Mohamed Ihattaren could count on the necessary compliments after his hat-trick against VVV-Venlo. The twenty-year-old midfielder took the lead during the 6-1 win of Young Ajax on the Limburgers.
Ihattaren reported three times on the score sheet after the break. He always did it the same way: dribbling in and out. “You know that Ihattaren is left-footed, but yes, it is a quality”, said VVV player Joeri Schroijen afterwards in front of the camera of ESPN† The goalscorer on behalf of the visitors from Venlo also had a chat with Ihattaren: ,,I said: good job, keep it up.”
Teammate Naci Ünüvar also had compliments for Ihattaren, who is not yet appearing in front of the camera: ,,Everyone knows what he can do. His qualities come to the fore. He fits perfectly into the team. He helps us and we help him. It’s fun. We know what we can do and I think it’s only fun”, said the Jong Ajax player, who scored twice himself.
His coach John Heitinga agreed. ,,We all know how good he can play football, but he still needs to take some steps to get to Champions League level. We have to give him time, he needs these kinds of matches to build up a rhythm.”
Three times Ihattaren passed the defense of VVV, apparently childishly easy. However, Heitinga did not want to hang that on weak defense. ,,I played with Arjen Robben… You knew what he was going to do, but he shot them anyway. Guys like this have the ability to procrastinate.”
In his Instagram stories, Ihattaren himself briefly reacted to his leading role against the middle engine in the Kitchen Champion Division: ‘Normal day at work’, he wrote with a photo of himself.
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