It was Sparta's best season in 25 years. Last year they had already surprised everyone by reaching an excellent 11th position as a newly promoted team, this year they went even further ending in 8th position, thus qualifying to the playoffs for a spot in Conference League. Unfortunately, they failed to go beyond the semi-finals in which they were eliminated by Feyenoord in the Rotterdam derby.
Yet, the start of the season did not bode well, far from it, given that after seven rounds they had only gained 3 points and had not won any games. Then the season changed, November and December were positive months, they had a slight decline between January and February, but from March onwards it was a crescendo that led them to collect 13 points in the last 5 decisive games.
Coach Henk Fraser, who almost never changed his usual 4-2-3-1, gave a clear identity to his team, not a spectacular side, but certainly very compact and full of determination and fighting spirit…the typical Spartan character.
As for the individual players, if the talented midfielder Bryan Smeets has definitely betrayed expectations, and in fact has often ended up on the bench, Abdou Harroui and Adil Auassar have given solidity to the team having a consistent performance throughout the season.
However, there were two main surprises, first of all goalkeeper Maduka Okoye, who should have been the substitute of Ajax loanee Benjamin van Leer, while after a few rounds he became the immovable starter. Then German forward Lennart Thy, arrived from PEC Zwolle to replace Ragnar Ache, who scored 14 goals.
