Sivert Mannsverk was ‘stiff with nerves’ during the match between FC Twente and Ajax (3-1), Mike Verweij says in the podcast Kickoff by The Telegraph. The journalist knows that the 21-year-old Norwegian was given a starting spot because of his ‘good performance’ on the training field, but afterwards it was ‘laughed loudly’ about that.
Mannsverk was one of the bitten dogs after the defeat against FC Twente. After the match, Ibrahim Afellay and Karim El Ahmadi, among others, were very critical of the midfielder’s performance, who according to them ‘didn’t even want the ball’. Striking, because Mannsverk is said to have delivered excellent performances during the training sessions. “I have spoken to people who have seen Mannsverk,” Verweij begins.
“The time after the international break to train properly was short, because the internationals trickled in one by one. That Mannsverk came in and allegedly controlled the entire training, and that was apparently a reason to appoint him. Then you introduce a 21-year-old boy who has only played football in Norway, and he turns out to be stiff with nerves. There is a lot of laughter about it, of course,” says Verweij. “He has been watched in the Norwegian national team, but also in the match between Molde FK and Galatasaray, and I saw that too, he was really just good.”
Verweij believes that Ajax lacks experienced forces, which means that players like Mannsverk have no one to lean on. “There are a few things that Maurice Steijn asked Sven Mislintat during the training camp in Germany. So he wanted Dutch people in the selection, players with an Ajax background and players in the 27 to 30 age category. In fact, everything Steijn asked for is missing. Ajax is of course going to be a disaster this year,” concludes Verweij.