PSV with two great goals in their 6-1 drubbing of NAC.
MEMPHIS DEPAY (PSV): Two perfect free-kick goals and an assist in PSV’s 6-1 win over NAC Breda – Depay is our Player Of The Week
ZAKARIA LABYAD (Vitesse): Labyad scorer of both his sides goals in their 2-2 draw with Cambuur, was a thorn in the Leeuwarden’s side throughout.
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Welcome to week one of our Eredivisie Team of the Week which leads into our Eredivisie ‘Player of the Season’ competition. All players have performed so well this weekend that Martijn Hilhorst and Will Burns have decided they should be in our team of the week. Each player in the eleven receives one point and whichever player is declared ‘Player of the Week’, he receives an extra point.
KENNETH VERMEER – AJAX: A forgotten man since last season due to the emergence of Jasper Cillessen, Vermeer yesterday may have give Frank de Boer some food for thought in a great display in the 4-1 win over Vitesse. The goalkeeper stopped a total of eight shots to send Ajax into half-time a goal ahead.
DION MALONE – ADO DEN HAAG: Malone starred at right-back in ADO’s late 1-0 defeat to Feyenoord and smashed a 35-yard first-half shot that cannoned off Erwin Mulder’s crossbar.
ERIC BOTTEGHIN – FC GRONINGEN: The Brazilian led well from the back in Groningen’s dramatic 3-2 win over Go Ahead Eagles, winning all aerial challenges.
WILLIAM TROOST-EKONG: The former Tottenham defender looked good in his first appearance for Dordrecht since his loan move from FC Groningen. The Cameroonian kept Mark Uth at bay in the first-half and Thomas Dalgaard quiet in the second.
MARVIN PEERSMAN – FC DORDRECHT: Winning a total of six tackles and all aerial challenges, the left-back helped show the Eredivisie that Dordrecht will not be pushovers this season.
LASSE SCHONE – AJAX: Scoring twice in Ajax’s 4-1 win over Vitesse, the Dane showed to all he will be amongst the goals again this season in the Eredivisie.
ALBERT RUSNAK – SC CAMBUUR: The Manchester City loanee scored a wonderful free-kick and put in an five-star performance in Cambuur’s unlikely 1-1 draw with FC Twente.
JORIS VAN OVEREEM – FC DORDRECHT: The on-loan midfielder (from AZ) scored an excellent winner to give a vital 2-1 win away to Heerenveen.
JODY LUKOKI – PEC ZWOLLE: The 21-year-old Lukoki made PEC Zwolle’s fans forget all about Kamohelo Mokotjo tearing FC Utrecht apart in an excellent and exciting performance.
JARCHINIO ANTONIA – FC GRONINGEN: With two assists and an 88th minute winning goal against former club Go Ahead, Antonia is Total Dutch Football’s Player of the Week.
MUAMER TANKOVIC – AZ ALKMAAR: Signing on a free in the summer from Fulham, the young Swede put in a Premier League performance and topped it off with a great goal.
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The Eredivisie season restarts after the winter break on Friday night, so as a preview, over the next five nights we will be posting the stars of the division so far this term.
Here’s Will Burns with the rundown of the first five…
The 23-year-old left back is halfway through his second season on loan in Arnhem and already it’s his best yet. Vitesse sit second in the league, gunning for this first ever Eredivisie championship and Van Aanholt has played his part making 16 appearances. Attacking down the left, Van Aanholt has the opposition quaking in their personalised boots while notching three goals while creating another three in the process.
The young defender’s greatest display this season was in Vitesse’s 6-2 demolition of PSV Eindhoven. Although he scored once and set up two others, he showed faultless composure and anticipation in defence especially when stopping the PSV attacks early in the second half.
Will a return to the Premier League with Chelsea be on the cards? Or does Jose Mourinho see Ryan Bertrand as the natural successor to Ashley Cole?
Son of Dutch legend, Danny, Daley Blind has emerged as the natural first choice left-back for Ajax over the last 18 months. However as of last nine games, Ajax manager Frank de Boer has moved Blind into the centre of midfield where he has continued to shine.
In a total of 14 appearances in the Eredivisie this season, the move to midfield was obviously going to be a success looking at Blind’s passing stats. So far, the 23-year-old has a fantastic 89.2% success rate, completing 856 out of 960 passes.
Already a mainstay in the Oranje first team, his international career could be taking another turn. Van Gaal classes Blind as his first choice left-back, but his recent displays in the holding midfielder position could change Louis’ mind for Brazil in the summer.
The Brazilian central defender has been an ever-present for Groningen this season, leading the club to sixth in the league standings. Botteghin’s main strength this season has been winning the majority of aerial duels that face him, he is 6ft 4inches tall afterall.
He is a no-nonsense defender, not afraid to boot the ball up the field to give his team time to regroup (168 clearances this season). His long-balls are accurate too; an interesting stat is that the Brazilian has completed a massive 94 of his 128 attempted punts up field.
Joining from NAC Breda in the summer, you have to wonder how long Groningen can hold onto Botteghin, especially when his ‘safety-first’ attitude would be right at home in the Premier League.
Returning back to the Netherlands after an unsuccessful spell in Serie A, Castaignos looks like he could be ready to hit the big leagues again, at only 21-years-old.
At Inter Milan, over two seasons, the powerhouse striker only made six appearances in Italy and failed to make any impact. At Twente, to date, he has notched 23 times in 53 appearances since returning to the Eredivisie, including 10 goals this season.
Castaignos, Dusan Tadic and Quincy Promes have fired Twente into third place so far, just three points behind leaders Ajax. If the goals keep coming, then could a second Eredivisie title be heading to Enschede? Time will tell.
Ajax suffered a terrible start to the season only winning two of the first five games, with goalkeeper Kenneth Vermeer, rightly taking the majority of the blame due to some lack of concentration. The carnage continued and in September, Barcelona and PSV hit Ajax with a pair of 4-0 defeats. Meanwhile, Cillessen was keeping attacks at bay for the Jong Ajax side in the Jupiler League. De Boer called the 24-year-old into action, dropping Vermeer and Cillessen has cemented the starting spot his own.
Cillessen has been impressive, with a young inexperienced defence in front of him, he has kept seven clean sheets in 11 games he’s started. Louis van Gaal has found Cillessen impressive too, and has been named the Dutch number one, again replacing Vermeer in recent months.
JOIN US TOMORROW FOR PART TWO
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Welcome to our weekly section at TotalDutchFootball.com – the Eredivisie Team of the Week. Below you will see our ‘Player of the Week’ also – each player will be allocated points and at the end of the season we will declare our ‘Player of the Season’. Each player will be given one point for being named in our team and the ‘Player of the Week’ will gain two points.
Leonard Nienhuis (SC Cambuur) – Kept a clean sheet at the Philips Stadion to spoil PSV’s 100th anniversary celebrations.
Mattias Johansson (AZ Alkmaar) – The Swedish right-back surged forward and scored a great goal in the 1-1 draw with Vitesse.
Eric Botteghin (FC Groningen) – A rock in the Groningen defence that kept Ajax’s forwards at bay to clinch a vital point.
Lucas Bijker (SC Cambuur) – Playing on the left of defence, was the man-of-the-match for the Eredivisie new boys in the 0-0 draw with PSV.
Jason Davidson (Heracles) – An excellent goal to give his side the 1-0 win over ADO Den Haag.
Victor Palsson (NEC Nijmegen) – Provided a stunning strike in Friday night’s draw with NAC Breda.
Jeffrey Sarpong (NAC Breda) – Tore the NEC defence to shreds but the strikers ahead of him were poor with the finishing.
PLAYER OF THE WEEK Erik Falkenburg (Go Ahead Eagles) – Hat-trick hero in GAE’s 4-1 drubbing of RKC Waalwijk
Rajiv van la Parra (Heerenveen) – Starting up front for Van Basten’s men, dribbled through Twente’s defence with ease on many occassion.
Graziano Pelle (Feyenoord) – Scoring his sixth goal in five games to lead his side to a 4-0 win over Roda JC on Sunday.
Jarchinio Antonia (Go Ahead Eagles) – A constant thorn in RKC’s side providing two assists in his sides 4-1 win.
| EREDIVISIE PLAYER OF THE 2013/14 SEASON AWARD | ||||
| NAME | POS | TEAM | POTW | POINTS |
| Graziano Pelle | ST | Feyenoord | 1 | 3 |
| Kamohelo Mokotjo | MF | PEC Zwolle | 3 | |
| Tjaronn Chery | MF | FC Groningen | 1 | 2 |
| Zakaria Bakkali | ST | PSV | 1 | 2 |
| Youness Mokhtar | MF | PEC Zwolle | 1 | 2 |
| Erik Falkenburg | MF | Go Ahead Eagles | 1 | 2 |
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Welcome to our new weekly section at TotalDutchFootball.com – the Eredivisie Team of the Week. Below you will see our ‘Player of the Week’ also – each player will be allocated points and at the end of the season we will declare our ‘Player of the Season’. Each player will be given one point for being named in our team and the ‘Player of the Week’ will gain two points.
Robbin Ruiter (FC Utrecht) – In between the sticks we have FC Utrecht’s Robbin Ruiter, the 6ft 5in goalkeeper kept his team in the match against Go Ahead Eagles on many occasions and lead his team to a draw.
Ricardo van Rhijn (Ajax) – The right-back scored a wonderful goal for his side in their 3-0 home win against Roda JC.
Eric Botteghin (FC Groningen) – An excellent debut performance from the Brazilian who has just recently moved from NAC Breda earlier this summer.
Jop van der Linden (Go Ahead Eagles) – The 23-year-old showed the Eredivisie what he can do, with an tremendous double block and even smashing the post in the dying seconds of the game with a superb free-kick
Jetro Willems (PSV) – See Van Rhijn but for PSV against ADO Den Haag
Kamohelo Mokotjo (PEC Zwolle) – An excellent display that kept Feyenoord’s Jordy Clasie and Lex Immers quiet throughout, also threatened at times.
PLAYER OF THE WEEK Tjaronn Chery (FC Groningen) – A goal and an assist showed the ADO Den Haag fans what they are missing, currently on a season-long loan at Groningen and will sign permanently in July 2014 when his current deal expires.
Christian Eriksen (Ajax) – Ran the show in Friday night’s 3-0 victory, a devastating set-piece display in the opening ten minutes.
Andreas Kirm (FC Groningen) – Like Chery, a goal and an assist that helped Groningen defeat NEC 4-1 on Saturday evening.
Georginio Wijnaldum (PSV) – The new captain of PSV seems to be settling in nicely scoring a brilliantly taken goal against ADO.
Alfred Finnbogason (Heerenveen) – The Icelandic hitman is back to his old tricks, scoring twice in an impressive 4-2 win over AZ Alkmaar.
Thanks to Peter McVitie for his input in selecting the best eleven this week.
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