Theo Janssen sees the hand of trainer Alfred Schreuder at Ajax. After the won Champions League match against Rangers (4-0), the analyst is very enthusiastic about Ajax’s positional play, among other things. “This is really next-level”, concludes Janssen in front of the camera of RTL 7.
“There is still something I want to say”, Janssen begins his story. “Look, we have always praised Erik ten Hag for the way he let Ajax play football, but this is next-level. This is next-level, because you still had clear patterns at Ten Hag’s Ajax. You used to have a left winger who was really on the left; Antony and Neres were stuck on the right. In addition, you only had the backs who went over or pulled in.”
At the moment, Janssen sees even more position changes and Rangers had great difficulty with the game view of the team from Amsterdam. “Now the entire team just rotates. Timber is sometimes left back and Blind is sometimes left winger: everyone is mixed up. It’s so hard to defend. But it is not only difficult to defend, because as an Ajax player it is also difficult to learn this.”
“Look, at some point as a player you move into different positions and you have to perform other tasks. They all do it really great. All positions are always occupied, but the question is always: who is where? Everyone runs together. I think that’s very nice to see and I think that’s the hand of Schreuder,” concludes Janssen.