Ajax remains particularly fragile. And the worrying for coach John Heitinga: there is little basis to build on

Ajax coach John Heitinga stands in a black, soaked Jack in front of the dug-out, if the next hoos shower pulls over the castle. He coaches strikingly fanatic, more emphatically than before. If Sparta has made 3-1, Heitinga is frustrated. On the main stand behind him, dry in a chair, technical director Alex Kroes pulls a sour face. The ‘you are ashamed’ swells from the branch when Sparta celebrates party.

In a duel that was seen in advance as a key match for the position of Heitinga, Ajax is once again in major problems. In the meantime, in the tenth game this season, it is a repeating story. Reasonable phases are interspersed with periods in which Ajax is ‘brittle’ and ‘vulnerable’, as Heitinga calls it.

In an open, chaotic fight in Rotterdam-West, Ajax escapes a 3-3 draw, through a goal from substitute Oscar Gloukh in the seventh minute of injury time. Although the criticism from outside increases, it is “internal”, according to Heitinga.

After the duel, he briefly speaks at the dressing room with Kroes, general manager Menno Geelen and director of Voetbal Marijn Beuker. “Just normal,” says Heitinga. “Nothing exciting, nothing crazy.”

Heitinga wants assistant

But that there are changes in the technical staff is almost certain, Heitinga hints. With the international match in the next week and a half, there is time to “evaluate” with his staff and the management and “the next steps”.

Heitinga wants, on top of his current assistants Marcel Keizer, Frank Peereboom and Urby Emanuelson, an assistant will be added. In addition to this three, there is also an analyst, Pierre Tosch, who will pass on tactical instructions to the Ajax bank against Sparta from the grandstand on Saturday. He made clear that Heitinga wants to expand his staff around the exhibition match against Como, at the end of July (3-0 loss). Now it is a “great moment” to make that “negotiable” again.

For example, it is not about the pressure on Heitinga itself – but about what he thinks is needed to make his staff function better. Last week came in the news that Ajax is on the market for Thomas Duivenvoorden, previously successful coach of Amateur club Quick Boys and now assistant trainer at De Graafschap. The club from the first division does not want Duivenvoorden, just started in Doetinchem.

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The fact that Ajax wants to get the inexperienced Duivenvoorden in professional football raises questions about the current staff. Heitinga emphasizes that “extra hands” can relieve him with “important things that I am doing now”. He calls “field training” and “completion forms” as examples. “Those are things that you also have to go to others [kunnen] Leave. ” Although that is more nuanced, coaches such as Peter Bosz of PSV and Arne Slot of Liverpool FC Leiden many field training itself.

It becomes interesting which changes Ajax can implement under the leadership of a potentially adapted technical staff. That should become clear after the international match, when a heavy program awaits. It is obvious that the playing method will be tinkered with in the coming period. After the 4-0 defeat against Olympique de Marseille, the game against Sparta again showed that there is still “a lot of room for improvement,” says central defender Youri Baas (22).

Clear defects

It is sometimes in details that do not stand out quickly. Such as after half an hour, when Sparta midfielder Julian Baas (no family) can just pick up a wild ball in the ashes, hardly put any pressure under pressure, giving him plenty of room to give a depth ball. And a little later Sparta outdoors Ayoub Oufkir easily wins around the center line fifty-fifty Kenneth Taylor air duel, so that the home team can set up a new attack.

The defects are often clearly visible, especially in the second half-after a 1-1 resting by goals from Wout Weghorst and Tobias Lauritsen from a penalty kick. The Ajax supporters just sings that they cannot be stopped, when left winger Mika Godts wastes the ball in the structure. Seconds later, Sparta outfit Mitchell van Bergen fully fulfills the 2-1 hard inside.

Heitinga’s analysis: “We had trouble getting rid of our goal. We were stuck. We didn’t get that ball away.” With that he stays away from the deeper causes.

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Last Tuesday against Marseille it also went wrong twice under construction, with fatal consequences. Now Ajax is getting away well. Sparta can continue after the beautiful 3-1 of Joshua Kitolano via Oufkir. In some chances of Sparta, the ‘low block’ of Ajax rattles, as Youri Baas calls it: the last line of defense. With sixteen goals in ten duels this season (all competitions), they have to “develop,” says Baas. “The coach knows that too, we also train on that.”

Automatisms in the attack patterns, pressing, duel power, defensive structure, self -confidence and also the physical condition with different injuries – it is all particularly fragile. For example, there is little basis to build on, soon after the international match. Heitinga makes an attempt, asked about starting points. He says he can fall back on a number of “good moments” in previous competitions, but specifically mentions PSV-out, which ended in 2-2. “We have to get a lot more firmness.”

What Heitinga regularly sees: fighting spirit. Also against Sparta, via goals van Weghorst and Gloukh it will be 3-3. “Again it wasn’t good, but I do see a team that goes through the fire.” It’s something.

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