Heracles' historically bad start
It's official: no team in Eredivisie history have had a worse start to their season than Heracles Almelo in the 2025/26 season.
Through their first five games, Heracles have lost five, scored two, and conceded 16. Their zero points and goal difference of -14 officially make them the worst side through the first five games of the season.
Sunday's 2-1 loss against AZ came as no surprise, but was the next outing that proved that Heracles have much to improve on. Defensively, Heracles gave away five big chances and conceded an xG of 3.18. Offensively, they created just one big chance and accumulated an xG of 0.76.
Their midfield is static, their offensive front disappointing, and their defence lacking. Ironically, only goalkeeper Fabian de Keijzer has proven to be a player worthy of playing in the Eredivisie after making 25 saves in the first five games. But if that's all Heracles have to offer, a return to the Keuken Kampioen Divisie could come in record time.
PSV stood the NEC test, now what?
Reigning champions PSV had it all to prove after embarrassingly losing 2-0 to Telstar in Eindhoven before the international break. Against NEC, the sensations of the first three Eredivisie rounds, PSV proved they still have it. Somewhat.
In their spectacular 5-3 win, PSV played well going forward with Joey Veerman back at his best and Ricardo Pepi proving a valuable asset again, as he made his first start since January. At the back, however, I have some more concerns for PSV.
Sure, NEC have a lot of firepower, but PSV gave some chances away fairly easily while NEC weren't even playing very well whatsoever. Add to that that Chery missed a penalty, and PSV escaped from going down to ten men when Kento Shiogai was taken down as the last man, and it's not rainbows and sunshine just yet.
John Heitinga needs to make choices
When will John Heitinga figure out what to do with Ajax?
His team played a tremendous first half against PEC Zwolle, in which they dominated, scoring twice and leaving one or two more goals out there. It was their best half of football all season.
And then, in the second half, it just... faded. Irrecognisable, anonymous, pale.
The starting XI was already a sight to behold, as Heitinga left all but two of Ajax's summer acquisitions on the bench. He trusted Youri Regeer to hold it down in midfield, but the strategy failed. Itakura and Baas were very solid in the back, but can he really afford to keep Josip Sutalo on the bench?
Heitinga already kept Kasper Dolberg (€10 million), Oscar Gloukh (€15 million), and Raul Moro (€11 million) on the bench. Wout Weghorst, who got the nod over Dolberg, played one of his worst games in the red-and-white shirt, missing two massive chances and overall looking too slow for Heitinga's tactics.
But just as he found what looked like the way forward in the first half, Heitinga completely changed the face of the team during the break. Ajax didn't even record a shot on goal in the second half until the 72nd minute, despite having five in the first half!
Yes, they won 3-1, but Heitinga desperately needs to decide what to do with Ajax, especially with the Champions League and an away game at PSV coming up next.
The Eagle flies again
It took them over a month, but Go Ahead Eagles finally have the win they so desperately wanted.
Three 2-2 draws and an astonishing 3-0 home defeat to Sparta Rotterdam were all the Eagles had to boast from their 2025/26 season, which will be their first in Europe since the 1960s. But against FC Volendam, the Deventer outfit showed why they did so well last season.
They jumped out of the gates with a goal from Jakob Breum after five minutes and finished the job before half-time, thanks to Viktor Edvardsen and Mathis Suray. However, they slacked off in the second half, which almost allowed FC Volendam to stage a comeback.
Almost, because Volendam will have to do better than to fire just one of their 16 shots of the half on target. Not that it takes anything away from the Eagles' solid 3-0 win.
Go Ahead Eagles looked solid at the back and liked what they saw from Kenzo Goudmijn on his Eagles debut. Luckily, they also have a bit more time before their maiden UEFA Europa League outing against FCSB on September 25th. And the game before that? The IJsselderby against PEC Zwolle. Time to get pumped, Deventer.
Will Groningen keep their cool this time?
FC Groningen might have the cool factor again, but I'm getting serious shades of last season's struggles from the Pride of the North.
Remember when FC Groningen returned from a season of Keuken Kampioen Divisie football and started with a five-match unbeaten streak? Yes, me too. And they came crashing down to Earth right after that.
Now, Groningen aren't unbeaten anymore after suffering two defeats in the first five weeks (against AZ and PSV, nothing out of the ordinary), but they are playing some nice, impressive football. Even with striker Brynjolfur Willumsson out against FC Utrecht, Groningen beat the high-flying Europa League outfit 1-0 in their own backyard, and not even undeservedly so.
But this is where it came crashing down for FC Groningen last year. Impressive through five games, lose the next four and win just three between September 22nd and February 2nd. Just keep your cool this time, Dick Lukkien and friends.
