It is almost half time when Maarten Martens jumps up from his chair after losing the ball to AZ midfielder Sven Mijnans and tries to put his players in their place, shouting and pointing. In an icy cold Alkmaar, the AZ coach has not sat back for a moment. AZ is leading 1-0, but there is no indication that Martens is confident that his team will win a match in the Eredivisie for the first time since November 2.
“Sometimes players think too easily during a match that everything will turn out fine,” Martens said before the match. Noordhollands Dagblad. There would also be at number 6 in the Eredivisie – not the place where the Alkmaarders want to be “harsh words” have been spoken during the winter break.
In addition, a rigorous, very unusual intervention in football took place: the forced departure of assistant coach Kenneth Goudmijn and goalkeeping coach Nick van Aart, with whom Martens was said to have been on increasingly bad terms.
But despite all the words and interventions, AZ again did not play impressively in the first match after the winter break on Saturday afternoon. The team did win, 1-0, partly because AZ had little to fear from FC Volendam. But the game was again difficult, with a lot of ball loss and at a low pace.
Promising start to the season
Things looked promising for AZ in the summer. Talented wingers may have left Alkmaar, but with the arrival of Weslley Patati and Frederik Jensen, AZ seemed to have found worthy replacements. In addition, the club prevented a transfer of midfielder Sven Mijnans to PSV and AZ’s talents had a year more experience.
AZ aimed for a place in the top three (third place entitles them to the Champions League preliminary round) and that seemed a logical objective until the end of October. After a very convincing victory over FC Utrecht (4-1), in a good phase, Myans said even that the “always modest” AZ should express its ambitions a little more firmly, in order to make “more efforts” in the top places.
But since then the results have been substandard. AZ only managed one point in the last five games before the winter break, and in the entire first half of the season the team already conceded 28 goals – only 9 fewer than in the entire previous season. The results can partly be explained by the absence of a number of injured players, including captain Jordy Clasie. In addition, the new wingers Patati and Jensen, with two goals and three assists between them, have been disappointing so far.
Error in judgment
However, it was felt within the club that the performance should have been better with the available players, especially against the smaller clubs. The management therefore intervened. Not the criticized head coach Maarten Martens, but assistant coach Goudmijn and goalkeeper coach Van Aart had to leave the first team. Striking, because the two had worked with Martens for more than a year and a half and extended their contracts at the beginning of 2025 until 2028.
But that extension was “an error of judgment,” Huiberts said last week to it Noordhollands Dagblad. “We were generally not satisfied with how we interacted with each other, the chemistry. That is a failure of all of us.”
Huiberts made the decision after a conversation with starting coach Martens, who seems to gain the confidence of the club. But what exactly the friction between Martens and the two assistants entailed remains unclear.
Martens would have liked to see that AZ had emerged from the messy winter break more convincingly. Purchases Ayoub Oufkir (Sparta, 5 million euros) and striker Jizz Hornkamp (Heracles, 4.5 million euros) should help with this, but did not yet do so against FC Volendam as substitutes. Wingers Patati and Jensen also did not convince, nor did talent Smit, about whom there have been constant transfer rumors in recent weeks went around.
After the final whistle, Martens seemed especially relieved that AZ finally won again. His team can look up again – third place is not far away. But after this dull match, there is still hope, and no guarantee whatsoever, for a better second half of the season.
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