Thursday, March 11, 2021 at 6:54 PM

Theo Janssen believes that Davy Klaassen is a ‘determining player’ at Ajax in his current attacking role in midfield. The 28-year-old midfielder was occasionally put in a controlling role by trainer Erik ten Hag in the first half of the season. Janssen adds RTL that he finds Klaassen in a controlling role in midfield to add little to Ajax’s game, because his qualities are not there.

“I think he’s very important, especially in recent months,” Janssen analyzes Klaassen’s role at Ajax. “In the beginning he played a bit for the defense, I didn’t think he was very good there. Its quality just isn’t there. Then he plays simple, broad and I think he doesn’t add much to the game of Ajax. Now that he is playing in his own position again, you see that he has the right moment of going deep again, is always in front of the goal, wants to put pressure and works hard. He is again a defining player within this Ajax.

Janssen is asked whether he believes that Klaassen has gotten better during his foreign adventures at Everton and Werder Bremen. “I don’t want to say he got better, no. Before he left Ajax, he was top. He was decisive almost every week ”, the former midfielder replies. Fellow analyst Jan Boskamp agrees with Janssen’s comment that Klaassen is now decisive almost every week.

“Now again. They have turned him into a controlling midfielder abroad. He was a vacuum cleaner at Werder Bremen and his qualities do not lie there. He has to get into the penalty area and have the ability to score ”, says Boskamp. Klaassen was good for 34 games this season, in which he accounted for 10 goals and 4 assists. On Thursday evening, he will form a midfield with Ryan Gravenberch and Edson Álvarez in the first leg of the eighth final of the Europa League against Young Boys in the Johan Cruijff ArenA.