Van Gastel Frankly Reveals the Reason Behind PSIM's Winless Streak in 5 Matches

PSIM Jogja has yet to achieve a victory in the first five matches of the second round of the 2025/2026 Super League. PSIM’s coach, Jean-Paul van Gastel, has revealed the reasons behind this.

In these five matches, PSIM recorded two defeats against Persebaya Surabaya (0-3) and Borneo FC (1-2). PSIM also drew against Persis Solo (0-0), Persik Kediri (2-2), and Bali United (3-3).

Despite not having won in five matches, PSIM remains in seventh place in the temporary standings with 33 points. However, their position is quite precarious and could drop if they fail to secure full points in their next match.

Responding to this, Van Gastel revealed that many factors have contributed to his team’s difficulty in securing victories.

“It’s easy to say that we haven’t won in five matches. We can see that the opponents are getting stronger and have different strengths. For example, against Persebaya, Rakhamtsho and Rio, who played as central defenders, were not in their usual positions. Against Borneo, we lost 2-1. Against Persis Solo, we had many chances but couldn’t capitalize on them. Against Kediri, we played well,” Van Gastel explained on Tuesday (February 24, 2026).

In addition to the factors within the matches, Van Gastel also mentioned that the team’s initial target was to stay in the Super League. According to him, this condition is still realistic compared to the current squad.

“We have to be realistic about our target, which is to comfortably stay in League 1. So, we actually have to win, but at the beginning of the season, we played well, but here we also have to look at it realistically,” he explained.

Furthermore, PSIM only added one player during the mid-season transfer window. This is in contrast to several other teams that made significant changes to their squads.

“I also want to say that many teams have revamped their players and become new teams in the transfer window. We didn’t bring in many players because the budget was limited as it was already used at the beginning of the season,” he said.

Despite this, the Dutch coach is grateful that PSIM was able to bring in one foreign player, namely Jop van der Avert.

“But I am very grateful that the management was able to bring in Jop, and we can see that the opponents are getting stronger,” he concluded.

(ams/apl)