Feyenoord have hired experienced coach Dick Advocaat as a technical adviser to try to help the former European champions emerge from a slump in which they have lost seven successive Dutch league matches.

Feyenoord trailed then leaders Ajax Amsterdam by just two points on Dec. 18. Since then, however, they have failed to earn a single point and are sixth in the standings, 20 points behind current pace-setters PSV Eindhoven.

The 68-year-old Advocaat, who saved Sunderland from relegation last season before parting ways with the Premier League club in October, agreed to help coach Giovanni van Bronckhorst until the end of the campaign.

“Advocaat will exercise his functions as advisor in the background. He will observe training and matches and hold discussions but will not sit on the bench,” the club said.

“I’m doing it as I have a bond with Giovanni,” Advocaat said.

Van Bronckhorst played under Advocaat at Rangers between 1998 and 2001. He was also in the Dutch national team managed by Advocaat from 2002 to 2004.

Feyenoord, who captured the European Cup in 1970, won the last of their 14 Dutch league titles in 1999.

Advocaat has also managed clubs including PSV, Borussia M’gladbach and Zenit SP as well as the national teams of UAE , South Korea, Belgium, Russia and Serbia.