The last Eredivisie season was a season with ups and downs for Calvin Stengs. The AZ attacker was often accused of playing too erratic and having to get more return from his game. Critiques with which Stengs partly agrees and partly disagrees. “There are moments where people think I put too much risk in my game, but I will certainly not change that. That is also my strength,” says the left leg in conversation with Football International.
Not long ago, during the European Under-21 Championship, both Ibrahim Afellay and Theo Janssen criticized Stengs’ play. Afellay believes that Stengs should be more consistent with the ball, while Janssen questions the AZ player’s speed of action. “Sometimes there may have been some unjust criticism, but I have certainly played matches in which there was certainly truth in it,” Stengs holds up a mirror to himself. “I think so myself. I know that I have to play football more consistently and we are going to work hard on that now. That is certainly a goal for me for the new season.”
Stengs started the first training session with AZ on Thursday in preparation for the new season, while he would rather have joined the the Dutch squad for the European Championship this summer. Partly due to his changeable game, national coach Frank de Boer decided not to include Stengs in the pre-selection of the Dutch national team. A decision that the winger had to accept. “There are moments where people think I put too much risk in my game, but I will certainly not change that. That is also my strength. The challenge is to find a certain consistency in that.”
Unlike Teun Koopmeiners and Owen Wijndal, it is very likely that Stengs can still be admired at AZ after the summer. “I don’t feel like I have to leave,” he says. “But maybe it would be good for my development. It could just be, I don’t rule out anything. Whether something is going on? No. But if it was, I wouldn’t say it either, haha. I’m adjusting now In any case, completely on AZ: as long as I’m here, my focus will be completely on this club. There’s really no need for anyone to doubt that.”
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