Season 3 half term report

Well Ajax will certainly consider themselves slightly ahead from where we thought we would be at the start of the season. But there’s a sense of what could have been. We sit 5th in the league as the best of the rest behind the top 4 and are in the quarter finals of both cups, and Centre Forward Ahmedov is joint top scorer in the league with 27 goals. Made all the more amazing when the previous season long record for us stood at 16!

The other 2 scout signings of Valencia and Tutal have settled into the squad well and in the development league the future looks rosy with all 5 teenagers showing real promise and progress. With only 5 of the 26 senior players over 25 years old and only 1 over 28 and 17 players 21 or under the side very much has its best years to come, and there have been some breathtaking performances where we’ve had 20-30 attempts on goal.

The introduction of a new system after successive defeats has been a huge plus and it’s only the second time in our history we’ve set up differently for kick off.

The next steps are to try and become a little more ruthless, there are some games where we lack the guile to get results when we are not dominating and the younger players perhaps lack that big game experience to change their fortunes when the chips are down. We may look to vary tactics/formation a little more and have faith that the players can adapt. But it’s will always be a passing/pressing/attacking team.

The clubs finances are improving week on week and the Cryuff arena is only a few weeks away from holding 75,000 fans. Ajax have been the young up and comers for 20 years now, but the infrastructure at the club means this time we won’t be selling!

The aim in the rest of the season is to fight for silverware in the knockout competitions and to retain a high mid table league position.