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Stijn Schaars: 100% pure passion!

December 20th, 2008 | By: Jan | 19 Comments »

Stijn Schaars is back. And how! AZ is leader in the Dutch league and has it’s own version of Steven Gerrard. “Everything needs to get out of the way in my ambition to be successful.”

The world leadership isn’t used once in the interview. But the drive, the passion and the love for the game is omnipresent. Stijn Schaars is a winner. Maybe not in words, but most definitely in his actions. Stijn Schaars, the captain Fantastic of AZ Alkmaar.

Liverpool has Gerrard, AZ has Schaars. Although he’s not a kid from Alkmaar he does motivate, direct, makes the play and guards the vibe in the dressing room. In many ways, he does resemble the Liverpool captain. Like Gerrard, the 24 year old international needs to be constrained before his fanatic play creates more injuries.

“Coach Van Gaal thought I was too wild in my first year. I didn’t believe him. I thought, “but I’m a good player…”. But he was right. I just went into challenges without thinking. Challenges I now know I had to stay out of. Sometimes, it doesn’t make sense to go in with 100%… When you’re 3-0 up, you don’t want to injure yourself or collect a card. Van Gaal also taught me to pay attention to which player has possession. Some players aren’t that good and will lose the ball even if you just put some pressure on. You don’t have to go all out in every situation. I injured myself too many times with ridiculous tackles at the wrong moments…”

AZ and Van Gaal are ambitious and so is Stijn Schaars. But his personal ambition is to play 30 games in a row. “Do you know I never ever did that? Play 30 games without injury. I’m 24 years old and I have been through 4 operations already. I realized I was too vulnerable and I had to adjust my training program to gain strength.”

Last season, Schaars was fully committed to recovering from a huge ankle problem. AZ is happy now, with Schaars back in the team, although last season he was also present behind the scenes.

Some call him a maniac, but in his eyes this mentality is needed to reach the top.

“In terms of money we are less than the Top 3. Feyenoord isn’t rich either at the moment, so maybe we do belong to the top 3, but we should make ourselves aware that although we can’t spend what Ajax or PSV can spend, we are still AZ. We don’t have to talk ourselves down. We may not be able to win in terms of payments, but we can win in terms of unity and mentality. We need to invest in ourselves and each other. Make sure what other players’ strong and weak points are and compensate those. That’s the team process. And Van Gaal works hard on those aspects. We can make a difference in that way.”

He looks at his team mates and smiles… “We don’t need to be the underdog anymore, I think we have something like 15 internationals in our squad.”

Schaars has no problems sacrificing himself. Even in Vitesse’s youth program, he rather played in service of others. “I am a team players. The best compliment I can get is where people see me as the player enabling others to shine. I love that. Obviously, I like to excel too, but my biggest quality is to enable others to play great. And I am totally fine with that.”

When he was injured, he refused to do interviews. But he was at the club every day. “When you play, you think it’s all normal to be a pro players. Sometimes, it’s good to be left out so you realize what a blessed life we lead. I did my recovery at the club, so I would feel the hurt when AZ lost.”

Schaars is pretty opinionated and tells everyone what he feels. “Some guys are introverted, I am extroverted. I love expressing myself. But someone like Maarten Martens is more a silent type, although we share the same commitment to the team. He has the same drive and winners’ mentality. It doesn’t mean I’m more valuable than him, just because I’m louder.”

Last season, Louis van Gaal was ready to leave AZ. David Mendes, Kew Jaliens and Stijn Schaars stepped up to the plate and convinced both Van Gaal and owner Scheringa that AZ needed Van Gaal.

“I am convinced that Louis would have left if we hadn’t made a move from the players group. We need a top sport mentality here and Louis brings that. The reason why we went to Scheringa to convince him to not let Louis go was for the club. Van Gaal can be a tough task master, but that’s a good thing. Van Gaal has exactly that what AZ needs. The fact that we had that horrible season last year was purely because we, the players, couldn’t execute his vision. We felt it was wrong to allow your strongest asset to walk away. Unacceptable. But, of course Van Gaal isn’t a saint and he will leave one day, but at this point in time Van Gaal is the big star of AZ and we need him to get AZ where it wants to be.”

AZ will become the winter champs. Does this mean your gamble worked out? “Van Gaal took the risk, not me. He could have gone anywhere in Europe and make 5 times more money and play Champions League football every year. Most coaches would have, you know…”

Tags: Ajax, AZ, De Zeeuw, Dutch Eredivisie, Gerrard, Holland, Jaliens, Oranje, PSV, Schaars, van Gaal

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Comments

By finnster01 | December 20th, 2008 at 8:34 am

Very nice article Jan, as always.

I do not get to see much Eredivisie so I appreciate these articles and Goose’s and others updates.

Schaars sounds like the real deal, and at only 24 he will just get better.

Very surprised that the big guns have not come swinging, but then again, January is just around the corner and everyone has a price…

By 3ric | December 20th, 2008 at 10:19 am

Regardless to where AZ stands, if Schaars closes the Eredivisie season with ~30 matches and ~4 goals (so far he has played 14 and scored 0), I would consider this a successful campaign for a player who’s on the comeback road. Imo his main focuses are to solidify his defense and chip in more goals. There is no doubt about his leadership and commitment. Given that he stays healthy, I can see him as a long term replacement for Mark Van Bommel, more likely after WC 2010. He is a “cleaner” player, and is as smart as, if not smarter than Bomtje.

By ferenc | December 20th, 2008 at 11:02 am

i would like to see az champion. they deserve it. unfortunately i don’t see too much eredivisie (nothing),so – like Finn – really appreciate this kind of articles. has schaars any possibility to become an important oranje player?

Posted from Hungary

By ian wilkie | December 20th, 2008 at 1:33 pm

never heard of him but arsenio halfhuid for excilsior i think is apparently being scouted by aston villa and many other top clubs

By Carlos | December 20th, 2008 at 6:22 pm

I am now looking out for AZ matches as I have watched the last 3 games and Schaars is phenomenal a real stand out player together with de Zeeuw in that AZ midfield. Totally dominant and box to box player. He will be in Oranje (again) sooner than later and the way he has been playing I rate him above all the holding mids we have at the moment. (Goose your view ?)PLUS the fact that he is left sided. Long term it will be Schaars and de Jong or de Zeeuw. By the way he was the captain of Jong Oranje too when they won those championships a few years back.

Posted from Singapore

By sonneveld | December 20th, 2008 at 8:22 pm

arsenio halfhuid sounds like he a young very prmosing dutch defendre has anyone heard of him

van persie is apparently being followed by barcelona
wow he left the premeiship then i think i would have to start watching the spanish league more and drop setanta only kuyt and babel zuiverloon and vds notable left

By Miguel Rosado | December 20th, 2008 at 10:31 pm

I am so happy for Van Gaal I really hope he can make it this time, he is a great coach and deserves it.

I also don’t get to see the Eredivisie but I’ve read a lot of articles about Schaars and all express his value to AZ. It seems like he is a true leader and the type of player we lack in our midfield.

By ian wilkie | December 21st, 2008 at 11:27 am

van persie scored a beuty with his chocolate leg 1-0 arsenal just a minute ago

By ian wilkie | December 21st, 2008 at 11:27 am

and zuiverloon set up the west brom winner

By Igor | December 21st, 2008 at 2:12 pm

both van persie (what a goal!) and kuyt played well today, nice to see our dutch boys performing strongly…although it was a frustrating game to watch as an arsenal fan, we really needed a win and instead lost fabregas to an injury.

Posted from Canada

By goose | December 21st, 2008 at 2:47 pm

Eredivisie update

AZ – Fc Utrecht ; 2-0 ; another easy win for vGaal … AZ is a real machine at the moment, i reckon very few dutch teams will beat them this season … vHangegem told press that he gonna sto pas a manager after this season (no great loss there)

Sparta – Heerenveen ; 4-1 ; Heerenveen keeps on losing points .. they play either great or very bad, their managers position is still under pressure and this result wont help

NAC – Vitesse ; 2-0 ; with Amoah and Penders back in the team NAC is winning again .. they didnt play great but Vitesse is just a shit team…i reckon Westerhof will be gone soon

Roda JC – Fc Groningen ; 2-5 ; after 4 losses in a row a victory for Groningen…Markus Berg scored 4 Roda will need to concentrate on the relegation battle

NEC – Fc Den Haag ; 0-0 ; bit of a stolen point for Den Haag ..looked like NEC still had the champagne in their legs from the european victory last week … good result for Den Haag since they played terrible

Graafschap – Ajax ; 0-6 ; the result says it all .. a very easy win for vBastens side which didnt play that good btw

PSV – Feyenoord ; 0-1 ; both teams didnt want to lose and it showed .. not a good game, very scrappy but still pretty tense .. PSV won after a 80 minute strike by Affelay who is back after injury … more problems for Verbeek since 3! feyenoord players are suspended for too many yellow cards; looks like the problems for Feyenoord just wont stop

Fc Twente – Willem II ; 2-0 ; easy win for Twente who played only on 50% .. Willem II couldnt get anything done and it was just a walk in the park for Twente

Volendam – Heracles ; 3-1 ; more points for Volendam who are doing pretty decent lately ..Volendam is still last but the differences are getting smaller , its gonna be an intersesting second half of the competition

Stands

1.AZ 38
2.Ajax 35
3.Fc Twente 33
4.PSV 29
5.NAC 29
6.Groningen 26
7.NEC 26
8.Heerenveen 26
9.Fc Utrecht 22
10.Willem II 21
11.Heralces 19
12.Sparta 18
13.Feyenoord 16
14.Den Haag 15
15.Roda JC 14
16.Vitesse 12
17.Graafschap 12
18.Volendam 11

Moment of the week ; this elbow in de Graafschap-Ajax game

http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=ePfARAAiiQk

grtz

Posted from Netherlands

By Andrew | December 21st, 2008 at 5:07 pm

Jan, Goose; let me echo Finn and Ferenc and others in thanking you for keeping us up to date on happenings in the Eredivisie—both on the game results and up and coming players.

Posted from United States

By Michel-Olivier | December 21st, 2008 at 6:00 pm

we(ajax) are going to win the league playing ugly like chelsea, but who cares we have a young team.

Posted from United States

By Carlos | December 21st, 2008 at 6:02 pm

Not sure if anyone watched Man U v Quito in Japan but Sar had a “sizzler” and really kept out 4 great shots on goal. Whereas that doesn’t sound like much, the problem is that in the first half he hardly touched the ball. it’s always a goalie’s excuse to say that he had nothing to do to warm up in the game, but Sar again was brilliant.

Posted from Singapore

By Carlos | December 21st, 2008 at 7:24 pm

and the papers are now (again!) talking about the Bergkamp style goal vPersie scored against Liverpool. Must say it was again a stunner and worthy of being labeled a Bergkamp goal. Jan you may wish to reproduce the article and the goal from AD ?

Posted from Singapore

By Jan | December 21st, 2008 at 8:17 pm

I will

Haven’t seen it myself yet (tonight!) but I will post it here in a couple of days, ok?

By tiju | December 22nd, 2008 at 12:55 am

@schaars is far better than van bommel he should be called up soon.our holding midfeilders should be schaars,vanbommel,de jong at the time of WC10.

Posted from India

By tiju | December 22nd, 2008 at 1:05 am

the simple things
Bauma nad Calvin are far trustworthy than GIOVANI,but in offencive aspect GIO get the node
Mathijenson is good for bench and Marcelis is not good in air
Ooiger should be dropped
Heitinga should paly in the middle not in RB position,bula is also not good in air and poor buldup play.So there is vaccency in the CB positions Who will step up and fill the void?
RB-finally we got two superb RB-Mendes da silva(multiple use can play in holding mis)and Zuiverloon-if any one gets injured Dwight is the next candidate?
Which of our diffenders can stop henry,messi,patto,ronaldino,robinho,crying baby etc etc i mean we are highly vulnerable against these kind of players so BVM should strat work on this.

Posted from India

By Alex | December 23rd, 2008 at 6:13 am

Left backs Gio v.Bronckhorst, Tim de cler aren’t the best we have.
I think Wilfred Bouma and Edson Braafheid should be our left-backs.
Boulahrouz, Heitinga, Marcellis, Mathijsen are pretty much the most consistent central defenders at the moment. Right back options should be REAL right-backs and not center backs like Boulah, Heitinga or Marcellis, so i think Dwight Tiendalli, Gregory v.d.Wiel, Gianni Zuiverloon and David Mendes da Silva are the best RB options at the moment.

Posted from Netherlands

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