Willem's 3-1 defeat to PEC Zwolle last Friday proved to be the final straw for Adrie Koster, who failed to win any of his last 10 games before he was sacked as manager.

Gery Vink did not have the easiest of introductions as he began his time at the helm against Ajax on Thursday, which unsurprisingly ended in a 3-1 defeat.

However, the Tricolores coped relatively well with the threat posed by the league leaders in the first half and for the most part of the second, before they were blown away in the final 10 minutes.

As bad as Sunday's hosts have been in recent weeks, they can take solace from the fact that they are only four points from safety.

With 19 games of the season gone already, Emmen are still in search of their first league win, and they have managed to pick up only six points in total.

Given that they are already eight points adrift of safety, a defeat at the weekend could spell the end for Sunday's visitors in their quest to stay up.

As each defeat passes, it looks more likely to be a case of when and not if Dick Lukkien will finally be relieved of his duties after five years in charge.

If he does get sacked eventually, he can certainly look back on his time at De Oude Meerdijk with pride having led the club back into the Eredivisie four years ago.

His side put up a much-improved display against PSV Eindhoven on Tuesday, but they were eventually undone in the final stages of the game, which they lost 2-0.

Willem II Eredivisie form: DLLDLL

Emmen Eredivisie form: LLLLDL
Emmen form (all competitions): LLLLDL

Team News

Jean-Pierre Rhyner is set for his Emmen debut after completing his loan move from FC Cartagena in the second division of Spanish football.

The trio of Luciano Carty, Glenn Bijl and Marko Kolar are ruled out through injury, leaving Dick Lukkien with big decisions to make in key areas.

Willem will not be able to call upon Dries Saddiki for this one as he remains sidelined with a muscle tear.

It will be interesting to see the changes made by Gery Vink as he goes in search of a winning formula that his new side badly needs.

Willem II possible starting lineup:
Brondeel; Kohn, Peters, Heerkens, Owusu; Kohlert, Llonch, Spieringhs, Nunnely; Pavlidis, Okyere Wriedt

Emmen possible starting lineup:
Telgenkamp; Cavlan, Bakker, Veendorp, Van Rhijn; Bernadou, Tibbling, Pena; Ben Moussa, Avdijaj, De Leeuw

SM words green background

We say: Willem II 1-0 Emmen

A game against fellow strugglers represents a fantastic chance for either of the teams to pick up a victory, but Willem II have shown more substance over the course of the season, and they should be walking away with all three points in this one.

Top betting tip

Our expert tipster partners at Sporita.com are predicting over 1.5 goals in this match. Click here to find out what else they are predicting for this game and for more of their tried-and-tested football tips.

Data Analysis

Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Willem II win with a probability of 47.81%. A win for Emmen had a probability of 26.99% and a draw had a probability of 25.2%.

The most likely scoreline for a Willem II win was 1-0 with a probability of 10.8%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (9.36%) and 2-0 (8.44%). The likeliest Emmen win was 0-1 (7.67%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (11.98%). The actual scoreline of 2-0 was predicted with an 8.4% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that Willem II would win this match.