Tuesday, September 14, 2021 at 9:23 PM• Mart Oude Nijeweeme • Last update: 21:34

It remains to be seen who will fill in the number 10 position at Ajax on Wednesday evening for the Champions League match with Sporting Portugal. Last weekend, that role against PEC Zwolle (0-2 win) was fulfilled by Steven Berghuis. It is expected that the left leg will also play against Sporting in that position, as Ten Hag lacks a large number of players who can play as number 10. Davy Klaassen, Mohammed Kudus and Zakaria Labyad are not among them. The latter is ill and did not travel to Portugal with Ajax.

The absence of Klaassen is a big damper for Ten Hag and Ajax. “It is very annoying that we had to miss players like Daley Blind and Maarten Stekelenburg at crucial moments last year,” said Ten Hag at the press conference. “Cody Gakpo just goes home and plays against AZ. We have to miss Davy. If I look at Davy’s personal circumstances, he was in top condition when he went to the European Championship. He came back in a very bad condition. We have him built up, but he’s not used to three games yet. That’s what killed him in the end.”

Klaassen still proved his worth with the Dutch national team during the last World Cup qualifying series. “It has been good for Dutch football, because I really enjoyed Davy. I think he was the great star in the last three games of the the Dutch together with Memphis Depay, but we have to miss him. On the other hand, we knew this kind of thing. problems. That is why we have also put together a selection that can cope with these kinds of problems. There have been many questions about this in recent times and now you see why. We started the preparation with five numbers 10 and now it is just as thin in that position busy.”

Ten Hag was asked during the press conference whether Dusan Tadic is an option for the number 10 position, as the captain was there a number of times last year. “It is always a consideration, because I know that that variant is very successful,” continues Ten Hag. “But you look at different aspects. You also look at the weakness of the opponent. Where can we hurt them? We make a choice based on that.” Tadic, who also joined the press talk, said he has no problems having to play at number 10. “We must have the quality to be able to play in a different position. That is not a problem for me, we have to do everything we can to win.”