By the way Zeefuik tested positive for Covid on December 30. Must have been a very mild case though as he went back to training on January 5th.

Unfortunately the sample size is kinda small since he essentially only started in 20 games. And for most of those games Hertha's gameplan mostly consisted of giving the ball to their ball-hogging Brazilian star Matheus Cunha and then wait for him to do his thing. He's not really the type to hug the sidelines and then whip in some high crosses with pinpoint accuracy. He's more likely to try to find another midfielder for a quick one-two and even his crosses might just be some low passes, trying to find the open man. Keep in mind that all this may be have been by design, depending on what the coach wanted. I'd consider him to be a bit of a lottery ticket...you certainly shouldn't overspend for him but he's still young and might just help you after all. I hear buying him would cost you 3.5 million €. We bought him for 4 million € and I would have expected something like 2 million € if a non-English team came and wanted to buy him right away. But since you are in fact English 🙂 and will have a few months to take a look at him, it's probably a fair deal. If he does well then you'll gladly pay that sum and if not he'll be back in no time.

Okay then, let's see... He definitely came to Berlin during difficult times. You've probably heard this story before, a club gets a rich investor, buys a bunch of overpriced but ill-fitting pieces, nothing works the way it was supposed to, a bunch of coaches come and go, etc...not the easiest environment to play in. Zeefuik was one of the cheaper investments during that time but he was supposed to easily take over the right wingback spot. His main competition was Peter Pekarik, an aging yet underrated defense-first Slovakian international. Yet somehow he never managed to properly get it going. There were a few months during 2021 when it felt like he had finally arrived but that ended up being short-lived as well. Now it's understandable that some of the coaches decided to go with the old-school reliable player instead of him when facing possible relegation but we definitely expected more out of him. His main strength is obviously his strong body. He's built like a tank and will not be overpowered by brute force. He's better in a more offensive role and had his best games for us in a 3-5-2 setup. Not really a dribbler but rather someone who uses by bulk to do most of his damage. He also seems to be a pretty nice guy, never complained about not playing. I know that's not the first thing people want to hear about a new signee but disgruntled players can be annoying too. People on here have mentioned those youtube videos showing him doing dangerous tackles. We obviously watched those same videos when he first joined us and were equally concerned but that ended up not really being a factor. He only had 3 yellow cards and one second yellow booking in over 1400 minutes here, that's not much. I'm more concerned every time he goes into aerial duels, he's a bit reckless there with his arms and elbows all over the place. Overall I'd say he's more clumsy than evil, I've never seen him hurt players on purpose. Now as for his weaknesses...he's made way too many blunders for us. He always seemed a bit nervous and I'm not sure if that's just who he is or if that's related to his difficult situation here. The past few weeks were ripe with mistimed back passes that gifted the other team a corner or put our goalkeeper in peril. There was one nightmarish game in particular where you could see how it affected him but to his credit he kept on fighting and at least tried to play through it. If that doesn't sound great to you, well that's why you're getting him on a cheap loan, right? 🙂 Best case scenario is that he was just in the wrong spot for his skillset. I could see his game being much better-suited to English football, plus winning more games might calm his nerves a bit. Additional trivia: He might wear the smallest shin guards I've ever seen. Are ankle guards a thing? Additional trivia: How do you pronounce his name? Well I looked for dutch content on youtube and it sounded more like ZEH-foik. But of course most people will create their own version and to be fair, it's just too tempting to do it. 😉

Hello from Berlin...do you have any questions about Zeefuik and his performances for Hertha?