2026/2027 season

Eredivisie

Team page
Eredivisie · Team page
Excelsior
Head coach: Ruben den Uil · 4-3-3
Rank
10th
Pts
11
P
9
Form
🟠 Poor

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
6/10
Attack
5/10
Defence
1/10
Form
3/10
Confidence / mood
Current risk:Low

10th with 11 pts from 9 matches: 3 wins, 2 draws, 4 defeats.

16 goals scored, 18 conceded.

Excelsior started the season very well, but now the plot is threatening to come in. For the second week in a row, the Kralingers lost large numbers.

Voetbal International · 17 Oct 2026 · machine-translated

Play round 9 in the Eredivisie was kicked off Friday with a little chat between SC Heerenveen and Excelsior. Also in the Kitchen Champion Division there was football, just like La Liga, the Bundesliga, Ligue 1 and Serie A. Read everything from Friday night in this VI Live.

Voetbal International · 16 Oct 2026 · machine-translated

The Frisians won convincingly from Excelsior in their own home. Especially for peak Dylan Vente it was a welcome evening: He made his first league goal of the season.

Voetbal International · 16 Oct 2026 · machine-translated

The peak used a penalty kick in the 4-0-winning home match against Excelsior and made his first Eredivisie hit of the season. Afterwards, the peak at ESPN tells us that the dryness did a lot to him.

Voetbalprimeur · 17 Oct 2026 · machine-translated

How the team has played recently

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

Latest matches
Lvs SC Heerenveen (A) · 0-4
Lvs FC Groningen (H) · 1-5
Dvs AFC Ajax (A) · 2-2
Lvs FC Utrecht (H) · 1-2
Dvs NEC (A) · 2-2
WWWDDLLLL
16 scored / 18 conceded over 9 matches played
Rest: 2 days since the last match · 2 matches played in the last 15 days
Home form
1W - 0D - 3L
Away form
2W - 2D - 1L
Statistics

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

Goals scored per match
1.2
Goals conceded per match
3.0
At home
2 scored · 7 conceded in 2 matches
Away
4 scored · 8 conceded in 3 matches
Over 2.5 goals
5 of 5
Both teams score
4 of 5
Clean sheets
0 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 Excelsior play

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

Playing identity
Preferred system
4-3-3
Philosophy
Ruben den Uil, in post since 1 July 2024, has Excelsior playing in a 4-3-3 and does not hesitate to switch to five defenders to hold on to a result, as he did after the hour mark in the derby against Sparta on 29 August.
Attacking strengths
Seven goals in three matchdays, including a 4-0 at Cambuur in the opener on 7 August. In the derby, Aymen Sliti opened the scoring in the 24th minute from a move following a corner and Nesto Groen scored with a header in the 92nd, also from a corner.
Defensive solidity
Only three goals conceded in three matchdays. Excelsior kept a clean sheet at Cambuur and locked down the end of the derby by switching back to five at the back after the 60th minute.
Pressing
Transitions
StrengthThe best start among the promoted sides and outsiders: six points from three matchdays and eighth place. The club turned down an offer of around 800000 euros from Sparta for their goalkeeper Stijn van Gassel, voted player of the year last season, and signed Alireza Jahanbakhsh on a free.
WeaknessA modest squad and modest resources, with a 4500-seat stadium, further reduced by the departure of Mathijs Tielemans to Aalborg BK on 31 August. After the narrow defeat against PSV on 15 August, Ruben den Uil himself felt that the result masked the balance of power.

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
High: six points out of nine, eighth place and a Rotterdam derby won in the 92nd minute, celebrated ecstatically by the squad.
Coach / players / board relationship
On 18/08/2026, Ruben den Uil showed himself to be aligned with his board on the transfer window: “Volgens mij is er geen noodzaak om spelers te verkopen”, while leaving the final decision to the directors regarding Casper Widell, “als er een fatsoenlijk bod komt wat de directie bekoort” (VoetbalPrimeur).
Mood with the supporters
The club plays at the Van Donge & De Roo Stadion, with a capacity of 4500; the derby won in stoppage time against Sparta triggered an explosion of joy.
Pressure on the head coach
No pressure reported: Ruben den Uil has been in charge of the team since 1 July 2024 and was rewarded with a new contract in September 2025.
Club objectives
Confirming a very encouraging start to the season and aiming to secure survival early.
Recent internal tensions
No internal tension reported at this stage.
Absences
DoubtfulNoah Naujoks — Absent from midfield in the derby against Sparta on 29 August 2026, reason not specified.

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

Fortuna Sittard — Excelsior

AwaySunday 25 October at 12:15Matchday 10
In 6 days. Kick-off time confirmed by the league. Paris time · football-data.org fixtures.
What the press says

No preview found for this fixture. The press mostly covers the big games, and usually the day before.

Prediction
EstimateFortuna Sittard — Excelsior
33 %
1 · Fortuna Sittard
21 %
X · draw
46 %
2 · Excelsior
In-house calculation, from this page's standings data alone: 8 matches played by Fortuna Sittard, 9 matches by Excelsior. 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
    Fortuna Sittard — attack14 in 8 matches0.920.96
    Fortuna Sittard — defence15 in 8 matches0.990.99
    Excelsior — attack16 in 9 matches0.940.96
    Excelsior — defence18 in 9 matches1.051.03
    The “Kept” column is the result of shrinkage towards the mean: weight = P / (P + 6), i.e. 0.57 for Fortuna Sittard and 0.60 for Excelsior. 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%.
    Fortuna Sittard at home: 1.00 pts/match versus 1.75 overall over 4 matches → ×0.880
    Excelsior away: 1.60 pts/match versus 1.22 overall over 5 matches → ×1.119
  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.
    λFortuna Sittard = 1.90 × 0.96 × 1.03 × 1.03 × 0.880 = 1.69
    λExcelsior = 1.90 × 0.96 × 0.99 × 1.119 = 2.03
  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 32.7%, draw 21.3%, away win 46.0% — displayed rounded to whole numbers so that they add up to exactly 100. Most likely exact score in the grid: 1-2 (only 8.4%, 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
  • Stijn van Gassel
  • Celton Biai
  • Tijmen Holla
Defenders
  • Rick Meissen
  • Casper Widell
  • Stan Henderikx
  • Kasey Bos
  • Jan Plug
  • Simon Janssen
  • Nolan Martens
  • Osman Turay
  • Guilliano Cairo
  • Marlon van de Wetering
  • Eric da Silva Moreira
Midfielders
  • Daniel van Vianen
  • Irakli Yegoian
  • Noah Naujoks
  • Valentin Sulzbacher
  • Lennard Hartjes
Forwards
  • Aymen Sliti
  • Gyan de Regt
  • David Garden
  • Ilano Silva Timas
  • Yacqub Finey
  • Nesto Groen
  • Alireza Jahanbakhsh
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: official club website (excelsiorrotterdam.nl/team/mannen, 2026-2027 season), cross-checked with BeSoccer.

What has been said recently

Chronological feed of verified information about the club.

rss17 Oct 2026
Excelsior is sinking through the ice again: "These duels stop where the sun doesn't shine."
Source: Voetbal International
rss16 Oct 2026
Heerenveen knocks Excelsior and breaks magical boundary on festive evening
Source: Voetbalprimeur
rss16 Oct 2026
Fall off zero at big home win Heerenveen on Excelsior
Source: Voetbal International
rss16 Oct 2026
Talk to me on VP: sc Heerenveen
Source: Voetbalprimeur
rss16 Oct 2026
VI Live: SC Heerenveen and Excelsior stairs playing round 9 Eredivisie
Source: Voetbal International
rss15 Oct 2026
Heerenveen with two questions for Excelsior: "Hope he connects."
Source: Voetbalprimeur
Transfers2 Sep 2026
Stan Henderikx has been loaned to FC Dordrecht for the rest of the season, while Nolan Martens has joined De Graafschap.
Source: Excelsior Rotterdam
Transfers31 Aug 2026
Midfielder Mathijs Tielemans has left Kralingen for Aalborg BK.
Source: Excelsior Rotterdam
Result29 Aug 2026
Excelsior won the Rotterdam derby 2-1 against Sparta at the Woudestein stadium, thanks to an Aymen Sliti strike in the 24th minute and a header from substitute Nesto Groen in stoppage time.
Source: Excelsior Rotterdam
Transfers10 Aug 2026
Iran international Alireza Jahanbakhsh (32) has joined Excelsior on a free for one season, from Belgian club FCV Dender.
Source: Excelsior Rotterdam (site officiel)
Club7 Aug 2026
Excelsior Rotterdam got their season off to a perfect start by winning 4-0 in Leeuwarden against newly promoted SC Cambuur on the opening matchday of the Eredivisie.
Source: Excelsior Rotterdam (site officiel)
News last verified on 17 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.