Mats Deijl made his mark on Saturday in South Rotterdam, and was allowed to start immediately in the starting line-up on Sunday by coach Robin van Persie. The right back made a very solid impression against Heracles Almelo and had an excellent debut. Was Sunday a foretaste of what we can expect from Deijl, or does he have something else in store?
In this analysis we compare Mats Deijl with the other right backs in the Feyenoord selection: Givairo Read, Jordan Lotomba and Bart Nieuwkoop. This uses WyScout data from the summer of 2024 to the present.
Fitness
What is immediately striking is that Deijl has been able to provide an unprecedented number of playing minutes in the past season and a half. The born Vlaardinger played 6881 minutes, which equates to 76 games and a bit. And that in nineteen months. One of the most important aspects why Feyenoord wanted him so badly was Deijl’s physical reliability.
Defensive
Defensively, it is worth noting that Deijl is a somewhat ‘passive’ defender. In that respect it is the opposite of Bart Nieuwkoop. Nieuwkoop prefers to compete in as many duels as possible, at the highest possible intensity. Deijl, on the other hand, often opts for a more thoughtful approach. Engage in duels if necessary, and stay on your feet as long as possible. At 55% he also has the lowest percentage of won duels of the four. Read and Nieuwkoop are at 63%, Lotomba at 59%. However, he has above-average head strength. Nieuwkoop is slightly better in this respect, but Deijl, with 52% of aerial duels won, is a lot better than Read (41%) and Lotomba (42%).
The fact that Deijl is not a very aggressive player can be seen from the number of yellow cards. He only took six from the summer of 2024. Given his high number of playing minutes, this equates to 0.08 yellow cards per 90 minutes. He did not take red at all during that period.
Passing
What is striking in the passing statistics is that Lotomba and Read score significantly higher than Deijl and Nieuwkoop. Deijl has the fewest key passes of the four, and about 26% of his crosses are successful. Compared to Read (36%) and Lotomba (40%), he lags considerably behind. The same applies to his passing accuracy, which is lower than the aforementioned pair. This does play a role in the fact that Read and Lotomba played for a Feyenoord that was more often dominant than Deijl’s Go Ahead Eagles.
What contrasts with this is that Deijl seems to feel like a fish in water around the opponent’s sixteen. Deijl has provided five assists in official matches since the summer of 2024, in many cases providing a measured cross. Striking: four of the five assists were low crosses. Or a tight ball between the goalkeeper and the defense, or a withdrawn cross from the back line. Deijl can be an extra weapon in the final phase.
Offensive
What really sets the 28-year-old right foot apart from the rest is his scoring ability. He has scored eight times since mid-2024. Okay, half of those were penalties. But looking at the other four hits, a pattern can be discovered.
Deijl likes to appear in the so-called ‘halfspace’, the space between the flank and the axis. We see this, for example, in the winning goal he scored in the Europa League against Aston Villa (see photos below). Go Ahead’s right front keeps the playing field as wide as possible, preventing Villa’s left back from squeezing completely inside. This creates a gap between Villa’s left central defender and the left back. Deijl recognizes the space and is tailor-made by Joris Kramer. The right back then finishes expertly, firing Go Ahead Eagles to a historic 2-1 win over Aston Villa.
His goal against NAC Breda in April 2025 comes from a similar situation. Once again Deijl chooses a position in the halfspace and completes a cross from the left. Feyenoord has an intelligent right back, who recognizes the moments to also contribute offensively, especially by positioning themselves well and making deep runs at the right times. Because during his debut for Feyenoord, against Heracles, he once appeared dangerously in the box, but then his header lacked some power.
It seems that Van Persie wanted a right back who can play on the inside, in order to be able to use Hadj Moussa more. The Algerian benefits from a lot of one-on-one duels on the side. The back in the ‘halfspace’ ensures that an opponent is lured away. Givairo Read also masters this very well, even a lot better than Deijl. Read is even more comfortable in small spaces due to its fine technology. Bart Nieuwkoop, on the other hand, is a back who does not come into his own at all when he has to play on the inside, while Lotomba should in principle be able to do that – he also did a very nice job against Sturm Graz – but is still too inconsistent in that regard.
Conclusion
What we saw from Mats Deijl on Sunday is broadly what we can expect from the 28-year-old right back. Deijl was solid, didn’t do anything crazy, didn’t really excel in defending or attacking, but he did exactly what he had to do. As if he had been playing in a Feyenoord shirt for years. We can describe Deijl as a reliable right defender, both in his way of playing and in terms of fitness, who also scores goals.
But Deijl also brings something that is not measurable in data. Feyenoord gains experience and a bit of (football) intelligence with Deijl. Analytically, after his debut, he immediately showed his strongest side. He stands in front of the camera and immediately puts his finger on the sore spot. That is also why Deijl is a very valuable asset for Feyenoord.
