” href=”https://www.fcupdate.nl/footballers/steven-berghuis”>Steven Berghuis has not been able to make a difference for Ajax since his return. The left leg was allowed to do it again from the start on Thursday evening in the home match against Lazio Kenneth Perez wonders whether Francesco Farioli would be wise to continue giving Berghuis the chance and even questions the possible contract extension.
Berghuis had to miss a large part of the first half of the season due to an injury. He made his return in the top match against PSV at the beginning of November, but has not yet managed to reach the level of before his absence. Berghuis received a lot of criticism last Sunday after his performance against AZ and will also have to pay for it after the meeting with Lazio. “Berghuis was a bit painful, he is just in a very bad period and could not get out today (Thursday, ed.)”Vincent Schildkamp says in the program Football talk op ESPN.
Article continues below video
READ ALSO: Explanation for Berghuis’ weak match against AZ has to do with teammate
Perez is then asked by presenter Milan van Dongen whether he understands that Farioli continues to give him the opportunity. “Farioli is crazy about him. He’s kind of his mascot after all”said Perez, who is referring, among other things, to Farioli’s praising words about Berghuis after his speech prior to De Klassieker against Feyenoord in October. “Of course, Farioli wants to go very far to get him up to standard. I understand that, but now there are so many matches in a row. It’s also a bit like: how many games does it have to take before he shows some class? He makes Ajax weaker rather than better”Perez is harsh in his assessment of Berghuis’s recent performance.
READ ALSO: Steven Berghuis sighs deeply after Noa Vahle’s question: ‘Yes… I am not standing here with a very nice feeling’
Should Ajax extend Berghuis?
According to the Danish analyst, it is hoped for both Ajax and Berghuis that he will have a good preparation for the second half of the season and can throw off ‘the hesitation or I don’t know what he has’. “Or this is just it. And then you, as Ajax, have to ask yourself whether you want to extend this”Perez adds. Berghuis is currently in possession of an expiring contract. He recently hinted after the home match against PEC Zwolle that he will most likely remain associated with Ajax. So Perez has his reservations about that. The Dane wonders whether Berghuis has not become ‘too big’ in recent years. “We always make him very big because he was one of the few Ajax players with creativity, a nice kick and all those things. But when has he been super decisive for Ajax as a whole?”
Schildkamp then points Perez to Berghuis’s first season in Amsterdam, when he scored twelve goals and fourteen assists in 46 games in all competitions. Perez is nevertheless not convinced. “He couldn’t get into the team in his position, because that was where Antony stood. Then he got to ten. Was it because he was so good or because Ajax was so good at that time?”the former footballer of Ajax, FC Twente and PSV, among others, wonders. He believes that Berghuis should not want to be ‘the trainer’s favorite’. “He needs to get the blood out of the way a bit”that’s what it sounds like. And away from midfield, Perez advocates. “This doesn’t matter at all, does it? This is the problem. Ajax is a team, so they can still do reasonably well. He is not the ultimate team player because he is a creative person.”
➡️ You may also find this article interesting
???? Farioli cannot bear to see images: ‘Let me suffer again…’
“Maybe the camera didn’t work,” says the coach Ajax about a crucial moment against Lazio.
