Marciano Vink is not impressed by the game Daley Blind has put on the mat. The left back of Ajax, who was preferred over Nicolás Tagliafico in the Champions League match with Sporting Portugal, played a ‘difficult match’ in the eyes of the analyst. The speed in particular is a point of criticism, but the left back also lacked ‘gogme’, says Vink during football talk on ESPN.
After the discussion about the negative role of goalkeeper Remko Pasveer, who made a mistake in Sporting’s 1-2, Blind’s performance was also discussed. “It is best to point out that Daley Blind is not in the best shape of his life”, Vink opens the discussion. “Just after Sporting’s 1-2, there was a slight panic at Ajax and at one point I saw Blind lose a ball completely in the left wing position. And we know his speed problem, but the pace at which he switched… You don’t see anything like that at Bayern Munich, of course. Yesterday against Barcelona it was in after loss of the ball no time another defensive block. But Blind kept on grieving and he sprinted back at a pace where I thought: this is not good.”
The analysts during Football Talk
“I sometimes saw it with different combinations,” continues Vink. “It seems as if his sprinting ability, so the last thirty percent of his real speed, is completely gone. He’s trying to solve a lot now with his positioning on the pitch, but I do miss his gogme and smartness at times. There were times when he had to cover on the inside, and then it took too long. That’s just not allowed. Of course he is not a left back either, because he is simply in the wrong place,” said Vink, who believes that Blind can only be of added value for Ajax in the axis of the field.
Hans Kraay junior also expects Blind to return to his ‘old level’ quickly and believes that he should not be written off too quickly. “We as analysts have often written him off, but he always comes back. He’s never been fast and he’s very self-critical, but he always keeps coming back. He may not return as a left-back, but he will find his way back into center or midfield. But he’s not going to lose his starting spot, that’s just really not going to happen,” said the analyst.