Despite his side registering their seventh win in a row with a 4-0 victory over Heracles Almelo, Robin van Persie remained humble as he stared down Ernst Happel’s record in the Feyenoord hotseat.
In fact, the current coach of the Rotterdam team did not know that he had equalled the greatest winning streak since the legendary manager, who won eight matches in a row with Feyenoord in 1969.
“Good to know, we are also on the right track,” Van Persie said with a smile in his post-match press conference. Immediately, he passed the compliments on to his players.
“They are much more occupied with everything in their minds. Together they read the game, I see them thinking and that is a nice next step. The execution is not always completely right, you saw that in the second half against Heracles. They had some chances, but we should have made ten instead of four.”
With this thumping win in Almelo, Feyenoord gained a lot of confidence again before this weekend’s big match against PSV. Captain David Hancko noted afterwards that great progress had been made both individually and as a team. Van Persie also recognised that.
The competition in his team is very intense. In fact, he can choose from three men for the left-back position alone: Quilindschy Hartman, Hugo Bueno and Gijs Smal. The latter two are more consistent options, with Hartman given more time to work on his steady and continued rehabilitation after his long absence (cruciate ligament surgery).
For Van Persie, the contract situations of his players play no role in this. Hartman is still on contract for one year and could consider a departure. Bueno is on loan from Wolverhampton and is seen as an interesting option to keep longer.
GBeNeFN | Max Bradfield
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