PSV will face N.E.C. tonight without the club's top scorer, but with the Eredivisie's most scoring defender, two former PSV players and an enthusiastic laptop trainer. An introduction to the visitors from Nijmegen.
Most scoring defender
Club leading scorer Jay-Roy Grot, good for five goals this season, was injured in the 2-0 loss to PEC Zwolle last weekend. Kevin Mayi, maker of four goals, missed that game due to an ankle injury and it is doubtful whether he will be available against PSV. That makes N.E.C. almost completely dependent on the most scoring defender in the Eredivisie: Dario Dumic. He scored four times this season.
PSV youth products.
Mohamed Rayhi and Arnaut Groeneveld now defend the colors of N.E.C. but went through just about all of PSV's youth training. Eindhoven native Rayhi started in the E'tjes and played 48 duels for Young PSV in the Jupiler League from 2013 to 2015, in which he scored 10 goals. It is his second season for N.E.C. Groeneveld started in PSV's D2 and made his debut with Young PSV in the Jupiler League in December 2015. Last summer, he transferred to N.E.C.
Empathic laptop trainer
Conspicuous along the line at N.E.C. is trainer Peter Hyballa. He has worked with Liverpool coach Jürgen Klopp and is part of a generation of German trainers without a professional career worth mentioning, but with a university education. Yet Hyballa is careful not to "slip into theoretical drivel," as he himself put it this week in a major interview with Voetbal International. "I want to be an empathetic laptop trainer."
Tipping point
Hyballa describes the previous game against PSV as a tipping point in his thinking. Attack and dominate was the idea, but N.E.C. lost 4-0 at home. "In the end, football is all about effectiveness. We started playing more defensively, countering more," Hyballa explained to VI.
Ball possession not sacred
PSV will frequently have the ball against the Nijmegen native, as the numbers show. On average, N.E.C. has 42 percent ball possession this Eredivisie season. Only in three matches did it have more ball possession than the opponent, the least of all teams.
