Sparta Rotterdam manager Alex Pastoor spoke to NOS after his side’s 3-1 at home to high flying Heerenveen.
- By James Rowe
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The win on Friday evening takes Sparta Rotterdam to 7th in the Eredivisie and the club are looking good to maintain their top flight status after promotion last year.
Coach Alex Pastoor also spoke about his view that ball possession statistics can often be misleading and how Sparta Rotterdam always look to play on the front foot .
He said, ”I did not think that we would achieve such a good victory during the first 10 minutes of this game. We had a lot of difficulty in terms of organizing our defense which lead to us going 1-0 down. We managed to fight back after that to then take control of the game.
” Our equalizer gave us a boost to go on and win the match. We played with passion and with a lot of energy with the will to want to go forward and attack. We also had to be aware of Heerenveen on the counter attack. All in all I thought that tonight was a great match.
”An important staring position when factoring the percentages of ball possession is that it is measured in time and we play always our first ball forward with the intention to attack and find a midfielder or attacker. It can be in some cases that we are within 3 passes from one 18 yard to box to another. We had 30 percent ball possession at times tonight and we won. In the case of teams that win with 70 percent ball possession that often involves many passes between their defenders and defensive midfielders or even the goalkeeper in which you do not achieve much.
”The win tonight is also great for the fans against the number 4 of the Eredivisie and I am delighted in the way in which we did it. It makes us happy and proud.”