NOS Football•
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Jorrit Hansen
follows Feyenoord on behalf of NOS Sport
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Jorrit Hansen
follows Feyenoord on behalf of NOS Sport
They seem like nice records. Feyenoord took the most points of all clubs in the Eredivisie this season after falling behind and also often struck with goals in the final phase.
However, it also says that the leader is very often behind and has to fight for the points until the end.
shortcoming
Before the start of the 26th round of the Eredivisie, in which leader Feyenoord plays against pursuer Ajax today, the NOS dived into the figures of statistics agency Opta. The team from Rotterdam fell behind in no fewer than ten games this season. A painful observation, according to trainer Arne Slot.
“That is a shortcoming that we would like to remove from our game. We try everything to avoid falling behind and I actually think we do that. We give away few chances and have a lot of the ball ourselves.”
The problem: Many of those little-give-away opportunities go in. Why? “I’ve thought about that many times,” Slot muses. “It may be that you are so often in attacks that you just miss a few percent sharpness at a moment of defense. I also try to look for something, but for myself this is quite a logical explanation.”
Resilience
Then that resilience that Feyenoord is so famous for. Because of the ten games in which the team fell behind, it lost only one. It only went wrong against PSV (4-3 defeat). In six cases even a victory was dragged out of the fire.
Feyenoord took 21 points after falling behind. That is two more than RKC Waalwijk and eight more than Ajax and Fortuna Sittard. Feyenoord’s club record is 24. That was achieved last season, also under Slot. “That kind of sticks to us,” he says.
Slot becomes despondent from all the backlogs, he is proud of the many times that it still turned out (reasonably) well. And that is no coincidence, according to the trainer. “It’s a quality of the group and the whole organization.”
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The Eredivisie duels in which Feyenoord fell behind -
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Feyenoord took 21 points after falling behind -
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Feyenoord often accurate after the 85th minute
Feyenoord not only often struck after falling behind, it also often struck late. And that happened especially this calendar year. Feyenoord already scored five times after the 85th minute. In the ten largest European competitions, only Paris Saint-Germain and Sporting Portugal scored so often so late.
However, those two teams also conceded two more goals, while Feyenoord manages to keep their own goal clean in that final phase. As a result, the late goals gave Feyenoord six extra points. Only Arsenal earned as many points in 2023 through goals after the 85th minute.
Feyenoord took another point against FC Utrecht and PSV after falling behind. Against AZ and FC Groningen, an equal score was converted into a lead. Without those late goals, Feyenoord would have been in fourth place this weekend.
‘We do it together’
Slot has a clear conclusion after hearing the above figures: “It says that the boys are incredibly fit. They and the staff are responsible for that. In addition, they are mentally so strong that if things go wrong, they do not feel the fatigue. And we still have the support of our supporters.”
To break the Eredivisie record, Feyenoord still has to survive the necessary arrears. Ajax took no less than thirty points in the 2017/18 season after falling behind, nine more than Feyenoord so far.
It is remarkable that Feyenoord has now taken so many points after falling behind for two seasons under Slot. However, the coach does not want to attribute the resilience to his credit. “I don’t want to underestimate my own contribution, but I also don’t want to overestimate it. It really is something you do together.”