Eredivisie previews

Saturday:
Heerenveen v Roda
PSV v NAC
AZ v De Graafschap
Feyenoord v Willem II

Sunday:
Vitesse v NEC
Groningen v Ajax
Heracles v Twente
Volendam v Den Haag
Utrecht v Sparta

It's derby time out east as Twente make the short trip from Enschede to Almelo to take on Heracles. The Almelo side were cruelly denied their first win in five attempts last week against Den Haag when Bas Dost's injury time header was ruled not to have crossed the line despite all evidence to the contrary. It'll be tough against Steve McClaren's side who are playing some nice football. The one worry for Twente is the thin nature of the squad. If any of the back four suffer a knock, they could be in trouble, but they shouldn't have an issue here.
PSV face NAC with the Breda side just a point behind the champions. Matthew Amoah's 12 goals have helped NAC into this position, but recent results haven't been good. They conceded deep into stoppage time against Utrecht last week but have won just one of the last seven. Huub Stevens is under immense pressure over at Eindhoven and the side is crumbling, though the continued brilliance of Ibrahim Afellay papers over a number of cracks. Players are leaving and, really, the club hasn't been right since Ronald Koeman left for his ill-fated stint at Valencia. Recruitment isn't easy either with Mark van Bommel ruling out his former club.
AZ face struggling De Graafschap and it ought to be routine for the league leaders. They've not been beaten since losing their opening two fixtures of the season and have been ripping sides much better than the Super Farmers limb from limb. De Graafschap have Chelsea's Ben Sahar on loan for the rest of the season, and while they need goals, it's the defence that's so terribly porous. NEC saw coach Mario Been committing to the club in the long term and new signing Dennis Rommedahl available for the trip to Arnhem. New Vitesse boss Theo Bos has a tough task in turning their fortunes around, especially with goals so hard to come by. Heerenveen are on the up, largely thanks to Danijel Pranjic's dozen goals, and they made the move into the UEFA Cup places by easily disposing of Feyenoord a week ago and they face Roda who are in something of a crisis. Fans are naturally upset by their lowly league placing and attempted to storm the main stand and main entrance during a pre-christmas loss to Groningen.
Leon Vlemmings takes charge of Feyenoord again as they continue the search for a new permanent manager. Their bloated squad is a bigger burden than anyone in the Eredivisie can possibly stand and they desperately need to clear the decks. They face the inconsistent Willem II at the De Kuip this week and, given that they lost last week, Feyenoord could be in trouble. Ajax, without the suspended Dario Cvitanich, travel to Groningen with Marco van Basten pledging to cut down his squad further after releasing Rommedahl and seeing Klaas-Jan Huntelaar move on. Marcus Berg is keeping Groningen in the hunt and they could give the Amsterdammers a scare here. Volendam look down already and Den Haag should fill their boots. Utrecht are still in a bit of turmoil after the shoddy sacking of Willem van Hanegem. There's no sign of a replacement as yet despite interest from around Europe in what is generally thought to be a solid, stable club. The fact that the board saw fit to sack van Hanegem's backroom staff from beneath him may give lie to that perceived fact. Sparta are the visitors this week with teenage striker Joey Godee beginning to make people sit up and take notice.