Like many of us, Ajax come into the new year holding a sense both of hope and of despair. Alfred Schreuder, once heralded as a mastermind behind the club’s 2019 Champions League run, remains full of confidence. Yet Erik ten Hag’s former assistant and current replacement as head coach has shown repeatedly that he may not be up to scratch for a club of Ajax’s stature. Calls of #SchreuderOut reverberate across Twitter and, now with rivals Feyenoord three points clear atop the table, groaning voices are sure to increase in volume. Yet as easy as it would be to point the finger at the coach alone, a dull performance to open the curtains on 2023 was the culmination of a variety of things that have gone wrong after that fantastic run nearly four years ago.
Schreuder has been derided by fans as a coach lacking sense, but recently it has been the players who have not been competing at par. Legendary defender Daley Blind has now departed the club after World Cup winner Lisandro Martínez joined Ten Hag and Antony in Manchester last summer, opening up chances for new arrivals and youth players in defense and attack. But the system of ‘who’s up next,’ which Martínez himself benefitted from, has not been repeated under the new managerial tenure. Former AZ Alkmaar star Owen Wijndal has failed to claim a starting role, while full-back Devyne Rensch has floundered in a new central role. Wijndal was completely missing from the action in Nijmegen as Ajax opened their 2023 campaign against mid-table NEC, a pin-point example of how things have been going recently for the Dutch champions.
One might expect a club with so many high-quality players to suffer somewhat after a gruelling mid-season World Cup calendar. Indeed, many of the Ajax players who played in Qatar have been down with some sort of illness. The two Stevens, Bergwijn and Berghuis, failed to make the trip down south, while Mohammed Kudus also called in sick over the weekend. Many fans have been rightly sick of Kudus’ behaviour when he skipped out on training to try and force a move last year. Berghuis’ absence was particularly important as the former Feyenoord provocateur has been Schreuder’s best attacking piece this season. Teenage sensation Francisco ‘Chico’ Conceição picked up the slack on the frontline, making exciting darting runs from the right wing to threaten the NEC defense. The Portuguese is one of the (increasingly few) bright spots in a team which only a couple years ago dazzled opponents with displays of arrogance and flair. But the youngster is just starting to cement his spot as a starter and he couldn’t do it all alone on Sunday.
The veteran craftsman Lasse Schøne, once a key midfielder in Ten Hag’s squad, was helpless as his former teammates controlled NEC for much of the ninety minutes. The first half featured plenty of chances, only one of which was converted by Davy Klaassen, the ever-present utility man back from a solid World Cup showing. His midfield partner, Kenneth Taylor, was clearly recovering from an illness with his poor showing, having missed a sitter after the half-hour mark. But Klaassen was there minutes later to slide the ball home. Chico Conceição sent a cross deep to Dušan Tadić, who didn’t need more than a touch to loft the ball back to the far post where a grateful Klaassen stood unmarked. Although most Ajax attacks came down the left side, where Blind replacement Calvin Bassey overlapped from the full-back position, it was only Chico who provided the incisiveness we so clearly lack after Antony’s departure.