The battle for second place seems more than open this year. At the table of NOS Studio Voetbal it is discussed that AZ seems to have a good chance.
“But second place is still open, isn’t it, guys?” says Arno Vermeulen. “If nothing crazy happens at PSV, they will become champions, but look at what else is in the competition. AZ hasn’t played against top clubs yet, but they should have that Champions League ticket as their goal, right? Feyenoord is less than last year, Twente has its struggles. There are nice things to be gained for AZ or even outsider Utrecht this year.
Jordy Clasie, however, tempers expectations. “In recent years, Feyenoord and PSV have been far above the rest. That is different now, but it is very early and last year we also started well, then we also had a big setback. Let us as AZ just stay calm, keep working hard and live from match to match. If other clubs lose a lot of points, we have to make sure we get them.”
“You also don’t have that many changes compared to last season. You can see that at Feyenoord now, and Ajax suffered from that last season,” says Pierre Van Hooijdonk, who sees the Alkmaar team as the favorite for second place.
