Sunday, September 26, 2021 at 21:28• Yanick Vos • Last update: 21:29

Ronald de Boer expects Steven Berghuis to have to settle for a place on the bench at Ajax against Besiktas on Tuesday evening. The former international thinks that trainer Erik ten Hag will choose to have Davy Klaassen return to the base in the Champions League. The attacking midfielder has been sidelined in recent weeks with a groin injury and was therefore already missing in the away game against Sporting Portugal. On Saturday evening he made his comeback against FC Groningen.

Klaassen is the permanent number ten at Ajax under Ten Hag and has scored once this Eredivisie season. In the past international match, he made a big impression in the shirt of the Dutch national team by scoring against Norway (1-1) and Turkey (6-1). He then returned to Ajax injured, giving Berghuis the chance to take his position behind the striker. The attacker, who came over from Feyenoord, seized the opportunity with both hands and scored against Sporting Portugal (5-1) and in the past three Eredivisie games has been good for two goals and three assists. Despite his excellent figures, De Boer does not expect Berghuis to start in the starting lineup against Besiktas, partly because he expects Antony to be preferred in the right wing position.

“Klaassen is higher in the hierarchy than Berghuis, in my view,” said De Boer on Sunday evening Rondo. “I think this man is just going to play: Klaassen. Antony is definitely not going out. He (Klaassen, ed.) did a great job”, De Boer refers to the period before Klaassen returned from the Dutch national team injured. Marco van Basten, who, like table mates Ruud Gullit and Jan van Halst, expects Klaassen to start, thinks Berghuis fills in the number ten position in an unusual way. “Berghuis has a bit of a strange way of playing on ten, I must say. You can see that he is really searching. You have to pay a lot of attention to your striker and I don’t see him doing that at all.”

Gullit indicates that it is a difficult position at Ajax. “You played with Jari Litmanen, he did that really great,” he says, referring to De Boer. “He was so smart about that.” De Boer acknowledges that Litmanen had a lot of quality as an attacking midfielder. “I ran into the ball and he always went into the hole,” said the former international in the program of Ziggo Sports. Finally, he emphasizes that Klaassen was in ‘blood shape’ before he got injured. “I don’t see him just staying on the bench. My feeling is that he will start with Klaassen.” The match between Ajax and Besiktas starts on Tuesday evening at 6.45 pm.