Sébastien Haller failed to convince the Ajax crowd in the battle for the Johan Cruijff Scale against PSV (0-4 loss), Kenneth Perez noticed. The 27-year-old striker, who came over from West Ham United for 22.5 million euros last winter break, but had a lot of trouble in Perez’s eyes to act as a point of contact for his team. Haller was substituted for David Neres after 61 minutes and that was received with great cheers in the Johan Cruijff ArenA.
“The Ajax audience is hard, isn’t it”, Perez signals at ESPN. “Talents are praised to heaven here, ‘super talent’ and such, but when Haller went off the field, it was very hard. They cheered when he went off. Is that too hard? He was out of tune, I thought I.” Marciano Vink is not surprised by the reaction of the public. “Isn’t it always like this? If you don’t show it, you will be whistled,” said Vink.
Perez knows where Haller’s weak point lies. “You just have to have a striker… and that’s what’s wrong with him: his ball handling is just very poor. I keep saying: I think Jurriën Timber has a better ball handling than your striker, only he will always score goals “, said Perez, who indeed said that last season. “He does have a certain scoring ability and physically that matters. But responding, rebounding, that is very difficult.”
Arnold Bruggink is a little milder for Haller. “The striker position at Ajax is the most difficult place, isn’t it?” says Bruggink. “I do think he deserves a little more credit. But his price tag also works with him. They want a player here who scores fifty goals and gives fifty assists.”