Willem II lost 3-1 at home to Sparta Rotterdam in a game they deserved to lose. Willem II played with a 4-3-3, with Kohn at left back, Köhlert at left wing and Pavlidis as the centre forward. Sparta Rotterdam played with a 4-2-3-1 with Lennart Thy as the centre forward and Deroy Duarte at left wing.
Sparta scored the opener after 6 minutes. A short corner was crossed to the back post and it was bundled in by Thy (xG 0.37). Duarte scored an open goal to make it 2-0 in 1st half stoppage time, after the keeper parried the ball to him (xG 0.53). Duarte made it 3-0, 5 minutes into the 2nd half (xG 0.56) after mix up by Tresor on the halfway line, Sparta broke and Kohn inadvertently passed the ball to Duarte in the 6 yard box who easily finished.
VAR prevented Willem II scoring in the 82nd minute due to an offside player trying to stop the defender getting to the ball. This was harsh and would have been a good goal after a great forward ball from Kohlert and left footed chip by Pavlidis. Sparta eventually made it 3-1 in the 93rd minute, hitting Sparta on the break, with Kohlert’s through ball setting Pavlidis through and he squared it to Wriedt who finished with ease (xG 0.50).
Mats Kohlert
Player profile:
- Nationality: German
- Age: 22
- Date of birth: 02/05/1998
- Current Club: Willem II
- Career: FC St. Pauli (Y), Hamburger SV (Y), Willem II
- Position: Left Wing
- Secondary position: Right Wing
- Preferred foot: Left
Köhlert played as a left winger in a front 3 and switched wings a few times throughout match but was more effective on the left. When tracking back he worked hard and his pressing was energetic as he tried to hurry the opposition when defending. He is quite small at 5’5 but is very agile and has a good change of direction, favouring to chop the ball as he changes direction. He dribbles using predominantly his left foot and liked to play inside rather than taking on the defenders out wide down the byline. His stature and dribbling ability does favour playing between the lines.
When crossing the balls in from the wing the type of balls were mixed, but on the whole of good quality. Some were an early low cross, one after good skill before standing the ball up for a Pavlidis header. When playing on the left he did cut inside onto his right foot to shoot once but this was a poor attempt from outside the box and lacked any conviction. He showed some fancy tricks and flicks to try and pass the opposition. Towards the end of the second half he played more narrow and this seemed to suit him.
For the disallowed goal, Köhlert played an excellent through ball for Pavlidis to chip the keeper. This pass was fantastic and created a shooting opportunity from nothing. A few minutes later Köhlert skipped passed two players in the middle of his own half to play a through ball for Pavlidis to run onto and square it to Wriedt to score.
Köhlert was by far the best Willem II player and was the bright spark in a poor team performance. His dribbling ability was combined with good end product when delivering balls into the box. I’d like to see how he gets on out wide, running down the wing to the by line to try and stretch the game more. Fun fact he is a former child actor.
Rating – A2
Vangelis Pavlidis
Player profile:
- Nationality: Greek
- Age: 22
- Date of birth: 21/11/1998
- Current Club: Willem II
- Career: Bebides 2000 (Y), VFL Bochum (Y), BVB Dortmund (L, Y), Willem II
- Position: Striker
- Secondary position: Left Wing
- Preferred foot: Both
Pavlidis played as the centre forward in a front 3. He was harshly denied a goal by VAR in the 82nd minute due to his teammate being offside. Köhlert played him through and he lightly dinked the keeper with his left foot, after the keeper rushed off his line. He assisted the goal late on to sprint onto another through ball by Köhlert, he calmly took a touch to avoid the challenge before squaring it to give Wriedt an open net. He had one chance for a header from a Köhlert cross but he headed it down and the keeper caught with ease.
At 6’1, he is stocky and used his stature to his advantage, showing great chest control and hold up play. He dropped deep to receive the ball so he could then turn and play forward, this was very tidy and allowed the team to drive forward. This meant the defender had to come out of position to follow him and then Pavlidis could link up play with the rest of the team. The pace on the vertical passes were strong. His link up play was shown to be effective from throw ins with a tidy 1st time ball around the corner. He was comfortable using either foot to control the ball.
Pavlidis was disposed more than anyone (6), this was due to him being up for a challenge and seemed to thrive off a duel. He tried to use his physicality to shield to ball and then dribble out of trouble. This is higher risk football but the reward is defence splitting passing and opposition players out of position. Of course, the negative is that it is difficult to gain much momentum and the attacking build up of the team seems disjointed. Overall he had a decent game considering Willem were very poor. He did most of the work outside the box so I’d like to see him do more work inside the box and have more than the 1 shot (header).
Rating – B1
Derrick Kohn
Player profile:
- Nationality: German/Ghanaian
- Age: 21
- Date of birth: 04/02/1999
- Current Club: Willem II
- Career: HSV (Y), FC Bayern München (Y), Willem II
- Position: Left Back
- Preferred foot: Left
Kohn played as a left back in a back four. He did not have a good game and was at fault for the 3rd goal, he got his feet completely wrong and tried to clear the ball with his left foot whilst facing inside to the 6-yard box. He inadvertently passed the ball into the 6-yard box straight to Duarte to finish. His body position and choosing to use his stronger left foot were the two failures and he should have just cleared with his right foot. For the second goal he was slightly out of position in the build-up, where he was a yard ahead of the defensive line, so Thy peeled off the shoulder of the left centre back and into the space behind. His control and shot was unopposed before the save was parried to Duarte for his tap in. If Kohn had been in line with the rest of the back four he could have covered the run and even blocked the shot.
Defensively he did not engage with the opposition much and favoured standing off. He was booked for a high boot which although showed good flexibility, was dangerous play as he kicked the opponent in the head. This was his own doing as he let the ball bounce, the opponent judged it better to position his body in front of the ball and win the foul.
Kohn showed good recovery speed when tracking back to make up for being out of position when going forward. Positionally he liked to stay close to the touchline and kept good width. He didn’t get much attacking action but when he did he favoured crossing early from deep rather than trying to work it to the by-line. This was due to not having good link up play with the front 3 playing quite narrow and also the wingers swapping sides. Technically his short passing was fine and his longer balls were far less successful due to being crosses into the box.
Kohn had a poor game with a couple of signs of defensive weakness that were exposed by Sparta. He could get away with being poor defensively if his attacking play was far superior but I didn’t see many signs of this in the game. Improving his positional awareness will help him to improve the defensive side of his game.
Rating – D