Before the season started I posed question marks on the ability of Ronald Koeman to improve Feyenoord. Koeman did fantastically well last year, but can he turn Feyenoord into a solid castle using new and untested average material?
Many would expect that after the exodus of top players like Guidetti, Vlaar, El Ahmadi, Bakkal and Fer and hardly any money to spend, Feyenoord would collapse. It was thought that at least two years would be required to be back at the top. FC Twente and recently Vitesse Arnhem are squads that have taken their place. But after ten games it is now clear that Feyenoord are a force that can beat any team, and play more than acceptable football based on decent strategies.
Last week Ajax – the eternal rival – came to the Kuip. A genuine test for Feyenoord and Koeman, who has actually never lost to Ajax. Without injured keeper Mulder a football thriller was offered to a grateful and fanatic crowd. Remember how I pointed out that the legacy of John Guidetti to Feyenoord was a lack of goals?
A new – yet known to the Dutch crowd – player was there to help Lex Immers in the frontline. His name? Graziano Pellè, a rarely scoring striker of e.g. Lecce, Cremonese, Cesena and the only Italian regular player in the Dutch league. He played 4 years (12 goals in 78 appearances) under van Gaal and Advocaat for AZ, was ridiculed by critics but had the nerve to come back some years later when Ronald Koeman called.
Pellè said after an unsuccessful period back home (Parma) he liked the country and the women. Koeman was called insane to bet on a failure, but the critics were wrong. As a physical target man, strong header of the ball, he is a bloke who is ready to ‘make war in the box’ and a strong foundation for other players to latch onto.
Winger Ruben Schaken flourished and made it to the national squad, just like his teammates Bruno Martins Indi and Jordy Clasie. Where Martins Indi is the solid wall in the defense (that also scores when needed) Clasie is the corridor that connects all players with one touch football.
Last week an injured Schaken was replaced by the 18 year amateur Jean Paul Boëtius (a cousin of AC Milan’s Urby Emanuelson). After 10 minutes of Ajax domination the young debutant danced several times through the Ajax defense and scored the equalizer. Koeman smiled his biggest smile.
After a lucky goal from Siem de Jong, many Feyenoord supporters feared to spend their Sunday in misery. But then Pellè stood up and scored the goal of the season – controlling the ball and knocking it backwards towards goal, with all the force of a grenade, to score 2-2.
He approached the superhero status of John Guidetti, who was present (“my stomach was all over the place”) as one of the fanatic supporters. Pellè would have reached his status if his header wasn’t stopped by a marvelous safe by Kenneth Vermeer just before the final whistle sounded. The Italian “pretty boy” became man of the match and played a flawless game. When celebrating his goal and showing his upper torso to the audience, he accepted a yellow card with pleasure.
Koeman didn’t criticize him for his action. “In this nation we are very good at criticizing good players” he said with a wink to all the people who thought Pellè was rubbish and Feyenoord didn’t stand a chance this year.
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