Monday, September 13, 2021 at 10:45 PM• Dominic Mostert

René van der Gijp would ‘normally’ line up Sébastien Haller on Wednesday evening in the match between Sporting Portugal and Ajax in the Champions League. The attacker can play for Ajax in a European context for the first time, but in Champions League matches Erik ten Hag regularly opted for Dusan Tadic in the striker position in recent years. That choice, however, was born of necessity; Ajax now has a striker who is considered suitable for the first team.

Haller led Ajax to a 0-2 victory over PEC Zwolle on Saturday with a double. He has scored four goals in as many games this season and, according to Van der Gijp, also deserves a base place in Lisbon. He doesn’t like sticking to the ‘Dusan Tadic variant’. “That went well once in the time of Juventus-away and Real Madrid-away, but let’s not glorify that,” says the analyst on Monday evening in the broadcast of Veronica Inside. He would find it strange if Haller was suddenly passed as a striker.

“Haller can play against PEC Zwolle, NEC, SC Cambuur and Sparta Rotterdam, but as soon as they get on the plane, Haller must know that he will sit on the couch. You should not do that,” the former attacker judges. Despite this, he does not think Haller is the ideal attack leader. “It’s not the best cue point and he’s not the fastest. I can’t name something he’s mastered like crazy, so there’s only one thing left for him and that’s scoring 25 goals. And he’s making it. That’s it.” he did fine.”

The Ajax audience does not seem to have fully embraced Haller yet. For example, last month in the battle for the Johan Cruijff Scale against PSV (0-4 loss) there was even cheering when the Ivorian was substituted. “The Ajax supporters started to whistle at him somewhat”, Hans Kraay junior also notes. “Hakim Ziyech didn’t care and didn’t change, but it’s not going to help anyone. You shouldn’t whistle at someone, even if he misses three chances.”