Michael van Gerwen seemed to be heading to the Premier League darts play-offs at a trot. But after three consecutive weekly victories, the three-time world champion is stuck with one victory in seven heats.
Vincent Van GenechtenDarts follower
Today at 10:11 PM
As a result, the proud Dutchman has dropped from a comfortable first to fourth position in the standings, a considerable distance from Luke Littler and Luke Humphries. And only the first four qualify for the play-offs in London, where Van Gerwen has to defend his title.
“Luke Littler wasn’t all that good on Thursday night,” said analyst/commentator Dan Dawson. “Van Gerwen was mediocre. They were both not good, only Littler was slightly better. Leading the Premier League at the moment says something. Luke will make the playoffs, I’m pretty sure. However, this way I don’t know whether Van Gerwen will be there.”
© PDC
Van Gerwen struggled with a shoulder injury at the UK Open, which forced him out immediately. But since then he has reached, among other things, the final of the German Darts Grand Prix.
“I don’t really know what’s going on,” Dawson said. “He did things in the game against Littler that I don’t really understand. You expect MvG to play well and he did that in this Premier League by winning three weeks in a row. He’s been bad ever since. If you look at the last two years in the Premier League, his second half of each campaign has not been good. Last year he only won four games in the last seven weeks and the year before he only won six in seven.”
“Monster”
So all hands are on deck for the Dutchman, who starts next week with two floor tournaments and will fight an important duel with Nathan Aspinall on Thursday in Birmingham. Despite the poorer period in the Premier League, Van Gerwen still firmly believes in his abilities.
“I may not be the greatest talent, but the combination of talent, the mental aspect and my unconditional will to win makes me the best player,” the Dutchman told PDC chairman Eddie Hearn. “That total package must also be present to make it in the darts world, talent alone is insufficient. And with that whole package together you can create a monster, I want to be that person. I want to beat everyone and preferably by a large margin. That’s how I think about it.”
Besides the oche, Van Gerwen is doing quite well in the meantime. He celebrated his son Mike’s fourth birthday on a sunny day on Saturday. A day earlier he had gone to pick up his new BMW from one of his many sponsors. It became a BMW i7 xDrive 60 M-Sport, an electric sports car with 544 hp that quickly costs more than 150,000 euros.
This contains inserted content from a social media network that wants to write or read cookies. You have not given permission for this.
Click here to adjust your preferences
This contains inserted content from a social media network that wants to write or read cookies. You have not given permission for this.
Click here to adjust your preferences