Willem van Hanegem is of the opinion that Ajax played ‘outrageously bad’ against Heracles Almelo, which held the team from Amsterdam to a 0-0 draw on Saturday evening. The former international signals in his column in the General Newspaper that it seems as if ‘the Ajax players occasionally reluctantly walk around in the Eredivisie’. According to Van Hanegem, it is ‘almost ridiculous’ that Ajax has already lost seven points against FC Twente, FC Utrecht and Heracles.
“Heracles did an excellent job against Ajax on Saturday evening. If you have such a selection as Ajax, then it is almost ridiculous that after eleven matches you have already lost seven points against clubs such as FC Twente, FC Utrecht and Heracles. In Almelo it was really outrageously bad what Ajax showed,” writes Van Hanegem. He finds it significant that Heracles felt afterwards that there might have been more in it. “Because they were right too. That Fadiga really had him on his shoe, that winning one.”
“Ajax will probably be there again in Dortmund on Wednesday, but in the Eredivisie the Ajax players occasionally walk around reluctantly, it seems,” continues Van Hanegem. The Curve is of the opinion that Sparta Rotterdam also started with a good battle plan against Feyenoord, which left Het Kasteel with a 0-1 victory due to a goal by Cyriel Dessers in injury time. “Sparta did it like Vitesse before, with constantly the long ball behind Feyenoord’s defense and that apparently works.”
“Too often we lamented that clubs lose points after a European match,” says Van Hanegem. “Now all those inventors are going to explain that a competition match for a European match also costs points. Because the motivation just isn’t there. Well, like Sparta and Heracles did, that’s allowed and the top clubs just have to find an answer to that. They get even better from it.”