Monday, August 16, 2021 at 06:36• Daniel Cabot Kerkdijk • Last update: 06:39

After two official matches of Steven Berghuis in the Ajax uniform, Valentijn Driessen longs for ‘the real Steven Berghuis’. The chief of football of The Telegraph is of the opinion that the Ajax player Berghuis is not the Feyenoord player Berghuis. “With that he does himself and Ajax short,” emphasizes Driessen, who points out in his column that the attacker in his Feyenoord time was a hot-tempered player who could not stomach a supporting role and raged on and off the field when something was not going his way. sentence went.

In Driessen’s view, Berghuis is ‘in little way the great gentleman of Feyenoord’ and that is not due to his qualities. “Berghuis denies his personality, while that compelling, present and selfish is precisely what Ajax requires to make it. In the Johan Cruijff ArenA you don’t have to wait until you get something, you have to grab it.” Driessen looks on, shaking his head as Berghuis apologizes for losing the ball, comforts teammates who miss an opportunity and continues to laugh ‘when Sébastien Haller and Ryan Gravenberch stupidly screw up his flawless assists’.

“While he must be terribly pissed about the state of affairs at his new club.” Following Hans Kraay Jr. and Rafael van der Vaart, among others, Driessen was also annoyed that not Berghuis but substitute Zakaria Labyad took a free kick in the final phase of the duel between Ajax and NEC (5-0). He should not accept that, the journalist emphasizes. “Even if you, as Berghuis, still have to assert yourself on the field after your arrival, you can let Labyad know where his place is in a full ArenA in an unmistakable way. And that’s not behind a free kick 20 meters from the goal.”

“As an international, as the most eye-catching purchase, blessed with a fabulous kicking technique, as Berghuis you are always higher in the pecking order than Labyad.” Apart from Dusan Tadic and Daley Blind, nobody should be higher in the hierarchy, says Driessen. “He has to enter the trainer’s room and tell trainer Erik ten Hag the truth. And make demands as he made it difficult for Giovanni van Bronckhorst, Jaap Stam and Dick Advocaat in his Feyenoord period. There he even left his mark on the way he played football with his trainers.”

“The real Berghuis must get up quickly while it is still possible. Otherwise he does not belong at Ajax.” Driessen thinks that the Berghuis could cost his base place if he no longer asserts himself. Especially if Antony is again at the disposal of Ten Hag. “The Brazilian is someone who stands up for himself and has the qualities to make it difficult for the Berghuis.”