It was perhaps the worst game of a not too good season. RKC Waalwijk had nothing to say to FC Utrecht on Friday evening and lost no chance with 0-4. Defender Julian Lelieveld realizes that hardly anyone else, outside the players’ group, believes in enforcement. “If you have seen this competition, you don’t give us a cent. It was outrageous.”
Lelieveld has no explanation for the offday Against the people of Utrecht. “There was absolutely nothing in it. No movement, we didn’t get in the game, it was very easy. It seemed as if everyone was frozen on the field. If you come to lose the duels at such a moment, it is difficult to get out.”
According to the defender, few harsh words fell in the dressing room during the break. “Everyone realized that this made no sense. In the second half it might have been a little better, but that also had to do with FC Utrecht. The real eagerness was missing. But it has never been a competition.”
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With four games to go, the gap with Willem II is five points. But the Tilburgers are still in action, visiting Fortuna Sittard. “It is still possible, although it becomes more difficult every week. As long as it is possible, it is possible. We have to analyze how it is possible to play such a dramatic phase.”
Trainer Henk Fraser thinks that the defeat is mainly due to the large quality difference. “FC Utrecht won Ajax last week and is a competitor of Feyenoord for third place,” says the trainer. “This team is more mature in everything than we were. If they were a bit sharper, it would have become a bigger result.”
“I told the boys that this is the level where some people want to go. But then they have to grow as an individual and as a team.”
“Nobody is going to talk to me.”
That mentality is not yet there. On the field it could be seen that after the 0-3 the heads were hanging with several players. “But you must have exercised,” Fraser De Pers speaks paternal, looking for some recognition.
“There were phases that they had a hard time mentally, but I cannot say that the players gave up. Nobody is talking to me, because I see that there is chemistry, also in the disappointing phase where we are now in.”
The trainer from Maren-Kessel is critical of his team. “What I can blame them is that they have to realize that they have to block shots, pull out and walk with the opponent. That is quite a fight to convey that urgency. In any case, FC Utrecht has revealed our weaknesses today.”