Cevap: Transfer Önerileri
Orta sahaya AZ'nin ''Gerard'ı'' Stijn Schaars'ı isterdim.
Hollanda kaynaklı bir siteden alıntı :
''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…” ''