# 2020–21 AZ Alkmaar season

The 2020–21 AZ Alkmaar season was the club's 54th season in existence and the 23rd consecutive season in the top flight of Dutch football. In addition to the domestic league, AZ participated in this season's editions of the KNVB Cup, the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Europa League. The season covered the period from 1 July 2020 to 30 June 2021.
On 5 December 2020, manager Arne Slot was sacked following rumors that he was negotiating to become the new manager of Feyenoord for the following season.

## Players
### First-team squad

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| 1 | GK | NED | Marco Bizot |
| 2 | DF | NOR | Jonas Svensson |
| 3 | DF | GRE | Pantelis Chatzidiakos |
| 5 | DF | NED | Owen Wijndal |
| 6 | MF | NOR | Fredrik Midtsjø |
| 7 | FW | NED | Calvin Stengs |
| 8 | MF | NED | Teun Koopmeiners (captain) |
| 9 | FW | NED | Myron Boadu |
| 10 | MF | NED | Dani de Wit |
| 11 | FW | SWE | Jesper Karlsson |
| 15 | DF | NED | Bruno Martins Indi (on loan from Stoke City) |
| 16 | GK | NED | Hobie Verhulst |
| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| 17 | FW | MAR | Zakaria Aboukhlal |
| 18 | MF | NOR | Håkon Evjen |
| 20 | MF | NED | Jordy Clasie |
| 21 | MF | NED | Kenzo Goudmijn |
| 22 | DF | NED | Timo Letschert |
| 23 | MF | NED | Mohamed Taabouni |
| 24 | MF | NED | Tijjani Reijnders |
| 26 | DF | JPN | Yukinari Sugawara |
| 27 | DF | NED | Ramon Leeuwin |
| 28 | FW | ISL | Albert Guðmundsson |
| 30 | GK | NED | Mees Bakker |

### Out on loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| — | GK | NED | Rody de Boer (at De Graafschap until 30 June 2021) |
| — | FW | NED | Ferdy Druijf (at KV Mechelen until 30 June 2021) |
| — | DF | NED | Joris Kramer (at SC Cambuur until 30 June 2021) |
| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| — | MF | NED | Thijs Oosting (at RKC until 30 June 2021) |
| — | DF | NED | Thomas Ouwejan (at Udinese Calcio until 30 June 2021) |
| — | GK | NED | Jasper Schendelaar (at Telstar until 30 June 2021) |

### Other players under contract

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| — | FW | NED | Jeremy Helmer |

## Transfers
### In

| No. | Pos | Player | Transferred from | Fee | Date | Source |
| 11 | FW | Jesper Karlsson | Elfsborg | Undisclosed | 11 September 2020 | |
| 15 | DF | Bruno Martins Indi | Stoke City | Loan | 6 October 2020 | |

### Out

| No. | Pos | Player | Transferred to | Fee | Date | Source |
| 15 | | | TBD | | 1 July 2020 | |

## 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 | 19 September 2020 | 16 May 2021 | Matchday 1 | 3rd | 34 | 21 | 8 | 5 | 75 | 41 | +34 | 061.76 |
| KNVB Cup | 20 January 2021 | 20 January 2021 | Round of 16 | Round of 16 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | −1 | 000.00 |
| Champions League | 26 August 2020 | 15 September 2020 | Second qualifying round | Third qualifying round | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 3 | +0 | 050.00 |
| Europa League | 22 October 2020 | 10 December 2020 | Group stage | Group stage | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 7 | 5 | +2 | 033.33 |
| Total | Total | Total | Total | Total | 43 | 24 | 10 | 9 | 85 | 50 | +35 | 055.81 |
Source: Soccerway

### Eredivisie
#### League table

| Pos | Teamvte | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification or relegation |
| 1 | Ajax (C) | 34 | 28 | 4 | 2 | 102 | 23 | +79 | 88 | Qualification for the Champions League group stage |
| 2 | PSV Eindhoven | 34 | 21 | 9 | 4 | 74 | 35 | +39 | 72 | Qualification for the Champions League second qualifying round |
| 3 | AZ | 34 | 21 | 8 | 5 | 75 | 41 | +34 | 71 | Qualification for the Europa League play-off round |
| 4 | Vitesse | 34 | 18 | 7 | 9 | 52 | 38 | +14 | 61 | Qualification for the Europa Conference League third qualifying round |
| 5 | Feyenoord (O) | 34 | 16 | 11 | 7 | 64 | 36 | +28 | 59 | Qualification for the European competition play-offs |
* ↑ 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 | A | H | A | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | H | H | A | A | H | A | H | H | A | H | A | H | A | H | H | A | H | A | A | H | A | H |
| Result | D | D | D | D | D | D | W | W | W | W | L | W | W | W | D | W | W | W | L | L | W | W | W | W | L | W | W | W | W | L | W | W | D | W |
| Position | 11 | 12 | 13 | 13 | 11 | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 |

#### Matches

The league fixtures were announced on 24 July 2020.

### UEFA Europa League
#### Group stage

The group stage draw was held on 2 October 2020.
| Pos | Teamvte | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification | NAP | RSO | AZ | RJK |
| 1 | Napoli | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 7 | 4 | +3 | 11 | Advance to knockout phase | — | 1–1 | 0–1 | 2–0 |
| 2 | Real Sociedad | 6 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 4 | +1 | 9 | Advance to knockout phase | 0–1 | — | 1–0 | 2–2 |
| 3 | AZ | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 7 | 5 | +2 | 8 | | 1–1 | 0–0 | — | 4–1 |
| 4 | Rijeka | 6 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 6 | 12 | −6 | 4 | | 1–2 | 0–1 | 2–1 | — |

## Statistics
### Squad statistics

    Last updated on 27 December 2020.
| No. | Pos | Nat | Player | Total | Total | Eredivisie | Eredivisie | KNVB Cup | KNVB Cup | UEFA Champions League | UEFA Champions League | UEFA Europa League | UEFA Europa League |
| No. | Pos | Nat | Player | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals |
| Goalkeepers ||||||||||||||
| 1 | GK | NED | Marco Bizot | 21 | 0 | 13 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 0 |
| 16 | GK | NED | Hobie Verhulst | 2 | 0 | 1+1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 30 | GK | NED | Mees Bakker | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Defenders ||||||||||||||
| 2 | DF | NOR | Jonas Svensson | 14 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 0 |
| 3 | DF | GRE | Pantelis Chatzidiakos | 19 | 0 | 12+1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 |
| 4 | DF | NED | Ron Vlaar | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 5 | DF | NED | Owen Wijndal | 20 | 1 | 14 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 1 |
| 15 | DF | NED | Bruno Martins Indi | 14 | 2 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 1 |
| 19 | DF | NED | Juan Castillo | 1 | 0 | 0+1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 22 | DF | NED | Timo Letschert | 10 | 0 | 7+1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0+2 | 0 |
| 26 | DF | JPN | Yukinari Sugawara | 14 | 1 | 6+3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0+2 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| 27 | DF | NED | Ramon Leeuwin | 7 | 0 | 1+3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0+1 | 0 | 0+2 | 0 |
| 40 | DF | NED | Maxim Gullit | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0+1 | 0 |
| 51 | DF | NED | Tijs Velthuis | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0+1 | 0 |
| Midfielders ||||||||||||||
| 6 | MF | NOR | Fredrik Midtsjø | 21 | 1 | 13 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 0 |
| 8 | MF | NED | Teun Koopmeiners | 22 | 11 | 14 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 1 |
| 10 | MF | NED | Dani de Wit | 17 | 4 | 10 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 1 |
| 18 | MF | NOR | Håkon Evjen | 7 | 0 | 1+4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0+2 | 0 |
| 20 | MF | NED | Jordy Clasie | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 21 | MF | NED | Kenzo Goudmijn | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 23 | MF | NED | Mohamed Taabouni | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 24 | MF | NED | Tijjani Reijnders | 8 | 0 | 3+5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 25 | MF | NED | Thijs Oosting | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Forwards ||||||||||||||
| 7 | FW | NED | Calvin Stengs | 20 | 4 | 12 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 0 |
| 9 | FW | NED | Myron Boadu | 18 | 4 | 10+2 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2+2 | 0 |
| 11 | FW | SWE | Jesper Karlsson | 18 | 6 | 12 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5+1 | 1 |
| 14 | FW | NED | Ferdy Druijf | 12 | 1 | 0+8 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0+2 | 0 | 0+2 | 0 |
| 17 | FW | MAR | Zakaria Aboukhlal | 16 | 2 | 4+7 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1+4 | 0 |
| 28 | FW | ISL | Albert Guðmundsson | 15 | 7 | 6+1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1+1 | 2 | 5+1 | 2 |
| 44 | FW | TUR | Yusuf Barasi | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0+1 | 0 |
| Players who have made an appearance this season but have left the club ||||||||||||||
| 11 | FW | MAR | Oussama Idrissi | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1+1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |

### Goalscorers

    As of 26 August 2020
| Rank | No. | Pos | Nat | Name | Eredivisie | KNVB Cup | Champions League | Total |
| 1 | 28 | FW | | Albert Guðmundsson | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| 2 | 8 | MF | | Teun Koopmeiners | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Totals | Totals | Totals | Totals | Totals | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 |