Kenneth Perez is very pleased with Davy Klaassen. The 28-year-old midfielder returned to Ajax last summer and this season he scored 16 goals and 5 assists in 44 games, with which he played an important role in winning the national title. Perez mentions Klaassen in the program This was the Weekend from ESPN a ‘player with an unbelievably good functional technique’.
“As Ajax you are generally the better team, but the opponent can adjust well and is very defensive. Then you have to have someone who makes the 1-0, because then you can move forward and you get more space. We know all those things. But yes, if someone makes the 1-0 nine times … Well, then you are quite important ”, Perez begins. Klaassen left Ajax in 2017 for employment with Everton and returned to Amsterdam via Werder Bremen.
“It is very striking that it happens again and again: someone goes abroad, it doesn’t quite work out there,” says the Danish analyst. “We all think he is a good player and in the Netherlands he shows that he is a good player. He started out as a defensive midfielder, which he had learned from Werder Bremen. Then he went to ten, when Quincy Promes left. Then he scored all these goals and found his old position. ”
“The Premier League is just a bit too far for most Dutch players. You now also hear it from Erwin Koeman, who worked with him at Everton. Physically it is simply not enough from the Eredivisie ”, Perez continues. Fellow analyst Arnold Bruggink emphasizes that in the Premier League there are ‘too many others ready to take over your place’. Perez agrees: “It doesn’t matter that you have cost thirty million euros.”
Jan Joost van Gangelen calls Klaassen the ‘white latino’ because of his attitude. “He’s not the most graceful player to look at, but he has such an unbelievably good functional technique,” Perez said. “He combines that with always being in the right place. At a corner he always moves close to where the ball is going to come. He always shows up fantastic in the penalty area. ”