A club long overshadowed by the giants of Dutch football are suddenly on the cusp of a record-breaking season that could deliver both silverware and a historic European breakthrough. This is Dick Schreuder’s N.E.C. Nijmegen.
If you asked people to name a current Eredivisie club, not many would reply with N.E.C. Nijmegen as the answer.
Although founded 125 years ago, they’ve never won anything of note. In fact, they are one of only five current Eredivisie clubs without a single major honour to their name. That might be about to change in 2026 though, with this fairly unspectacular club having a very spectacular season.
Next month will see them compete in the 2025-26 KNVB Cup final against AZ, aiming to become the 41st different club to lift the Dutch Cup. But their prospective success doesn’t end there, as they have given themselves an excellent chance of qualifying for next season’s UEFA Champions League, against all odds.
On the eve of 2025-26, the Opta supercomputer saw N.E.C. claim a top-two finish in only 1.6% of its season simulations, while they finished in the top three just 4.7% of the time. Now, with six matches remaining in 2025-26, those chances are at 22.4% and 63.0% respectively.
N.E.C. have never managed a top-four finish in a Dutch top-flight season, with their highest placing (fifth) coming back in 2002-03. Even then, they finished well behind the established order of PSV (33 points behind), Ajax (32) and Feyenoord (29).
That’s not the case this season, with N.E.C. mixing it with the very best of Dutch football. Yes, PSV might be running away with the title, 15 points ahead of second-place Feyenoord, but N.E.C. find themselves only three points away from Robin van Persie’s side and are sensationally two points clear of Ajax in fourth.
Should N.E.C. win at Excelsior in their next game on 4 April, they’ll reach 53 points with five games spare, equalling their best points return in an Eredivisie season (2023-24).
Dick Schreuder is the man who’s masterminded their rise to prominence. The 54-year-old arrived at N.E.C. in the summer and has turned them into one of the most entertaining teams in the Eredivisie, with his brand of ultra-offensive football making them open at the other end of the pitch.
N.E.C. are the second-highest scorers in the Eredivisie this term (69 goals) but have conceded more than 10 of the other 17 clubs in the division (47). Therefore, it’ll come as little surprise that their games have seen more goals than anyone else in the competition this season (116).
All-Out Attack
Schreuder’s N.E.C. very much have the philosophy of attack is the best form of defence.
Often playing in a 3-4-3 shape with Ahmetcan Kaplan as the central defender and two defenders either side of him given licence to roam forward, they aren’t the toughest side to breach at the back – as the statistics (and passing networks below) bear out.
But their lack of defensive structure enables them to overload the attacking half of the pitch in a very much risk-equals-reward strategy.
Their three competitive meetings against Eredivisie runaway leaders PSV this season display exactly how this philosophy can play out.
Their first encounter of the season in mid-September saw them lose 5-3 in front of their own fans at the Goffertstadion in the Eredivisie. Akin to a slobberknocker boxing clash at times, only one match has seen more shots on target this season than this encounter (18), while it’s one of just six matches in which both teams attempted 18+ shots.
Then, last month, N.E.C. enjoyed two impressive and important wins over PSV, first in the semi-final of the KNVB Cup (3-2 at home) and then winning by the same scoreline in the league in Eindhoven – their first ever competitive away win over PSV.
Overall, N.E.C. have already scored more goals than ever before in an Eredivisie season (69) and have netted in 26 of their 27 Eredivisie games this season, a record only leaders PSV can match. They have now scored in 17 successive top-flight games for the first time in their history, smashing their previous record of 15 in both February 2024 and September 2012.
Star Performers
Veteran captain Tjaronn Chery has played a big role in their impressive attacking output this season. The 37-year-old, who joined in the summer a few weeks before Schreuder’s appointment, has been involved in 15 of their Eredivisie goals (9 goals, 6 assists); he’s their leading chance creator (43) and a consistent threat to opposition defences with a joint-league-high 39 shots on target.
Chery is central to N.E.C.’s build-up play in attacking areas. Only four Eredivisie players have been involved in more open-play shot-ending sequences than him (151) this season, while his teammate Kodai Sano ranks joint ninth (141).
Chery is often deployed in attacking midfield alongside 22-year-old Sano, but the Japanese talent likes to drop deep into midfield or even the defensive line to pull the strings and dictate play when his teammates make forward runs. He is the only outfield player to play every minute in the Eredivisie this season, and he’s only bettered by one player for both ball recoveries (182) and duels won (185).
Spearheading the N.E.C. attack is another Eredivisie veteran, 35-year-old Bryan Linssen. A player with nearly 400 Dutch top-flight appearances (396) and an impressive 125 goals to his name, Linssen is a striker opposition defences know all about, but they have struggled to stop him in 2025-26.
Linssen returned to the Eredivisie with N.E.C. last season after a two-year spell in Japan at Urawa Red Diamonds. With nine goals in 2025-26, he’s just one away from reaching double figures in an Eredivisie campaign for the eighth time.
His goal tally has undoubtedly been aided by Schreuder’s tactics, with the coach demanding offensive runs to overload the final third. That forces opponents out of shape and leaves gaps for creative players to flourish in.
For instance, N.E.C. players have made 94 off-ball runs that have been followed by a goal in the Eredivisie this season; only PSV players can better than (120).
It helps that N.E.C. focus on getting the ball into attacking areas of the pitch without feeling the need to build possession deep, too.
No side have made a higher proportion of their successful passes in the final third of the pitch this season in the Eredivisie than N.E.C. (28%), while their field tilt (measuring territorial dominance between teams, looking at the share of possession each side have in their attacking third compared to their opponents) is the second highest in the league at 67.3%, again behind only PSV (67.9%).
Intensity Out of Possession
It’s not just N.E.C.’s work with the ball that’s impressed followers of Dutch football this season. Their persistence off the ball has also been exceptional.
N.E.C. are hardly a team who are more comfortable without possession, as only PSV (61.4%) and Ajax (56.9%) see more of it than them (56.4%), but it’s their impressive nature of hunting down opponents high up the pitch once losing it that stands out.
No team have made more high turnovers – winning possession within 40m of the opposition’s goal – than N.E.C. (272), while only FC Twente (57) and PSV (52) have attempted more shots following high turnovers.
Sano is a key player in their high press, tallying more high turnovers than any other player (45). Twelve of them ended with a shot, another league-high.
As they usually have at least six players in the final third, it stands to reason that they’d implement a high press when when losing the ball, with (again) only PSV ranking above them (43%) for proportion of match time (out of possession) using a high block in the Eredivisie this term.
Their offensive in-possession shape also allows N.E.C. to intervene sooner rather than later.
They lead the Eredivisie rankings for PPDA (9.4) (opposition passes per defensive action). This metric is a great indicator of a team’s pressing intensity in the middle and attacking thirds, and it places them ahead of PSV (9.7) and Twente (10.4) in the Netherlands, while only three clubs in the top five European leagues (Barcelona, Como and Paris Saint-Germain) have lower averages, further highlighting how impressive N.E.C.’s work-rate off the ball is.
Intense pressure is a key characteristic in N.E.C.’s gameplan, but now the pressure will be on them to finish off the job.
They’ve already accumulated 19 victories across all competitions this season, one even more spectacular than the last. Only once before, since the club’s maiden promotion to the top tier in 1967, have they won more often in a single season as a top-flight side (22 in 2007-08).
Technically, N.E.C. have only got one cup final ahead of them in 2025-26, but the reality is their remaining six league games will all feel like one too. Lifting the KNVB Cup on 19 April would be historic, but a place in the UEFA Champions League – now a genuinely possibility – would give them the opportunity to create much, much more.
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High‑Risk, High‑Reward: Dick Schreuder’s Intense Football Philosophy Is Rewriting History for N.E.C. Opta Analyst.
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