De Zeeuw

Sorry guys, my comments thing still doesn’t work, so I go into questions here, ok?

Demy de Zeeuw is a rare breed. His biggest asset is that he sees the game very very well. He sort of “sees” where the ball/attacking activity will be so it’s as if he can be at more than one place at the time. He is short, meaning he can turn quickly and is hard to get off the ball (like Davids, Sneijder). He is the connection man in midfield. Normally plays just in front of the defense. Because he sees the play very good and his first meters are very fast and explosive, he is the ideal man to take the sting out of opponent’s attacks. As the connection man, the old Ajax’ number 4 position, he can direct the play and open from left to right or take the pace out of the game…or he can decide to add pace to the game. The Dutch VI magazine even coined a new term for players like him: pace-accelerators. So, he biggest forte is his vision. Then his mentality paired with his explosive speed on short distances. His passing is superb. Always the right pace and always on the right foot ohis team mates. If he wants the team mate to move forward, he’ll pass the ball a meter in front of the man, if he wants to tune the pace down, he play straight into the man. His attacking skills are good too. He knows when he can move into midfield and support the attackers. As Goose said, both feet are equally strong and his finishing isn’t bad either. His weaker points are obviously his heading. He is also not the best in dividing his energy over 90 minutes and sometimes he is totally empty after 70 minutes.

Comparing him his hard. Alain Giresse comes to mind, the stocky French midfielder of the EC1984 team. Paul Scholes. There’s definitely some Davids and Sneijder in him too. Wim Jansen? He does need to develop his leadership skills. He’s still a bit naieve and young. But definitely one to watch! Although I also think that he only excells on the No. 4 position. He played right midfielder for Go Ahead Eagles when van Gaal (or was it Adriaanse?) scouted him and he was not a extraordinary player. The big names (Ajax, Feyenoord, PSV) totally missed him…

PS Goose, the sorry Jan remark in your comments is beyond me :-). I didn’t write that AZ played good, did I? I thought they didn’t play at their usual level…. Or was I too positive?