“He still has the name, but there’s no player left in that practice room who thinks, ‘Oh dear, I have to play him’” – Vincent van der Voort is seriously concerned about Michael van Gerwen

Michael van Gerwen continues to struggle for form. The three-time world champion was knocked out by Mensur Suljovic in the second round of the Swiss Darts Trophy last weekend.

The manner of the Dutchman’s defeat is what particularly concerns Vincent van der Voort. The former professional darts player sees little sign of progress from his close friend and wonders whether Van Gerwen is doing enough to rediscover his best form.

On the Darts Draait Door podcast, Van der Voort analysed Van Gerwen’s performance in Basel. He was at the tournament and saw the Dutchman put up a decent fight against Suljovic early on. After a few legs, however, things went badly wrong. Van Gerwen lost control of his throw and could barely put his Austrian opponent under pressure.

“It simply has to be a question of form and confidence,” Van der Voort said. “We all know what he has thrown in the past, so it’s not as if he can’t do it.”

Suljovic is known for his slow pace and ability to disrupt his opponents’ rhythm. Van der Voort, though, does not want to blame the defeat on that. In his view, the problem began with Van Gerwen himself, who produced too many uncharacteristic misses.

“But it starts with those misses of his. They don’t exactly help your confidence. You don’t throw darts like that when you’re in top form. You can see—and this is a recurring theme—that a lot of hours need to be put in. That hasn’t happened lately.”

Van der Voort’s criticism centres mainly on the period between the World Grand Prix and the Swiss Darts Trophy. Van Gerwen did lose to Ryan Joyce in the first round of the World Grand Prix, but his game looked considerably sharper then.

The expectation was that he could build on that over the following week and a half. In Basel, however, Van der Voort saw little sign of it. “But you have to conclude that too little happened in that time. He had a week and a half. Looking back, he looked good and composed again at the Grand Prix. You felt he might be about to get going again, but I didn’t feel that at all this time. Not at all. It was all very poor.”

Van Gerwen’s results have become a recurring topic of discussion. The Dutchman is struggling to produce several strong performances in a row and regularly loses to opponents he would usually have beaten during his best years.

Van der Voort believes his former practice partner must face up to the seriousness of the situation. Without a significant improvement, Van Gerwen risks slipping further down the rankings, he says. “If he hasn’t realised that by now, he might as well stop.”

The run of defeats against players outside the world’s absolute elite is particularly troubling to him. Van der Voort names Joyce, Damon Heta, Daryl Gurney and Suljovic among them.

“In this form… Who are you going to beat?! Top form doesn’t just appear out of nowhere. Look at the players he’s been losing to lately: Joyce, Damon Heta, Daryl Gurney and now Suljovic. None of them are world-class.”

Another problem is that Van Gerwen’s early exits mean he rarely faces the circuit’s biggest names. That has often denied him matches against players such as Luke Littler, Luke Humphries, Gerwyn Price, Jonny Clayton and Gian van Veen.

Van der Voort also believes Van Gerwen is not showing the progress needed to rebuild his confidence. “At the moment, every good performance is an isolated incident. You think a good tournament should boost his confidence, but there’s no upward trend.”

During the podcast, Van der Voort and presenter Damian Vlottes tried to identify the last tournament in which Van Gerwen reached his old level across several matches.

They settled on the 2025 World Series of Darts Finals in Amsterdam, where the Dutchman won the title. Since then, he has not managed a comparable performance.

“That was more than a year ago… You can’t keep living off that; it doesn’t work.” Van Gerwen is therefore dealing not only with disappointing results, but also with a change in how his opponents view him.

According to Van der Voort, one of the biggest changes is that players are no longer intimidated when they draw Van Gerwen.

For years, the Dutchman had a psychological advantage before a match even began. The former professional darts player believes that has now disappeared.

“He still has the name, but there’s no player in the practice room who thinks, ‘Oh no, I have to play him.’ The fear is completely gone. Players just outside the elite, like Damon Heta, used to be genuinely afraid. Now they know they can beat him even with an 89 average.”