super storm

Chapter 1548

After the [-]-[-] draw with Inter Milan at home, although Ajax still occupies the top position, it has also been questioned a lot.

The most important thing is the ability to control the rhythm of this team and the defense of the Eredivisie team.

Gazzetta dello Sport pointed out very bluntly that without Yang Yang, this Ajax team would be very dangerous against Inter Milan, and might not even have much chance of winning, because they wasted too many opportunities.

"More importantly, they exposed their own problems and flaws in this game."

The UEFA Champions League is actually a competition for short boards. Ajax's first match against Bayern Munich can be said to have played out its own strengths. In this match against Inter Milan, it still retained its own strengths, but exposed its own weaknesses.

Young, inexperienced, poor defense, these are serious problems.

But overall, Gazzetta dello Sport and other European media have affirmed Ajax's performance.

However, they still retain their views, thinking that although Ajax is eye-catching, it is very difficult to advance to the group.

At present, Ajax and Inter Milan have scored four points with one win and one draw. Bayern Munich defeated Tottenham Hotspur [-]-[-] and scored three points, ranking third in the group. The North London team ranked fourth in the group with two consecutive losses.

"The real test for Ajax will be in the next two group games. They will face Tottenham Hotspur at home and away. Pochettino's team is also good at pressing and pressing. These two teams will be very exciting."

"More importantly, the North London team is currently suffering a two-game losing streak. They urgently need to grab enough points from Ajax to reverse their unfavorable situation in the group stage."

"It can be predicted that Ajax's home and away game against Tottenham Hotspur will be a key turning point in their group stage."

Other media also recognized this judgment, thinking that Ajax performed well in the first two rounds, which was surprising, but it also sounded the alarm for Tottenham Hotspur, making Pochettino have to pay attention to this Eredivisie team.

The next home and away game against Tottenham Hotspur will be the big test of Ajax's Champions League this season.

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After the draw with Inter Milan, Ajax returned to the Eredivisie and ushered in the eighth round.

In the home game against Alkmaar, in just 3 minutes of the opening, Van der Beek shot in with a kick, broke through Alkmaar's goal, and opened the scoring for Ajax.

This player, who was refrigerated by Yang Yang when facing Inter Milan, let out a sigh of relief on Alkmaar.

Afterwards, the game fell into a stalemate, but in the second half, Mullen first scored a goal in the No. 408 minute, and in the next two minutes, Militao took advantage of a corner kick to score another goal for Ajax.

No. 601 minutes, another corner kick opportunity, Dericht assisted Erdgau to score a goal.

Then in the No.804 minute, Erdegaard assisted Stens to make another victory.

In the end, Ajax beat Alkmaar [-]-[-] at home and won a hearty victory.

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Meanwhile, PSV continued to keep the pressure on Ajax with a [-]-[-] home win over Venlo.

On the contrary, Feyenoord, who drew [-]-[-] away with Willem II, showed their decline early.

This also once again confirmed the judgment of the outside world. In this season's Eredivisie championship, Ajax and PSV Eindhoven are the most powerful contenders. Both teams have outstanding records so far.

Ajax led by Yang Yang has won eight consecutive victories, which can be described as unstoppable. Van Bommel's Eindhoven has seven wins and one loss, only losing one game to Ajax.

Both teams played aggressively, waiting for their opponents to make mistakes.

As for the other Eredivisie teams, they are not the opponents of these two strong teams at all.

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After finishing the eighth round of the Eredivisie, ushered in the two-week national team match day.

With the recent splendor of Ajax, several international players have been added to the team.

Jovic, Ashraf, Tagliafico and Odegaard have all been selected for the national team, which has also increased the number of international players in the Ajax team, but most of the players still stay in Detokmost.

Yang Yang and the coaching staff are also making careful preparations. They want to make good use of the precious time of these two weeks, and then adjust the team and train the players to continue to improve in order to cope with the next two games against Tottenham Hotspur.

As analyzed by the outside media, these two games will be the key to Ajax's Champions League group stage.

As long as he can get the right to qualify for the group stage, Ajax will greatly exceed previous years in terms of performance, financial income, or club management this year. Yang Yang can logically come up with an agreement and propose a proposal to the supervisory board to acquire Ajax.

The first and most important thing is to find solutions to the problems that the team has exposed in the past month.

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"Defense, it's not just the defender's problem that's exposed."

Harvey Alonso and Yang Yang were sitting in the office, discussing all the things that Ajax had experienced in the past month. There were gains and losses, and the gains were more than the losses. This is why the team currently occupies the top spot in the standings.

But this should not be a bargaining chip for Ajax's pride and complacency, because it may be replaced by others at any time, especially the Champions League.

Only by making continuous progress, constantly breaking through themselves, and constantly improving themselves, can Ajax continue to move forward on the road of the Champions League, and finally reach its own limit.

"From the data point of view, both Militao and Dericht have made significant progress, and the cooperation between the two has become more and more handy. They have problems, such as the mistake that was seized by Icardi. But I think, overall, the two central defenders are still very good, and the improvement is obvious."

"The real troubles, I think, are Frankie de Jong and Ndombele."

Double midfielders, this is the most serious problem that Ajax has exposed in the past month.

Inter Milan's problem is also in the midfield. For example, when switching from defense to offense, Nainggolan and Vecino will quickly move forward and widen the distance from Brozovic.

This point has been significantly improved after replacing Barreiro.

The problem with Ajax is that both midfielders failed to grasp the timing of the advance.

Poor timing can often have a chain effect, which in turn caused Ajax to not provide enough protection for the defense at the front of the penalty area. This is why Nainggolan scored and Lautaro Martinez assisted Icardi.

The central defender does have responsibilities, but the most important thing is in the midfield, especially the double midfielder.

"Our running is very fierce, the high press is very strong, this is our advantage, but not every team is afraid of these, such as teams like Inter Milan who don't want to have the ball at all, or Tottenham Hotspur."

Xavi Alonso's brow furrowed as he realized that Ajax were actually better at playing against teams like Bayern Munich who liked possession of the ball, because high pressing and amazing movement worked best for them.

In the final analysis, this is not only a question of how much the players understand the head coach's tactical intentions, but also whether the players themselves can implement them in place and whether they can accurately grasp the situation of the game.

For example, Ndombele, he likes to rush forward with the ball, and sometimes Frankie de Jong has to go forward, so it is easy to open the situation with the defense and form a gap.

Frankie De Jong's sense of position also has certain problems. Although he was born as a defender and played as a central defender, his sense of position is indeed not strong. This is also an aspect that Ajax must focus on strengthening next.

"How about fixing their positions?" Harvey Alonso asked tentatively.

Yang Yang shook his head without hesitation, "This won't work, so why don't we go back to Cooper's era more than 20 or [-] years ago?"

In the years before the turn of the century, double midfielders were the most popular in European football. Cooper led Valencia to the Champions League final twice. Not only Valencia at the time, but also Deportivo, Celta Vigo, and Real Sociedad.

After Florentino took charge of Real Madrid, he immediately recruited Makelele and Flavio under his command. He also wanted to build Real Madrid's own double midfielder tactics to ensure the team's defense. However, with more and more stars, this style of play did not bear fruit in Real Madrid, but it can be seen that double midfielders were prevalent at that time.

From Cooper to Benitez, their double midfielders advocate strict positioning, do not leave their positions easily, and focus on protecting the defense line. The typical double midfielder combination of Baraja and Albelda, Xavi Alonso and Mascherano.

But this is obviously no longer suitable for modern football tactics, because the emphasis is now on mobility.

"If our high position presses and presses, without the support of our double backs, it will be like duckweed without roots, and we will not be able to play at all." Yang Yang shook his head.

"But now we always use the forward penetration of the two central defenders to make up for the gap in the position of the double defensive midfielder. In the end, when they meet a strong team, they will definitely take advantage of the loopholes in the front and rear of the central defender like Inter Milan. In the end, it became the mistake of Militao and De Ligt. This is also a very serious problem." Harvey Alonso felt very distressed.

The double defensive midfielders lost their positions and failed to protect the defense line well. One of the two central defenders had to go up, and the result was that there was a gap behind the person who went up.

To put it bluntly, the problem is there, it's just the difference between moving forward or moving backward.

If the problem of double midfielders is not resolved, this problem of Ajax will continue to be exposed.

There is no perfect team, and any team will have loopholes and weaknesses. The most important thing is how to give full play to its own advantages, cover up its own loopholes and weaknesses, and avoid being exploited by opponents.

Vulnerabilities and weaknesses that an adversary cannot exploit to attack are no longer a problem.

(End of this chapter)