1. The champions lack shine
They've only played two official games this season, but PSV look shaky after back-to-back-to-back titles. Peter Bosz treated the Johan Cruyff Schaal as an experiment after going down to ten men inside ten minutes, and experimented again in Saturday's 2-2 draw against Fortuna Sittard, opting for a three-man backline and an ultra-offensive midfield.
A back three of Armando Obispo, Ryan Flamingo, and Mauro Junior does not cut it. The first two are not championship-team material, and it says a lot that Bosz played Obispo, who's almost certain to leave during this transfer window, over Yarek Gasiorowski. Ryan Flamingo has committed more errors that've led to a goal than any other player since his PSV debut, adding a fourth against Fortuna.
Going forward, the massive offensive squadron did not yield the big chances you'd expect from the dominant force in the Eredivisie. It was a poor outing, and even though Fortuna Sittard's last-minute equaliser came relatively out of thin air, it wasn't all that undeserved. There's a lot to clean up for Peter Bosz, who might have a bigger title challenge on his hands with Feyenoord and Ajax looking dangerous.
2. Wide-open Eredivisie as always
It was only matchday 1, but it wouldn't be the Eredivisie without a nice couple of shock results.
FC Twente arrived in Heerenveen as the favourites after their dominant 6-0 win over Dunajska Streda on Thursday, but were beaten 1-0 thanks to a smart Luca Oyen effort. Even with all three strikers on the pitch, including now-third-option Sam Lammers, FC Twente were unable to frustrate the hosts.
Excelsior, meanwhile, look tidy. Noah Naujoks is still in Rotterdam, forming a tremendous midfield partnership with Irakli Yegoian. Meanwhile, left-back Simon Janssen looks like a perfect addition after his two assists from corners in their 4-0 win over promoted Cambuur.
And what about FC Groningen and Go Ahead Eagles? Groningen looked very disciplined and deserved the win against FC Utrecht, where new manager Anthony Correia has things to improve. Brynjolfur Willumsson returning to his scoring ways, which he'd lost after an early injury last season, is a big boost as well.
And Go Ahead Eagles: what a win! Going down early, only to bounce back with a vengeance and get the new campaign going with a 4-1 victory. It's the perfect start to the season that should see them return to their feisty ways from two and three seasons ago. No more relegation fears like last season; the Eagles might soar high again.
3. Telstar are still the darling underdogs
We can't talk about last weekend's shock results without discussing Telstar. Last season's darling underdogs avoided relegation on the smallest relative budget in the Eredivisie, but headed into the new season without architect Anthony Correia.
Heerenveen assistant Henk Brugge inherited a depleted squad and almost had to build it from the ground up. His efforts yielded a fantastic result in round 1, with UEFA Champions League qualifiers NEC Nijmegen falling 2-1 to the White Lions, courtesy of an early Patrick Brouwer goal and a lethal finish from Rui Mendes from a counter.
It was the recipe for Telstar's success on Saturday. Henk Brugge's team had just 28.7% possession and completed just 74 passes in NEC's half, compared to NEC's 372 in Telstar's half, but still created as many big chances as their opponents (2). They stood tall against Dusan Tadic, too, with the Serbian creating 8 total chances - the highest single-game number for any player since Opta started tracking the statistic in 2010/11.
Paul Winters is Flashscore's Netherlands country manager, having previously worked for Flashscore's Netherlands desk. Paul is an expert on the Eredivisie and also specialises in the NFL, as well as a plethora of other sports. Residing in 'sunny' Katwijk, you can follow all of the news from the Netherlands here.
You can find Paul on X and LinkedIn.
