Controversy Surrounding Ajax’s Defeat in Europa League: Mixed Reactions to Van ‘t Schip’s Performance as Interim Head Coach

John van ‘t Schip had a great start as interim head coach of Ajax with victories over FC Volendam and SC Heerenveen, but was unable to prevent Brighton & Hove Albion from being too strong with 0-2 on Thursday, which almost certainly ended to Amsterdam’s aspirations to progress in the Europa League. The performance of the Amsterdam team was criticized afterwards, especially by Valentijn Driessen, but Johan Derksen and Rene van der Gijp cannot agree with that. They thought Ajax did a great job.

Wilfred Genee brought up the meeting between Ajax and Brighton & Hove Albion in the Europa League on Friday evening in Today Inside. The Amsterdam team only collected two points in the first three group matches and had to achieve a good result on Thursday to stay in the race for qualification for the next round. However, that didn’t seem possible. Ajax lost 0-2, which means that third place and the intermediate round of the Conference League seem to be the maximum possible. According to Driessen, Ajax is ‘back to square one’ after the defeat against Brighton, but… Today Inside is a lot less certain than the football chief of The Telegraph.

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“I have to be very honest with you, Wilfred. I’ve read all the reviews and I’ve probably been watching another match. I have only seen the first half of Ajax and when I look at the opponent they had, I thought they played the best half of the season,” Van der Gijp compliments Van ‘t Schip and associates. “I thought they played really well.” Derksen agrees with that. The television personality knows that it was ‘a bit less’ in the second half, but that ‘Ajax played very well for the material it has now’.

Van der Gijp and Derksen are annoyed by Ajax’s reactions to Vos’ mistake

What did irritate Van der Gijp and Derksen was the way the Ajax players responded to Silvano Vos’ mistake. The young midfielder appeared at the kick-off as a replacement for the injured Branco van den Boomen, but had a very unhappy evening. After fifteen minutes, Vos simply pushed the ball into the feet of an opponent, after which Ansu Fati was brought into position and was able to score the 0-1. “It’s not the boy’s fault… And then I think it’s really bad that you’re being bullied. Søren Lerby had cursed you rotten, Huub Stevens had cursed you rotten. But okay, it can happen,” said Van der Gijp.

Derksen agrees. He draws a comparison with his period as a ‘young’ footballer and states that it was all a bit less pleasant then if you made such a costly mistake. “I agree with Rene. Then all the Ajax players walk towards him and say ‘come on, man’, a tap here and a tap there. I was also a young player and when you were scolded so much, you almost cried on the field. You had to have the next one, otherwise they would scold you again. That’s how we used to be raised.”

Video: René van der Gijp: ‘I thought Ajax played the best first half of this season’