Welcome along to the first instalment proper of Riding the Rhine as we reunite with Frank M. Athlete at the end of his first season in charge at FC Dordrecht. Frank’s humble beginnings saw him take charge of the Dutch club in July 2021 with nothing but a lot of determination, a Continental B coaching badge, and a long-forgotten professional playing career at local level. His impact on the club needed to be immediate with the ‘Sheep Heads’ expected to battle for a spot at the bottom of the table. Let’s jump in and see how he got on.
Season Summary
Team: FC Dordrecht
Division: Eerste Divisie
Season: 2021/22
Players in: Tim Hölscher, Top Oss (€0); Stijn Meijer, Excelsior (€0); Rugerro Mannes, Almere City (€0); Alessio Miceli, Piacenza (€0); Pascu, ADO Den Haag (€0); Joey Koorevaar, Feyenoord (€0); Seydine N’Diaye, Göztepe (Loan)
Players out: Dylan de Braal, VV IJsselmeervogels (€0); Quincy Tavares Mojica, NAC Breda (€0); Kevin Jansen, PAEEK (€0)
FC Dordrecht (affectionately known as the Sheep Heads) are an Eerste Divisie side founded in 1883 as the Dordrechtsche Cricket Club (DCC). The club later became Dordrechtse Football Club (DFC) and, although I’ve been unable to confirm it officially, I believe they are the oldest professional football club operating in the Netherlands (N.B. semi-professional side Koninklijke HFC play in the Tweede Divisie (3rd Division) and were founded in 1879). FC Dordrecht play their home games at the Riwal Hoogwerkers Stadion with a capacity of 4,235 and in the last 30 years, they have spent 4 seasons in the top flight with their highest finish being 15th in the 1991/92 season. Frank Athlete is the 43rd manager to take charge of the club, and is the first Englishman since Jimmy Hogan left in 1911.
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With his feet firmly under the table, Frank immediately got to work on assessing the ‘state-of-play’ at the club. There’s no transfer or wage budget availability however, thanks to the previous manager who added to the squad prior to his arrival, the playing squad is of a decent size and standard, and there are a number of excellent prospects in the youth set-up as well, giving Frank plenty of options and an opportunity to start planning ahead for the next 2-3 seasons. The Board have requested the team establish themselves as a comfortable Eerste Divisie side which, while seemingly unambitious, gives Frank some time to work on improving the stature of the club without too much pressure on his shoulders.
The key area needing urgent attention is with his backroom staff. Most are seriously underqualified and some roles are vacant as well so after mutually terminating everyone’s contract apart from Head of Youth Development, Ben Kinds, adverts were placed for an entire new team. In just a few short weeks, everyone was in place from scouts and physios to coaches and a new Assistant Manager, Gert-Jan Westerhout.
With the backroom team now sorted, attention turned towards working out a playing style that would suit the players Frank had available to him. On taking the job, the Board had explained that there had been a high turnover of players recently and judging by the large influx of new players in July, it was clear that his biggest challenge would be in bedding everyone in and getting the best out of them as quickly as possible.
Since the side were predicted to finish near the bottom, Frank initially set up with a very cautious 5-2-3 system that centred around getting the ball wide to the wing backs and having them play through balls or crosses in to the Inside Forwards or Target Man. While this system seemed to make the most sense at first, it became apparent after a few friendlies that the flanks were being left exposed behind the wing backs and we were being overrun in the middle.
A switch to a more typical 4-2-3-1 set up brought more balance over all, while still allowing the wing backs to bomb forwards as and when appropriate. Despite the striker options not being quite at the standard needed, there are some good headers of the ball in these positions and so Frank encouraged the wide players to try floated crosses more often in a bid to take advantage of the sides aerial prowess.
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The season kicked off with back-to-back games against three of the four Jong sides (PSV, Ajax and Utrecht) in which Dordrecht managed two draws and a loss without scoring a single goal. The first win came against Top Oss at the end of August but it would be mid-September before they’d bag another victory, a thrilling 6-3 win over Telstar which was to be the start of a run of four successive victories.
The team would only manage a further two wins before the winter break in December, and would also oversee a First Round exit from the Dutch Cup at the hands of eventual semi-finalists, FC Utrecht.
The New Year commenced with a bang with a deserved 2-1 win away against Helmond, but AZ Jong put a swift end to the partying with a wretched 1-0 home defeat a week later. Fast forward to February and the side went undefeated for the whole month, notching up draws against Almere City, Top Oss and MVV while also beating De Graafschapp in the process. Sadly, their good form was halted at the start of March as Roda JC thrashed them 3-0 at their place.
In their next six games, the Sheep Heads would only lose once, a humbling 3-0 drubbing at the hands of ADO Den Haag and they headed into the final three games of the season with an outside chance of making the promotion playoffs. Despite giving a good account of themselves throughout much of the season, it would be three defeats from three in the end, with injury woes and suspensions proving to have too much of a negative impact on the squad.
Despite a poor end to the season, Frank Athlete can take great pride in his team’s overall performance as they finished a valiant 14th out of 20, which is upgraded to 11th once the Jong teams are removed since they are ineligible for promotion. Most of their success was down to a relatively small group of players with too many others being carried by their teammates for much of the year. With that in mind, we can expect a few departures over the Summer and hopefully a few fresh faces in through the door as well.
Results Overview
Dutch Cup
Prediction: Second Round
Actual: First Round
Summary: Very disappointing to go out in the First Round, but it was always going to be tough against such a top side. FC Dordrecht were in control for much of the match and were unlucky to lose in the end, especially to an extra time winner.
Best moment: A deserved equaliser in the 82nd minute that had been a long time coming, despite a slow start. Should have scored more but wasn’t to be.
Low moment: Conceding so late on after battling valiantly was difficult to take and a penalty shoot out might have been a farer result to be honest.
Eerste Divisie
Prediction: 15th (excl. Jong clubs)
Actual: 11th (excl. Jong clubs)
Summary: It was a decent season, with a few key areas that will require some improvement. Too often we gave away good leads, or conceded late on to lose or draw. Had we had the composure to hold on, we’d have certainly finished higher up the table.
Best moment: Stringing together 4 consecutive wins fairly early on in the season, to set the team up for a decent mid-table finish.
Low moment: Sacrificing a 3-0 lead to end up drawing 3-3 at home to Almere City, with two of their goals coming in added time.
Key Facts & Figures
The club signed a new sponsorship deal at the start of the season which was worth €400,000. With no financial investment in the playing squad this year, the majority of these funds are still available which is something Frank and his team will look to build on next season, giving the club a good platform to grow from.
In terms of performance on the pitch, the 4-2-3-1 tactic was intended to maximise the aerial threat among the squad’s attacking players, and judging by the statistics at the end of the season, it seems to have worked. 34% of Dordrecht’s goals were scored from headers, and in fact Dordrecht topped the league table for Headers Won as well. In terms of assists, the vast majority came from wide areas with 39% being crosses. Again, the team topped the league table for cross completion with 29%.
One area the team really fell behind on was passing, with the side falling some way short of their competitors, both in terms of the number of passes made and their accuracy. This is one area in particular that Frank and his team will be looking to address next season.
Around the Grounds
In this section we share some of the other stories from elsewhere in the FM universe that have caught the eye this week…
PAS Lamia 1964 - 1.3: The Bull - DGear86 continues his journey towards the top of Greek football in this, the third instalment of the series.
Girona FC – Part 6: The season so far, and a pressing matter - A statistical master class from Throwing Copper FM as he assess his Girona side’s ability in the press.
Ternana Calcio – Club Overview, Squad & Tactics - An in depth look at FM Youth Intake’s new team, Ternana
The Nordic Journey | #2 | The Second First Step - Oaky-FM begins again after the disappointment from episode 1. How will Jens Richter fare now?
Védelem! - 4 - Winning Ugly? - FM Stag delivers more insight and analysis from Honvéd where the 21/22 season has been concluded
Home is Where the Heart Is - A save reveal post and deep-dive into what SoggFM hopes to bring to Hearts in FM22
Thanks for reading this update, I really hope you enjoyed it. You’ll find more updates from me, as well as blogs from some other fantastic writers at CoffeehouseFM so make sure you check them out. Feel free to leave a comment below, or you can message me @fm_athlete if you feel like getting in touch.
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