Football Season Guide

Vitesse

In


Ferro (def) Benfica, Melle Meulensteen (def) RKC Waalwijk, Carlens Arcus (def) Auxerre, Ryan Flamingo (def) Sassuolo, Mohamed Sankoh (att) Stuttgart on loan

Out


Enrico Dueñas (att) Cartagena B, Dominik Oroz (r)(def) Sturm Graz on loan, Patrick Vroegh (sp)(mid) RKC Waalwijk, Oussama Tannane (att) Göztepe, Danilho Doekhi (r)(def) Union Berlin, Riechedly Bazoer (k)(def) released, Eli Dasa (r)(def) released, Eric Verstappen (gk) released, Oussama Darfalou (r)(att) released, Loïs Openda (k)(att) Club Bruges end of loan

Vitesse finished the previous season in 6th position and reached the playoff final clearly lost to AZ Alkmaar. The previous year they had reached the 4th position, a result that seemed to be repeated until January, but in the second part they had a collapse, mainly due to the fatigue accumulated in Conference League. In the European competition they gave their best reaching the round of 16 where they were one step away from eliminating the future champions of Roma. Their KNVB Beker campaign ended at the quarterfinals, destroyed 5-0 by Ajax. This season will likely be different, given the changes that occurred in the summer in the roster. Some key players functional to Thomas Letsch's 5-3-2 left, in particular defensive playmaker Riechedly Bazoer, right-back Eli Dasa, the two center-backs Danilho Doekhi and Dominik Oroz and forward Oussama Darfalou. The most important loss is certainly that of striker Loïs Openda (second highest scorer in the Eredivisie with 18 goals) who returned to Club Bruges. If the losses in defense were well compensated with the arrivals of Ferro from Benfica, Melle Meulensteen from Warwijk and Carlens Arcus from Auxerre, the same cannot be said of the attack where at the moment there are large gaps to be filled. Difficult for the 18 y.o. forward Mohamed Sankoh to replace Openda.

Target


Given the results of the last two seasons, the goal will still be to get just behind the teams fighting for the title, but the mission appears difficult, especially if no significant reinforcements arrive in attack.