Monday, September 27, 2021 at 3:43 PM• Dominic Mostert • Last update: 15:50

Erik ten Hag seems to be heading for a choice between Steven Berghuis and Davy Klaassen prior to the Champions League match between Ajax and Besiktas. After the international match, Klaassen returned with groin complaints, as a result of which Berghuis acted as an attacking midfielder against PEC Zwolle, SC Cambuur, Fortuna Sittard, FC Groningen and Sporting Portugal. Although Ajax won all those matches, Ten Hag says it can get around Berghuis.

Journalist Mike Verweij confronts the Ajax trainer at the press conference with the target figures in the matches with Berghuis as the base customer: 24 goals for, 1 against. Berghuis himself was good for three goals and five assists in those five matches. Verweij asks whether Ten Hag can get around Berghuis ‘with good decency’. “That could be, yes. I can get around everyone. You choose the team with which you have the best chance of winning. That has to be at the top. The team is always more important than the individual,” the coach explains.

Klaassen fell 15 minutes before the end of the game against Groningen and made his comeback. He is now fit enough for a starting spot. “Davy has been out for a few weeks. But not so long that it is alarming. He played three games in one week for the Dutch national team about three weeks ago. So that cannot be completely gone. I certainly think that he can start,” says Ten Hag. Does it come down to a choice between Berghuis and Klaassen? “Yes, in the end we will have to make choices, that’s right. I’m pretty good at that.”

“The principles do not change, but they bring other qualities”, Ten Hag responds to the question whether something changes with Berghuis or Klaassen as number 10. “A very great quality of Davy is that he has a feeling for spaces, to walk on them. He has very good timing in that and a fantastic defensive transition Steven makes good position choices and the overview and technique to deliver the last ball He has amazed me at the progress he is making in walking and timing to clear spaces “Playing and working together with the striker, but certainly also in the defensive transition. In that position it is incredibly important for us that this is done in a very efficient way, otherwise we become vulnerable.”