Luuk de Jong can join illustrious list

Luuk de Jong can join illustrious list
2 min

Two more goals Luuk de Jong needs to reach 30. Should the PSV captain succeed, he will find himself in an illustrious list of attackers from now on.

All-time greats
One that includes only top PSV strikers. Indeed, in the past, only four other PSV players managed to break the thirty goal barrier in one premier league season. They were Coen Dillen (43 in 1956-1957 and 31 in 1959-1960), Ronaldo (30 in 1994-1995), Ruud van Nistelrooy (31 in 1998-1999) and Mateja Kezman (35 in 2002-2003 and 31 in 2003-2004).

De Jong did not exceed 26 goals in a single Eredivisie year until recently, but already sees his production stand at 28, making him the Eredivisie's top scorer. The striker has scored in PSV's last six league matches. The last PSV player to score in more consecutive Eredivisie games was Mateja Kezman from April-May 2004 (seven in a row).

PSV fear ally for AZ
To match Kezman, De Jong must find the net in Alkmaar against AZ. AZ lost its last 10 league games with PSV. That is a negative club record for longest losing streak against a specific opponent in the Eredivisie.

Moreover, AZ did not achieve a single clean sheet in its last twenty premier league encounters with PSV. The last time the Alkmaarders kept the zero against PSV was during the 1-0 home win on September 20, 2008 (goal Maarten Martens). That was then the first win for AZ that season (after a start with two defeats), in which the club eventually became champions.

On Sept. 28, 2013, AZ avoided defeat against PSV for the last time in the Eredivisie. The team from Alkmaar won 2-1 at home that day against the then-leader. A day later, Gertjan Verbeek was fired as coach of AZ despite the win.