Steven Berghuis named as Eredivisie Player of the Month for February

Since John Heitinga's appointment as Ajax's head coach, Ajax have not lost any points in the Eredivisie. In February, Ajax was the only eredivisie club to win all four matches: SC Cambuur (0-5), RKC Waalwijk (3-1), Sparta Rotterdam (4-0) and Vitesse (1-2) were all on the losing end. The Amsterdam club climbed from fourth place (at the end of January) to second in the Eredivisie.

Midfielder Steven Berghuis played a key role in the reigning champions' advance. Only teammate Dusan Tadic (6) was directly involved in more goals than Steven Berghuis (4) in the last four rounds of play, including two goals and two assists. Berghuis furthermore gave the most successful passes in the attacking third of the field in February (95), was in the top three goal attempts (23, including 12 shots and 11 created chances) and scored high on the basis of Expected Assists (2.0). Berghuis was also named KPN Man of the Match in the match against SC Cambuur.

It is Berghuis' third election as Eredivisie Player of the Month. The 43-time Oranje international was previously named best eredivisie player of the month in September and December 2017. Berghuis is the record holder in the election's six-year history with three wins. In the monthly standings, Berghuis narrowly managed to keep Dusan Tadic and Johan Bakayoko behind him. Only Feyenoord forward Alireza Jahanbakhsh came close to Berghuis, but played too little (at least 60% playing minutes) to qualify for the award.

The Eredivisie Player of the Month and Johan Cruijff Talent of the Month Awards are based on statistics (StatsPerform) and votes from football fans (KPN Man of the Match). The vote is an initiative of the Eredivisie CV in collaboration with ESPN. The Johan Cruijff Talent of the Month is an initiative of the Eredivisie CV, in collaboration with ESPN, Johan Cruijff Foundation and VriendenLoterij (Friends Lottery).