Football Season Guide

The past season was a rather quiet one for Fortuna Sittard, as they managed to reach safety again, for the 8th time in a row, ending up on the 11th place, 7 points above the play-out spot. In fact, up until the end of October, they looked capable of fighting for something more but then they became more and more inconsistent and had to content themselves with another finish off the top 10. Fortuna Sittard relied mostly on their home results, where they were very difficult to face and managed to defeat prestigious rivals like AZ Alkmaar, NEC Nijmegen and FC Utrecht. However, they did not shine in any other area, since they scored only 49 goals while they held one of the poorest defenses of the league, conceding 63 goals. Not too surprisingly, they did not keep any clean sheets after November. Coach Danny Buijs, at the helm of the team since 2023, will be in charge of the team also in the new season. He will have to deal with a much-renewed squad since they lost no less than 16 players, 6 of them being starters. Without any doubts, the defense was a department that changed a lot over the summer, with starting centre-backs Kasanwirjo and Adewoye both gone but not adequately replaced yet. A potential issue, also considering how fragile they were at the back. The midfield underwent a major overhaul with 2 main players departed since the likes of starting Lonwijk and Duivesteijn returned to their parent clubs and a bunch of back-ups also gone and not missed. Simons, who joined in from Einhoven, could become a protagonist in the new season. If nothing else, they managed to retain their star Ihattaren, who made the difference in the last campaign. Last but not least, key striker Sierhuis was sold to NEC Nijmegen while starting winger Limnios returned to his parent club. One between youngsters Zeefuik and Descotte and more experienced Romeny may thus lead the attack in the new campaign.