Crisis after new loss at AZ? Not according to trainer Pascal Jansen

Immediately after the final whistle of the lost away game against Excelsior (2-1) the steam came out of his ears for captain Jordy Clasie. “We were in a great rhythm and have to look at ourselves. We can’t win games at 95 or 98 percent,” Clasie said in front of ESPN’s camera.

After a very bad first half, it thundered in the dressing room, Clasie said. “This is one of the first times that I have seen the trainer really angry. Everyone was angry and frustrated. This was unworthy of AZ.”

Jansen later told ESPN that he thinks players and staff should be ashamed of the first 45 minutes. “The first half was far below any level we are aiming for.” In the 38th minute, the trainer intervened hard and exchanged Van Brederode and Dekker for Barasi and Sugawara. “Something had to be done. You can wait until halftime, but we didn’t do that, because we wanted to create an impulse within the selection.”

According to Dani de Wit, it is not surprising that the outside world uses the word crisis after the third loss. “If you want to be a top club and we want that, then it should be a crisis, although crisis is a word in itself. It is bad and we are all convinced of that.”

Jansen agrees with Clasie’s words that AZ should mainly look at itself. “Today the competition setting was not good. We can control that ourselves. I think that is a worse thing.”

On Thursday, AZ will play against FC Vaduz from Liechenstein in the Conference League. The next Eredivisie match is Sunday, October 30. AZ will then visit FC Volendam.