Two sides hoping to improve their fortunes in the bottom half of the Eredivisie table will meet on Sunday, as SBV Excelsior entertain NEC.
Having both gone four league matches without a win, the hosts sit 14th with a four-point lead over the bottom three, while their visitors are four points better off in 11th spot.
Match preview
Following their promotion back to the Eredivisie, Excelsior have experienced a tough campaign thus far, losing 13 of their first 21 league matches and putting just 20 points on the board.
Their struggles have largely come in defence, with only one side having conceded more than the 47 goals that the Oud papier-club have shipped thus far, and they have not fared much better at the other end of the pitch either, with only 16th-placed Emmen and 17th-placed Cambuur netting fewer than their 20 goals.
Since putting some crucial distance between themselves and the relegation zone with a 2-0 triumph over fellow strugglers Volendam in mid-January, Marinus Dijkhuizen's side have only been able to add one more point to their tally in four Eredivisie outings, firstly falling to a 1-0 defeat away at FC Twente before being thrashed 4-1 at home to defending champions Ajax.
They would then, at least, put a point on the board in a goalless draw with RKC Waalwijk, before the Oud papier-club faced the tough test of a trip to AZ Alkmaar last time out and were on the wrong end of a 5-0 beating, with all five goals coming in the first half as Sven Mijnans netted a brace and Jesper Karlsson, Jens Odgaard and Vangelis Pavlidis all added their names to the scoresheet.
As a result of their rut in recent weeks and ongoing struggles for consistent results, Excelsior find themselves just four points above the relegation zone in the Dutch top flight, and they will be keen to correct their form with what would be a vital result on Sunday to prevent that gap being cut further.
Their visitors are also fighting to get back to winning ways, having not picked up a victory in their last four league outings after making a steady start to the term.
Although NEC only won one of their first 12 matches of the Dutch top-flight campaign, they would also suffer just three defeats, before bouncing back from the last of those with a five-game unbeaten run to quickly build a more pleasing points tally.
In that spell spanning between early November and mid-January, Rogier Meijer's side put two commendable draws on the board together with three important victories, including a share of the spoils with defending champions Ajax, a 6-1 thrashing of RKC Waalwijk and a 3-1 home victory over Emmen most recently, courtesy of a Landry Dimata brace and an Ibrahim Cissoko goal.
They have been unable to build on that improvement since, though, and now come into the weekend having only added two more points to their tally in four further attempts, firstly suffering defeats to Feyenoord and Go Ahead Eagles either side of a draw at home to Sparta Rotterdam.
Following a penalty shootout defeat to Feyenoord in their KNVB Beker round-of-16 tie, NEC now come into Sunday's contest on the back of a disappointing goalless stalemate at home to strugglers Cambuur, and having quickly seen their standing in the middle of the Eredivisie table worsen as a result of their dip in form, they will be keen to move closer to the top half with what would be just a fifth league win of the campaign and a third away from home.
Team News
Excelsior will remain without winger Jacky Donkor through injury, while defender Kik Pierie has also missed the entirety of the campaign thus far and will not feature on Sunday.
Marouan Azarkan should keep his place in attack in Dijkhuizen's 3-5-2 setup, having contributed three goals and four assists in 18 league appearances so far this term, while Reda Kharchouch is vying to displace Couhaib Driouech and lead the line from the outset after only featuring off the bench last time out.
They may look to make changes at the back after taking a 5-0 thrashing last weekend, and with Redouan El Yaakoubi and Sven Nieuwpoort having been relative mainstays throughout the season thus far, it could be Maxime Awoudja who drops out, with Serano Seymor likely to take his place.
After another injury layoff recently, important NEC midfielder Jordy Bruijn was able to make a return to action off the bench in their draw with Cambuur last time out, and he will hope to go one better and feature from the outset on Sunday.
Sporting Lisbon loanee Pedro Marques is also fighting to come into the starting XI up front, but Landry Dimata could again be preferred to lead the line, having notched up five goals in 17 league appearances since arriving on loan from Espanyol.
Following the clean sheet last weekend, Meijer should deploy an unchanged back four featuring Bart van Rooij, Ivan Marquez, Philippe Sandler and Souffian El Karouani in front of former Ajax, Barcelona and Valencia goalkeeper Jasper Cillessen.
SBV Excelsior possible starting lineup:
Van Gassel; Nieuwpoort, El Yaakoubi, Seymor; Horemans, Baas, Koopmeiners, Goudmijn, Tjoe-A-On; Azarkan, Kharchouch
NEC possible starting lineup:
Cillessen; Van Rooij, Marquez, Sandler, El Karouani; Schone, Bruijn, Tannane; Tavsan, Dimata, Cissoko
We say: SBV Excelsior 0-1 NEC
Both teams are low on confidence and struggling for form currently, but the visitors have at least managed to show their quality in patches this season, and given that they are hard to beat and that the hosts are particularly leaky at the back, we see NEC having enough to find a decisive goal and come out on top on their travels.
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Top tip
Sam Varley
