AZ's Europa League Defeat: Boulahrouz Critiques Meerdink's Miss

Khalid Boulahrouz walked out of the Ziggo Sport studio still shaking his head. AZ had just opened their Europa League campaign with a 1-0 defeat to Sunderland, but it was not the scoreline that bothered him most. It was the waste.

AZ carved out chances. Plenty of them. They controlled long stretches, pushed Sunderland back, and still came away with nothing. The moment that stuck with everyone came ten minutes from time.

Mexx Meerdink, clean through, the goal gaping, the equaliser begging to be scored.

He hesitated.

Instead of finishing with conviction, the AZ striker delayed, took an extra touch and finally rolled a tame effort low and close enough for Robin Roefs to throw out a leg and block. A huge chance gone, the game slipping away with it.

“At this level, at least one of them has to go in,” Boulahrouz said in the studio, visibly irritated as the replays rolled. He focused on that late miss. “This chance from Meerdink. It is just hit too weakly, low to the ground. If you are ruthless, you just smash it into the roof of the net.”

He referenced the words of fellow analyst Theo Janssen. “Theo 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 set yourself apart.”

For Boulahrouz, the problem was not only the finish, but everything that led up to it. The extra touch. The doubt.

“Delaying it once more, taking another touch, that means you are not quite in the right position yourself,” he argued. “Because of that, you can no longer strike it the way you want. This is simply wasting a 100 per cent chance. These are things he really has to cut out.”

His criticism went beyond one moment. Over the full 90 minutes, Boulahrouz felt Meerdink never truly imposed himself.

“Looking at the whole match, he was simply too sloppy, not good as a focal point… And the chances he got, you have to finish them.”

Meerdink did not hide. He faced the cameras, admitted his own shortcomings and tried to balance the bad with the good.

“I think at some moments I lost the ball a bit too easily, but I also had a number of good moments,” he said. “My area for development is that I have to keep doing it consistently.”

Then he turned to the miss that defined his night.

“That ball at the end, I have to smash it in. Not think and just hit it with the instep. In the box I have to be, become, deadly.”

You might expect those words to soften the criticism. They did not.

Janssen, listening to the interview in the studio, went in hard again, this time on Meerdink’s own assessment of his display.

“Interesting,” he began, almost dryly. “He has the feeling that he still played quite a decent match. He is quite satisfied.”

Janssen’s advice was sharp and uncompromising.

“I would advise him to calmly watch this match back again, because it comes down to a number of moments in which, as a striker, you have to be deadly and in which you have to be strong to give your team some calm. Those few moments are not enough, my friend.”

The former midfielder sees a player with tools, but not yet the mentality.

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

AZ leave their Europa League opener empty-handed, their striker under the microscope, their analysts demanding a more ruthless edge. The chances are there. The question now is whether Meerdink will find that hunger in time to turn nights like this into the ones that define a career, rather than haunt it.