Ajax must win at home against Napoli on Tuesday evening to keep an eye on wintering in the Champions League. The team from Amsterdam lost 2-1 to Liverpool’s Anfield before the international break, while Luciano Spalletti’s team is still clear in the billion-dollar ball. Last Saturday Ajax played a disappointing draw against Go Ahead Eagles (1-1) in a match in which Alfred Schreuder rotated considerably. In contrast to that match, Ajax’s trainer will probably make four changes.
Napoli has had a strong start to the season, is still unbeaten in Serie A and shared leader with Atalanta. In the Champions League, Liverpool was wiped out (4-1) in the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona last month, after which Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s Rangers FC was also sidelined 0-3. Schreuder is apprehensive about the strength of the Italians. “They have a lot of regular patterns in the squad. Their left side is very strong in football and their right side is dynamic with many running players. Stanislav Lobotka, who we still know here, divides the game very well from the ‘6’ position.”
The Ajax trainer probably goes back to his starting eleven in the won home match against Rangers and the lost game with Liverpool. That means that Steven Berghuis, who was still recovering from a back injury against Go Ahead Eagles, will again be preferred over Davy Klaassen. In rush hour, Mohammed Kudus gets another chance over Brian Brobbey, according to the General Newspaper. The Ghanaian proved his worth against both Rangers and Heerenveen with three hits. Schreuder previously indicated that he had a more agile striker with Kudus against the often physically strong center defenders. In addition, Edson Álvarez and Steven Bergwijn return to the starting eleven, which is at the expense of summer acquisitions Florian Grillitsch and Lucas Ocampos.
Schreuder believes that his team should play with guts, as it also happened against Rangers, but failed to do so against Liverpool. “I think there will also be two equal playing styles on the field on Tuesday evening. I expect that they want to attack and put high pressure and of course we want to do that. We have to be very careful and good on the ball. If you look at size and budget, Liverpool is still the big favorite in the group. However, if you look at the way of playing football, Napoli comes close to that.”
Probable Ajax line-up: feather; Rensch, Timber, Bassey, Blind; Taylor, Alvarez, Berghuis; Tadic, Kudus, Mountain Wine