super storm

Chapter 1415

The Club World Cup final is Real Madrid's last battle before the winter break. After the Club World Cup, the team held a celebration banquet and Christmas banquet in the Bernabéu's honor room, and the team began to enter the Christmas holiday.

There are no major events in [-], so the Christmas holiday is relatively long, but Real Madrid will still start training after Christmas, and many players, including Yang Yang, have undergone physical strengthening training early and entered the winter break adjustment in advance, so the coaching staff also has relatively high requirements for the players' holidays.

With the experience of last season, the team is more experienced in handling this season, and the arrangements given by the coaching staff are also more targeted.

At the very least, the team is doing its best to ensure the self-discipline and status of the players.

Before Christmas, Yang Yang got a week's vacation. He can relax well. He just needs to maintain his state and adjust his body during this period of time. He decided to take his wife and children to the south where the climate is warmer.

David Silva invited him to take a vacation to the Canary Islands. Suarez, Marcelo and others all took their families with them. Yang Yang also decided to go with him. His impression of the Canary Islands is still a few years ago, but it is still very good to spend the winter there.

However, before going south, Yang Yang went north and flew to Amsterdam.

……

The situation in the Eredivisie this season is a bit surprising.

Eindhoven, which performed well last season, finally experienced turmoil after being poached by many wealthy teams. It is currently only ranked third in the Eredivisie. It scored 34 points in [-] rounds of the league, with nine wins, seven draws and one loss. People clearly see the problems of this team.

Eindhoven only conceded eight goals in the 25th round. The defense is the best in the Eredivisie, but they only scored [-] goals. The offense can only be ranked in the middle and lower reaches of the Eredivisie.

Ajax currently has 37 points, ranking second in the Eredivisie standings, with 35 wins, 41 draws and [-] losses, scoring [-] goals and conceding [-] goals. Such a report card is not very good. It is worse than last season, because the team scored [-] wins, [-] draws and [-] losses in the first half of last season, scoring [-] points.

This kind of comparison is somewhat unfair. After all, the turnover of personnel, especially the departure of players such as Milik, has indeed affected Ajax, but it is undeniable that Peter Boss' coaching can only be regarded as quite satisfactory.

There is a saying that is true, a well-matched duel, or a challenge to the strong, can truly test the technical and tactical level of a team, and Ajax's performance in the strong dialogue this season can only be said to be quite satisfactory.

In the UEFA Champions League play-offs, they lost 2000-[-] at home and [-]-[-] away to Rostov, especially the away defeat. It can be said that Ajax suffered a heavy loss, because if they can reach the Champions League group stage, Ajax can get at least [-] million euros in revenue, but unfortunately, the team stopped at the periphery.

This makes it easier for Eindhoven, the sworn enemy, because they take over the Eredivisie's prize money in the Champions League.

Frustrated in the Champions League, Ajax moved to the Europa League. The group stage was unbeaten in six games, four wins and two draws. It performed well, but it should be noted that Ajax’s opponents in the group stage are basically not strong. The most troublesome opponent is La Liga’s Celta Vigo, but this team’s performance this season is very bad.

But in any case, at least Ajax's performance is fairly stable.

Of course, although Pete Boss said that his coaching performance was quite satisfactory, he spared no effort in the training and promotion of young players.

At present, young players in the team can basically get a lot of opportunities. Young players from the team such as Kluivert Jr., Van der Beck, De Jong, De Ligt, etc. have been promoted to the first team one after another, and they have also been given opportunities one after another.

In terms of technical and tactical systems, Peter Boss solved some of the problems that De Boer had in the later period, such as the frontcourt attack and midfield problems, but they were still not straightened out. Klaassen continued his excellent performance at the beginning of the season and became Ajax and even the best player in the first half of the Eredivisie.

The 24-year-old Ajax captain has successfully attracted the attention of the four major league teams such as Naples and Frankfurt with his outstanding performance this season, and the one who is most interested in him is precisely Everton, coached by former Ajax coach Ronald Koeman.

Ajax coach De Boer, who resigned after the end of last season, almost introduced Klaassen after coaching Inter Milan, but Ajax kept the midfielder.

But during this year's winter break, there are many teams that are ready to move towards the Ajax captain. This time Yang Yang went to Amsterdam in person. The most important task is to confirm the transfer of the team during the winter break.

Peter Boss made it clear that he wanted to keep Klaassen, because he is the core midfielder of the current team.

In terms of finances, Ajax earned 5000 million euros from sales this summer, and the finances are still relatively ample, so there is no need to sell people during the winter break. Both the management and the coaching staff are more inclined to keep Klaassen.

Of course, the most important thing right now is the opinion of the players themselves. Pete Boss said that he can persuade Klassen.

But the crux of Ajax has not changed.

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"Peter Boss has indeed brought about a lot of changes. He focuses on actively pressing and oppressing opponents, but the problem is that our defense lacks strong points, which easily exposes the shortcomings of our defense, especially when some teams are of equal strength or challenge strong teams. This problem is particularly serious."

Van Gaal sees the team's current situation very clearly and knows where the problem lies.

"Not to mention anything else, let's just say that the game against Celta Vigo at home was almost overturned. We were unable to attack for a long time, scored at the end of the first half, scored two goals in three minutes in the second half, and led 3-75. But after [-] minutes, our physical fitness began to be insufficient.

Speaking of that game, Van Gaal was still in shock.

Van der Sar, Edgar Davis, Overmars and others are all like this, which shows that winning that game is extremely dangerous.

If that battle is not won, Ajax's top spot in the group will be useless.

"Then start to introduce high-level young defenders." Yang Yang said as a matter of course.

"I have been investigating and following up." Edgar Davis shook his head and sighed, "But you know, the value of players in European football is generally soaring nowadays. It is reported that many teams are planning to make heavy transfers, and the European transfer market next summer will be even crazier."

All the management of Ajax are also worried.

Many people think that the soaring transfer fee affects the giants or the first-tier European teams, but in fact, under the layers of transmission, the teams in the middle and lower leagues with weaker pressure resistance often have a more difficult life.

Let's put it this way, for the teams in the middle and upper reaches of the four major leagues, it is at best a problem of eating or drinking porridge, but for Ajax, it is a little careless and in debt, and may even be involved in the debt crisis and find it difficult to extricate themselves.

"Jorge is really good. We will increase his cultivation and reuse in the second half of the season, as well as youth team player De Ligt. All of us are very optimistic about him. If he can gain a foothold in the first team based on his performance, he should be able to improve the problem of the back line. There is also a midfielder. Ndombele is indeed quite good. Young players such as Van der Beek and De Jong are also worth looking forward to, but these will take time." Bergkamp analyzed that he is an assistant coach of the first team, but also a member of the technical team.

The management of Ajax knows the ability and potential of several young players, but it is not a simple matter to promote young players in a team. Players need to prove and express themselves through games.

If a player does not gain the trust of the locker room, does not have the ability to play to convince his teammates, even if he is placed on the court, he cannot gain the trust and pass of his teammates, then what can he do?

"Young players nowadays are too expensive, and they cost millions or even millions of euros. We can't afford to gamble, at least we can't afford to gamble now." Van Gaal is also under great pressure.

"Peter Boss can maintain the current situation, but he can't bring any surprises. Now we can only take one step at a time to help him slowly straighten out the problems that exist in the team, but I am not optimistic that he can bring transformation to the team."

As an experienced world coach, Van Gaal is very clear that what Ajax needs now is transformation.

Although the transformation comes from the accumulation of quantitative changes, the head coach who can bring transformation to the team often has his own special features, but he can't see these things in Peter Boss.

No successful head coach is simple, such as Guardiola and Mourinho, or Zidane, who has become famous in the last two seasons, they all have their own specialties, or their own uniqueness.

Without these, what can be used to transform the team?
Peter Boss brought more quantitative changes to Ajax, but he could not bring transformation to the team.

And such a quantitative change is of little use to Ajax, because once the players are cultivated, they will be poached away as soon as they turn around. Once the personnel are lost, Ajax's combat effectiveness will be greatly affected, and the team's performance has been in decline since then.

Therefore, the current Ajax has no way to pursue more, and it is impossible to introduce players that other strong teams are looking for. They can only continue to move forward on this road that seems correct, but I don’t know how long it will take, and continue to wait patiently.

Van Gaal had a vague feeling, "We started to increase the intensity of training young players from this season. According to the current situation, this season and the next season will be painful periods. If Peter Boss still can't bring changes to the team next season, then we will change the coach."

"According to the law, two years later is when our group of young players will start to emerge and shine. They need an excellent leader to lead them and lead Ajax to complete the transformation."

(End of this chapter)