PSV surprisingly lost 1-0 on Saturday evening when they visited SC Heerenveen. The Eindhoven team played a terrible match and deservedly lost against the Frisians. It is the second defeat for PSV in a week. They also lost against Stade Brest on Tuesday.
A difference between night and day: eight days ago PSV gave a gala performance in its own Philips Stadium against FC Twente (6-1 win). The Eindhoven team was in top form and the title was already given to the leader of the Eredivisie. A week later, the same Eredivisie leader looks incredibly vulnerable.
After a painful defeat in Brest, PSV was unable to make any progress when visiting Heerenveen. It looked like walking football, football for elderly men where it is forbidden to run. PSV played at an excruciatingly slow pace and created historically little in the first half. According to statistics, PSV had not created as little in seven years as in the first half. A Expected goal of 0.07.
Reserve roll Pepi
This all happened in a special setup. Bosz opted for a line-up with zero depth in the game. Luuk de Jong, Guus Til, Ivan Perisic and Malik Tillman were in the vanguard. A vanguard that is static on paper, but also in practice a vanguard without threat and depth.
Ricardo Pepi’s reserve role is raising more and more questions. Luuk de Jong has not been in good shape for weeks, while the American scores continuously. Moreover, the play of the Eindhoven team with Pepi in the striker is also much better. The American had to watch his team’s problems for 67 minutes before he was allowed to come on for Guus Til. The score at that time was still 0-0 in Friesland, where the chances until that moment were mainly for the home team.
Mistake in the back
Ryan Flamingo had a great chance to make it 0-1 shortly afterwards, but his header hit the goalkeeper. For a moment, PSV seemed to be over the dead center, but more than fifteen minutes before the end, a too short pass at the back of Flamingo’s defense led to the 1-0 for Heerenveen. Ion Nicolaescu punished the mistake and gave the Frisians a deserved lead.
PSV remained powerless offensively and was unable to score an equalizer. As a result, the leader of the Eredivisie unexpectedly suffers damage. After the defeat in France, there is also a loss in Friesland. A week to quickly forget.