Football Season Guide

FC Den Bosch

In


Genrich Sillé (mid), GVVV), Emian-Johar Semedo (mid), Excelsior Maasluis), Kevin Felida (mid), Waalwijk)

Out


Byron Burgering (r)(att), Almere City), Stan Henderikx (r)(def), Excelsior), Rik Mulders (r)(def), Cambuur), Konstantinos Doumtsios (sp)(att), Petrolul), Markus Soomets (sp)(mid), Start), Victor van den Bogert (sp)(def), Yuya Ikeshita (sp)(mid), Danzell Gravenberch (r)(att), Yannick Keijser (sp)(att), David Jonathans (sp)(mid), Bayern Munchen II - end of loan)

Den Bosch were excellent last year as they punched well above their weight for long stages of the season on the back of a brilliant first period of the season which earned them a spot in the play-offs. They seemed to be drifting towards the end of the season but actually came out strong in the play-offs and upset Cambuur in the first round. They were eventually undone by another of the surprise packages, Telstar, after two legs and extra time, in the next round but as a whole the club did remarkably well compared to recent season, where they were always near the bottom of the standings. Ulrich Landvreugd was put in a spot to take over from the coach that won the first period, David Nascimento, in the autumn and actually did quite well to keep things moving and make the team harder to beat and more compact. Now the aim is to keep up the positive momentum and ensure that Den Bosch are not bogged down near the bottom places of the standings as they usually are. However, for now the transfer campaign has been extremely disheartening for Den Bosch as a whole as they have failed to really bring any new reelable players apart from Kevin Felida, returning to the team after a spell with Waalwijk. The other new additions come from amateur teams and it will be optimistic to expect them to immediately get involved and produce. On the other hand, some of the best performers from last year have been plunged by bigger sides as Stan Hendrikx is off to Excelsior and Byron Burgering, the breakout star up front from last year, is headed to Almere City. Some other solid players like Danzell Gravenberch, Konstantinos Doumtsios and Markus Soomets headed for other destinations as well and overall the squad does look depleted and quite shallow. There is still time for new additions but Den Bosch seem up against it at the moment and it will take the sort of overachievement from last season, and even more, for them to be competitive in the race for the play-offs.

Target


Unlikely to break into the play-offs as they did last year and will focus on solidity in mid-table and being away from the bottom place.