On an average day, there’s not much between these two teams. I would still favour Sparta Rotterdam because they’re more effective than their hosts, but not enough to warrant backing the away win. I think that’d especially be true tonight were it not for some very relevant team news.
I mean, neither team is in a great place right now. Sparta Rotterdam have done their usual thing of dropping off after a good start to the season, and VVV Venlo have done their usual thing by being entertaining but horribly random with their results. You can usually bank on attacking football when these two teams play, and usually goals too, assuming they’re both in the mood.
For tonight’s game though, I am on the away win. They may not have won for a while, Sparta Rotterdam, but I like what I’ve seen from them more. They’re only losing games when opponents take their chances better than they do, not because they’re being outplayed. It’s very difficult to contain such a team, and even the bookies know it nowadays, which is why the odds on Sparta Rotterdam winning are usually shorter than for most mid-table Eredivisie teams.
They are missing two of their back four tonight, the away team, and that would normally concern me but as I intimated above, they really don’t set out to contain teams anyway. In other words, I never believe they’ll keep a clean sheet anyway, unless by accident, or with help from their opponents. Their game is all about scoring goals, which is why they’ve got Auassar, Harroui, Mijnans, and Duarte supporting Thy, Engels, and Gravenberch. It’s not a great team, per se, but rather one that is always on the same page, and one that has a good, experienced manager in Henk Fraser. I enjoy the work ethic and attitudes of the Sparta Rotterdam players, which is another reason I tend to trust them more than most mid-table teams at this level, and they should be able to score a few tonight too.
VVV haven’t just been losing lately, but they’ve been getting torn apart. You can point out that they’ve had hard fixtures, if you’d like, but conceding an average of four goals per game for their last four matches isn’t good enough. Furthermore, bagging twice along the way is just poor. Look, the Eredivisie is known for producing high-scoring games; that’s what it’s all about in The Netherlands. VVV have stopped scoring goals though, and they’re not doing anywhere near enough with the ball in the middle of the park either so opponents are forever overloading them, which is leading to massacres. I believe their heavy defeats have come from circumstances, not necessarily the purported quality of their opponents.
The absentees in their squad isn’t helping right now either. Vito van Crooy is out, having picked up an injury after the AZ Alkmaar game. Against Vitesse Arnhem (second meeting), clever French midfielder Machach picked up an injury, and he’s still out now. For their recent trip to Rotterdam, the cherry on the cake was the absence of star Greek striker Giakoumakis, who has bagged twenty-three goals in twenty-three appearances this season – a true modern day Machlas! – and he’s still out too. They even loaned Anastasios Donis (to be in the same squad as his brother, Christos) from Stade de Reims at the end of January, more for a laugh than anything I suspect, given that he’s not played a good game of football in two years now – and he’s out too!
The above makes me think that unless John works some magic (which is rarely seen from him nowadays) or Arias gets on the end of a set piece/cross, then VVV simply aren’t going to hurt this under-strength Sparta Rotterdam defence. Instead, I expect the visitors’ typically tricky creators to ensure that they not only control proceedings but also create enough chances to score goals. They may not be especially clinical, Sparta Rotterdam, but they create enough chances to still score after missing plenty. Considering that, and VVV’s almost complete absence of attack, the away win at evens is very much on my radar today.
