Michael Statham offers his predictions and bet365 tips for week 18’s Eredivisie fixtures. This weekend Michael will compete against Aston Villa midfielder Leandro Bacuna, who gave his predictions in a recent interview with Football-Oranje, which you can watch below.
- By Michael Statham
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Friday 13th January
Go Ahead Eagles v AZ
Go Ahead picked up only their second point of the season at Groningen last time out. They are certainly more competitive at home, but will still have a tough game against AZ.
The home side will be anticipating good things from new signings Daniel Crowley and Elvis Manu.
Before the winter break, AZ were up and down in their form. I think the rest is just what they needed, after a greulling schedule with a relatively small squad still competing in all three competitions.
Michael’s prediction: 1-2
Leandro Bacuna’s prediction: That’s a hard game for Go Ahead Eagles. I’m going to go with a draw. 1-1
Tip: Get Elvis Manu to score first at 10/1. (click the bet365 banners to find out more…)
Saturday 14th January
Heerenveen v ADO Den Haag
In my opinion, Heerenveen are in for an exciting second half to the season. They’re currently fourth and will look to build on what they’ve done already.
Meanwhile ADO still have a disinterested owner and a squad a little low on quality and energy.
Heerenveen will have too much.
Michael’s prediction: 3-1
Leandro Bacuna’s prediction: 2-0
Tip: Over 2.5 goals at 3/5…or over 3.5 goals at 6/4 if you’re feeling brave.
PSV v Excelsior
Armed with Marco van Ginkel, PSV will harbour fresh hopes of challenging for the title.
The Chelsea man was the difference last season and will surely prove himself worthy of playing for the Premier League side again.
Excelsior will not be as compact as they were in this fixture last season, when they came away with a 1-1 draw. They’re a more attacking side nowadays, which makes it more difficult to claim results in matches like this.
Michael’s prediction: 3-1
Tip: Marco van Ginkel is 6/5 to score at any time on his return to PSV.
Leandro Bacuna’s prediction: 3-0
Heracles v Groningen
After having a habit of drawing too often at the start of the season, Heracles have either won or lost their last seven fixtures.
Before the winter break, Groningen were beginning to find some form, with only one defeat (to Ajax) in seven.
It was a shame to see Albert Rusnák leave Groningen as he was just starting to refind his form from his first season at the club. Although I think the visitors here have some other goal threat to cause Heracles problems.
Michael’s prediction: 1-1
Leandro Bacuna’s prediction: 0-1
Sparta v Utrecht
Sparta were an open and exciting team to watch in the early parts of the campaign, but since then they have either conceded too many sloppy goals or have been totally flat in games.
But if friendlies count for anything, especially mid-season ones, the Rotterdam side did beat NEC 3-1 in a good game.
If this was in Utrecht, there’d only be one winner, but away from home, Utrecht don’t play the same dominant football and I think might be caught out by Sparta.
Michael’s prediction: 2-1
Leandro Bacuna’s prediction: 1-1
Sunday 15th January
Roda JC v Feyenoord
El Ahmadi will be missed this month as he’s featuring in the Cup of Nations
Watching Roda is comparable to watching paint dry. They didn’t score a goal at all last month.
Feyenoord should find this a comfortable game and have no problems winning it.
Michael’s prediction: 0-3
Leandro Bacuna’s prediction: 0-2
Tip: Jens Toornstra at 2/1 to score any time.
Vitesse v Twente
After this game, Vitesse face further tough league games against Groningen and AZ with a KNVB Cup match with Feyenoord in between.
There seems to be a good team spirit around the Arnhem side at the moment. Rumours about the sacking of manager Henk Fraser have diminshed and results are slowly picking up.
A new year should hopefully also spark new confidence at home, where they only won four times in the league in all of 2016.
Whenever Twente have won this season, they have won well. They have yet to win in fortunate circumstances (the 1-0 win against Ajax was rightfully deserved), and the painfully unlucky last-minute loss to AZ before the winter break was the ultimate showcase.
Twente don’t lose often at all and I’m not sure if Vitesse have enough to win this one.
Michael’s prediction: 1-1
Leandro Bacuna’s prediction: 0-0
Tip: Get an interesting looking draw at 14/5.
PEC Zwolle v Ajax
Ron Jans is leaving PEC at the end of the season, which is a shame as he’s a great manager, but it’s clear that this season is not working out for him. His side have not won any of their last six league games and have only scored once in that poor run.
So Ajax will be the wrong opponents to try and change that form. I think Peter Bosz’s men will also lay down a signal of intent for their hunting down of Feyenoord in the second half of the season.
Michael’s prediction: 1-4
Leandro Bacuna’s prediction: 1-2
Tip: Over 3.5 goals at 6/4.
Willem II v NEC
Willem II are undefeated in five and will look ahead to further home games with Sparta and Heracles in the coming weeks.
Despite having what looks like a poor season, Erwin van de Looi’s team are sitting in 11th with winnable home games to come. Their defence has also come on massively since August.
I still can’t work NEC out. I like their leading players such as Dario Dumic, Wojciech Golla and Gregor Breinburg (who may be leaving this month), as well as a couple of their youth players coming through, but around that there’s a lot of mediocre players and inconsistency.
I can’t wait to see Jordan Larsson play. He seems ambitious and we all know of his famous heritage.
NEC will be OK but Sunday is a certainly a tough match for them to try and win.
Michael’s prediction: 2-1
Leandro Bacuna’s prediction: That’s going to be an open game. 2-2
Accumulator for all nine winners with a £10 bet returns: £4331.90
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How have I done so far?
Week 1: 4 results
Week 2: 3 results, 1 correct score
Week 3: 4 results, 1 correct score
Week 4: 6 results, 1 correct score
Week 5: 6 results, 2 correct scores
Week 6: 4 results, 2 correct scores
Week 7: 3 results
Week 8: 7 results, 3 correct scores
Week 9: 4 results, 1 correct score
Week 10: 5 results, 2 correct scores
Week 11: 3 results
Week 12: 2 results, 1 correct score
Week 13: 4 results
Week 14: 6 results
Week 15: 4 results
Week 16: 5 results
Week 17: 2 results
Follow
Writer/interviewer/YouTuber for Football-Oranje. Massive Dutch football fan from the UK. Follow me @EredivisieMike & subscribe to Football-Oranje on YouTube.
