In the ‘best player’ category of the first half of the season, Ajax players in particular score highly with the Eredivisie followers of the NOS. For Pierre van Hooijdonk and commentator Arman Avsaroglu, Antony was the best footballer in the first months of 2021/22, while Ibrahim Afellay sticks to Noussair Mazraoui and commentator Jeroen Elshoff chooses Steven Berghuis. For Theo Janssen, Joey Veerman was the best.
Avsaroglu and Van Hooijdonk are united in their choice for Antony. “He may not even be the best in statistics, but he is the player you now say will make it to the European top,” Avsaroglu said. “Antony is the best, also because of his matches in the Champions League”, adds Van Hooijdonk. “He was really good on that podium. Despite all the frills, the theatrical behaviour, for me he is the best player on the Dutch fields in the first half of the season.”
According to Afellay, his best player, Mazraoui, helps Antony to excel. “Those two have a natural click,” says Afellay. “Mazraoui is playing a very consistent season. It is also significant that a lot had to be moved at the back of Ajax in recent weeks because he was missing.” Elshoff also designates an Ajax player as the star: Berghuis, because of his loaded switch from Feyenoord and successful transformation to the tenth position.
Janssen thinks Veerman, who may be making the switch from sc Heerenveen to Feyenoord, is ‘a fantastic football player’. “Feyenoord is in the running to buy him. I hope it comes around soon. He can help Feyenoord one step further. I am sure that Veerman would be in the starting line-up there within a few weeks.” Reporter Joep Schreuder mainly sees ‘the collective’ excelling. “You cannot say that a player stands out”, he thinks. “The best player is the one team, at Ajax, but also at Feyenoord and PSV, thanks to the trainers.”
“They are not the exceptional players, but the teams. Good collectives, that is the Eredivisie at the moment.” For Afellay, Joël Drommel is the biggest disappointment. “He doesn’t take any points for PSV. With every goal conceded there is doubt, even if it is not his fault. Someone like Lars Unnerstall (FC Twente, ed.), who has let PSV go, radiates much more. There is something in the goal.”
Janssen calls PEC Zwolle, which could only win one game, as the biggest disappointment. The gap with Sparta and Fortuna Sittard, who are sixteenth and seventeenth, is now seven points. “Actually, PEC should be around twelve to fourteen. Football is not good and the change of trainers is not yet bearing fruit,” sums up the former football player. “Dick Schreuder is a coach with a clear philosophy. He wants to be dominant on the ball. But you are at PEC, not at Ajax. Forget that idea for a while and make sure you get points, I would say.”