2026/2027 season

Eredivisie

Team page
Eredivisie · Team page
AZ Alkmaar
Head coach: Leeroy Echteld · 4-3-3
Rank
3rd
Pts
19
P
8
Form
🟢 Good

The essentials at a glance

The summary of this page: estimated level of play, form trend and qualitative verdict. For the details, head to the other tabs.

Editors' ratings
8/10
Attack
10/10
Defence
7/10
Form
8/10
Confidence / mood
Current risk:High

3rd with 19 pts from 8 matches: 6 wins, 1 draw, 1 defeat.

18 goals scored, 8 conceded.

AZ visits SC Cambuur in the Eredivisie on Sunday afternoon. The match starts at 2.30 pm, follow the match below in the live environment of FootballPrimer and talk along!

Voetbalprimeur · 18 Oct 2026 · machine-translated

During the battle for the Johan Cruijff Schaal, Billy van Duijl still had a base place at AZ, but was rented to SC Cambuur not much later. With that he takes on the Alkmaarders on Sunday. The defender looks forward to a special duel.

Voetbal International · 18 Oct 2026 · machine-translated

VVV-Venlo and Jong AZ have played 4-4 in a real show. Both teams were ahead during the race, where Jasper Hartog saved a point for Jong AZ in de Koel. The match between FC Eindhoven-Vitesse (0-1) was shut down after half an hour due to fireworks in the Arnhem outfit.

NOS Voetbal · 16 Oct 2026 · machine-translated

AZ enters the long interland break as the leader of the Eredivisie. What does the Alkmaarders' programme look like between the two inter-country periods? SoccerNews has an overview. SN Overview: agenda AZ between two interland breaks Dutch national team Those who had said in the middle of last season that AZ would win the KNVB Cup and the upcoming Eredivisie year after [...] Continue reading..

Soccernews · 16 Oct 2026 · machine-translated

How the team has played recently

Match-by-match results, record and rhythm of the current season.

Latest matches
Lvs Feyenoord Rotterdam (A) · 0-2
Wvs Telstar 1963 (H) · 1-0
Dvs Willem II Tilburg (H) · 1-1
Wvs SC Heerenveen (A) · 3-2
Wvs Go Ahead Eagles (H) · 5-2
WWWWWWDL
18 scored / 8 conceded over 8 matches played
Rest: 8 days since the last match · 1 match played in the last 15 days
Home form
3W - 1D - 0L
Away form
3W - 0D - 1L
Statistics

Computed from this season's scores, every time the page is shown.

Goals scored per match
2.0
Goals conceded per match
1.4
At home
7 scored · 3 conceded in 3 matches
Away
3 scored · 4 conceded in 2 matches
Over 2.5 goals
2 of 5
Both teams score
3 of 5
Clean sheets
1 of 5
Failed to score
1 of 5
Cumulative points vs league average

Not enough matchdays recorded yet for this curve — history builds up with every standings refresh.

How AZ Alkmaar play

System, playing identity, and what sets the team apart at both ends of the pitch.

Playing identity
Preferred system
4-3-3
Philosophy
Promoted to head coach in January 2026 and then confirmed in May 2026 with a contract until 2028, Leeroy Echteld has built a team based on academy products and a stable 4-3-3 block. Captain Jordy Clasie summed up his contribution in April 2026, saying he had brought a certain spirit and energy to the squad.
Attacking strengths
Thirteen goals scored in the first four Eredivisie matchdays (2-0 against ADO Den Haag, 4-1 at Utrecht, 2-0 at Fortuna Sittard, 5-2 against Go Ahead Eagles), plus a 4-0 inflicted on PSV in the Super Cup on 2 August 2026.
Defensive solidity
Three goals conceded in four matchdays, including two clean sheets in the first two away and home outings.
Pressing
In the 5-2 win against Go Ahead Eagles on 30 August 2026, AZ's full-backs push up to mark the opposing full-backs, leaving Go Ahead almost unable to build from the back (Deventer Voetbal match report, 30/08/2026).
Transitions
StrengthBest attack and best defence in the league after four matchdays, with twelve points from twelve. The squad has already won two trophies in four months: the Dutch Cup on 19 April 2026 (5-1 against NEC Nijmegen) and the Super Cup on 2 August 2026.
WeaknessThe attacking line lost Troy Parrott, sold to Real Betis on 20 August 2026, and Mayckel Lahdo, who left for Malmö FF on 31 August 2026 after 98 matches and 14 goals for the club. The Europa League league phase (Sunderland, Juventus, Benfica, Dinamo Zagreb among others) will stretch a young squad.

The mood around the club, and who is missing

Internal climate, relationship with the supporters, and known absences before the next match.

Mood
Squad confidence
Maximum: four wins in four matchdays, twelve points, first place ahead of PSV, after a Super Cup title secured 4-0 against that same PSV.
Coach / players / board relationship
The board sold a great deal, notably Troy Parrott and Sven Mijnans, while reinvesting in Byskov and bringing Wesley Hoedt back on a free.
Mood with the supporters
The head coach is described by the national press as popular in Alkmaar, particularly after the Dutch Cup triumph publicly celebrated in April 2026.
Pressure on the head coach
None at this stage: Echteld was confirmed as head coach in May 2026 with a contract running until June 2028, and his team are top of the table with a record of four wins in four matches.
Club objectives
Keeping up the pace set at the top of the league while starting the European league phase.
Recent internal tensions
No internal tension reported at this stage.
Absences
InjuredDenso Kasius — The full-back is among Alkmaar's unavailable players.

Before kick-off

What to know before the next match: statistical form, qualitative analysis, and a computed estimate of the 1/X/2 probabilities.

Next match

SC Cambuur — AZ Alkmaar

AwaySunday 18 October at 14:30Matchday 9
Kick-off time confirmed by the league. Paris time · football-data.org fixtures.
What the press says
  • Praat mee op VP: SC Cambuur – AZAZ visits SC Cambuur in the Eredivisie on Sunday afternoon. The match starts at 2.30 pm, follow the match below in the live environment of FootballPrimer and talk along!Voetbalprimeur · 18 Oct 2026 · machine-translated
  • AZ-verdediger Van Duijl met Cambuur tégen AZ: 'Werd meteen uit de groepsapp gegooid'During the battle for the Johan Cruijff Schaal, Billy van Duijl still had a base place at AZ, but was rented to SC Cambuur not much later. With that he takes on the Alkmaarders on Sunday. The defender looks forward to a special duel.Voetbal International · 18 Oct 2026 · machine-translated
Prediction
EstimateSC Cambuur — AZ Alkmaar
16 %
1 · SC Cambuur
19 %
X · draw
65 %
2 · AZ Alkmaar
In-house calculation, from this page's standings data alone: 8 matches played by SC Cambuur, 8 matches by AZ Alkmaar. Confidence: fair
The formula, in plain words — with this match's figures
  1. League average. 292 goals scored over 154 team-matches played (18 teams taken into account), i.e. μ = 1.90 goal scored per team per match. This is the reference point: everything that follows is expressed relative to it.
  2. Attacking and defensive strengths. Goals scored (or conceded) per match, divided by μ. 1.00 = exactly average; in defence, above 1.00 means “concedes more than average”.
    TeamGoalsRawKept
    SC Cambuur — attack11 in 8 matches0.730.84
    SC Cambuur — defence19 in 8 matches1.251.14
    AZ Alkmaar — attack18 in 8 matches1.191.11
    AZ Alkmaar — defence8 in 8 matches0.530.73
    The “Kept” column is the result of shrinkage towards the mean: weight = P / (P + 6), i.e. 0.57 for SC Cambuur and 0.57 for AZ Alkmaar. The rest of the weight goes to the league average. This is what stops a lone 5-0 from producing an attack at 3.3 times the average — and hence a 95% probability.
  3. Home advantage (γ). Measured on the league itself: 1.89 goal scored on average by the host against 1.77 by the visitor, over the 46 fixtures present in each team's last 5 matches. Raw ratio 1.07; shrunk towards 1 (weight 0.42, on the log of the ratio) then capped at 1.25 → γ = 1.03. Shrinkage goes towards 1, i.e. no advantage at all: while the sample is small, the model does not assert a home advantage it cannot measure.
  4. Venue correction, specific to each team. Drawn from the home/away split: points per match at the venue concerned are compared to points per match over all fixtures, with stronger shrinkage (weight = P / (P + 8)) and a bound of ±12%.
    SC Cambuur at home: 0.75 pts/match versus 1.00 overall over 4 matches → ×0.917
    AZ Alkmaar away: 2.25 pts/match versus 2.38 overall over 4 matches → ×0.982
  5. Expected goals. One side's attack is set against the other's defence. γ applies to the host only: applying it the other way round too would count the home advantage twice.
    λSC Cambuur = 1.90 × 0.84 × 0.73 × 1.03 × 0.917 = 1.10
    λAZ Alkmaar = 1.90 × 1.11 × 1.14 × 0.982 = 2.36
  6. Poisson grid. Probability of every exact score from 0-0 to 8-8, assuming the two goal totals are independent, then adding up the cells: home win 16.2%, draw 18.4%, away win 65.3% — displayed rounded to whole numbers so that they add up to exactly 100. Most likely exact score in the grid: 1-2 (only 9.6%, which says enough about how unpredictable an exact score is).
Limits of this model — they are not anecdotal.
  • It only knows goals and a venue. Neither absences, suspensions, line-ups, fatigue, stakes, weather nor club context enter the calculation — while the other tabs of this page show that they matter.
  • The assumption that the two goal totals are independent is false in reality: it slightly underestimates tight scores, hence the draw.
  • γ is measured over a rolling window (each team's last 5 matches), not over the whole season.
  • The shrinkage constants (6, 60, 8) and the bounds are choices, not measurements. They were tuned to be cautious early in the season; they were not calibrated on a results history, as none is available here.
  • No after-the-fact evaluation has been made: at this stage, nobody knows whether this model is better or worse calibrated than another.
What other sources say
No external source has been collected for this match. That is the normal state: readings are taken by hand, and an empty box is better than an unverified figure.
This block shows probability estimates, not predictions, and carries no advisory value. The in-house estimate is the result of a formula applied to a small sample; the figures from external sources are reproduced as they were collected, without their method having been verified.

The full squad

The professional squad by position, captain marked with an armband.

Goalkeepers
  • Rome-Jayden Owusu-Oduro
  • Jari de Busser
  • Hobie Verhulst
  • Jeroen Zoet
  • Ismail Ka
Defenders
  • Wouter Goes
  • Maxim Dekker
  • Mateo Chávez
  • Wesley Hoedt
  • Seiya Maikuma
  • Denso Kasius
  • Mees de Wit
  • Elijah Dijkstra
  • Sam de Grand
  • Rion Ichihara
  • Andrea Natali
  • Lewis Schouten
Midfielders
  • Jordy ClasieC
  • Peer Koopmeiners
  • Kees Smit
  • Dave Kwakman
  • Valdemar Byskov
  • Stije Resink
  • Julian Oerip
  • Hessel de Wit
Forwards
  • Weslley Patati
  • Ro-Zangelo Daal
  • Mexx Meerdink
  • Calvin Stengs
  • Jizz Hornkamp
  • Ibrahim Sadiq
  • Ayoub Oufkir
  • Bendegúz Kovács
  • Wassim Bouziane
This team's current captain could not be confirmed with certainty at the last check — no armband is shown above until the information is reliable.
Squad last verified on 1 Sep 2026 — source: Voetbal International (vi.nl/clubs/az/selectie) and BeSoccer, updated with official az.nl statements from 31/08/2026.

What has been said recently

Chronological feed of verified information about the club.

rss18 Oct 2026
Talk to me on VP: SC Cambuur AZ
Source: Voetbalprimeur
rss18 Oct 2026
AZ defender Van Duijl with Cambuur against AZ: "Was thrown right out of the group app"
Source: Voetbal International
rss16 Oct 2026
This is the program from AZ to the international break
Source: Soccernews
rss15 Oct 2026
Invader Meerdink shoots at first ball contact AZ to win against Beer Sheva
Source: NOS Voetbal
rss17 Oct 2026
AZ moves towards Armenia: Where, when and how do you look at the game with Ararat?
Source: Voetbalprimeur
rss15 Oct 2026
Israeli opponent AZ feels the consequences of war everywhere, now also in Alkmaar
Source: NOS Voetbal
Transfers1 Sep 2026
Defender Wesley Hoedt has returned on a free to the club where he began, thirteen years after leaving: he spoke of the feeling of coming home.
Source: NOS
Transfers31 Aug 2026
Dutch international defender Wesley Hoedt, a free agent after leaving Al-Shabab, has made his return to AZ Alkmaar eleven years after leaving the club, signing a one-year contract.
Source: Voetbal International
Result29 Aug 2026
AZ Alkmaar beat Go Ahead Eagles 5-2 and keep a perfect record of four wins in four matchdays, top of the league with twelve points.
Source: FC Update
Transfers26 Aug 2026
Swedish winger Mayckel Lahdo has left AZ Alkmaar to join Malmö FF, where he has signed for four years.
Source: VoetbalPrimeur
News last verified on 18 Oct 2026. Sources: sports press (L'Équipe, Le Parisien, Foot Mercato, regional press…) and official club websites — see the link on each item.
Editorial content (playing style, mood, absences, external prediction sources) last verified on 3 Sep 2026. The standings/form data above are refreshed automatically — as is the 1/X/2 estimate, recomputed on every view.