AZ Suffers Defeat at Sunderland Despite Chances
Khalid Boulahrouz could hardly believe AZ walked away from Sunderland with nothing.
A 1-0 defeat in their Europa League opener, despite a string of chances, left the former defender shaking his head in the Ziggo Sport studio. For him, the story of the night crystallised in one moment: Mexx Meerdink, ten minutes from time, clean through, and hesitating.
He waited. And waited. Too long.
By the time Meerdink finally pulled the trigger, Sunderland goalkeeper Robin Roefs had stretched out a leg and blocked the tame, low effort. The chance was gone, the equaliser with it.
"At this level, at least one of them has to go in," Boulahrouz said, summing up AZ’s wastefulness.
He didn’t spare the young striker. "This chance for Meerdink. It is simply hit too tamely, low to the ground. If you are ruthless, you just smash it into the roof of the net. Theo (Janssen) rightly said: you have to become a killer as a striker. Especially if he wants to get to the Netherlands national team. Then these are the chances in which you can distinguish yourself."
For Boulahrouz, the problem was as much in the decision-making as in the finish.
"Delaying it once more, taking another touch, that means you are no longer quite set yourself. As a result, you can no longer strike it the way you want. This is simply wasting a hundred per cent chance," he said, clearly irritated. "These are things he really has to cut out. Looking at the whole match, he was simply too sloppy, not good as a focal point... And the chances he got, you have to take them."
Meerdink didn’t hide behind excuses. He faced the cameras and accepted his part in the defeat.
"I think at certain moments I still lost the ball a little too easily, but I also had a number of good moments. The point for my development is that I have to keep doing it consistently," he said, before turning to that late miss. "That ball at the end, I have to smash it in. No thinking, just with the instep. In the box I have to be deadly, become deadly."
The words sounded right. The analysts weren’t convinced.
Theo Janssen, sitting alongside Boulahrouz, picked up on Meerdink’s tone as much as his performance.
"Interesting. He has the feeling he still played quite a decent match. He is quite satisfied," Janssen remarked. "I would advise him to watch this match back calmly once more, because it comes down to a number of moments in which you have to be deadly as a striker and in which you have to be strong to give your team some calm. Those few moments are not enough, friend."
Janssen praised the talent, but not the edge.
"He is a very enjoyable footballer, he is technically refined, has all the attributes to be a good player. Only he lacks that hunger. You have to do everything for it. He must always give everything for it, and I sometimes miss that a little with him. He has so much potential, but he is not getting everything out of it," he concluded.
AZ leave Sunderland with zero points and a nagging feeling: if their young No 9 really finds that killer instinct the pundits demand, how many of these nights might end very differently?
