Rafael van der Vaart does not understand why Davy Klaassen started the new season with a substandard condition. The Ajax midfielder cannot be used against Sporting Portugal on Wednesday evening: he has not yet recovered from his groin injury, which Klaassen sustained last week in the Dutch national team’s World Cup qualifying match with Turkey. Erik ten Hag announced on Tuesday that Klaassen’s condition leaves something to be desired, but Van der Vaart thinks that is a ‘nonsense story’.
Klaassen started this month against Norway, Montenegro and Turkey. According to Ten Hag, three international matches in a short time were too much for his pupil. He made the comparison with Cody Gakpo, who left the training camp early because he was not fully fit. “Gakpo just goes home and he plays against AZ. We have to miss Davy. If I look at Davy’s personal circumstances, he was in top condition when he went to the European Championship. He came back in a very bad condition. We built him up , but he is not used to three games yet. That eventually killed him,” Ten Hag said on Tuesday.
In ‘s studio Ziggo Sports analyst Van der Vaart is critical of the trainer’s explanation on Wednesday evening. He believes that Ajax should have ensured that Klaassen started the new season in good condition. “He said that Klaassen was in bad shape when he came back from the European Championship, that’s possible. But if you have had six weeks of preparation, you can still expect that everyone is fit? Or am I crazy? Holiday is a holiday for a reason” , says the former midfielder, who means that Klaassen did not have to undertake any other activities.
“I think it’s nonsense. As a trainer of Ajax you start with a preparation and you have six weeks. Then you can get everyone fit, right? Someone comes a little later after a European Championship, but he has just trained and has not played any matches” , Van der Vaart refers to Klaassen. “He may have three or four weeks of preparation. A lot of matches have now been played.” Van der Vaart points out that clubs use a player tracking system and can therefore sound the alarm early if a player is not in good shape. “They measure everything, they know everything better, they play with things: then I think this is a nonsense story.”
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