Heerenveen took a step back from last season which, at the time of the league’s suspension due to the pandemic, they had finished in 10th position, while this year they failed to go beyond the 12th place. Yet, the result cannot be considered completely negative, as during the summer they sold several valuable players without replacing them adequately.
Moreover, they had gone even further by reducing the roster to a small number of players, increased only during the winter transfer market.
This is why the start of the season of the Frisians had surprised everyone, they started with three consecutive victories and until the 7th round they remained in the top 4. Then an inevitable decline that led them to lose positions, but until the 21st round they remained inside the playoff zone. They also had the chance to make it into the top 8, but only collected two points from their last five games.
Heerenveen's path in KNVB Beker was very respectable, after eliminating Top OSS and Emmen in the early rounds, in the quarterfinals they surprisingly defeated Feyenoord thanks to a great performance, however in the semifinals they had to surrender to Ajax.
Coach Johnny Jansen initially relied on the 4-2-3-1 system of play, only to turn to the 4-3-3 in the second part of the season. Heerenveen had two real drivers, the duo Veerman & Veerman, Joey in midfield made the difference, enough to attract the attention of many important national and European teams, and the giant Henk was their top scorer with 14 goals.
In defense Polish center-back Bochniewicz had a high performance, good also the contribution of experienced attacking midfielder Siem de Jong, arrived in January. In the winter transfer market had arrived also former Ajax Lasse Schone, who, however, has not fully convinced.
