Erik ten Hag did not breathe a sigh of relief for the first time this season on Saturday after a late victory by Ajax. After the three points at NEC (0-1) the trainer of the team from Amsterdam points to the many changes that he is forced to make every week, as a result of which there are no certainties in his team. For Kenneth Perez, this is reason to undermine another statement from Ten Hag – about ‘more than eleven basic players’. “Of course that’s not true,” said Perez.
First Ten Hag spoke in front of the camera at ESPN† The relief after Brian Brobbey’s late winning goal was on the coach’s face. “Of course there is relief if the goal is not forthcoming for a long time,” said Ten Hag. “You know that you definitely have to win in this phase. What we did well is that we stayed calm, it didn’t get hectic, and in the end you score the goal. I liked the field game over the left side in the first half I didn’t like the occupation on the right, that didn’t work out well. We tried to do something about that at half-time, although Steven also dropped out with an injury. He had already dropped out at training on Thursday and did not train yesterday, In the end, it turned out that it wasn’t going well enough.”
Brian Brobbey saves Ajax against NEC ??#NECAJA pic.twitter.com/6pQhWxQn5c
— ESPN NL (@ESPNnl) Apr 23, 2022
Ajax missed Lisandro Martínez, Noussair Mazraoui and Antony in Nijmegen and has been struggling with many absentees throughout the second half of the season. “We do have some problems with that, with the many changes,” said Ten Hag. “Especially in the last line it is cut and paste every time. We have little depth in the front due to the loss of Antony, but nevertheless we continue to win the games, and that is what it is all about. We have to do it with these players and get it right.” getting the best out of it, we’re doing that very nicely now.”
Perez responded immediately after Ten Hag’s interview. “It is very difficult and it is of course easier if you have a team that has played in,” said the analyst. “But it also indicates that the statement he has made very often about having sixteen or seventeen basic players, that is of course not correct.” Perez also saw a big bright spot at Ajax: “I have to say: Kenneth Taylor was a stable factor in this match until he fell out,” said Perez, who saw how the midfielder made a creditable basic debut in the Eredivisie. “He didn’t do stupid things at all. Good in his dribbles, good in passing, but then you also see: if you don’t play regularly, it will be gone after 75 minutes.”