Kenneth Taylor missed an opportunity at the end of last season to show himself in the first team of Ajax. The nineteen-year-old midfielder of Ajax, then still eighteen years old, had come within the lines in the won competition match against VVV-Venlo (3-1) just before the break and received a red card shortly after the break. In With Andy in the car he tells former football player Andy van der Meijde that he is still disappointed with the moment.
Taylor, who replaced an injured Davy Klaassen, only played his third Eredivisie match against VVV on 13 May. He was sent off with a red card by referee Dennis Higler for a tackle on the lower leg by Danny Post. Initially Higler gave a yellow card, but after watching the video images he changed his mind and Ajax had to continue with ten men. “I just wanted to show it in that match. I hadn’t played very much that season, came in a few times and it went well at Jong Ajax”, Taylor looks back.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDeBdKiwvi8
“We were already champions and I was glad I got the chance. Then I was just a little too eager and I got red. When I walked off the field, I could sink through the ground,” says Taylor, who was also addressed admonishing by Erik ten Hag. “The next day he called me at his office. He said, ‘Of course it’s not right. It’s uncontrolled.’ “He understood that I was eager, I liked that too, but it was just very unnecessary. It was possible against VVV, but if it happens in the Champions League, you can lose the game.”
Taylor played twice in the Eredivisie this season: he played 28 minutes against SC Cambuur (9-0 win) and 15 minutes against Fortuna Sittard (0-5 win). In the other matches in which he was available, he was on the bench for 90 minutes. In the Champions League he came on for thirteen minutes against Sporting Portugal (1-5 win). Taylor hopes to become a base player at Ajax and also knows what position he likes to play in. “In the system of Ajax I want to play as eight or six, it doesn’t matter that much. Where Ryan (Gravenberch, ed.) and Edson (Álvarez, ed.) play.”