Ajax coach Erik ten Hag and Feyenoord head coach Arne Slot have not made any room for their Limburg trump cards in their basic formations for the Classic (Sunday, 2:30 PM).
For Ajax defender Perr Schuurs, the choice of Jurriën Timber and Lisandro Martinez will not come as a surprise. The mandekker from Nieuwstadt is on the reserve bench, just like former Roda JC goalkeeper Przemyslaw Tyton.
Hendrix and Linssen
On the side of Feyenoord, this also applies to midfielder Jorrit Hendrix from Panningen and attacker Bryan Linssen from Neeritter. Jens Toornstra is preferred over Hendrix as a replacement for the suspended Orkun Kökcü, while Linssen lost his base place in recent games to the regularly scoring striker Cyriel Dessers.
Top three
Ajax leads the Eredivisie rankings with 63 points from 26 matches, defending a two-point lead over pursuer PSV, which plays against number fifteen Fortuna Sittard in Eindhoven on Sunday afternoon. For Feyenoord, the game against Ajax on Sunday afternoon will be the last chance to report in the title race, because the team from Rotterdam has eight points less than Ajax.
Classic
The eternal rivals will meet for the 157th time on Sunday. The Classic was won 77 times by the team from Amsterdam and 39 times by the team from Rotterdam. Ajax has also won the last five meetings. The last time Feyenoord triumphed in the Johan Cruijff ArenA was almost 17 years ago: in August 2005 it became 1-2.