FC Emmen

Emmen faltered at the end of last season after losing the play-off against Almere City and thus returning back to the Eerste Divisie right away. It was a poor campaign last year in which they never really got a head of steam and lacked any sort of quality in attack to get themselves enough points. Now they naturally started as one of the favourites for a quick return as relegated teams in this division generally do but have a new coach in Fred Grim and have lost the nucleus of the squad. It is thus a bit of a blank canvas for the experienced Grim to work on and he will be surely looking for more additions to the squad in the coming weeks. So far, Pole Piotr Parzyszek is the main new addition up front, replacing the departing Ola Romenyy, but important players like Miguel Araujo, Richairo Zivkovic and Mohamed Bouchourari have left and not been replaced yet. Lucas Bernardou and Jari Vlak are expected to provide the backbone in midfield to control games against lesser opposition while Run Mendes is a good player at this level, having scored 15 goals two years ago when Emmen won the title. All in all, this squad needs more work to bring quality starters in a few areas but it looks like they will be one of the main candidates for promotion.