Euro-Star: Heerenveen hero Haye takes centre stage after Volendam mauling

 

Euro-Star is back once again to take a look at the best rated performance across Europe this past weekend. Viktor Gyokeres, Deniz Undav, Vinicius Junior and most recently Xavi Simons were the focus in recent weeks but attention this time around turns to the Eredivisie. 

 

We asked our followers on X to vote for the player they'd like to read up on this week, with Heerenveen's Thom Haye coming out on top, claiming 61.5% of the vote and breezing past Luuk de Jong, Rafa and Simon Banza in the process. 

 

 

After their memorable 3-2 win over Ajax two weeks' ago, Heerenveen then crashed to a surprise 2-0 home defeat to Go Ahead Eagles. An immediate response was needed and head coach Kees van Wonderen got just that as De Superfriezen romped to a 4-0 win at Volendam. 

 

Espen van Ee's late red card soured a fine victory but that didn't take the gloss off a superb afternoon for Heerenveen, who claimed just their third away league win of the campaign. Star of the show was midfielder Thom Haye, who returned a WhoScored.com rating of 9.53 at Volendam, delivering a Haye-maker to the Dutch table footers. 

 

Heading into the weekend's action, Haye had been directly involved in just three goals this season, netting twice and providing just one assist. However, at basement boys Volendam, who have conceded more goals than any other Eredivisie side this season, the 29-year-old had the perfect chance to bolster both returns, a chance he grabbed with both hands. 

 

Haye provided the assist for Pelle van Amersfoort's 13th minute opener, that coming from one of four key passes, and bagged his third league goal of the season late on from one of three shots. Crucially, too, was Haye's distribution to help spread the play and advance Heerenveen up the pitch. 

 

The Dutch midfielder has developed a staistically calculated WhoScored strength of 'Passing' and he utilised this quality to his game to make eight accurate long balls, more than any other player in the win over Volendam. Considering there was a perfect 50/50 possession split, this allowed Heerenveen to break forward at speed in their efforts to hit Volendam on the counter. 

 

The performance marked Haye's best rated in an Eredivisie match this season and while a top-four push is perhaps off the cards, victory lifted the team 10 points clear of the relegation playoff zone with 11 games to play.

Euro-Star: Heerenveen hero Haye takes centre stage after Volendam mauling