Football Season Guide

Last season was more or less in line with expectations. At the time of the forced stop of the league they were in 14th position and therefore would have avoided relegation. An excellent result for a newly promoted team. The Enschede side surprised everyone with an excellent season start, then inevitably lost form, however, they were never sucked into the relegation zone. Coach Gonzalo García struggled to find the right formation the players at his disposal. He started decisively with a very offensive system of play such as the 4-3-3, then often switched to a 3-man (or 5) defence. During the summer the club decided to replace him with the much more experienced Ron Jans who will probably begin with the 4-2-1-3. Jans will have a very difficult task considering that the two best players have been sold. Striker Aitor Cantalapiedra went to Panathinaikos and trequartista Haris Vuckic to Real Zaragoza. The two players were the past season's top scorers with 7 and 11 goals respectively. They also lost regular players in other areas of the pitch - defenders Peet Bijen and Calvin Verdonk and midfielders Javier Espinosa and Oriol Busquets. The arrivals are all loan deals, some of which are very interesting such as strikers Vaclav Cerny and Danilo, respectively from Utrecht and Ajax U21. New defenders Nathan Markelo and Kik Pierie are from Everton U23 and Ajax - all players with good prospects but still very young and therefore inexperienced.