Mohammed Kudus seems to have completely found his niche at Ajax. The Ghanaian is assured of a basic place under the new trainer John Heitinga and repays that confidence. Against FC Twente (0-1) he crowned himself as match winner on Thursday evening with the only goal of the match, so that the team from Amsterdam will go into the quarterfinals on Saturday evening. Kudus praises the collaboration with two specific teammates.
The victory over Twente meant the third in a row and the third under Heitinga. The new Ajax coach soon seems to have found his winning formation. “That is certainly a huge boost. It is where we belong, this is how we want to play and how we want to win matches,” Kudus says afterwards in conversation with Ajax’s club channel. “But there is still a long way to go and many games to play. We now have to stay together until the end of the season.”
Ajax continues to cup after Mohammed Kudus’ winning goal! ????
— ESPN NL (@ESPNnl) February 9, 2023
Kudus was crowned man of the match by scoring twenty minutes before the end after beautiful preparatory work by Dusan Tadic. The captain saw his teammate in the small space and served him with a nice through ball. For Kudus it was already his thirteenth goal of the season in all competitions. “That’s one of Dusan’s qualities, seeing the passes. So when he got the ball, I knew I just had to make the run and then I would get the ball. And that’s how it happened,” said the match winner.
The collaboration with Steven Berghuis is also going smoothly. “It’s nice that we have players who can switch positions and play in the same positions as me,” says Kudus. “Sometimes I’m on the right, sometimes Berghuis is on the right. It makes us unpredictable. That freedom in the team is good for me.” Kudus played seventeen games in the Eredivisie under Alfred Schreuder this season, only six times as a basic player. Under Heitinga he is already indispensable from the base after three matches.