Football Season Guide

The past season was not an easy one for PEC Zwolle, as they constantly flirted with the relegation zone and, come May, only ended up on the 15th spot, 5 points above the bottom 3. Truth be said, they had started their campaign in the best of fashion, winning their initial 2 games, but then they had to come down to Earth and their success at Telstar turned out to be their sole away win. In fact, they were almost hopeless when traveling and laid their salvation almost exclusively on their home performances. With 71 goals conceded, PEC Zwolle held the next-to-worse defence of the Eredivisie. They proved especially vulnerable when going down first, possibly due to a psychological weakness, and ended up conceding for fun in several occasions, a 2-8 defeat at Heracles Almelo representing their lowest point in the season. On the other hand, with 44 goals scored, they were far from prolific, relying almost exclusively on Kostons’ prowess, 12 goals and 6 assists overall. Despite such unimpressive results, coach van der Vegt was confirmed at the helm of the team also for the next season. He will have to deal with a widely renewed squad, though, since several protagonists of the past campaign left the club over the summer. Starting centre-back MacNulty departed for German football and may be greatly missed, considering that just-arrived Viergever is aging and Velthuis was not memorable, when fielded last season. They also lost starting right-back Gooijer, who returned to his parent club and was not replaced with Aertssen ready to step up in the XI. In the midfield, they let starting Monteiro go together with back-up Buurmeester back to AZ Alkmaar. Sommer could thus become a protagonist in the middle of the park. In the attack, they lost two starting wingers in De Rooij, who was fundamental and inspired, and Shoretire, a bit of a disappointment, together with a few bench-warmers like Faberski and Buitink. New signings Sorensen and Cissoko may thus earn relevant playing time.