Alfred Schreuder has announced his line-up for the Champions League match against Napoli. The 49-year-old coach rotated during a disappointing 1-1 draw against Go Ahead Eagles, but again opts for his ‘regular’ Champions League formation against the Italians. Ajax must win at home on Tuesday evening from the team of coach Luciano Spalletti to keep an eye on wintering in the billion-dollar ball. The duel in the Johan Cruijff ArenA starts at 9 p.m.
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. They have many 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 number 6 position.”
Schreuder returns to his starting eleven in the won home game against Rangers and the lost game against 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 the striker Mohammed Kudus gets another chance over Brian Brobbey. The Ghanaian proved his worth against both Rangers and Heerenveen with three hits. The Ajax trainer 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.”
Ajax setup: feather; Rensch, Timber, Bassey, Blind; Taylor, Alvarez, Berghuis; Tadic, Kudus, Mountain Wine
Napoli line-up: nnb