Adam Maher left an excellent impression on Thursday evening during the match between Ajax and FC Utrecht (1-1). Hans Kraay junior says in an interview with the 27-year-old midfielder that he is ‘starting to look like Adam again’, while Jan Joost van Gangelen and Marciano Vink on ESPN tipping as ‘a little guy that Arne Slot can have with Feyenoord’.
“You are starting to look like Adam again! You have changed. Nice to play football, but there is poison in it. It’s ahead, it’s a bit like you were at AZ again ”, Kraay starts the interview in front of the camera ESPN with Maher. “I haven’t changed,” Maher responds modestly. “It has always been the same for me, you always want to move forward. I now get options to advance the balls. That’s also what we’ve been talking about a lot lately. I can get the balls forward. They know that when I have the ball, I want to play it forward too. Only then do I have to have runners who chase the ball. ”
Kraay asks whether Maher has ‘turned a switch’. “That also has to do with other factors,” replies the FC Utrecht midfielder. “It is not the case that I did not play games or tackled it then. I always want to give it my all, for sure. Only I also need players who go deep, otherwise I can’t get rid of the ball. That is now good. When the penalty came out, I had eye contact with Gyrano (Kerk, ed.). That was exactly the same against ADO, the moment he was just offside. We enjoy working together and then my qualities also emerge. ”
“I saw the nicest Maher in the cup final between AZ and PSV, then he was fabulously good and Van Bommel played completely upside down,” says presenter Van Gangelen after seeing the interview with Maher, while pointing to the 2013 cup final. Maher then defeated his future club PSV with AZ 2-1 and signed for the opening goal. “After that he has earned his transfer and has languished a little bit, somehow. He has not been happy for a second at PSV. Well, that’s an exaggeration. But hardly or not at all. ”
“You see with him that he has a certain power again. If he has three Ajax players on his neck in the back, he does not panic. He is always looking for the footballing solution and nine times out of ten he comes out. When what you have in mind comes out, I call it power. He just radiates that ”, Vink continues. “I don’t want to chase him away from FC Utrecht at all, but I thought: that is a little guy that Arne Slot could have with it very well at Feyenoord”, says Van Gangelen. Maher’s contract with FC Utrecht will continue until mid-2022. Vink concludes: “Certainly, that position in midfield at Feyenoord is a bit understaffed. These kinds of types, Joey Veerman, Maher … ”