Sjors Ultee (34) has routinely spoken to all TV channels when he joins his parents in the Fortuna Sittard players’ home on Sunday evening. He is happy to see them. “I can always express my emotions with them.” With water in hand, he can blow out without them expecting an analysis of the match they watched this afternoon. “I don’t have to entertain them either.”
Good thing, too. Because Ultee, who has been working at Fortuna since 2019, feels empty for a while. Compare it to students who have blocked an exam for a week – they also have to recover once they have taken the test. All energy is concentrated for that one moment.
Ultee said it on the phone last Monday. “This time is so intense.”
This time – that is the final phase of the Eredivisie. The all or nothing weeks in the tail of the rankings. Who escapes relegation? One point can make all the difference. Even one goal. How is that for a coach whose team is not yet safe? What does he do day by day? What not?
Monday
Ultee didn’t really sleep well when he arrived at the club around nine on Monday. He never does that after a game. Not even after Sunday night’s important win over Go Ahead Eagles (1-0) that puts his team in fourteenth place – two spots and three points above the relegation zone.
“The feeling of happiness lasts for 24 hours, but usually I’m already working on the following week. My mother always says I’m happy five minutes after a win and three days grumpy after a defeat.”
After the game he had had one more beer with colleagues. Then he drove to his apartment in Brunssum and watched the match against Go Ahead in full. He then concentrated on the weekly schedule and Monday training. After two episodes of The Sinner on Netflix, it was 3 a.m. again.
An advantage: he does not have to hold a debriefing on Monday. In the first half of the season he did that by default, now he chooses his moments, because players have heard him talk enough. The day is not long. Sunday’s basic players recover in the gym, wellness and massage rooms, while the substitutes have to work hard. Ultee is not leading that session, but is on the field. “Those guys need to see that I see them.”
Tuesday Wednesday
It’s the weekend for Fortuna players. Because Ultee believes that the preparation for a match should not take longer than three days, he has released his players on Tuesday and Wednesday. “Footballers rarely have two days off in a row.”
Neither does he. Monday afternoon he immediately drove to his house in Utrecht – his “home town”. His parents also live there, as do his friends and girlfriend, and he laid the foundations for his work as a trainer at the highest level. Without having played a single professional game.
The road he traveled has often been described. Unlike many trainers in the Eredivisie who sometimes raced to the head coach via the highway, he climbed up step by step. He did the Pabo, went to work in special education, but in the meantime also worked for FC Utrecht. In a few years he worked his way from clinic employee to assistant to then head coach Rob Alflen, who now also works at Fortuna. if to be assistant.
FC Utrecht had been an instructive time. Ultee recounts that one training session that became national news after a player, Anouar Kali, busted his teammate Kristoffer Peterson with a broken jaw. “It happened on my field. The tenth party. It was raining, everyone was tired. I could taste the irritation, yet I let it go. Precisely because of that sharpness. Later I felt guilty towards Rob. The lesson? That I have to name that irritation towards the players. ‘I know you’re pissed, but don’t you dare…’ At Helmond Sport, the captain once told me he would have sawed someone in half if I hadn’t warned.”
Good trainers, Ultee says, always look ahead. That’s 80 percent of the work. You want to avoid having to make spontaneous decisions if, for example, Feyenoord receives a red card on Sunday. Or ourselves.”
Because thinking never stops, he says, he sometimes finds it difficult to clear his head. He likes to read, but for weeks now he has been talking about the spy thriller that he keeps putting in his bag, while commuting between Brunssum and Utrecht. Eating out does help. On Monday he dined with friends in Zwolle. “I did watch a Feyenoord match on the way there and back in the train.” Tuesday evening: King’s Night with his girlfriend in Utrecht. One cocktail and one beer.
Did he think about football on his days off? “When I wake up, the puzzle often starts in my head right away. Also on days off. How we can play football out of ourselves under the pressure of Feyenoord, how we keep pressure on them. There is so much movement in that team.” When he descends the A2 towards the south on Wednesday evening, he says: “I think I will unabashedly watch Feyenoord for a few hours at home. Being alone sometimes also has its advantages.”
Thursday Friday
Images are of great importance to trainers. As usual, the Fortuna staff has watched four Feyenoord games in the run-up to Sunday’s game. Ultee and Alflen two each; they pay attention to the big picture and details. Two other staff members watched all Feyenoord set pieces. The staff filters from this four times fifteen minutes of images, which are then compromised into the ten-minute video that Ultee shows its players Friday morning.
It shouldn’t take much longer. Ultee: „Against Go Ahead we had another block of set pieces of three minutes, because they score a lot from corner kicks and free kicks. But that’s really the max. The more input, the less sticks. Players find match talks especially helpful when we win and the plan has worked. If you lose, they say: is this really necessary?”
What is important: a good story. Quite difficult sometimes, if the official language is English and you want to convey a feeling in addition to information. “You can never hide.” He noticed the last time when a player overslept. The reason, telephone broken, so no alarm clock, he thought plausible. Just: did that matter? He knew all the players would be watching him. ‘And now trainer, what are you going to do…?’ He knows that every measure can lead to discussion in the team. “And I don’t want any unrest on the day before an important game.”
What he’s saying: Player problems are his problems. And problems, there are plenty. “A lot of people have no idea what goes on in a football team. Foreign players who do not see their children for months, heavy pregnancies in women. We have a player whose father is dying abroad. We then give them an extra day to go home. Each time he says goodbye with the idea that it may have been the last time. That’s heavy, isn’t it. If there is criticism in the media then I think: you have no idea. Footballers are not robots.”
Fortunately, the preparation for Feyenoord is going smoothly, he says on Friday afternoon when he drives from the club to his apartment in Brunssum. No latecomers, no unexpected injuries. He did, however, see areas for improvement in the party’s form that afternoon. The basic players played against the reserves, who had to imitate Feyenoord’s playing style. “We will review the training images with the players on Saturday.”
Before training, he showed the players some images of Feyenoord’s won match against Olympique Marseille. “In the beginning, Marseille created a one-on-one chance through three passes. The furthest midfielder was played and via the number ten he came to the winger. That way you can still be dangerous against Feyenoord.”
In the evening he watches the switching channel of the First Division. “That is my relaxation on such a day.”
Saturday Sunday
“Look, this is the place where Feyenoord often gives away space when putting pressure.” It’s Saturday evening and Ultee sends a screenshot of Feyenoord-Marseille. Just behind chasing strikers of Feyenoord is an uncovered midfielder from Marseille. “If we want to combine, we have to find that man.” With quick passes to the side or to the front, he then hopes to put Mats Seuntjens and Tijjani Noslin, two attacking players, in one-on-one situations. “Possibly with the support of our backs.” So much for his (simplified) game plan, which will not produce the desired effect a day later. Feyenoord win 3-1. “If you want to achieve something against Feyenoord, you have to be good at all times. We weren’t,” he says afterwards. With three games to play, Fortuna has three points from the relegation places.
After a drink with his parents, he drives to Brunssum. “I’m going to watch the match. I also like it.”
And so the cycle begins again.
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