FC Twente coach Ron Jans about cup cracker: ‘This is a different Ajax than a month ago’ | TOTO KNVB Cup

Back then on January 14, FC Twente hit a club in crisis, a club in panic and full of stress. It was still the team of Alfred Schreuder, a trainer under heavy fire in those days. Ajax has recently become the team of John Heitinga.

And coincidence or not: since then the national champion has won twice with large numbers, although the skeptics will immediately point to the small opposition: Excelsior and Cambuur. In football land, people are looking forward with great curiosity to the first real test for Ajax, Thursday evening in a sold-out Grolsch Veste. Is Ajax really on the way back?

Compared to the first meeting of this year (which incidentally ended in 0-0, while FC Twente had one man more for a long time), the Ajax team will most likely be filled differently in seven positions. The backs are no longer the same, Álvarez is central in the back, Berghuis and Bergwijn have returned, Tadic is the striker and Kudus the man in the front right.

“We were the better team last month. If you normally say that, you think: act normal, but in this case that is correct. But this is a different Ajax than then”, FC Twente coach Ron Jans knows. “And then I’m not concerned with the dolls that are different. The sky has cleared up a bit, the negative trend is gone. If you are in a downward spiral, the environment becomes negative and you can see that in the field and afterwards in the interviews of players. And now that is gone. Such things often happen in the short term. The door opens and fresh air comes in again. For that reason alone I expect a match that will be more equal.”

As good as FC Twente was in Amsterdam in the first 35 minutes, the team was so weak last Sunday in the second half at FC Groningen (1-1). Both games ended in a draw, but the feeling was completely different. “We were so dissatisfied, perhaps the most of the entire season,” says Jans. “It has been a very long time since an opponent had a better chance of winning than us based on the statistics. Usually we are the parent this season. Now we should have lost based on the numbers.”

With Ajax visiting, there is no better chance imaginable for revenge. “You have to learn from things and move on,” says Jans. “We are undefeated in 2023, we are doing great at home and have a great audience behind it. Against Ajax we have to show that there is still a bill from Groningen, but what is even more important: if you get further, you will be in the last eight. It’s a beautiful poster. We will have to be top.”

It is positive that Mees Hilgers and Michal Sadilek, who both fell out against FC Groningen, seem to be fit in time. The two trained separately from the group on Wednesday, but Jans has good hopes. “I think everything will be fine,” he says. “But it’s not quite clear yet. We don’t really know until the day of the game. In any case, we are not sparing any players. That would be insanely stupid to do. In this phase of the cup tournament, teams no longer do that.”