“That’d be an understatement” – Manager explains why he’s so happy with signing from Everton

Davy Klaassen and Everton was never meant to be, but it’s interesting how good he was before the transfer and how good he now is at Werder Bremen following his miserable Toffees experience.

The Dutchman is clearly a talented footballer, and in Germany they’re also impressed by his attitude, both during matches and in training. If it was thought Klaassen perhaps didn’t have a strong enough character for English football, and couldn’t impose himself as a person, what’s happening at Werder Bremen would contradict it.

Quoted by Nordwest Zeitung, manager Florian Kohfeldt couldn’t have been more enthusiastic in his praise for the footballer: “If I say I’m happy with him, that would be an understatement. He is an absolute leader. Every day when I get to the training ground and see Davy, I know he’s 100 percent on the job, whether it’s the first practice of the week or warming up before the game.

“If he continues as he started he can lift the team permanently to another level. He gives security to the other guys in the team. Everyone in the team realises that.”

All of that makes it even stranger Klaassen didn’t succeed at Goodison Park, and the player himself has been speaking this week on just that subject.

Speaking to Elf Voetbal, he explained: “It is a combination of factors. I was not good enough for the game that Everton wanted to play. It has to do with yourself, with style and with choices of the coaches. I noticed quite quickly that it would be a difficult story at Everton, even before Ronald Koeman was fired. 

“Before I signed, I expected that there would be a little more football in the team, although I also knew that English football is a lot of running and pounding. I do not turn my hand around, but I also think the footballing aspect is very important. I was used to the game at Ajax: always the ball at the foot. In England I sometimes had the idea that the balls always flew over me. We did not have a striker who could hold a ball and move around it or get over it. We had Romelu Lukaku, but he left for Manchester United. Koeman then wanted to take Olivier Giroud as a striker, but that transfer did not take place.”

Davy Klaassen has played seven Bundesliga matches for Werder Bremen so far this season, is the club’s most highly rated player, and was Man of the Match and a goalscorer in their last match, a 2-0 victory over Wolfsburg.