‘If we ask supporters to behave, do the same on the field’
NOS Football–
‘Klaassen is the sweetest guy, but acts like idiot’
It was mostly about the players’ behavior after the KNVB Cup final between Ajax and PSV. About the unsportsmanlike behavior, the whining, the simulating of serious injuries, the riots. “It was annoying to watch,” states Pierre van Hooijdonk in Studio Football.
Rafael van der Vaart was disturbed by Ajax midfielder Davy Klaassen. “For me, Klaassen is the nicest guy there is,” Van der Vaart said. “But he is behaving like an idiot on the pitch at the moment. He is like a chicken everywhere to push someone. If we ask supporters to behave, do the same on the field.”
Jeroen Stekelenburg agrees: “Then we can’t call supporters to order, can we?”
Klaassen himself acknowledged that the atmosphere on the pitch was a bit heated. “Maybe there are things that sometimes go too far, but we have to find a balance in that,” the Ajax midfielder responded. “A season like this doesn’t help. Last week we lost based on fighting spirit. Now we didn’t want to let that happen.”
Watch Davy Klaassen’s reaction after the cup final below.
Klaassen does understand criticism of behavior in cup final: ‘A season like that doesn’t help’
Vitesse midfielder Marco van Ginkel (ex-PSV) saw “compensatory behavior” in the behavior of Ajax players after last week’s 3-0 defeat in Eindhoven in the premier league. “Last week I missed the passion at Ajax,” Van Ginkel said. “Now it was exaggerated at both teams.”
“It says a lot about the quality of Ajax’s team,” Van Hooijdonk believes. “If the quality is high and the game is good, these things don’t happen at Ajax. Against Feyenoord in the semifinals of the KNVB Cup, it was the same. Irritating, sucking, diving. In the 2017/2018 season, we didn’t see this at all.”
Van Hooijdonk advises the players in question not to watch the footage back: “It’s embarrassing.”
Watch excerpts about PSV coach Ruud van Nistelrooij and midfielder Joey Veerman below. Also check out the regular sections in Studio Voetbal: Hugo Borst in The Wall Layer about the sickness of Dutch soccer and Frank Heinen in Eindsignaal about Han Hollander.
