Against changing NEC, PSV shows its attacking power, but also his defensive naivety

The simplest was a deep ball to the left. There, almost in the penalty area of ​​opponent NEC, the super -fast Ruben van Bommel is completely free. But on this gray, rainy Saturday evening in Nijmegen, Joey Veerman does not go for the most likely option. The PSV playmaker explains the ball well and then takes out, with full force of 25 meters.

You cannot call his shot devastating. Like a paper plane, the ball floats through the air, to dive down exactly at the last minute, in the intersection of the goal. It is the kind of goal that someone with Veerman’s ball feeling probably makes every training once, during a completion exercise. The difference is: this time he does it at a hectic moment, against a tough, treacherous opponent.

The moment is typical of how sovereign the PSV attack game often seems again this season. As if the team of trainer Peter Bosz just has to increase the pace for a moment and it is immediately hit. Such as when midfielder Ismael Saibari quickly combines the Nijmegen defense. Or at the pass of Jerdy Schouten, who finds teammate Ricardo Pepi flawlessly in the hostile penalty area.

Nowhere will that apparent convenience be as visible as at Veerman, on Saturday at the position just before the defense, usually the place of Schouten. He carelessly curls the ball just before time exactly on the head of substitute Myron Boadu, who then does nothing with it. Without looking, he shifts the game from left to right, between three legs from NEC, towards Ivan Perisic, completely free on the flank.

But as easy as Veerman attacks for his own team, he wastes the ball as easily when it should not be allowed. Like a few minutes after his beautiful long shot, when it hesitates around the center line over the best option. Veerman waits too long, shoots against an opponent, at a time when his teammates are out of position. Goalkeeper Matej Kovar can just turn NEC’s shot, and then fabricates his playmaker.

Also in such actions, Veerman is typical of PSV football in this young season. Defensively changeable, vulnerable, hesitant. Sometimes even downright sloppy and naive. It is summarized in the result of Saturday: Eight Goals, a final score of 5-3 for the visitors. Although it could also have been nine, if Tjaronn Chery had not shot a penalty on the goalat just before time.

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Bosz dared to call a topper in advance. Because NEC is playing this season, under the new trainer Dick Schreuder, unusually good. The first three league games were won, with ample results. For the Saturday meeting, the Nijmegen residents are the first, together with PSV, FC Utrecht and Feyenoord, although the last club still has to catch up.

Not an easy opponent. And an “atypical”, according to Bosz, that seems to be constantly changing with formation. Sometimes NEC plays with three attackers, sometimes with a front line of five or six. In an attempt to go over the opponent. “Organized chaos,” as NEC trainer Schreuder describes it himself.

Bosz therefore opts for an unusual battle plan: not with four defenders on the back, as usual, but with three. Based on the idea that the wing players of Bommel and Perisic can collapse and help. Just like Schouten, who is offensive high on the field, beyond Veerman, but sometimes in possession of NEC sinks back to his defenders.

It is not the only striking choice. Bosz also passes the two central defenders with whom he started the entire season so far, Ryan Flamingo and Yarek Gasiorowski. Instead, the coach sets up substitute Amando Obispo. Because it is faster than the other two, and can therefore better deal with the constant depth runs of the midfielders of NEC, Bosz explains his choice afterwards.

The consequence of that three -man defense is that NEC flank players often remain uncovered. The outer central defenders do not get out, and wing attackers from PSV do not collapse, or much too late. As a result, Virgil Misidjan (via the left) and Sami Ouaissa (right) can regularly sprint the penalty area in speed, which several times leads to dangerous situations.

The result is that NEC managed to keep a competition that certainly seemed exciting to the end. By making a goal by Ruben van Bommel (Pepi made the first one) immediately after the 2-0. A handy hooded action by veteran Bryan Linssen, followed by a hard long shot by Misidjan, who can put in the flank without threat.

And after PSV has extended the lead to 4-1 (after Veerman again Pepi), the entire rear-headed will watch how Schouten fights a duel with Linssen after a long goal kick from NEC. If the ball bounces from his leg, they are all too late to respond to the walking action of NEC striker Youssef El Kachati, who picks up the ball from the second line and shuffles hard. The PSV trainer’s staff then annoys it annoyed.

The same happens after just under seventy minutes, if Deveron Fonvile, a central defender comes on paper, via the left. PSV therefore seems surprised, and Perisic loses the sprint duel, after which Fonvile can give from the back line, towards the edge of the penalty area. Veerman is too busy with what is happening for himself to have an eye for the danger in his back. Chery is completely free: 4-3.

A little later Boadu will score the eighth goal, a header from a corner kick. The first serious opponent of the season is thus defeated, but not with the ease with which PSV dominated the previous seasons in the first games. On the faces afterwards no joy, rather relief, that after the defeat of the previous round against Telstar a changeable duel will now end well.

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