Ajax struggled against RKC Waalwijk on Saturday evening: Maurice Steijn’s team gave away a lead twice before the match was stopped at 2-3. According to Kees Kwakman, the match was tough for Ajax because the players did not always show enough effort. He points out that Ajax is at the bottom of the ranking of clubs with the most sprints in the Eredivisie.
Kwakman shows a number of match fragments in This was the Weekend that, in his view, show a lack of willingness at Ajax. There must be that willingness to make ‘dirty yards’ and show fierceness in the duels, because Ajax ‘is no longer the team that is always better than the opponent’, Kwakman knows. “Ajax has to win matches in other ways, such as conquering second balls. RKC was fiercer in that.”
Article continues below video
“You wonder: can Ajax play this kind of football? More is asked of them because they are less good with the ball. They lose balls faster,” Kwakman sees. “Then you get into these types of duels more often.” Kwakman shows some midfield matches in which Ajax players were too late to get to the ball.
He was also shocked by a moment in the 53rd minute, when Godfried Roemeratoe was allowed to emerge unthreatened on the right flank; Bergwijn did not walk with him. To Ajax’s relief, Roemeratoe did not see that there was much space on the left flank and sent a through ball that was intercepted by Ajax. Kenneth Perez exclaims, “How can you not see that?”
© ESPN
Kwakman states that Ajax’s technical staff must ‘really instill that willingness’. “If we look at, for example, the high-intensity sprints, or the sprints at full speed, Ajax is eighteenth out of eighteenth. And in the statistics of normal sprints, Ajax is sixteenth.” In those rankings, Ajax is even lower than fifteenth place in the Eredivisie points rankings. Jan Joost van Gangelen calls the statistics ‘incredible’. Kenneth Perez points out the difference with PSV, which is first in the sprint rankings.
2023-10-01 18:23:40
#ranking #Ajax #Eredivisie
