Winless in 13 outings across all competitions, Willem II play host to FC Twente on Saturday in Round 20 of the 2021-22 Eredivisie season.
On the other hand, the away side will be aiming to get back to winning ways having suffered a first defeat in 10 matches last time out.
Match preview
© Reuters
Twente were sent packing from the KNVB-Beker following a 2-1 defeat to AZ Alkmaar at De Grolsch Veste on Wednesday.
Ron Jans's men took the lead in the 48th minute through Ricky van Wolfswinkel and looked set to progress into the last eight before a Julio Pleguezuelo own goal and a Vangelis Pavlidis strike turned the tie on its head.
The Tukkers saw off the threat of Heerenveen in their last league game and currently sit sixth in the standings, four points off Feyenoord in third.
Next up is a trip to a venue where they have come out on top in seven of their last 10 visits since 2007, losing just once in that time.
With the added commitment of the Dutch cup now out of the way, Saturday's visitors can now focus solely on the league as they look to put together a strong second half of the season.
© Reuters
Willem II kicked off 2022 on a losing note following a 2-0 defeat to bottom club PEC Zwolle at the Mac3Park Stadion on Friday.
Thomas van den Belt was the star of the show as he netted in both halves to put Fred Grim's men to the sword.
De Superkruiken are still one place above the drop zone, but their cushion has now reduced to four points following their most recent loss.
Having scored the second-fewest number of goals in home games so far, Saturday's hosts will need to get going in the attacking department to stand a chance of securing a positive result this weekend.
- L
- L
- L
- L
- L
- L
- L
- L
- L
- L
- L
- L
- D
- W
- W
- W
- D
- W
- W
- W
- W
- D
- W
- L
Team News
Freek Heerkens, Robbin Ruiter and Wesley Spieringhs are all sidelined with knee injuries and will sit Saturday's game out.
Ulrik Jenssen has served his one-game suspension and is expected to come into the XI for this one at the expense of Nikolaos Michelis.
Twente midfielder Michal Sadilek is ineligible to take part as he continues to serve a three-game ban.
Wout Brama is ruled out through a muscle injury, while 29-year-old Jody Lukoki is yet to recover from a knee injury.
Kik Pierie has been out of action out since April when he suffered a back injury, which has seen him miss 29 games since then.
Willem II possible starting lineup:
Wellenreuther; Kohn, Bergstrom, Jenssen, Kohlert; Llonch, Roemeratoe, Meerveld; Svensson, Wriedt, Nunnely
FC Twente possible starting lineup:
Unnerstall; Troupee, Hilgers, Propper, Oosterwolde; Bosch, Staring, Vlap; Limnios, Van Wolfswinkel, Misidjan
We say: Willem II 1-2 FC Twente
Willem II are on a wretched run of results and will be desperate to arrest their slump in form against a more than capable Twente side. We fancy the away side to just edge out their hosts by the slightest of margins.
Top tip
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 FC Twente win with a probability of 39.28%. A win for Willem II had a probability of 34.87% and a draw had a probability of 25.8%.
The most likely scoreline for a FC Twente win was 0-1 with a probability of 9.46%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-2 (8.54%) and 0-2 (6.59%). The likeliest Willem II win was 1-0 (8.81%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (12.26%). The actual scoreline of 0-1 was predicted with a 9.5% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted a 0-1 win for FC Twente in this match and our team at Sports Mole correctly predicted the win for FC Twente.
