Position and formation
John van den Brom’s team currently sits in the fifth position in the Eredivisie, the Holland League table after nine Matchdays, with four victories, four draws and a loss. van den Brom began his third season at Alkmaar’s helm and has been able to implement the match methodology that he advocates which is detailed below.
Let’s begin with the defenders. van den Brom never changes his back line and has four defenders playing there on a regular basis which will now lead us to the wingers. Left back Ridgeciano Haps and Mattias Johansson the Swedish right back man the wings. While Johansson tends to stay in the Alkmaar half of the pitch, Haps attacks much more frequently down the wing and will cross the ball into the box.
In terms of the midfield play, you can see that by looking at the chart, van den Brom uses five midfielders and will make adjustments depending on the team he is facing. Against Zenit (0:5 loss) and also versus Dundalk (1:1) there were two defensive midfielders, however in league play there is usually just one defensive midfielder and four more offensive minded ones. There is no change in terms of the striker as there is one in the hole who is usually physical and tall.
Crosses and dribbles
We looked at Alkmaar’s last five Dutch league matches as well as the Europa League contests to try and learn where they are most dangerous. Before we discuss individual players, AZ has a striker in the hole very close to the goal who tries to take advantage of crosses from the midfielders.
Pay attention to the percentages of the crosses. Roughly 65% of the crosses come from the right side which is AZ’s most active wing. The same is true about the dribbles as 40% of them also are from the right while the club controls the ball 77% of the time.
The deep passes are the exact same story as you can surmise with 51% of them coming from the right wing.
The Amazing Moroccan
Alkmaar will introduce wonder boy Iliass Bel Hassani in the match against Maccabi Tel Aviv. The 24-year old who arrived at AZ from Heracles on the last day of the transfer window will try to fill the void left by Markus Henriksen who landed at Premier League outfit Hull City.
Hassani who began his professional career at Sparta Rotterdam in Holland’s second division has a wonderful dribble which he does on average 11 times per match. The midfielder is also one who is involved in his team’s goal scoring both by creating them and also finding the back of the goal himself as he’s picked up two of his own this season. Hassani prefers to shoot from the right edge of the box and is dangerous from there at any time.
One of the Moroccan’s advantages is that he can shoot, dribble and pass equally well from both his right and left foot and also knows how to make the perfect cross. The Yellow & Blue’s left side will have to keep a good eye on this young talent.
Pay attention to:
The Man in the Mask: Striker Wout Weghorst has scored four goals in seven games, however none have come in the Europa League. Along with Nigerian target man Fred Friday, Weghoorst will look to break through the Maccabi defense and score his first of the campaign.
Ron Vlaar: The absence of the Dutch international may be an issue for the AZ defense as reports indicate the central defender will not be part of the match squad.
Alireza Jahanbakhsh: One of the most important players in van den Brom’s side will most probably not play due to reasons that have nothing to do with football. The Iranian midfielder who has scored three goals this year will not be part of this evening’s festivities.
