Football Season Guide

In occasion of their second consecutive campaign in the Eredivisie for the first time in almost 30 years, Go Ahead Eagles had an incredible season. In fact, they started the campaign off disastrously, losing 5 games straight, but then straightened the ship, going unbeaten for 11 fixtures. Between January and March, wins were once again rare to come but a positive final run led them only a few points away from the European playoffs. Quite unpredictable, Go Ahead were capable of stopping Ajax twice but could also end up losing games they ought to have won. Coach Hake was confirmed at the helm and he will be able to build on what good done last season as the squad was hardly touched over the transfer campaign. In fact, so far, they lost only two relevant players: Idzes was the most used field player in the past season and he gave security to the team whenever he was lined up in the heart of the defence or in the middle of the park. Kramer, coming from a great season at NEC, should represent a valid like-for-like replacement. The attack is the other area where they suffered a big loss in starting striker Lidberg. With 8 goals and 5 assists last season, the Swede was their most prolific striker but he never really looked capable of producing what he was expected to. Go Ahead tried to replace him with another Scandinavian, Edvardsen, who is going to compete for the number 9 position together with talented Baeten. But they are both non-entities for the Eredivisie. They still are currently too short in the midfield and injuries in the area could jeopardise their campaign.