Valentijn Driessen finds Ajax missing too many opportunities and defensively ‘too fragile’ in the Champions League. The team from Amsterdam is in excellent shape in the group stage with six points from two matches, but despite this, the football chief of remains The Telegraph critical of Erik ten Hag’s team. According to Driessen, the victories over Sporting Portugal (1-5) and Besiktas (2-0) are not an indicator of where Ajax stands internationally.
Ajax went to rest on Tuesday evening with a 2-0 lead thanks to goals from Steven Berghuis and Sébastien Haller. In the second half, the victory was no longer in danger. According to Driessen, the Champions League can be seen as ‘the holy grail’. “Yet you can say that the group stage is of a similar predictability as the Eredivisie. After Sporting Portugal, Besiktas also turned out not to be of champion level and not a gauge to see where Ajax stands internationally,” he writes in the newspaper about the leader of Group C, in which Ajax will receive a visit from Borussia Dortmund on October 19.
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Driessen points to the match between Ajax and SC Cambuur on September 18. The team from Amsterdam attacked the goal of the Eredivisie opponent 21 times and eventually won 9-0. “The Frisian opposition was a mockery. There was something to be said for that. But what about Besiktas, the champion of Turkey visiting the capital? In the first half, the counter of the number of goal attempts by Ajax stood at 16 with a 2-0 half-time score and eventually stopped at 22 with a 2-0 final score,” said Driessen, who notes that the result against Besiktas could have been higher if especially Ryan Gravenberch, Antony and Sébastien Haller had been sharper in front of the goal.
The battered Besiktas, which played with four Champions League debutants, made three attempts on Tuesday evening in the Johan Cruijff ArenA. “To a large extent the merit of the Ajax players, but at the same time it is unwise for Ajax to let itself be thrown in the eye by the kickstart in the Champions League”, says Driessen, who states that Ajax normally still needs four points to spend the winter. in the Champions League. “The European route in 2022 with the knockout phase will be a different story for Ajax with more serious opponents. Then the defensive vulnerability will surface sooner. If you look through the Amsterdam results, you will see that Ajax regularly falters during the switchover and at corners.”
Driessen states that Ajax may be better attuned to each other by then. However, the ‘overconfident character’ of some defenders is difficult to change, according to him. “On the ball it is of a good level, but purely defensively and in terms of organization it often goes wrong. Against the weak Besiktas without consequences, but against the top of Europe it just ends fatally.” Driessen points to Michy Batshuayi’s shot on the post and the disallowed goal in the second half. “Ajax is far from ripe to reach the final of the Champions League, as has been suggested. It was fun with the exuberant fans in the Johan Cruijff ArenA, the result was up, wintering in the Champions League beckons, but offensively Ajax misses too many opportunities and defensively it is too fragile.”