Feyenoord has suffered another setback in the title race with Eindhoven. Coach Robin van Persie caused a stir with his squad selection.
It is probably only a matter of time before another van Persie storms the Eredivisie. A little more than seven years after Robin van Persie’s career ended, his son sat on the bench at Feyenoord Rotterdam on Sunday—and Robin van Persie himself had ordered him there. The 42-year-old has been head coach at the top Dutch club since February.
The father did not allow Shaqueel van Persie to come on as a substitute in the home game against NEC Nijmegen, but it was not a day for personnel experiments: Feyenoord lost 4-2 to the new fourth-placed team, suffering another setback in the championship race with defending champions PSV Eindhoven, who had taken the lead on Saturday with a hard-fought 1-0 win at NAC Breda and now have a six-point cushion.
Nevertheless, it was a small milestone for van Persie junior to be included in the professional squad for the first time. Normally, the 19-year-old left-footed player plays for the U21s. Van Persie senior also spoke of a “special moment,” but said it was purely for professional reasons: “I won’t give him preferential treatment, but I won’t disadvantage him either because he’s my son. That wouldn’t be fair to him.”
The former world-class striker, who played more than 100 times for the Dutch national team, already trained his son in the Feyenoord youth team. The London-born player—Robin van Persie played for Arsenal from 2004 to 2012—moved there in 2015 after being trained at Manchester City and Fenerbahce.
Despite losing streak: Van Persie refuses to acknowledge crisis
Feyenoord could really use a striker with van Persie’s accuracy right now. Saturday’s defeat was their third in a row across all competitions and their fourth in their last five games. However, the coach refuses to acknowledge a “crisis” so far.
In those games—including the 2-0 defeat at VfB Stuttgart—the main problem was a failure to convert chances. “We played a fantastic first half and should have gone into the break with at least three goals. When you play so well, it’s hard to stomach a 1-1 score at halftime,” he lamented after the 2-4 defeat, in which Feyenoord had led 2-1 until the 69th minute. On Thursday, they face Celtic in the Europa League.
