2014–15 AZ Alkmaar season


During the 2014–15 season, AZ will compete in the Eredivisie for the 17th consecutive season and the KNVB CUP under new manager Marco van Basten and then John van den Brom after Van Basten relinquished his role after health issues, becoming assistant to Van den Brom. Under Gertjan Verbeek and Dick Advocaat the previous season, AZ lost their title of KNVB Cup to PEC Zwolle after being eliminated in the semi-finals by eventual league winners Ajax and finishing eighth in the league.

Background

Following the 2013–14 season in which AZ broke their record for most competitive games in a season which started in the KNVB Cup on 27 July 2013 and ended in the Eredivisie UEFA Europa League play-offs.
During this run of 58 games, Gertjan Verbeek was sacked and Dick Advocaat was brought out of retirement to replace Verbeek until the end of the season. The club finished in 8th and lost at the final stages of the play-offs for European football.
League results were inconsistent, although the club managed to make the quarter-finals of the 2013–14 UEFA Europa League, playing Atromitos, PAOK, Maccabi Haifa, Shakhter Karagandy, Slovan Liberec, Anzhi Makhachkala before being eliminated by Benfica.
For the new season, Marco van Basten left Heerenveen to sign a two-year contract at AZ, expressing his desire for the new challenge.

Transfers

Arrivals

NamePositionPrevious clubFeeDate
Guus HuppertsRW Roda JC€1,000,000Summer
Robert MührenCF Volendam€300,000Summer
Djavan AndersonRB Ajax U19€200,000Summer
Muamer TankovićFW Fulham U21Free Summer
Sergio RochetGK DanubioUndiscolsedSummer

Departures

NamePositionNew clubFeeDate
Nick ViergeverCB/LB/CDM Ajax€2,000,000Summer
Roy BeerensRW Hertha BSC€1,500,000Summer
Ruud BoymansCF UtrechtUndisclosedSummer
Thomas LamCB PEC ZwolleFree Summer
Johann Berg GuðmundssonLWCharlton AthleticFree Summer
Etiënne ReijnenCB CambuurFree Summer
Erik FalkenburgCM NAC BredaFree Summer
Hobie VelhurstGK MVV MaastrichtFree Summer
Erik HeijblokGK VolendamFree Summer
Paul KokLB OssFree Summer
Willie OvertoomCAM Zulte WaregemContract terminatedSummer
Dirk MarcellisRB NAC BredaContract expiredSummer
Mikhail RosheuvelRW CambuurUndisclosedJanuary
Viktor ElmCM Kalmar FFUndisclosedMarch

Loans

NamePositionNew clubLoan period
Jonas HeymansLB Willem IIFull season
Joris van OvereemCM DordrechtFull season
Denni AvdićST Heracles AlmeloFull season
Donny GorterLB/CM Aalborg BKFull season
Fernando LewisFW Go Ahead EaglesAugust–January
Fernando LewisFW DordrechtJanuary–May
Eli BabaljCF PEC ZwolleJanuary–May
Raymond GyasiFW Roda JCJanuary–May

Pre-season friendlies

AZ's pre-season began on 30 June with their first training session and consisted of seven official matches which started with an away friendly match on 5 July 2014 against Dutch amateurs SVW '27 from Heerhugowaard, just outside Alkmaar, and amateur club AFC'34 from Alkmaar.
Following the games against amateur opposition the club played a friendly with the full AZ squad, with two teams where both teams were mixed with regular first team players.
Then followed a weeks training camp in Epe, Netherlands where AZ played their first games against professional teams in the pre-season; they played reserves against NEC, newly relegated from the Eredivisie, on the Saturday and then on Sunday fielded a full strength team against Gabala FK of Azerbaijan on the final day of the training camp.
After the training camp in Epe, AZ had a specially arranged friendly against Eerste Divisie side VVV to celebrate exactly 60th year anniversary since the two teams first met in a competitive game. This special fixture had silverware to be won in the form of the Herman Teeuwen Bokkal, a pre-season competition organised by VVV to play larger teams for the trophy named after the legendary VVV player and scout Herman Teeuwen. After VVV winning against OFI Crete last year on this occasion AZ were victorious and awarded the cup;.
After winning silverware, AZ agreed to play a friendly against German Bundesliga side 1899 Hoffenheim as part of their training camp in Switzerland. The final match of pre-season has been arranged for 1 August on the training field outside AFAS Stadion and will once again feature players from just the AZ squad. This game featured the squad wearing their new kits for the forthcoming season. The white kit was worn by fringe members of the squad and black kits were worn by the reserve and under-19 AZ players. This concluded the pre-season with only eight days remaining until the Eredivisie season opener against Heracles Almelo away.
Accurate as of 1 August

Statistics

Accurate as of 1 August

Eredivisie

The regular domestic league season began with an away fixture in the start of August 2015 to Heracles Almelo and finished away to Excelsior in mid-late May 2015.

Statistics

League table

KNVB Cup

AZ were drawn against the winners of the first round match on 27 August 2014 between Limburg amateurs EVV and Spirit'30, amateurs from Hoogkarspel for the second round of the KNVB Cup. EVV were victorious in the match, winning 4–0, and AZ will visit the 2,000 capacity Sportpark "In de Bandert" on 24 September 2014.

Statistics

Squad Performance

PlayerLeague startsUnused sub.Cup startsUnused sub.
01. Esteban Alvarado3-600000000
02. Mattias Johansson3010100000
03. Jeffrey Gouweleeuw4000000000
04. Jan Wuytens4000000000
06. Celso Ortiz4000000000
07. Guus Hupperts4210000000
08. Nemanja Gudelj 4000000000
09. Aron Jóhannsson0000000000
10. Markus Henriksen3010000000
11. Muamer Tanković4230000000
12. Viktor Elm0003100000
14. Wesley Hoedt0000400000
15. Simon Poulsen4000000000
17. Djavan Anderson0000000000
18. Mikhail Rosheuvel1012100000
19. Eli Babalj0000000000
20. Thom Haye1001200000
21. Robert Mühren0001000000
22. Steven Berghuis3310000000
23. Derrick Luckassen1010300000
24. Ridgeciano Haps0002200000
25. Sergio Rochet1-100300000
16. Yves De Winter0000100000

Loanees

Domestic

Foreign

Accurate as of matchday four.

International appearances

The following first team players played for their respective nations during the 2014–15 season:
PlayerNational TeamPositionTime PlayedGoals
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UEFA current ranking

RankCountryTeamPoints
34Galatasaray47.980
35Dynamo Kyiv47.166
36AZ45.612
37Lazio45.568
38Athletic Bilbao43.299

Recent Eredivisie results


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