The first fourteen minutes were promising. Until Ajax midfielder Silvano Vos simply played the ball into Simon Adingra’s feet. The Brighton player served Ansu Fati, who gave his team a 1-0 lead. Vos was cheered up by his fellow players, but it was a major mental blow – not only for the young midfielder, but for the entire team of Ajax coach John van ‘t Schip.
The error that marked the match was a sloppiness, but it did not occur by chance. It is clear what Ajax lacks: stability, patterns, and clarity. According to Van ‘t Schip, these are three of the most important points of attention for his young team, which he has been in charge of for eleven days. But “that is not an option,” he said after last Sunday’s 4-1 victory over SC Heerenveen. This was also evident on Thursday evening in the Europa League match against Brighton & Hove Albion. After two victories under Van ‘t Schip in the Eredivisie, Ajax lost 2-0 in its own Johan Cruijff Arena. The chance of wintering in the Europa League therefore disappears from view.
World of difference
Still, the Ajax players received an encouraging round of applause from their supporters afterwards. It was also a world of difference with the match in England, which Ajax lost two weeks ago, retreating to its own half, with the same scores. Then, in the first match after the departure of Maurice Steijn, Ajax fell back in groups to their own halfway line. In the home match, Van ‘t Schip wanted his team to put pressure on Brighton, to keep Ajax in the half of the Seagulls would play.
At times Ajax succeeded, even after Fati’s goal. The spectators in Amsterdam recognized their own Ajax again in those attacking intentions. But in the end the difference with the number seven of the English Premier League turned out to be far too big. Shortly after halftime, Adingra decided the match, on the advice of FC Barcelona mercenary Fati. Brighton, which was much better prepared and also looked fitter than Ajax, no longer ran into problems and played the match maturely. Brighton no longer had to, Ajax could no longer – despite five attacking substitutions on the Amsterdam side.
Before the match, Van ‘t Schip had hinted that Ajax did not seem ready to play with a higher intensity. Yet that was part of the battle plan. However, a handful of training sessions proved insufficient to really offer Brighton a match. Van ‘t Schip has not commented on his departed predecessor Steijn, but it is clear that he wants Ajax to play “in a different way” and that this requires “a conditional incentive”.
Ajax simply could not keep up with the pace of Brighton, which plays at the highest pace in England every week, on Thursday.
Nevertheless, Ajax’s performance provided Van ‘t Schip with sufficient starting points for the remainder of this season. Particularly in the first half, Ajax regularly managed to outplay under the English pressure. Due to the good passing of the German goalkeeper Diant Ramaj, the strong attacking point in striker Brian Brobbey and the movement between the lines of Kristian Hlynsson and Steven Berghuis, Ajax managed to cause Brighton problems.
The new Ajax coach also has to get to work. For example, with captain Steven Bergwijn, whom Van ‘t Schip expects to lead the team. He hardly featured in the attacking game. And Ajax hardly had any serious chances, only in the last fifteen minutes did Brobbey hit the inside of both posts and substitute Chuba Akpom saw his shot explode on the fists of Bart Verbruggen, the Dutch goalkeeper of Brighton. In midfield, where the injured Branco van den Boomen was missing, Ajax lost the battle. The replacement of Kenneth Taylor, Hlynsson and Vos in the second half did not change that.
Grumpy
Two seasons ago, Ajax impressively won all six group matches in the Champions League. Now it loses for the second time to an English sub-topper in the Europa League. But under Van ‘t Schip the grumpy seems to be on its way to the exit in the Arena. Steijn openly rejected most of the twelve new players, attracted by the departed technical director Sven Mislintat, on several occasions. Van ‘t Schip stands in front of and next to all his players – literally: he regularly coaches with an arm around his shoulder.
On Sunday, Ajax will play an away match in the Eredivisie against Almere City, which is playing in the Eredivisie for the first time this season and is two places above Ajax with one point. But the Amsterdam team has risen from last to eleventh place after two victories, over FC Volendam and Heerenveen. On Sunday, Van ‘t Schip’s team must continue its path to the top of the Eredivisie.