Kees Smit takes responsibility after AZ's 1-2 defeat to Juventus in the Europa League, admitting he returned from injury too soon. "I actually started playing again a little too soon," the Alkmaar side's attacking midfielder says, referring to his recent injury.
"It's a lesson for me that I perhaps need to be more honest with myself and the physios," Smit told the Algemeen Dagblad. "But I just want to play as much as possible, and that's a bit of a trap."
After recovering from a groin injury, Smit returned to the Netherlands Under-21s. He started against Norway (0-0) and Slovenia (2-4 win), contributing a goal and an assist in the second match. Injury then ruled him out of the match against Bosnia and Herzegovina, which secured a European Championship place.
A new injury then kept the AZ player out for a month. "If it doesn't feel right, it's better to miss one match, or two, but I wanted to help the Netherlands Under-21s. But because of that I also missed some great matches, so I'm really disappointed about that too. Feyenoord and Ajax, I'm still gutted about those."
Against Juventus, Leeroy Echteld brought Smit on as a substitute in the 62nd minute. "I was really looking forward to playing football again, and matches like this give you energy anyway. I'm very happy to be playing again, and it has to stay that way."
Smit and fellow substitute Elijah Dijkstra helped AZ pose a regular threat to Juventus in the closing stages. "Yes, they both played well when they came on. But I don't think things only really changed at the end. I think we played well in the second half," Echteld said.
"Of course, with the substitutions, the match opens up a bit more and those lads give you a bit more energy," said the AZ coach, who would have liked his team to play with more maturity in the first half. "During the match, you feel that, OK, we need to step it up a notch or two. At a certain point we're able to do that, and then you see that we can compete with them."