Feyenoord coach Bert van Marwijk has credited the elder statesmen in his team for the Rotterdammers' flying start to the season.
Van Marwijk takes his second-placed side to Vitesse Arnhem on Sunday confident they will have enough nous to overcome the fifth-placed hosts.
The former Borussia Dortmund boss invested heavily over the summer in experienced players such as Roy Makaay, Tim de Cler, Giovanni van Bronckhorst and Kevin Hofland.
And he believes their know-how has been behind the team's fine recent results.
"We have progressed more than I would have expected beforehand," he said.
"The team is getting better every week. Players like Van Bronckhorst, Makaay, Hofland and De Cler have a very good influence on the youngsters. They know how to make other players function better."
Van Marwijk will make a late decision on Chun-Soo Lee but is definitely without Tim Vincken, Andwele Slory, Dwight Tiendalli, Sherif Ekramy and Ron Vlaar.
Vitesse returned to winning ways after two defeats last weekend with an impressive 4-2 success at FC Utrecht.
Aad de Mos' men based their victory around a strong defensive display, a tactic he claims should be applauded.
"It is not a shame to defend. And of course we try to attack if we have the ball," he said. "We scored four times in Utrecht, that is not bad."
Mads Junker is likely to start in attack alongside Juan Lorca after a fine display in Utrecht with Harrie Gommans on the bench.
The visitors will be without the injured Santi Kolk and Cees Keizer.
De Mos insists his men go into the game as underdogs, adding: "Feyenoord are the big favourites, but we feel okay. Nothing is impossible in this competition. We will fight for it. It is a game between two teams which play the same kind of system."
