Ruud van Nistelrooij has seen a lot of things that were responsible for the defeat of PSV against AZ. The coach judged his own team hard and saw a lot go wrong, so that the Alkmaarders could go 0-1 through a goal by Vangelis Pavlidis. In particular, the structure and accuracy of the fit could not count on Van Nistelrooij’s approval.
The trainer from Geffen could explain in great detail why his team lost to AZ. “Too many players did not reach their level and we gave the goal away in our own build-up. That was very unnecessary, very bad. In general we had a lot of trouble to have a rest, especially at the ball. If the level is not good and you are also restless, then it will be difficult, but we still got quite a few opportunities.”
Players like Cody Gakpo, Érick Gutiérrez, Philipp Max and Noni Madueke could have scored for PSV. They left that behind and Van Nistelrooij didn’t want to talk too long about missing those opportunities. “We had too many wrong passes, too many sloppiness. In addition, the crosses were not clean and the corners and set pieces were not good enough. That was not in his will, because everyone tried, but in the end it was a bad performance.”
The pressure of ‘having to’ after Ajax’s draw at Emmen may have played a part, according to the coach. “If you have to do it then you stand on the spot and you have to be there as a team and as an individual. Then we go too far out of our tightness and that is the big step we still have to take. You could have done a fantastic job in the first half of the season if we had won here, but to no avail.”