Erik ten Hag has expressed his admiration towards Sébastien Haller. The Ajax attacker came in the Champions League match against Besiktas (1-2) halfway through the game and turned a 1-0 deficit with two hits. It came to Haller not only on a number of records, but also on praise from his trainer. Ten Hag indicated in the run-up to the game that he had been annoyed in the past by substitutes who did not take their chance.
“We did not give away the previous times we gave other players the chance. That irritates me immensely,” said Ten Hag in the run-up to the duel with the Turks. On Wednesday evening, the coach again made a number of changes to his starting team. For example, there was a base place for André Onana, Nicolás Tagliafico did the honors for Daley Blind in left back position and the midfield was formed by Ryan Gravenberch, Davy Klaassen and Steven Berghuis. Haller started on the bench and saw the striker position be taken over by Dusan Tadic.
“Haller’s role is eye-catching”, Ten Hag said in conversation with Ajax TV on his handsome appearance. The striker scored his eighth and ninth goal of this Champions League campaign and now heads the top scorers list with Robert Lewandowski. “He scores again. He scores two goals from the bench and I am very happy with that. I am very happy that a substitute has this effect. Haller is therefore an example for the rest of the selection. Players who have this effect from bring the bank, we need in our roster.”
Ten Hag does not want to blame the many changes that his team was searching in the first half. “It could be, but nevertheless we had the upper hand and we also created the opportunities in the first half,” said the trainer of the team from Amsterdam. “Something went wrong in the coordination. That is very clear for the team, we have rules for that. Especially on the right side, the organization was not always good and Besiktas came through a few times. the rest of the defense was not always that good. We have agreements about that, but we have to comply with them.”
Ajax has now won the first five matches and can try to set up a clear group stage against Sporting Portugal, which will come to the Johan Cruijff ArenA in two weeks. “We are very happy and not dependent on the last game against Sporting. Fifteen points in Europe, that’s it.” Despite the excellent starting position, Ten Hag does not intend to sit back against the Portuguese. “This coach does not like friendly football. There is still a record that we can shoot from the books. We have to go for that,” he refers to the current record of sixteen points in the group stage.