Khalid Boulahrouz Critiques AZ's Missed Opportunities Against Sunderland

Khalid Boulahrouz didn’t bother dressing it up. AZ, he felt, let Sunderland off the hook in their Europa League opener – and Mexx Meerdink stood at the heart of that frustration.

AZ lost 1-0, but it wasn’t for a lack of chances. They carved Sunderland open often enough, only to finish the night empty-handed. Ten minutes from time came the moment that still stung in the Ziggo Sport studio.

Meerdink, clean through, staring at the equaliser, hesitated.

He took an extra touch, waited a fraction too long, and then rolled his shot against the outstretched leg of goalkeeper Robin Roefs. The chance died, and with it AZ’s hope of rescuing a point.

“At this level, at least one of them has to go in,” Boulahrouz said, visibly irritated as he watched the replays of chance after chance going begging.

He didn’t spare Meerdink. “This chance for Meerdink. It is simply hit too tamely, low to the ground. If you are ruthless, you just smash it into the roof of the net. Theo (Janssen) rightly said: you have to become a killer as a striker. Especially if he wants to get to the Netherlands national team. Then these are the chances in which you can distinguish yourself.”

The former defender zoomed in on that fatal hesitation. “Delaying it once more, taking another touch, that means you are no longer quite set yourself. As a result, you can no longer strike it the way you want. This is simply wasting a hundred per cent chance.”

Boulahrouz’s verdict on the striker’s overall display was just as sharp. “These are things he really has to cut out. Looking at the whole match, he was simply too sloppy, not good as a focal point... And the chances he got, you have to take them.”

Meerdink didn’t hide. He admitted he fell short, even if he tried to salvage some positives from his performance.

“I think at certain moments I still lost the ball a little too easily, but I also had a number of good moments. The point for my development is that I have to keep doing it consistently,” he said, before turning to the miss that defined his night. “That ball at the end, I have to smash it in. No thinking, just with the instep. In the box I have to be deadly, become deadly.”

That self-assessment didn’t entirely convince Theo Janssen.

The analyst listened, then cut through the optimism. “Interesting. He has the feeling he still played quite a decent match. He is quite satisfied. I would advise him to watch this match back calmly once more, because it comes down to a number of moments in which you have to be deadly as a striker and in which you have to be strong to give your team some calm. Those few moments are not enough, friend,” Janssen said, ruthlessly.

He likes Meerdink as a player. That was clear. But he doesn’t think liking him is enough.

“He is a very enjoyable footballer, he is technically refined, has all the attributes to be a good player. Only he lacks that hunger. You have to do everything for it. He must always give everything for it, and I sometimes miss that a little with him. He has so much potential, but he is not getting everything out of it,” Janssen concluded.

AZ’s Europa League campaign has only just started, but for Meerdink the message could hardly be louder: the chances are there. The question now is whether he’s ready to become the killer everyone insists he must be.