Doubts about PSV forward: “Checking whether there is enough confidence”

For PSV, Saturday evening begins the hunt for the fourth consecutive league title with a home match against Fortuna Sittard. Peter Bosz’s team also hopes to wipe away the defeat in the Johan Cruijff Shield against AZ.

For the match against the Limburgers, Bosz still cannot count on newcomer Filip Kostić. Kostić was officially presented by PSV on Thursday afternoon, but he is still waiting for a work permit and therefore the newly signed PSV player will have to miss the first competitive match.

In addition to the concerns among the supporters about the PSV defense, PSV watcher Rik Elfrink of Eindhovens Dagblad also has doubts about striker Alassane Pléa. The Frenchman arrived last year from Borussia Mönchengladbach and suffered a serious injury early in the season.

Pléa has already been in training for a few months, but the question is still whether the striker can return to his old level. Elfrink also thinks so.

''PSV must, in that period as well, check whether there is sufficient confidence in the progress Alassane Pléa is making and whether he is considered physically able to be a fully fledged option again for the attack. He needs to be able to operate as a (second) striker for an entire season. So first, Saturday brings Fortuna Sittard, in a period in which PSV on the pitch seems rather searching,'' the journalist writes in De Telegraaf.

In the match against AZ from last Sunday, World Cup players Ivan Perisic, Paul Wanner, Esmir Bajraktarevic and Ricardo Pepi were still on the bench to start with. Elfrink expects this time a bigger role for the World Cup players.

''A prominent role for a number of World Cup attendees seems likely, although it remains to be seen whether they can all already start,'' says the PSV watcher.