Marciano Fink expresses his concerns about Ramez Al-Zarrouqi’s role at Feyenoord

Marciano Fink fears that Ramiz Al-Zarrouqi will become the club president at Feyenoord. The midfielder, who recently moved from FC Twente to the national champions, still has a starting place in the game against PSV in the battle for Johan Cruyff’s measure and a competitive debut with Fortuna Sittard, but he’s been in the last two games on the bank. Fink saw that Feyenoord’s midfield, without Al-Zarrouqi, excels against Almere City.

It was clear that Feyenoord manager Arne Sloat was looking for the perfect combination for his midfield in the first matches of the new season. Mats Weaver, Calvin Stings and Zarouki made up the midfield for the derby against PSV. A week later in the league’s first game against Fortuna Sittard, the Stengs took one line ahead and Quinten Timber had a chance to get ten, but when visiting the Sparta Slot he picked Wieffer, Timber and Stengs again. Feyenoord also started with this title in the first leg against Almere City.

Fink saw that things were going the old fashioned way with the National Champion. According to the analyst, this is mainly due to the performance in midfield. “Wieffer and Timber actually played as a sort of 8. They took turns reaching into space to introduce themselves. If they both missed, I saw Trauner slip nicely into midfield. It was a right occupation,” Fink said on the programme. This was the weekend on Aspen. “When Timber and Weaver were up, the Stings moved to the side. You can just see that they guard the mutual distance very well.”

Feyenoord played great attacks against Almere City at times. One of those smooth running combos resulted in a good opportunity for Wieffer (see screenshot below). “A great move from Wieffer, which he has to fire with his inside foot towards the right post,” says Fink. Weaver had been the target of criticism after Feyenoord’s previous matches and was himself unhappy with his performance. Fink saw the Orange international play another good game against Almere City. He’s back and I like it. Partly because they gave each other space and looked closely at how they stood.

It may be too early to say that Sloat has found his ideal midfield but with the performance he put in on Sunday afternoon, he can continue. Fink is very curious about what that means for Zarrouqi’s role. “All the positions were occupied and all the correlations were just right because those relationships were so well coordinated. I think for Zerrougui it was concerning, but it worked. So, Almere City is really easy prey and you can try these kinds of things, but you have to do it. Because they had a lot of movement and everyone gave themselves up, it looked very dynamic again. And then it ends 6-1.”