Danny Buijs is brutally honest about Fortuna players: ‘Those lads will never end up at Ajax’

Danny Buijs was left feeling thoroughly sick by Fortuna Sittard's 1-5 defeat to Ajax, as he made clear in his interview with ESPN. More than anything, the way his side conceded the goals is causing intense frustration.

For a while Fortuna held their own reasonably well against Ajax. They even made it 1-1 after the break, but still ended up on the end of a heavy defeat. Buijs believes his own defenders were mainly to blame.

“After the break you get away with one, because they get a huge chance for 0-2. Really dramatic defending,” said Buijs. “But then you make it 1-1. That's what you want. Then you hope for more. And then of course it goes so stupidly wrong. I believe they scored three of the five goals from corners. If that happens, you are never ever going to get a result against Ajax.”

Even so, Buijs says one-off mistakes are forgivable, repeated ones are not. “That can happen once, but if it happens several times, that says something too,” said Buijs, who sees that his players are unable to stay concentrated for the full ninety minutes. “That is also a quality, an underestimated quality. That is also the reason why a lot of lads who now play for clubs like Fortuna never end up at PSV, Ajax or Feyenoord, because they lack a number of facets. And this is one of them.”

Buijs did not save only his defenders from criticism. Striker Lecquincio Zeefuik also failed to meet his expectations, which is why he came off at half-time. “I didn't think he was that good. He already had a yellow card. I also thought his head wasn't completely in the game,” Buijs explained.

Specifically, Buijs took issue with the way Zeefuik reacted to his team-mates. “By that I mean how he reacts to team-mates when they say something. In that moment with that yellow card, a lot more could easily have happened. He gets involved in those kinds of moments far too often.”

For Buijs, the lesson is obvious. “That is what he has to learn. It has to be much better in that respect. Then you can say: he is only a 21-year-old lad. He does extremely beautiful things, but he also does an incredible number of things that absolutely have to improve,” the Fortuna coach believes.