‘National champion PSV just scores for fun, it all comes so easily’

The new Eredivisie season is only three rounds into its new season, but the question is already being asked: will it be another season like the previous one, in which it was pretty much clear after two months that PSV was the overwhelming favourite for the title? Studio analyst Robert Maaskant thinks so. “PSV is head and shoulders above the rest,” he says, wondering which teams are capable of making things difficult for the Eindhoven team. “There will certainly be a few teams that can hurt PSV defensively, but PSV is definitely the favourite.”

Blasé

Maaskant not only senses a new round of dominance, but also sees that PSV enjoys playing football. That makes the former coach happy, because that is not the case for every team. “I am very happy that I see PSV cheering collectively with every goal. The sport is meant to score goals and you have to enjoy that. Sometimes you see teams that are not even happy anymore when they score.” Maaskant has only one word for it: blasé.

In any case, it will not be due to the numbers, data analyst Bart Frouws sees. Three matches, fifteen goals: only one team scored more in the first three rounds of an Eredivisie season. That was PSV itself, two years ago. “A lame comparison: there are teams that achieve that number in about one season,” he refers to FC Volendam in the early 1970s, for example. “In 34 matches, they scored sixteen.”