Erik ten Hag signals that Ajax is in a very different position than when he took office three years ago. The trainer says in conversation with the General Newspaper that he then had to make do with a core of twelve to thirteen players. That it is different now, Ten Hag explains on the basis of the situation of Nicolás Tagliafico.
“The more you disappoint a player, the harder it becomes to reach him. Ajax is now also in a different phase than three years ago, when I started. At the time, it was mainly twelve or thirteen players who had to do it and the rest were able to settle reasonably well. Now I have to disappoint guys who have played for years,” Ten Hag says. “Of course Nicolás Tagliafico is disappointed, but he is handling it excellently. He even asks me, “How can I help the team?”
Until the start of this season, Tagliafico was generally a basic player at Ajax. This year, however, the 29-year-old Argentinian has to make do with a reserve role, as he only appeared at the kick-off four times. “With a player like that you also talk in the vein that it might be wiser to leave in the summer and that the club might think along. In that regard, it is very good that we are spending the winter in the Champions League. That gives energy to a team. When that didn’t work in recent years, I had to pull harder.”
Ten Hag calls passing basic players in the European top ‘very normal processes’. “Even if a team is functioning well, you have to want to get better. We must have that realization. We want to annoy the European top and that is not possible with school boys,” says Ten Hag. It is the reason why, according to the trainer, Ajax wants to improve every transfer period. “You explore things and if there are opportunities, you attack. I am satisfied with this selection and I will be happy when we start playing with it in the second half of the season. Of course we will look further, but it should not be a supplement, but a real reinforcement.”