2026/2027 season

Eredivisie

Team page
Eredivisie · Team page
Fortuna Sittard
Head coach: Danny Buijs · 4-2-3-1
Rank
7th
Pts
14
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
5/10
Attack
6/10
Defence
7/10
Form
7/10
Confidence / mood
Current risk:High

7th with 14 pts from 8 matches: 4 wins, 2 draws, 2 defeats.

14 goals scored, 15 conceded.

Fortuna Düsseldorf has separated from coach Alexander Ende. For the time being, an old acquaintance takes over.

Sportschau · 18 Oct 2026 · machine-translated

The trainer of Fortuna Sittard expressed his discontent with the Surinam League, while Coach Fraser could not agree with that. Henk Fraser is not served by criticism Danny Buijs In several ways, it irritated [...] Continue reading... The post Fraser in the clinch with Eredivisie-trainer: Please don't make us beep.

Soccernews · 18 Oct 2026 · machine-translated

Fortuna Sittard has played eight games this season, but Mohamed Ihattaren is still not fully fit. That uncovers his trainer Danny Buijs. Ihattaren is still not (fully) fit "He's got to get a bit fitter," says the coach in the podcast Stopper and Spits. According to Buijs, this has to do with [...] Continue reading..

Soccernews · 17 Oct 2026 · machine-translated

Three days after the victory in Münster, Fortuna Düsseldorf has again got a damper with coach Alexander Ende in the 3rd league.

Sportschau · 17 Oct 2026 · machine-translated

How the team has played recently

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

Latest matches
Dvs FC Twente '65 (H) · 1-1
Wvs Willem II Tilburg (A) · 1-0
Lvs AFC Ajax (H) · 1-5
Wvs ADO Den Haag (A) · 3-2
Wvs FC Groningen (A) · 3-2
WWWWDDLL
14 scored / 15 conceded over 8 matches played
Rest: 8 days since the last match · 1 match played in the last 15 days
Home form
1W - 1D - 2L
Away form
3W - 1D - 0L
Statistics

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

Goals scored per match
1.8
Goals conceded per match
2.0
At home
2 scored · 6 conceded in 2 matches
Away
7 scored · 4 conceded in 3 matches
Over 2.5 goals
3 of 5
Both teams score
4 of 5
Clean sheets
1 of 5
Failed to score
0 of 5
Cumulative points vs league average

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

How Fortuna Sittard play

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

Playing identity
Preferred system
4-2-3-1
Philosophy
Danny Buijs, in charge since July 2023, relies on a compact block, a heavy volume of work off the ball and fast counter-attacks. The 4-2-3-1 features two holding midfielders tasked with protecting the team's balance.
Attacking strengths
Without Kaj Sierhuis, last season's top scorer with 12 goals, the attack relies on loanees Lequincio Zeefuik, Ole Romeny and Anthony Descotte, and on the creativity of Mohamed Ihattaren and Édouard Michut, named the key man in the win at Groningen. Eight goals in four matchdays.
Defensive solidity
The season preview judged the central defensive pairing still needed strengthening. Fortuna have conceded seven goals in four matchdays, including two against AZ Alkmaar (0-2) and two at Groningen.
Pressing
Transitions
The game plan embraces fast counter-attacks, with the forwards looking for space left behind the opposing defence while the two holding midfielders secure the balance.
StrengthCollective discipline and tactical clarity, which allow loan players to be integrated quickly; four of the seven points have been taken away from home (2-2 at PSV, 3-2 at Groningen).
WeaknessKaj Sierhuis's free departure deprives Fortuna of their only proven goalscorer, with his replacements lacking a proven scoring record in the Eredivisie. The club operates with one of the smallest budgets in the league and recruits mainly free agents or loan players.

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 confidence: 7 points in 4 matchdays and a place in the upper half of the table after the 3-2 win at Groningen on 28 August, continuing on from the 2-2 draw earned at PSV on the opening matchday.
Coach / players / board relationship
Danny Buijs described on 18 August 2026 a complete alignment with his board: “Joris en ik weten waar we naartoe willen, samen met de eigenaren”, referring to technical director Joris Mathijsen and the club's owners (Voetbal International). In return, he expects progress from the key players he has kept: “die jongens moeten dit jaar een hoger niveau halen”.
Mood with the supporters
Pressure on the head coach
No public questioning of the board: on the Rondje Eredivisie programme of 17 August 2026 (Voetbal International), club watchers Geert-Jan Jakobs and Tim Reedijk say that Danny Buijs “levert al jaren een topprestatie” at Fortuna, and the head coach himself says he is fully aligned with technical director Joris Mathijsen and the owners.
Club objectives
Survival remains the stated aim, with one of the smallest budgets in the Eredivisie; technical director Joris Mathijsen has said he wants to work more with Dutch-speaking players to strengthen the link with the academy.
Recent internal tensions
No internal tension reported at this stage; however, Mohamed Ihattaren's celebration after his goal at Groningen on 28 August, running towards a camera without going to thank Lequincio Zeefuik for the assist, was criticised on social media, with no public reaction from the club or coaching staff.
Absences
SuspendedOle Romeny — Suspension following a red card, return announced after matchday 5 (single source: BeSoccer, not corroborated).
DoubtfulSven Simons — Hamstring injury, return expected in early September 2026 (single source: BeSoccer, not corroborated).

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

NEC Nijmegen — Fortuna Sittard

AwaySunday 18 October at 20:00Matchday 9
It's today. 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
EstimateNEC Nijmegen — Fortuna Sittard
31 %
1 · NEC Nijmegen
22 %
X · draw
47 %
2 · Fortuna Sittard
In-house calculation, from this page's standings data alone: 8 matches played by NEC Nijmegen, 8 matches by Fortuna Sittard. 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
    NEC Nijmegen — attack13 in 8 matches0.860.92
    NEC Nijmegen — defence14 in 8 matches0.920.96
    Fortuna Sittard — attack14 in 8 matches0.920.96
    Fortuna Sittard — defence15 in 8 matches0.990.99
    The “Kept” column is the result of shrinkage towards the mean: weight = P / (P + 6), i.e. 0.57 for NEC Nijmegen and 0.57 for Fortuna Sittard. 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%.
    NEC Nijmegen at home: 0.50 pts/match versus 1.13 overall over 4 matches → ×0.880
    Fortuna Sittard away: 2.50 pts/match versus 1.75 overall over 4 matches → ×1.120
  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.
    λNEC Nijmegen = 1.90 × 0.92 × 0.99 × 1.03 × 0.880 = 1.56
    λFortuna Sittard = 1.90 × 0.96 × 0.96 × 1.120 = 1.94
  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 31.4%, draw 21.9%, away win 46.7% — displayed rounded to whole numbers so that they add up to exactly 100. Most likely exact score in the grid: 1-1 (only 9.1%, 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
  • Luuk Koopmans
  • Mattijs Branderhorst
  • Kaylen Reitmaier
Defenders
  • Siebe Wylin
  • Iván Márquez
  • Syb van Ottele
  • Ivo Pinto
  • Justin Hubner
Midfielders
  • Yassin Oukili
  • Jasper Dahlhaus
  • Sven Simons
  • Nick de Groot
  • Édouard Michut
  • Philip Brittijn
  • Moussa Gbemou
  • Gâni Buyukhan
  • Mohamed Ihattaren
Forwards
  • Kristoffer Peterson
  • Anthony Descotte
  • Ole Romeny
  • Shiloh 't Zand
  • Lequincio Zeefuik
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: the club's official website (fortunasittard.nl, “Teams / Fortuna” page).

What has been said recently

Chronological feed of verified information about the club.

rss18 Oct 2026
Alexander Ende no longer Fortuna coach
Source: Sportschau
rss16 Oct 2026
Fortuna Cologne experiences bitter evening against VfB II
Source: Sportschau
rss16 Oct 2026
SC Fortuna Cologne v VfB Stuttgart II
Source: Sportschau
rss16 Oct 2026
From 19:00 live - Fortuna Cologne against VfB Stuttgart ll
Source: Sportschau
rss16 Oct 2026
They deserve to be thrilled about the Borussia Dortmund attack: "Blood and scream, I live fortunately"
Source: Tuttosport
rss12 Oct 2026
SC Preußen Münster against Fortuna Düsseldorf
Source: Sportschau
Transfers1 Sep 2026
The Limburg club had made a move for Isaac Babadi's loan, but he ultimately joined Sparta Rotterdam.
Source: FC Update
Result28 Aug 2026
Fortuna Sittard took their second win of the season by winning 3-2 at the Euroborg against FC Groningen, thanks to Mohamed Ihattaren, Lequincio Zeefuik and Anthony Descotte.
Source: FC Groningen
Club28 Aug 2026
Winger Lequincio Zeefuik, on loan from AZ Alkmaar, was the star of the trip to Groningen, his performance being described as almost Bergkamp-like by the Dutch press.
Source: FC Update
Club28 Aug 2026
Fortuna Sittard won 3-2 at Groningen thanks to goals from Ihattaren, Zeefuik and Descotte, and moved up to fifth place in the Eredivisie.
Source: NOS
Transfers4 Aug 2026
Fortuna Sittard have lost last season's top scorer, Kaj Sierhuis (12 goals), who left on a free transfer for NEC Nijmegen this summer.
Source: Voetbalzone
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.