Erik ten Hag is very disappointed in his players after Sunday’s defeat against AZ (1-2). The losing coach has great difficulty with the attitude of the players who managed to conquer eighteen points in six group matches in the Champions League. Kenneth Perez believes that the responsibility lies not only with the Ajax players after the second loss of this season in the Eredivisie, but certainly also with Ten Hag itself.
Ten Hag: “With the attitude of my team”, Ten Hag answers the question of ESPNreporter Hans Kraaij junior about whom he is most disappointed on Sunday. “We didn’t start badly at all, just the one hundred percent conviction that is missing. And so you see that in the final phase, but you also see that in the switch. And also when winning the second balls, they were all for AZ. And I have a lot of trouble with that. And if you don’t put that on the mat from the start, then you will be left behind. We didn’t create a chance before half-time, and AZ didn’t do much either, but neither did we. We played pretty well, right up to sixteen.”
Kenneth Perez about reaction from AZ: “Not suitable if you want to be a top club”
The analyst also had a clear opinion about the way in which AZ celebrated the victory over Ajax.
“But if you don’t create chances, you don’t even play well”, Kraaij junior then raises. “You have a point there”, Ten Hag sighs. “And in the end you have to have movement and you have to make the right choices. There were opportunities with the extra pass and certainly in the counter, both left and right. But you also have to have the will to get there. And that was missing. “, says the disappointed Ten Hag to his team. Kraaij then reminds Ten Hag of his statement that according to the Ajax coach it is ‘completely legal’ for teams with a defensive playing style to come to the Johan Cruijff ArenA.
The AZ players seemed to get tired in the final phase, especially after Sébastien Haller’s equalizer more than fifteen minutes before the end. “But then you have to Job keep doing it”, said the losing coach. “And that is very bad, that you let people walk. With both goals (from AZ, ed.) we do not comply with the agreements, the rules we have. And we don’t carry it out, and then you run into damage. We have to have that discipline. And you always have to bring that up in every match, because otherwise you won’t get the result that you should, as I said. Everyone knows what those rules are, Hans. It is, among other things, walking with your husband, but it is also giving each other cover.
Perez also watched the interview with Ten Hag and then puts the ball down at the Ajax trainer. “But the attitude of a team is of course the responsibility of a trainer”, the analyst opens afterwards at ESPN. “It should not just be about their attitude. It is of course our attitude then, at that moment. If things go well it is ‘we’, and now it is ‘them’. As a trainer you are responsible for the attitude of your team,” said Perez.