# 2020–21 FC Groningen season

The 2020–21 season was the 65th season in existence of FC Groningen and the club's 54th (21st consecutive) season in the top flight of Dutch football. In addition to the domestic league, FC Groningen participated in this season's edition of the KNVB Cup. The season covered the period from 1 July 2020 to 30 June 2021.
FC Groningen finished 2020–21 Eredivisie season as 7th.
In the KNVB Cup, FC Groningen lost 2–1 against FC Emmen in the 2nd round and are eliminated from the cup.
Jørgen Strand Larsen was the top scorer of the club in this season with 9 goals in Eredivisie.
Ko Itakura and Sergio Padt were the most appeared players in this season with 36 appearances; 35 appearances in Eredivisie and 1 appearance in the KNVB Cup.

## Players
### First-team squad

    As of 1 February 2021
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| 1 | GK | NED | Sergio Padt |
| 2 | DF | SUR | Damil Dankerlui |
| 3 | DF | NED | Bart van Hintum |
| 4 | DF | NED | Wessel Dammers |
| 5 | DF | JPN | Ko Itakura (on loan from Manchester City) |
| 6 | MF | NED | Azor Matusiwa |
| 7 | MF | SWE | Ramon Pascal Lundqvist |
| 8 | MF | GER | Sam Schreck |
| 9 | FW | NOR | Jørgen Strand Larsen |
| 10 | FW | NED | Arjen Robben (captain) |
| 11 | FW | MAR | Mohamed El Hankouri |
| 14 | FW | NED | Patrick Joosten |
| 15 | FW | SWE | Gabriel Gudmundsson |
| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| 17 | DF | ESP | Miguel Ángel Leal (on loan from Villarreal) |
| 18 | MF | MAR | Ahmed El Messaoudi |
| 19 | FW | SWE | Paulos Abraham (on loan from AIK) |
| 21 | FW | NED | Alessio Da Cruz (on loan from Parma) |
| 23 | GK | NOR | Per Kristian Bråtveit (on loan from Djurgården) |
| 25 | GK | NED | Jan de Boer |
| 26 | MF | NED | Daniël van Kaam |
| 31 | MF | SVK | Tomáš Suslov |
| 32 | DF | NED | Mike te Wierik |
| 33 | FW | NED | Joël van Kaam |
| 34 | FW | NED | Kian Slor |
| 37 | FW | NED | Thijs Dallinga |
| 48 | DF | NED | Leonel Miguel |

### Out on loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| 16 | GK | NED | Jan Hoekstra (at Roda JC Kerkrade until 30 June 2021) |
| 19 | MF | DEN | Nicklas Strunck (at Esbjerg fB until 30 June 2021) |
| 24 | GK | NED | Nigel Bertrams (at PEC Zwolle until 30 June 2021) |
| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| 29 | FW | NED | Romano Postema (at Den Bosch until 30 June 2021) |
| — | DF | NED | Thomas Poll (at FC Dordrecht until 30 June 2021) |

## Transfers
### In

| Pos. | Player | Transferred from | Fee | Date |
| MF | Tom van de Looi | NEC Nijmegen | End of loan | 30 Jun 2020 |
| DF | Amir Absalem | Almere City FC | End of loan | 30 Jun 2020 |
| FW | Arjen Robben | | | 1 Jul 2020 |
| DF | Wessel Dammers | Fortuna Sittard | Free | 1 Jul 2020 |
| DF | Damil Dankerlui | Willem II | €375,000 | 27 Jul 2020 |
| DF | Ko Itakura | Manchester City F.C. | On loan | 27 Jul 2020 |
| FW | Patrick Joosten | FC Utrecht | €600,000 | 6 Aug 2020 |
| GK | Nigel Bertrams | MVV Maastricht | Free | 18 Aug 2020 |
| FW | Jørgen Strand Larsen | Sarpsborg 08 FF | €1,100,000 | 9 Sep 2020 |
| DF | Migue Leal | Villarreal CF B | On loan | 19 Sep 2020 |
| MF | Alessio da Cruz | Parma Calcio 1913 | On loan | 3 Oct 2020 |
| GK | Per Kristian Bråtveit | Djurgårdens IF Fotboll | On loan | 4 Jan 2021 |
| DF | Mike te Wierik | Derby County F.C. | Undisclosed | 19 Jan 2021 |
| FW | Paulos Abraham | AIK | On loan | 1 Feb 2021 |

### Out

| Pos. | Player | Transferred to | Fee | Date |
| FW | Daishawn Redan | Hertha BSC | End of loan | 30 Jun 2020 |
| FW | Joel Asoro | Swansea City A.F.C. | End of loan | 30 Jun 2020 |
| DF | Ko Itakura | Manchester City F.C. | End of loan | 30 Jun 2020 |
| DF | Django Warmerdam | FC Utrecht | Free | 1 Jul 2020 |
| DF | Deyovaisio Zeefuik | Hertha BSC | €4,000,000 | 6 Aug 2020 |
| MF | Ajdin Hrustic | Eintracht Frankfurt | €1,000,000 | 28 Sep 2020 |
| DF | Nicklas Strunck | Esbjerg fB | On loan | 5 Oct 2020 |
| DF | Görkem Can | Denizlispor | Free | 26 Jan 2021 |

## Pre-season and friendlies

Win  Draw  Loss

## Competitions
### Overview

| Competition | First match | Last match | Starting round | Final position | Record | Record | Record | Record | Record | Record | Record | Record |
| Competition | First match | Last match | Starting round | Final position | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Win % |
| Eredivisie | 13 September 2020 | 16 May 2021 | Matchday 1 | 7th | 34 | 14 | 8 | 12 | 40 | 37 | +3 | 041.18 |
| Eredivisie Play-offs | 19 May 2021 | 19 May 2021 | Semi-finals | Semi-finals | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | −1 | 000.00 |
| KNVB Cup | 2 December 2020 | 15 December 2020 | First round | Second round | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | −1 | 000.00 |
| Total | Total | Total | Total | Total | 36 | 14 | 8 | 14 | 41 | 40 | +1 | 038.89 |
Source: Soccerway

### Eredivisie
#### League table

| Pos | Teamvte | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification or relegation |
| 5 | Feyenoord (O) | 34 | 16 | 11 | 7 | 64 | 36 | +28 | 59 | Qualification for the European competition play-offs |
| 6 | Utrecht | 34 | 13 | 14 | 7 | 52 | 41 | +11 | 53 | Qualification for the European competition play-offs |
| 7 | Groningen | 34 | 14 | 8 | 12 | 40 | 37 | +3 | 50 | Qualification for the European competition play-offs |
| 8 | Sparta Rotterdam | 34 | 13 | 8 | 13 | 49 | 48 | +1 | 47 | Qualification for the European competition play-offs |
| 9 | Heracles Almelo | 34 | 12 | 8 | 14 | 42 | 53 | −11 | 44 | |
* ↑ Winner of play-off will qualify to Europa Conference League second qualifying round.

#### Results summary

| Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Home | Home | Home | Home | Home | Home | Away | Away | Away | Away | Away | Away |
Source: Eredivisie

#### Results by round

| Round | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 |
| Ground | H | A | A | H | H | A | H | A | H | H | A | H | A | H | A | A | H | A | H | A | H | H | A | H | A | H | A | A | H | A | H | A | H | A |
| Result | L | W | L | W | D | W | W | L | D | W | W | W | W | L | D | W | D | L | W | L | D | W | D | W | L | D | L | W | L | L | L | W | D | L |
| Position | 14 | 9 | 13 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 8 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 |

#### Matches

The league fixtures were announced on 24 July 2020.

#### European competition play-offs
### KNVB Cup
## Statistics
### Scorers

| # | Player | Eredivisie | KNVB | Total |
| 1 | Jørgen Strand Larsen | 9 | 0 | 9 |
| 2 | Ahmed El Messaoudi | 8 | 0 | 8 |
| 3 | Alessio da Cruz | 4 | 0 | 4 |
| 4 | Mohamed El Hankouri | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| 4 | Patrick Joosten | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| 4 | Paulos Abraham | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| 4 | Ramon Pascal Lundqvist | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| 8 | Bart van Hintum | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 8 | Tomáš Suslov | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 10 | Daniël van Kaam | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 10 | Ko Itakura | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 10 | Remco Balk | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 10 | Wessel Dammers | 1 | 0 | 1 |

### Appearances

| # | Player | Eredivisie | KNVB | Total |
| 1 | Ko Itakura | 35 | 1 | 36 |
| 1 | Sergio Padt | 35 | 1 | 36 |
| 3 | Daniël van Kaam | 33 | 1 | 34 |
| 3 | Mohamed El Hankouri | 34 | 0 | 34 |
| 5 | Bart van Hintum | 32 | 1 | 33 |
| 6 | Jørgen Strand Larsen | 31 | 1 | 32 |
| 7 | Ahmed El Messaoudi | 29 | 1 | 30 |
| 7 | Damil Dankerlui | 29 | 1 | 30 |
| 7 | Tomáš Suslov | 29 | 1 | 30 |
| 10 | Wessel Dammers | 27 | 1 | 28 |
| 11 | Patrick Joosten | 26 | 1 | 27 |
| 11 | Ramon Pascal Lundqvist | 26 | 1 | 27 |
| 13 | Azor Matusiwa | 23 | 1 | 24 |
| 14 | Alessio da Cruz | 23 | 0 | 23 |
| 14 | Gabriel Gudmundsson | 23 | 0 | 23 |
| 16 | Mike te Wierik | 16 | 0 | 16 |
| 17 | Paulos Abraham | 14 | 0 | 14 |
| 17 | Sam Schreck | 13 | 1 | 14 |
| 19 | Remco Balk | 11 | 1 | 12 |
| 20 | Migue Leal | 10 | 0 | 10 |
| 21 | Arjen Robben | 7 | 0 | 7 |
| 21 | Thijs Dallinga | 6 | 1 | 7 |
| 23 | Joël van Kaam | 6 | 0 | 6 |
| 23 | Kian Slor | 5 | 1 | 6 |
| 25 | Thomas Poll | 4 | 0 | 4 |
| 26 | Romano Postema | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| 27 | Ajdin Hrustic | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 27 | Bjorn Meijer | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 27 | Leonel Miguel | 1 | 0 | 1 |

### Clean sheets

| # | Player | Eredivisie | Total |
| 1 | Sergio Padt | 13 | 13 |
| Total | Total | 13 | 13 |

### Disciplinary record

| # | Player | Eredivisie | Eredivisie | KNVB | KNVB | Total | Total |
| 1 | Mohamed El Hankouri | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 |
| 2 | Azor Matusiwa | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 |
| 2 | Damil Dankerlui | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 |
| 4 | Wessel Dammers | 8 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 9 | 0 |
| 5 | Alessio da Cruz | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 |
| 5 | Bart van Hintum | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 |
| 5 | Mike te Wierik | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 |
| 8 | Ko Itakura | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 |
| 9 | Ramon Pascal Lundqvist | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| 10 | Ahmed El Messaoudi | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 10 | Remco Balk | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 10 | Sam Schreck | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 10 | Sergio Padt | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 14 | Gabriel Gudmundsson | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 14 | Joël van Kaam | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 14 | Jørgen Strand Larsen | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 14 | Patrick Joosten | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 14 | Tomáš Suslov | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |