Despite a mediocre performance, FC Emmen still managed to get a point out of the fire at home. A last-minute goal by Ole Romeny brought relief to Oude Meerdijk. From tactical conversions to lead in the shoes and sacks of potatoes on the back: this is the analysis of our analyst Marnix Kolder.
1. A rarity
For a long time it was highly uncertain whether Dick Lukkien would sit on the bench at FC Emmen on Sunday afternoon during the home game against Go Ahead Eagles. The coach of the people of Emmen had been confined to home all week due to a serious flu, but turned out to be recovered in time for the meeting.
With Lukkien, FC Emmen went into battle against a team for which it is a rarity to win at De Oude Meerdijk. In total, Go Ahead Eagles played an away match against FC Emmen 24 times and the balance is quite negative. The team from Deventer won only 2 of the 24 matches, while Emmen stepped off the field as the winner 13 times. All these matches were played in the first division.
All well and good, according to our analyst Marnix Kolder, these numbers said little in the run-up to Sunday afternoon’s game. “It says something to the extent that Go Ahead Eagles had a hard time in Emmen. Maybe because of the artificial grass. But now there are other players playing.”
2. Syrupy play
Because relegation competitors SC Cambuur, FC Volendam and Excelsior Rotterdam had not taken any points the day before and FC Groningen had reached the same level with a good victory, FC Emmen was able to do good business with a victory over Go Ahead Eagles and take over fourteenth place.
That was anything but progressing. The visitors from Deventer took the lead after 9 minutes. Jay Idzes fired the ball from a deflected corner from a distance against the ropes. FC Emmen goalie Mickey van der Hart stretched out, but just couldn’t reach it. “What a fumbling,” said Kolder. “It started with a corner unnecessarily given away by Mohamed Bouchouari, which was processed extremely badly.”
Our analyst said to see an “unrecognizable” FC Emmen. “The team was not playing well. It was viscous, looked uncertain on the ball. As if that was because of the tension that the pressure on this game brought with it.”
3. Tactical tip
Where FC Emmen normally, at least where possible, shows creative and well-groomed football, the team was hardly involved. “In the back, Jeroen Veldmate and Miguel Araujo were defending one on one against Finn Stokkers and Isac Lidberg,” Kolder noted. “Two strikers who made it very difficult for FC Emmen by simply putting pressure.”
Our analyst suggested that Lukkien should turn things around. “First of all, I had dropped a midfielder more often to support Veldmate and Araujo. Bernadou, for example, was not involved in midfield anyway. In addition, I would switch to a system with three central defenders. The Eagles played with two strikers. Moreover, you move a back to strengthen the midfield.”
4. The turnaround?
The equalizer came from one of the few moments that FC Emmen managed to create in front of the opponent’s goal in the first half. Ole Romeny, anticipating the cross, walked into the enemy’s sixteen-yard box but was knocked over. Referee Jochem Kamphuis did not hesitate and gave the team from Emmen a penalty kick. It was then shot in controlled by Veldmate, straight through the middle.
As if Lukkien could read Kolder’s thoughts, the coach switched to a three-man defense after the break. With Araujo on the right, Veldmate in the middle and Veendorp on the left, FC Emmen fared a little better. Danny Hoesen, who hardly touched a ball in the first half, had to leave in favor of Jasin-Amin Assehnoun. “Hoesen was totally invisible,” said Kolder. “At one point I wondered if he was even participating at all.”
5. Bag of potatoes
Despite the changes, Go Ahead Eagles took the lead again after fifteen minutes of play. A cross from Finn Stokkers was cleverly tapped in by Bobby Adekanye. “Half-baked intervention by Araujo preceded that,” Kolder noted.
The analyst saw FC Emmen get a number of small chances in the remainder of the match, but according to him there was no question of really making a move to turn the match. “The players showed no confidence at all. It was as if she was playing with lead. Well, lead? With a sack of potatoes on the back. Or two bags.”
One of the players who, according to Kolder, did not come out well was Mark Diemers. Normally the man who causes the most danger on the Emmen side, but sent one mediocre pass or cross after the other on Sunday afternoon.
6. Upturn
Just when Kolder said that he did not see FC Emmen score any more goals, the team from Drenthe scored after all. Diemers of all people, with his only good cross of the game, served Romeny. The attacker acrobatically tapped the ball past Eagles goalie Jeffrey de Lange. For a moment it seemed that Romeny was offside, but that was not the case. And so FC Emmen still managed to get a point out of the fire.