AZ coach Pascal Jansen explained after the 3-1 defeat against FC Twente why he replaced Timo Letschert after 22 minutes of play for Pantelis Hatzidiakos. When trailing 2-0, the coach intervened and made the painful substitution. Jansen did not think Letschert made a good impression with both goals against and did not spare the defender.
FC Twente took the lead after just 32 seconds through Ricky van Wolfswinkel. He scored on a pass from Michel Vlap, who ran away from Letschert’s back. Fifteen minutes later, Letschert made a big mistake by handing the ball in to Daan Rots, who brought the margin to two. “I thought he looked bad twice,” Jansen told ESPN. “We couldn’t afford that anymore. Then you have to bring in someone, in the form of Pantelis Hatzidiakos, so that we can fix it with someone who is still clear in the race.”
Pascal Jansen changes Timo Letschert after his big mistake ?? ?? ESPN #?? #TWEAZ pic.twitter.com/8UjGgdpEMA
— ESPN NL (@ESPNnl) September 23, 2021
“Of course I also look in the mirror. Today the central duo was not a source of peace. I thought I should help the team by making substitutions. He (Hatzidiakos, ed.) has tried to fix things as best he could,” said Jansen, who only won once this season with AZ and can be found in seventeenth place. “This is extremely annoying. This was not the revenge you were looking for. We help ourselves out of the game completely unnecessarily and we create a situation where we immediately have to give chase.”
At halftime, analyst Kenneth Perez said he did not agree with the substitution. “I do have trouble with that. You made a choice in advance to draft Letschert”, he said at ESPN on coach Jansen. “You can make a mistake. Attackers can also make mistakes. Pavlidis doesn’t have a chance, but he doesn’t change it either? Every ball on goal goes in, but the keeper doesn’t change either? I don’t like it. doesn’t make you much better either. Now you’ve got another kamikaze pilot in it.”