Kenneth Perez mainly blames the narrow player selection that AZ fell short in the Conference League against Bodö/Glimt (2-2 after extra time) on Thursday evening. The analyst of ESPN saw, among others, Zakaria Aboukhlal very disappointing. “So this is what you get. Aboukhlal comes in, who will rarely if ever score,” said Perez.
After 78 official appearances, Aboukhlal has 10 goals and is therefore not very accurate. “On the outside it’s still funny to see, but in rush hour…”, Perez continues. “That’s a whole different position.” The Moroccan international came on for Vangelis Pavlidis in the 75th minute, a substitution that Perez had not made. “We don’t know everything, of course, so maybe it was forced, but it says a lot about the breadth of AZ’s selection,” the Dane says with a smile.
AZ had to hunt for a third goal after the equalizer of the Norwegians in extension, but could not make a fist. “They got very little body, with Aboukhlal, Kamal Sowah, Hakon Evjen,” says Perez. “It’s a very high youth football content… It’s the last phase of an exciting European match, then that’s meagre. You feel like three A1 players come in: playful, and they don’t quite know what it is all about. At that point, it’s not about who is the best team, but about players understanding what is being asked at the end. These are players that you all have to try out.
Pascal Jansen also decided to replace Dani de Wit ten minutes before the end. “But it keeps running, that’s a Duracell”, Perez is surprised. Marciano Vink adds: “They put a lot of pressure on the ball in the first half. Jordy Clasie and Dani de Wit were very important in that, but in the second half they actually caught Bodö in their own half. So in my perception they could both still go through, and all the way – as Kenneth rightly says – in that very important phase.”