Concerns are growing in Breda. With six games to go, NAC is in a direct relegation spot. What seemed like a dormant problem for months is now becoming an eerie reality. Three NAC prominent figures – Robert Maaskant, Henrico Drost and Anthony Lurling – are watching it with dismay. Their analysis is harsh, but comes straight from the heart. “If NAC is relegated, I don’t think many players will worry about it.”
In 2015 he stood there, in front of the camera of Omroep Brabant. Tears running down his cheeks, voice broken. Defender Henrico Drost could hardly get his words out after NAC’s relegation. “I was really devastated,” he says now. “That was the only moment in my career when I was really fucked up.” He did not leave his house for four days.
That emotion from back then hangs over Breda again. Because things threaten to go wrong again. NAC is seventeenth and all signals are red.
“I think the trainer is to blame.”
Robert Maaskant, former coach of NAC, puts his finger on the sore spot. “I see a lot of changing setups,” he says. “And then you know that automatisms disappear.” According to him, this is an important cause of the weak season. NAC adapted too often, played too conservatively and failed especially against direct competitors. “You have to take initiative there. But they haven’t done enough. Without being harsh on him, I think the trainer can be blamed for that.”
Yet, according to him, the problem is not just tactics. “You cannot translate budget into performance one-on-one,” he puts things into perspective. “But if you look at the teams that NAC has to compete with, this would not have been necessary.”
While Maaskant mainly looks at the field, Drost also sees the mental pressure in the current selection. And according to him, it is comparable to when he was in that situation. “I see a lot of similarities,” he says. “Supporters who are active, new signings who are not making it. That is not a good sign. They give away games and make mistakes. All in all there is a tension. Once you are in it, it is very difficult to get out.”
That pressure is felt extra in Breda, he knows from experience. “Supporters want to give everything, but that can also be paralyzing. You don’t want to disappoint them. And if it doesn’t work out, it will be tough.” His conclusion is painfully clear: “When I see how they are playing now, I say no. Then they won’t make it. But I keep hoping they will!”
“We felt responsibility. For the club, for the people.”
Lurling, a crowd favorite for years, also has a gloomy outlook. He points to another problem: the lack of commitment in the selection. “It’s a foreign legion,” he says. “And that is dangerous.”
Where players used to play at NAC for years, he now mainly sees passers-by. “If NAC is relegated, not many players will worry about it,” he says sharply. “Kemper, Lucassen, Valerius and Kortsmit maybe. The rest hand in their stuff and go to the next club.” According to him, this is a significant difference from his own time. “We felt responsibility. For the club, for the people.”
In addition, Lurling sees another crucial problem: the lack of goals. “I wouldn’t know who should score the goals,” he says. According to him, this is fatal in the phase that NAC is in. “You have to win games, and then you need goals. Just reasonable play is not enough.”
“You just hope they still make it.”
Yet Lurling also saw good phases this season. “They have really played matches in which you think: this team cannot be relegated. But then you lose 6-0 to Go Ahead and you think: this has no chance.”
Henrico Drost thinks that direct enforcement will be very difficult and the play-offs will be the highest achievable. But even there he finds little hope. “Everyone thinks that as a Premier League club you are the favorite,” he says. “But that doesn’t make sense.”
And yet, somewhere between reason and reality, that one feeling continues to gnaw at you. As it sounds with all three, each in their own way: “You keep hoping, because it is NAC,” says Lurling. “There is still a chance,” Maaskant adds. And Drost sighs: “This club with such great supporters deserves so much more. You just hope that they will still make it.”
Remaining program:
April 5 NAC-Sparta April 12 Fortuna Sittard-NAC
April 25 NAC-Ajax May 2 FC Utrecht-NAC
May 10 NAC-Heerenveen May 17 AZ-NAC
