Right, tactically, we need to start from the beginning. Eindhoven led 2-0 against Volendam in the Dutch Cup, and Volendam came back to 2-2 before the break. That’s a script I know by heart. You’re ahead, you switch off, the club delegate is already putting the bibs away, and at half-time you give your team talk with your phone buzzing in your pocket.
Then the 55th minute. Rayan Buifrahi, a 21-year-old Belgian winger, wins the ball just past the halfway line. The goalkeeper, Roy Steur, is a long way off his line. Buifrahi has a go. Lob. 3-2. Eindhoven pull clear again, concede another, and win 5-3.
I opened my folder on Sunday night to draw the move. An arrow, a circle, a second arrow going very high. On paper, it’s simple. On my pitch 2, it’s another matter: from the halfway line, going downhill, the ball reaches the goal before you do. Going uphill, it comes back. You choose your side at half-time, that’s the whole job.
What interests me is the career path. Part of his youth training at Club Bruges between U13 and U16, then KV Ostend, then MVV Maastricht in 2023, in the Dutch second division. Back at Club NXT, Bruges’ second string, in the summer of 2025: 22 Challenger Pro League games and one goal last season. This summer he signed for Eindhoven on a free transfer, contract until mid-2028. He has said before that he felt at home from day one, with a lot of trust.
I work on confidence too. On Tuesday. When we’ve got eleven, that is. I told my right winger he was allowed to try it from midfield. He asked me which of the two midfields, given the slope.
“A lob from the halfway line. That, at least, already existed before.”
Tuesday, I’m trying it in training. A flat pitch away, mind you.
It’s true, we checked: Voetbalkrant.
