Europa Challenge

June - September 2014



I took over Vitesse Arnhem in July 2014, with the aim of establishing them as a powerhouse in the Dutch division and then taking my career from there. In order to do that, I would have to assess the strengths and weaknesses of my side, and our closest possible challengers.



Having brought in Kwame Quansah on a free transfer, Lewis Baker on loan from Chelsea (with Josh McEachran heading back the other way) and Lucianno Becchio on loan from Norwich, I was confident that we had a squad capable of putting up a fight this season. With a limited budget, this was the best that was possible, but I am delighted at the number of options we have in a number of different positions. I want to make sure my side are capable of playing numerous systems and the versatility of the players available to me stands us in good stead.

In my eyes, our closest challengers are PSV, Ajax and Feyenoord. Whether any surprise packages make it into that top band remains to be seen but these teams have the strongest facilities and the best players in the division. Competing with the likes of Memphis Depay, Georginio Wijnaldum and Giovanni Moreno will be a big ask.



Fixtures:

Pre-season hadn't gone particularly well. We played a number of useful sides such as Leicester and West Ham United but lost 3/5 and only managed to beat Real Union, a Second Division B2 Spanish side. Nonetheless, the first quarter of the season went very well indeed.


A poor performance made me worry that our pre-season woes were going to translate into the season proper. The one pleasing aspect was that we were able to come from a goal behind and despite playing poorly, cling on to a point to start the campaign. Special note to Quansah who scored a nice finish on his debut.


An excellent display of counter-attacking football. With confidence low and knowing Twente's attacking style of football would play into our hands, we sat back and hit them time and time again on the break. Our two strikers were particularly impressive at holding the ball up and showed incisive finishing.


We were in control of this match throughout but nearly threw it away with a lack of concentration towards the end. Luciano Becchio grabbed another brace though to get us out of a tricky situation.


The scoreline makes it look tighter than it was, but we cruised to victory here. Lewis Baker got us underway with a breathtaking free kick from all of 25 yards. He also set up the second and ran the show from the number 10 role. A bright performance from the Chelsea loanee.


A solid performance against newly promoted Dordrecht. They posed us few problems and we caught them on two occasions on the counter-attack. Daouda was particularly impressive on the break as we held on for another excellent win.

Good luck with this, don't see many stories in Holland!