Shiloh ‘t Zand is a Dutch 21-year-old midfielder who plays for FC Dordrecht in the Eerste Divisie, the second tier of the Dutch football structure. ’t Zand is a central midfielder but could be called an attacking midfielder as well as he’s rather offensive minded than defensively. He’s primarily right footed and is around 175 centimeters tall. ‘t Zand plays for FC Dordrecht but he’s coming on loan from Feyenoord Rotterdam. ‘t Zand recently won the award for ‘The best talent of the KKD (Eerste Divisie)’ and could be getting interest from other Eredivisie teams as FC Dordrecht won’t get promoted this season.
Shiloh ‘t Zand is physicaly quite decent. He has a slight mesomorphic body, has good acceleration and turning speed and is around the average length for his position. Even though he has a slight mesomorphic body, he isn’t very strong. But that doesn’t mean he can’t perform well in man-to-man duels. He has good balance and is agile, and those two traits definitely help him in that as he can beat his opponent through that. But when he’s shielding the ball off from an opponent, he can be pushed off it quite easily. ‘t Zand doesn’t go often in the aerial duels, in some games he doesn’t even go into one. But he isn’t bad nor good at them, it depends on the opponent in the aerial duels as well. His heading abilities when he isn’t pressed by anyone are decent. ‘t Zand moves a lot throughout the game, but he’s often getting subbed around the 60th to 75th minute, which means he could struggle a bit with conditioning. But it’s nothing major, as it’s not very visible as well.
‘t Zand is an amazing playmaker. His long passes and short passes are both very good and can create very good chances. Passes on all distances are also very accurate. But of course, he still can make mistakes with them. Like against the playoff game against Emmen, where his pass was too weak and ended up intercepted and resulted in a goal. ‘t Zand his reaction time and his movement with the ball is quick. He can decide really fast where he wants to pass the ball to or make a run with it. His shooting ability is decent, but he mostly shoots from outside the penalty box. He uses his weak foot pretty often, and it’s quite good as well. He can shoot and make a long pass with it for example. He has good ball control and doesn’t lose the ball very often. He can keep possession in a spot where he’s getting pressed by multiple players and get out of it. He isn’t a really good dribbler in real 1v1 situations though. ‘t Zand often roams throughout the field. He doesn’t go really wide or into the direction of the corners, but he rather moves through the central positions on the field. He’s talkative on the field. He uses his arms to ask for the ball or shows his teammates to make a run. He positions himself well but doesn’t really make runs forward behind the defending lines.
‘t Zand doesn’t really go into the defensive zone, but he still works a lot on that end. He is very good in intercepting passes; he cuts the lane off the pass to intercept the ball. He runs forward to press the defenders on some occasion, so he and the striker put some extra pressure on them and possibly force a mistake. He fouls pretty often though. ‘t Zand positions himself well defensively, which for example helps him to intercept passes. The quick reaction time helps him with it as well.
‘t Zand needs to step up. Playing at Feyenoord might be a bit difficult for him, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he would go on another loan in the Eredivisie or even the Belgian Pro League. He has a long contract at the club from Rotterdam which he recently prolonged to the summer of 2028. But if there would be a good deal for him and the club, I wouldn’t be surprised if he would leave. But a new loan deal in his situation is the most realistic option.
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