Marco van Basten is hard for Devyne Rensch, Jurriën Timber, Ryan Gravenberch and Edson Álvarez after the match between PSV and Ajax (1-1). The former international mentions the foursome in the program Rondo from Ziggo Sport following the game in Eindhoven ‘not the best footballers’. Van Basten states that Ajax appeared ‘weak’ against PSV, as well as in the return of the sixteenth final of the Europa League against Lille OSC (2-1 victory) last Thursday.
“Ajax played weakly against Lille, as well as against PSV. That had partly to do with the field, but also with the aggressiveness of PSV ”, Van Basten analyzes Ajax’s performance against PSV. “But you also see that Rensch is on the right back, Timber on the right in the center, Gravenberch and Álvarez in the midfield: they are not the best footballers. Those are not the strong players at Ajax. Gravenberch has not been good in the last matches. You have to deal with that. Álvarez is not a boy who plays easily in possession. Klaassen is a worker. Then you don’t get the ball forward easily. ”
“All the more clever that they maintain their mentality. And it’s also about putting down your team, Ten Hag does that well. If you look at Martínez and Álvarez, they absolutely loved that team. They are there now anyway ”, Youri Mulder adds. “On the other hand, they get a penalty in the last minute, which means that it ends in 1-1”, Van Basten responds. “So it’s all on the edge.”
“They should have lost,” Mulder agrees. Van Basten then points to the fact that Ajax also got away well against Lille, which the team from Amsterdam ‘put away’ and ‘were better’ according to the former international. “Lille had good players, but defensively Ajax did quite well”, says Ruud Gullit when the diptych with Lille comes up. “They didn’t give much away. It is true that they could have been 0-3 behind after twenty minutes last Thursday. ”