Ajax Amsterdam - trying to win with youth

[Draakon]

The table is a little bit misleading, that's true. I've had several games away already against strong teams (1-1 draw away against Feyenoord, 0-1 and 1-2 losses against Vitesse and AZ Alkmaar respectively). With October started the row of games with bottom half teams - Almere City, NEC with VVV Venlo, ADO Den Haag and FC Den Bosch to come.

Vitesse is in the top of the table and can be proud of their home wins against Ajax and PSV, but in Spring they have to travel to top 2 teams and that could be another story altogether.

Our match with PSV was scheduled to October, but was rescheduled several times due to conflicts with continental games and Dutch Cup fixtures. Now the first game will be held 30th of December and second in February.

[Draakon]

04.11.2020 - Ajax - Fenerbahce 2:1 (Champions League Group Stage) - 8. Roberto Jansma, 38. Dejan Meleg - 90.+1 Celal Akkus - we did beat Fenerbahce in Istanbul, therefore I was quite confident ahead of home game and we dominated the match easily. 20 shots on goal, but finishing could have been better. Nevertheless, quick goal from Jansma and another from Meleg gave us 2-0 advantage at half time. It always irritates me when we gift cheap goals in the end of the match, even though these don't change anything in the big picture. But still - it shows preparation and concentration when defenders relax too much in final minutes.

MoM - Kenny Tete for his good work in right defense and assist.

08.11.2020 - VVV Venlo - Ajax 1:4 (ED) - 57. Daan Verlijsdonk - 28., 55. and 61. Dick Jansen, 37. Dejan Meleg - demolition of small VVV side was an easy doing. Dick Jansen was preferred over Sigdorsson and score a hat-trick. We had 22 shots, 11 on target and this time at least I was happy with finishing. But I wasn't happy to see VVV's single shot going into the net. Again - concentration!

14.11.2020 - FC Eindhoven - Ajax 0:2 (ED) - 8. and 47. Roberto Jansma - Dejan Meleg returned from international games with torn hamstring and is sidelined for 2 months. That's a bummer. A lot of players returned really tired (Siem de Jong, Dijks), so I had to rotate my first team. Thulani Serero went to righ wing and Hulusi Aydingöz started in midfield with Melvin Vissers. I tried to give Sigdorsson chance against small Eindhoven side to get some of his scoring confidence back, but it didn't work out. In fact it was a drab match and couple of brilliant moves by Jansma gave us goals we needed. Daley Blind stood out as left back, but otherwise unimpressive. Poor finishing was again key word - 19 shots, but only 5 on target.

17.11.2020 - Ajax - Bayer Leverkusen 0:1 (Champions League Group Stage) - 45.+1 Kevin De Bruyne - we put in a good performance against them in previous game and I hoped to snatch a draw at home, but it wasn't going to happen. We actually played well and even had 51/49 advantage of possession, but couldn't develop it. Leverkusen goal came from DFK in the end of first half and there was little we could do about it. Jansma had the best opportunity to score, but his shot hit the post. Game itself was very tight and full of tackles. Defensive midfielders were the best players from both sides (Ilan Boccara vs. Lars Bender).

22.11.2020 - Ajax - FC Den Bosch 2:1 (ED) - 53. Thulani Serero, 72. Dick Jansen - 80. Rogier de Jong - another game that we should have won easily, but struggled a little. We took our time to score after poor first half and then when things started to look secure, conceded a clumsy goal (header from corner) to guarantee a little bit nervous 10 minuts before the whistle. Jan Kuijpers was to take blame for this one - going for the cross, but losing a duel in the air against Den Bosch's central defender. Roberto Jansma took MoM award, but it was an average performance from the whole squad.

25.11.2020 - Ajax - ADO Den Haag 2:2 (ED) - 44. Thulani Serero, 78. Jeroen Bouwhuis - 11. and 20. Emanuele Testardi - we have been able to avoid poor draws during this season, but this was the first one of those. Our central defense was in tatters for first 20 minutes and we found ourselves 2 goals behind. In my eyes Tom Noordhoff was directly responsible for both conceded goals (despite the fact that he felt my conversation with him after the game was harsh), but Veltman wasn't better (5.9). It took full 70 minutes to fight back from this and young midfielder Jeroen Bouwhuis took over to give first assist to Serero and later scoring himself. So, we did what we could but we still lost 2 points compared to PSV.

29.11.2020 - PEC Zwolle - Ajax 1:2 (ED) - 82. Danny Holla - 9. Sheraldo Becker, 37. Dick Jansen - this was our third game in 8 days and I had to rotate. In addition to that Mitchell Dijks and Ilan Boccara were both suspended due to 5 yellow cards. Elroy van Dalen started with Noordhoff in defense, Quincy Hoogendoorn replaced Boccara in midfield. Jeroen Bouwhuis started with Aydingöz in midfield and Anthony Crüden replace a bit tired Jansma as AML. Sheraldo Becker has finally recovered from his long injury and despite lacking a bit match fitness he scored already 2 goals for reserves, so I put him to AMR with inside forward orders. And it was Becker's long dribbling after Zwolle's counter to end up with a good strike and opening goal. Combination of van Dalen - Crüden - Jansen gave us 2 goal lead before the half time. Zwolle's consolation goal came through Danny Holla DFK.

Not the worst month. I'm pleased with continental games - win against Fenerbahce and good display against strong Leverkusen. But we started to struggle defensively and it showed throughout November, topping with poor draw against ADO that wasn't in my plans. We have to get things in order and the sooner, the better. December will be full of games and schedule is very tight. I have to rotate a lot and hope that all players are up to task. FC Twente at home, Groningen away and Feyenoord at home are difficult ones, and month eding with the first league game against PSV.

Eredivisie

1. PSV Eindhoven 37 (14 games)

2. AFC Ajax 35 (15)

3. AZ Alkmaar 35 (15)

4. Vitesse Arnhem 33 (16)

5. FC Twente 29 (14)

6. FC Groningen 24 (15)

.............................

16. ADO Den Haag 12 (16)

17. NAC Breda 12 (16)

18. PEC Zwolle 8 (16)

As you can see there are 5 teams still in the mix and chance to go for the title. PSV has moved a bit away from the rest of the pack. In retrospective - we have had a good start of the season, with 35+ points in first half, but PSV is just extremely good this season - they've lost only once and drawn one game and it feels that if we can't stop them during these winter games then it's title for PSV.

Ajax goals: Dick Jansen 15, Roberto Jansma 10, Thulani Serero 6

Ajax assists: Roberto Jansma 6, Mitchell Dijks 6

[Draakon]

Long time, no updates, but the schedule was very tight in December, a lot of games and Summer in real life has taken its toll as well. Nevertheless, a small review of the past month.

02.12.2020 - Maccabi Haifa - Ajax 0:2 (Champions League Group Stage) - 9. Siem de Jong, 90.+3 Kolbeinn Sigdorsson - despite good standings in the group we went to win this game and took it comfortably, although without flashy scoreline. Thulani Serero had to start as right wing, but otherwise I opted my regular squad. Sigdorsson finally found his scoring touch in the end of the game and I was really happy for him. In other match Leverkusen beat Fenerbahce comfortably, so there were no draws in this group and final standings were:

Leverkusen 15

Ajax 12

Fenerbahce 9

Maccabi Haifa 0

Our matchup in the first knockout round are Manchester United. Tough draw, but what do you expect when you're 2nd in the group and have to meet group winners in knockout stage.

06.12.2020 - Ajax - FC Twente 2:0 (ED) - 23. Roberto Jansma, 64. pen. Daniel Buijs - few changes were made prior to this match. Hulusi Aydingöz started in midfield, Buijs was back in full fitness and present in right wing and Kolbeinn Sigdorsson who left everything into previous game was to be rested, so Dick Jansen starte in attack. We took control fairly convincingly and actually didn't give Twente much of the chance. Confident 2 goal win with 63/37 ball possession. A bit surprised to see MoM go to Twente's midfielder Eric Tie-Bi, but after looking his stats I can justly say that without him the scoreline would have been much worse for Twente.

09.12.2020 - Ajax - Roda JC Kerkrade 2:2 (ED) - 33. Roberto Jansma, 39. pen. Kolbeinn Sigdorsson - 48. Sjoerd van Beers, 65. Mitch Apau - now starts the long string of games with only couple of rest days between them, so rotation is the key to get maximum out of these fixtures. Elroy van Dalen started in defense and Sheraldo Becker was finally fit again after his horrible 4 month injury break to start in right wing. We started very confidently and despite the fact that penalty call was perhaps a bit harsh to Roda, we were in full control at the half time. But I just can't explain what happened after the break. I made my usual team talk (don't get complacent) and lads seemed to get more focused, but still we conceded two clumsy goals (both from corners) and were robbed 2 points in conclusion. In addition to that, Roda played last 40 minutes with 10 men because of injury and acutally equalized in this situation. I was furious after the game, but it looked like my message wasn't clear to everyone in the team. I picked out Elroy van Dalen for his poor defensive performance (5.9) for post game individual chat, but he refused to accept that he was playing poorly, so this too went to south... only ray of light from this matchday was the fact that NEC stunned PSV and took shocking 1-0 win. But I'm still not happy.... it could have been +3 to us in the run for the title

12.12.2020 - FC Groningen - Ajax 1:3 (ED) - 67. Yuki Otsu - 14. and 38. Kolbeinn Sigdorsson, 45.+1 Jeroen Bowhuis - again rotation. Young Michel Meeuws started at the right back and I opted Aydingöz-Serero partnership in the midfield. Unfortunately Serero picked up an injury after only 5 minutes of playing (torn calf muscle, 2-3 months, ouch) and Bouwhuis came in. It was a bold move from my part, because both are under 20 years old and to rely on such midfield in tough away game - it takes some balls. But Bouwhuis put in a great performance with assist and a goal and so we were 3-0 up front after the first half. Groningen actually had the best chances and I have literally never seen my defensive line working their socks off quite like that - clearances from the line, last minute tackles, desperate headers, lucky post and then clearance once again etc. Groningen was the better team, especially in 2nd half, but one consolation goal was all they got. Final statistics showed that Groningen had made 14 shots against our 7, but we were just so much more clinical in front of the goal. Sigdorsson has started to show what kind of striker he is when in form and working hard for his first team place.

16.12.2020 - Ajax - Feyenoord Rotterdam 3:0 (ED) - 5. Siem de Jong, 32. Kolbeinn Sigdorsson, 74. Daniel Buijs - now then, I've talked a lot about rotation and here we were, before home game against fierce rivals, with pretty much fully fit first eleven, whereas Feyenoord looked really tired already before the whistle. And we made it count fully with 3 goal winning margin. Only shock came in the 2nd half when Siem de Jong elbowed his opponent without any reason and deserved straight red card. As far as I know Dutch FA, there will be 3 game suspension for that and it's a big loss, because the first PSV game will be inside those 3 games. Very careless and stupid move from our captain.

19.12.2020 - FC Utrecht - Ajax 1:1 (ED) - 2. Roope Riski - 27. Hulusi Aydingöz - de Jong was suspended, Jansma out with a small knock, Sigdorsson tired... firstly, we let ourselves to be surprised by Utrecht quick counter attack. Then, after equalizing promptly, we lacked firepower to turn this game to our win. Daniel Buijs was disappointing on the right wing and Sheraldo Becker couldn't make an impact either. We should have done better, but I feel we've done pretty well so far against strong teams, so we can afford perhaps this loss of points.

22.12.2020 - Ajax - MVV Maastricht 6:0 (Dutch Cup 4th Round) - 12. and 17. Sheraldo Becker, 19. Anthony Crüden, 32. and 39. Siem de Jong, 78. Renze Fij (og.) - I think I have never had such a favorable draw in cup 4th round, so I let my youngsters/rotation players to destroy poor MVV completely apart. Siem de Jong also played full minutes because he has now plenty of time to rest with his long suspension in league games. Becker looked finally like a player he was a year ago and supporters went home with wide smiles on their face.

30.12.2020 - Ajax - PSV Eindhoven 5:1 (ED) - 21. and 46. pen. Kolbeinn Sigdorsson, 23. Hulusi Aydingöz, 35. and 48. Roberto Jansma - 54. Emmanuel Riviere - the first of two 6-pointers against PSV within a month and I needed a win to keep my title hopes alive, but I have to say I wasn't prepared for what really happened on the pitch. With de Jong suspended and Serero injured, I put Melvin Vissers and Aydingöz to midfield and feared the worst, but we completely ripped PSV defense apart in the first 50 minutes. It wasn't so much about clear cut chances, but PSV defenders just made a lot individual mistakes and our players were always there to take advantage. Sigdorsson opened scoring literally with a tackle inside PSV 6 yard box, Aydingöz also fought the ball away from defender before scoring. After the 3rd goal it was clear that PSV is in complete disarray and demolition continued after the break. Jansma's second goal was complete magic that only he can provide and even consolation goal for PSV didn't ruin our spirit. It was perhaps the best result and performance during this whole season and it boosts morale a lot before winter break.

Eredivisie

1. PSV 52 (21 games)

2. Ajax 49

3. AZ Alkmaar 46

4. Vitesse Arhnem 41

5. FC Twente 38

6. Almere City 30 (!)

.........................

16. FC Eindhoven 20

17. NAC Breda 17

18. PEC Zwolle 11

Ajax goals: Dick Jansen 15, Roberto Jansma 14, Kolbeinn Sigdorsson 9

Ajax assists: Kolbeinn Sigdorsson 8, Mitchell Dijks 7

[Draakon]

January transfer window wsa quiet. Only move by us was sending Joeri Pattinama (young DC/DL) on loan to Volendam. His contract will end in July and I'm not sure if he deserves another one. On the other hand - I seriously need young DL for long-term replacement tto Daley Blind, who's 30 now.

PSV sold their best player - Mexican right wing Humberto Galvan (I know these names don't tell anything to you as almost all young players are regens in this stage of my save) went to Barcelona for staggering £28m. And to my horror, all of this money was reinvested to players (5 new players coming in in January). It certainly makes PSV even more dangerous. But I'm not sure they will be all gelled into the team for our next match in 5th of February.

22.01.2021 - Ajax - AZ Alkmaar 5:0 (ED) - 23. Roberto Jansma, 50. Kolbeinn Sigdorsson, 61. and 90.+2 Tom Noordhoff, 77. Anthony Crüden - we continued our great form after the break, destroying AZ with 5 goals. Tom Noordhoff scored two (both after corners) and substitute Crüden also found the net. AZ only had one shot and this too went wide.

27.01.2021 - Ajax - Roda JC Kerkrade 4:0 (Dutch Cup Quarter Final) - 25. Dick Jansen, 43. Daniel Buijs, 72. Siem de Jong, 88. Roel Doesburg - a bit changed lineup: Siem de Jong started to give him match practice after suspended league games. Dick Jansen was up front and Frank de Man as a right back, but we made sure we won this one confidently. Young 18yo winger Roel Doesburg found himself on the score sheet too.

So, 20 goals scored in previous 4 games. Let's see if we can continute this form into February.

Eredivisie

1. PSV Eindhoven 55 (22 games)

2. Ajax 52

3. AZ Alkmaar 46

4. Vitesse Arnhem 42

5. FC Twente 41

6. Almere City 30

.......................................

16. ADO Den Haag 21

17. NAC Breda 18

18. PEC Zwolle 11

Ajax goalscorers: Dick Jansen 16, Roberto Jansma 15, Kolbeinn Sigdorsson 10

Ajax assists: Kolbeinn Sigdorsson 9, Daniel Buijs 8, Mitchell Dijks 7

[Draakon]

05.02.2021 - PSV Eindhoven - Ajax 1:1 (ED) - 63. Osmar - 90.+2 Siem de Jong - I had no illusion that this game would be as one sided as our first encounter at Amsterdam Arena. PSV is always extremely difficult opponent for us. Still we managed to handle them fairly well and game itself was very even. In the end of the first half both teams had their chances, but at the half time it was still 0-0. After Osmar opened scoring the game grew very tight and despite having more of possession we couldn't create any chances. Just before the whistle though, our captain de Jong equalized from substitute Sheraldo Becker's assist to steal a point from PSV. This goal and result could prove crucial in the end and it's fitting that captain leads the way by example like de Jong did. Tom Noordhoff earned MoM award for his defensive performance.

09.02.2021 - Ajax - Manchester United 1:0 (Champions League 1st knockout round 1st leg) - 61. Tom Noordhoff - we can play well against strong teams at home, we've proved that several times (it's away games I'm more worried about) and we did it again this season against ManU. We had possession and we had one good chance when Noordhoff scored a header from corner. Our defensive work was excellent and ManU were restricted to only 3 shots that weren't a serious threat to Jan Kuijpers' goal. MoM was Mitchell Dijks who had a near perfect defensive perfornace at the left wing and who nullified ManU right flank completely. Despite this win we have to play our best at Old Trafford to progress from this pair.

13.02.2021 - NAC Breda - Ajax 1:4 (ED] - 9. pen. Gino van Kessel - 17. and 36. Siem de Jong, 80. Dick Jansen, 90.+1 Roberto Jansma - the game started with a small shock when our defensive line was surprised by good ball behind them, Noordhoff went to make a tackle and tripped NAC's striker in the box. Penalty! I was afraid for a red card too as he looked to be a last defender, but no card was given and after van Kessel scored from spot kick, we quickly regrouped and took the game under our control - leading before half-time and finishing with cofmortable 4:1 win away from home. NAC have been really struggling this season and their poor defense was clearly evident against us too.

20.02.2021 - Ajax - sc Heerenveen 2:0 (ED) - 14. Kolbeinn Sigdorsson, 20. Daniel Buijs - efficient performance and we were clearly the better team, but our finishing was poorer than expected - only 5 shots on target of 14 attempts. Roberto Jansma was extremely out of shape and sent most of his shots well wide. Our attacking game didn't shine as usual, but Heerenveen aren't a poor side and I'm still pleased with a win.

24.02.2021 - Ajax - Vitesse Arhnem 1:0 (ED) - 17. Roberto Jansma - we lost against Vitesse at Gelredome and were eager to pay back for that defeat. But despite having 65% of possession, 25 shots and 10 shots on target it was a tough challenge to break their goalkeeper Eloy Room. Jansma scored fairly quickly to ease the pressure, but then it was attack after attack without goal and narrow lead kept us on our toes until the final whistle. This time shots went on target, but again no ccc-s and we couldn't surprise the goalkeeper. Vitesse manager obviously was less than happy with his team's lacklustre performance.

27.02.2021 - Almere City - Ajax 0:0 (ED) - I remembered how difficult it was to break Almere City at Amsterdam Arena and prepared for a difficult game. Unfortunately I needed to rest several key players (Jansma, de Jong, Buijs, Dijks) and substitutes were not good enough to break down Almere City 6-men defensive line. They played with 2 deep midfielders in front of 4-men line and it left very little room to crate anything. We still managed to get 2 ccc-s, but Sheraldo Becker missed his shot and Daley Blind hit the post, so finishing let us dow. Fortunately for us, PSV settled for a draw against ADO Den Haag at the same time. Because they lost to FC Den Bosch earlier in the month we are now even in the league table, but better goal difference gives us advantage.

Five teams are clerly pulling away in the table and AZ still has some hopes to compete for the title.

Eredivisie

1. Ajax 63 (27 games)

2. PSV Eiindhoven 63

3. AZ Alkmaar 58

4. FC Twente 52

5. Vitesse Arhnem 52

6. Feyenoord Rotterdam 41

7. Almere City 37

..........................

16. NAC Breda 23

17. ADO Den Haag 22

18. PEC Zwolle 17

Ajax goals: Roberto Jansma 17, Dick Jansen 17, Kolbeinn Sigdorsson 11, Siem de Jong 11

Ajax assists: Kolbeinn Sigdorsson 12, Daniel Buijs 9

[Draakon]

03.03.2021 - Manchester United - Ajax 2:2 (Champions League 1st knockout round 2nd leg) - 19. Nuno Moreira, 74. Romelu Lukaku - 15. Siem de Jong, 21. pen. Kolbeinn Sigdorsson - we didn't start the away game with too much hopes, but we started it excellently. Firstly de Jong finished from great through pass by Sigdorsson to give us valuable away goal and despite Moreira equalized quickly, Sigdorsson earned and scored a penalty to give us 2:1 lead at Old Trafford and we knew then that ManU needed to score at least 3 more to get aggregate win. We defended well the rest of the game and despite Lukaku's equalizer held onto draw to kick ManU out of this season's Champions League competition. Well done and I'm really proud of the team.

07.03.2021 - Ajax - VVV Venlo 4:0 (ED) - 11., 26. and 57. Kolbeinn Sigdorsson, 34. Tom Noordhoff - an easy home game against minnows. Sigdorsson continued his fine form with a hat-trick.

11.03.2021 - NEC Nijmegen - Ajax 0:2 (ED) - 26. Siem de Jong, 32. Daniel Buijs - I knew the danger in this stage are away games against good mid-table teams, so I was careful while preparing for this match. We prepared extra for defensive set pieces. I knew we might not get too many chances and have to finish the ones we get, and the players did exactly that. Two chances in first half and two goals, but in 2nd half we were under good pressure by NEC and had to defend fiercly to keep a clean sheet. During these kind of matches I don't like what I see on the pitch because I always expect good possessional advantage and attacking game, but after the final whistle I know that these matches determine whether we're good enough to claim the title or not.This time we succeeded to task.

23.03.2021 - FC Utrecht - Ajax p0:0 (Dutch Cup Semi Final) - honestly, this game was a joke. Because a clash with Champions League quarter finals this matched was moved to earlier date and most of my team were not back from international break yet. So Iliterally had only 11 players available to selection + U-19 players (the ones that were fit enough). Starting lineup was Kuijpers - De Man, Veltman, Noordhoff, Blind - Hoogendoorn, Vissers, Boccara - Meleg, Becker, Sigdorsson.

We lacked creativity in midfield (because I had to play Boccara as MC) and Becker was complete disaster on the right wing. Sigdorsson too was surprisingly lacklustre in forward despite his recent performances. I have to admit that our attack was completely nullified by Utrecht's defense here. To add my misery, both Boccara and Hoogendoorn were injured in 2nd half, so I had to send out youngsters that weren't nearly good enough for cup semi final level of football. On the bright side - we didn't give Utrecht any easy chances either, so the game slowly moved towards penalty shoot-out. But there we failed - 3 out of 4 first players (Sigdorsson, Noordhoff and youngster Cees Stam) to shoot missed their penalties and that was it. Disappointing to go out like that and especially against the rivals, but that's football.

27.03.2021 - FC Den Bosch - Ajax 0:2 (ED) - 58. and 62. Roberto Jansma - same logic as before about away games. They're all tricky. This time I had additional troubles with selection - with Boccara injured and a lot of players too tired to play due to 120 minutes of football against Utrecht. This time we were carried mostly by two men - Roberto Jansma's Robben-like brilliance in attack (I love his ability to make a dribble all by himself and finish it with a goal!) and Jan Kuijpers's superb goalkeeping (saving 3 clear-cut chances with brilliant saves earned him 7.9 rating). Yes, football is a team sport but sometimes having individual players like that is worth more than good team effort.

In the end of the game Daniel Buijs picked up a bad injury (torn hamstring) and his season is over (out for 2-3 months).

31.03.2021 - Ajax - Olympique Marseille 2:2 (Champions League Quarter Final 1st leg) - 28. Roberto Jansma, 52. Kolbeinn Sigdorsson - 55. Thor Oyvind Nornes, 57. Adrian Petti - I wasn't too disappointed to get OM in a draw, but they're leading Ligue 1 table and are not a poor team by any measure. I started with balanced tactics (first time this season), as counter-attacking seemed too defensive and attacking looked as too ambitious. We took a lead in the first half (another individual goal by Jansma) and survived first half without conceding. Sigdorsson then doubled our lead after poor mistake by OM goalkeeper (who came out to get the ball, dropped it before his movement brought him outside of his box and Sigdorsson was there to pick up the ball and finish it into the empty net). But then we let OM score 2 goals within 2 minutes (2nd of them from Kuijpers mistake) and that was it. We held them off in the end of the match to grab at least a draw, but 2 away goals give clear advantage to OM before 2nd leg in Marseille.

Up-and-down moth it was for us. I'm obviously happy with our CL display and aggregate win against ManU. I'm not too disappointed with Utrecht game, concerning circumstances, and penalties are always a lottery. I'm happy with solid form in the league, especially because PSV finally stumbled and narrowly escaped with a draw against Roda JC, so we're 2 points ahead in the table and everything is up to us now.

Eredivisie

1. Ajax 72 (30 games)

2. PSV Eindhoven 70

3. AZ Alkmaar 61

4. Vitesse Arnhem 49

5. FC Twente 48

6. Feyenoord Rotterdam 48

................................

16. ADO Den Haag 26

17. NAC Breda 25

18. PEC Zwolle 20

Ajax goals: Roberto Jansma 20, Dick Jansen 17, Kolbeinn Sigdorsson 16, Siem de Jong 13

Ajax assists: Kolbeinn Sigdorsson 13, Daniel Buijs 12

[Draakon]

03.04.2021 - Ajax - FC Eindhoven 3:1 (ED) - 36. Siem de Jong, 47. and 56. Dick Jansen - 3. Glodi Wato - supposedly the easiest games of the remaining league matches started with a slight shock when we conceded a goal out of nowhere. But we soon recovered and turned our superiority into 3:1 win. I had to rest some key players as I wanted to put up a fight against Olympique Marseille in the 2nd leg game. Dick Jansen proved his goalscoring skills and Anthony Crüden gave Jansma some rest.

06.04.2021 - Olympique Marseille - Ajax 3:1 (Champions League Quarter Final 2nd leg) - 14. Thor Oyvind Nornes, 49. Steeven Joseph-Monrose, 73. Malick Tall - 77. Kolbeinn Sigdorsson - Joel Veltman picked up a knock prior to this match so I had to go for central defense pairing of Noordhoff and Elroy van Dalen. And weak defense proved to be our Achilleus' heel this evening. And Sheraldo Becker (or his absence) on the right wing. Extremely poor performances from him and van Dalen ensured we were 2-0 behind in the beginning of the 2nd half. Then Kenny Tete earned his second yellow card of the evening and it was game over. Kolbeinn Sigdorsson scored a consolation goal from good counter but that was only positive to take back form this trip to Southern France. We have to improve as a team to play better in this stage of the competition, whoever the opponent is.

11.04.2021 - Ajax - PEC Zwolle 6:2 (ED) - 21. Tom Noordhoff, 30. and 39. Kolbeinn Sigdorsson, 54. Mike Jongen (og), 60. and 78. Siem de Jong - 35. Ahmed Foulouh, 90.+1 Paco van Moorsel - there were a lot of positives and some negatives in this match against league's weakest team. Firstly the positives: good goalscoring with Tom Noordhoff having his 8th goal of the season (pretty solid for a centre back). Good teamwork and attacking play (24 shots, 14 on target - to be honest Zwolle should be lucky to conced just 6). And last, but not least - de Jong scored perhaps the most beautiful goal of the season with a shot from 30 meters. Negatives - obviously 2 conceded goals at home against such team as Zwolle. careless defending and Elroy van Dalen once again failed to impress me. Secondly the referee who let the game to become too physical - Michel Meeuws, Hulusi Aydingöz, Roberto Jansma and van Dalen all picked up knocks during this match due to rough play by Zwolle defenders. That's a shame.

18.04.2021 - ADO Den Haag - Ajax 1:3 (ED) - 61. Emanuele Testardi - 2. Kolbeinn Sigdorsson, 7. Hulusi Aydingöz, 90.+1 Thulani Serero - we started well with 2 quick goals, but then couldn't find the target again. ADO's goalkeeper made some key saves to keep their hopes alive and after the break it was Mitchell Dijks' extremely poor backpass that gave Testardi a great opportunity to score for ADO. But they wanted it perhaps too much and started to make too many fouls, so in the 2nd half the referee had to show red cards to even 3 ADO players. In the end it was 11 against 8 and we had no problems containing the game. Before the whistle Thulani Serero scored our 3rd goal and that secured us valuable 3 points in the table.

Main focus this month have been securing domestic title and we're well aware that we can't lose any points. PSV didn't either, so prior the last match it's still 2 points between us. In case we draw and PSV wins their last game it's probably our title as we currently have better goal difference. But the last matchday is tricky for both teams - we play away agains FC Twente and PSV will travel to Alkmaar to go against AZ.

Eredivisie

1. Ajax 81 (33 games)

2. PSV Eindhoven 79

3. AZ Alkmaar 68

4. Vitesse Arnhem 64

5. FC Twente Enschede 62

6. Feyenoord Rotterdam 49

...........................

16. ADO Den Haag 30

17. VVV Venlo 30

18. PEC Zwolle 20

Ajax goals: Kolbeinn Sigdorsson 20, Roberto Jansma 20, Dick Jansen 19, Siem de Jong 16

Ajax assists: Kolbeinn Sigdorsson 13, Daniel Buijs 12, Roberto Jansma 11, Mitchell Dijks 10 (great number for a fullback)

[Draakon]

I'll make a better update about youth players with screenshots, but as season is ending and new batch of youngsters have arrived in March, there's a time for a quick update about youth players. Firstly - I let two of the youngsters go for free after this season.

- Joeri Pattinama (DLC) spent this Spring on loan in Volendam, got playing time in Jupiler League matches, but couldn't impress enough to deserve new contract

- Geert de Jong (AMR/MC) go some appearances in Ajax first team this season, but he's similar to my other young right winger Roel Doesburg and between those two Doesburg improved more this season and looks more like a first team material. So no new contract for him too.

Other players were mostly on loan in Eredivisie or Jupiler League. I'll mention the ones that have got more potential

- Wilco Schouwenaar (GK) - 18 yo keeper was the first choice GK of Roda JC this season. Played well, developed well (despite Roda JC having quite poor season as a team). Part of Holland U-21 setup despite his young age

- Johan Kramer (DC) - played in Almere City and was a rock of their defensive line this year. I regard him one of the key factors that allowed Almere City to grab 7th place in the table (which is huge overachievement for them). Very good 'stopper' kind of central defender - good in the air, good jumping, heading, strength and positioning. Over 7.30 average rating in Eredivisie and valued more than £3m. Coach report sheet claims he's 'inconsistent' but stats doesn't prove that. I'm leaning toward him to replace Elroy van Dalen as 3rd DC for the next season.

- Rob Klijn (DR/DC) - played in Club Brugge and his performances were unremarkable. Good prospect though, but probably loaned out for the next season too. It looks like he's more effective as a right back than in central defense, but right-back is my most talented and crowded position in the squad.

- Michel Biekman (DMC) - played in Almere City. Consistent first team player there - strengths are his pace and technique, but lacks workrate and teamwork which troubles me a little. Consistently put in 7.00-7.10 performances, but couldn't stand out in the midfield. Loaned out next season.

- Cees van der Driessche (MC) - has some potential, quick player and good for MC support role according to attributes. Was loaned to FC Den Bosch and got some Eredivisie football, but development was hampered by few injuries. In my opinion not good enough for Ajax first team - he's unfortunately not as talented as Aydingöz and Bouwhuis.

- Hans Vissers (AMR) - played in Almere City and scored 9 goals during the season, had some great games and some poor ones. Developed somewhat, but he's 23 already and not yet starting XI material for me, so perhaps it's time for him to go? Trying to cash him before his contract ends next Summer.

- Paul Nijhuis (AML) - was on loan in France (AS Nancy-Lorraine), but shone very rarely. Usually performances around 6.5, but got selected despite of that. On paper looks good though and could play for Ajax into my eyes. But AML is another crowded position for me with Roberto Jansma, Anthony Crüden, Nijhuis and few other youngsters making it difficult to give playing time to everyone. Time to make some decisions, but no need to hurry. When Jansma starts to attract big clubs and good offer comes in, it's time for him to go and it's different story altogether.

[Draakon]

02.05.2021 - FC Twente - Ajax 0:1 (ED) - 16. Dejan Meleg - extremely nervous game, a true championship-deciding match. I started with quite careful balanced tactics and it brought success in the first half. Dejan Meleg (who played as AMR) scored from de Jong's superb pass and then de Jong himself missed a good chance. We weren't dominant, but limited Twente's attacks quite expertly. If I got the news that AZ have scored against PSV in the other match we could breathe a little bit easier. The second half was just containing the game and preserving our lead. In the end both games ended with 1:0 results and we clinched the title again! Very professional job from all the players and I was extremely pleased. This was one of the closest title races in past years and it indicates it's not going to be easy against PSV next season.

Eredivisie

1. Ajax 84

2. PSV Eindhoven 79

3. AZ Alkmaar 71

4. Vitesse Arnhem 64

5. FC Twente Enschede 62

6. Almere City 51

7. Feyenoord Rotterdam 49

8. FC Groningen 42

9. sc Heerenveen 40

10. FC Utercht 39

11. NEC Nijmegen 38

12. FC Den Bosch 37

13. Roda JC Kerkrade 34

14. NAC Breda 34

15. FC Eindhoven 34

16. ADO Den Haag 33

17. VVV Venlo 30

18. PEC Zwolle 24

Ajax goals: Kolbeinn Sigdorsson 20, Roberto Jansma 20, Dick Jansen 19, Siem de Jong 16

Ajax assists: Kolbeinn Sigdorsson 13, Daniel Buijs 12, Roberto Jansma 11, Mitchell Dijks 10

Goalkeeper Of The Year

1. Eloy Room (Vitesse Arnhem)

2. Jan Kuijpers (Ajax)

3. Ton van Gameren (Almere City)

Golden Boot

1. Emanuele Testardi (ADO Den Haag)

2. Yannick Stuivenberg (sc Heerenveen)

3. Virgil van Dijk (FC Groningen)

Top Goalscorer

1. Emmanuel Riviere (PSV Eindhoven) - 27

2. Emanuele Testardi (ADO Den Haag) - 27

3. Hakan Aeschlimann (AZ Alkmaar) - 20

Young Player Of The Year

1. Hulusi Aydingöz (Ajax)

2. Gregory Humbert (PEC Zwolle) - on loan from FC Sochaux-Montbe

3. Jose Murca (Roda JC Kerkrade) - on loan from SLB

Dutch Cup Final

FC Utrecht - FC Twente 0:1

Champions League Final

FC Chelsea - AS Roma 4:0

After the last matchday it's been a quiet month. I've got job offers from Olympique Lyon and Arsenal which I rejected. There was some interest around Elroy van Dalen, but not enough to get a good offer (he's valued £4m now so I'm expecting a bid for at least £8m)

[Draakon]

Transfer window has been quiet so far. Usual loanees coming in and other youngsters going out on loan to same (or different) clubs. There have been some interest around Elroy van Dalen but I'm not sure the clubs are willing to pay what I want for him (he's valued around £3,9-4m; I want at least £8m) and I'm still not completely dismissed the idea of making him future left-back (as I really don't have any other options if my youth system continues to let me down at this specific position).

New Eredivisie season fixture list was drawn and our season opens in Amsterdam Arena against... PSV. Well, that's something I didn't expect so soon. It can go either very good or very bad, I suppose. But any day I'd prefer to start against smaller teams to gain some confidence and form before taking on rivals and title contenders.

24.07.2021 - FC Twente - Ajax 0:2 (Dutch Super Cup) - 8. Roberto Jansma, 32. Siem de Jong - traditional Super Cup game prior to the season saw us beat FC Twente quite comfortably. We limited their chances well and despite the fact that we didn't have a single ccc, we managed to make a number of shots and create a handful of opportunities. I was happy to see how cleverly ball was moved around in attacking phase and both goals came from good passes inside opponent's box. For some managers Super Cup doesn't mean that much, but it's always great to start new season with a win.

31.07.2021 - Ajax - PSV Eindhoven 0:2 (ED) - 11. and 85. Maurucio Arias - PSV have strengthened their team with several new players and invested around £9m for that purpose. Costa Rican striker Mauricio Arias was one of the new signings and managed to score 2 goals in his league debut against us. We didn't play badly to be honest. Actually, the game itself was quite even, but PSV were more clinical and used their chances better. Our wingers were well controlled by PSV defenders and it wasn't too easy to convert our possession to goals. Second goal in the end of the game made sure that PSV left with 3 points from Amsterdam Arena. A very disappointing result, but we have to keep in mind that long season is ahead and it's a marathon, not a sprint.

[Draakon]

14.08.2021 - Ajax - NEC Nijmegen 2:0 (ED) - 84. Dejan Meleg, 90.+4 Tom Noordhoff - two weeks have passed since defeat against PSV and I needed to shake this off by strong results in August. But we struggled to create good chances and finishing them off, despite controlling midfield. From 19 shots only 3 were on target and with game nearing to end we started to run out of time and options. Kolbeinn Sigdorsson was a complete disappointment up front and Dick Jansen couldn't make impact either. Only after Buijs came off for Meleg we managed to end our dryspell. Noordhoff added another goal in injury time. Man of the match was Michel Meeuws with his good performance in right defense. Best attacker on the pitch was Jansma who created two best chances of the match. I'm glad we finally converted our advantage into goals but it should have been a lot easier.

18.08.2021 - Roda JC Kerkrade - Ajax 1:2 (ED) - 83. Tommy van der Loo - 31. Daniel Buijs, 86. Jeroen Bouwhuis - Roda is a team who are continuously getting weaker and their media predicted position is 16th this season. Still, away tie was a difficult encounter. First half was raesonably good with a goal scored and well controlled match. But we couldn't finish the contest with another goal and it started to become more and more nervous. Finally van der Loo managed to use one of their few chances and I felt the win slip away. Then substitute Bouwhuis fired a long shot into the corner and that was enough to get 3 points from away game. Sigdorsson was even worse in this match than against NEC - 5.7 performance thi time. Our best player was Buijs, but nobody were really impressive. Better game as a whole, but still I feel we escaped from this one.

22.08.2021 - FC Twente - Ajax 0:1 (ED) - 45. Roberto Jansma - the 2nd serious test of the season and certainly the best opponent of the month. It was a fairly even game and the difference was that we were able to create those few chances that Twente couldn't. Buijs' cross found Jansma in the box just in the end of the first half and young winger made no mistakes there. In 2nd half Twente picked themselves up and started to apply pressure whereas we tried to contain the game and preserve our lead. Tom Noordhoff earned a man of the match award with his defensive performance and with the final whistle we had taken valuable 3 points from away game. At the same time PSV made 0-0 draw with Vitesse, so we reduced that gap as well.

Eredivisie

1. AZ Alkmaar 10 (4 games)

2. PSV Eindhoven 10

3. NAC Breda 10

4. Ajax 9

5. FC Utrecht 9

6. Feyenoord Rotterdam 7

7. FC Groningen 7

...........................

16. Sparta Rotterdam 3

17. Roda JC Kerkrade 1

18. RKC Waalwijk 0

So, newly promoted Sparta and RKC are not having the best start of the season. Almere City continues to do well and is 9th in the table with 1 win and 3 draws (still undefeaded!). FC Twente is most underachieving with only 1 win and 3 losses.

[Draakon]

Transfer window is over and without major movements. van Dalen deal fell through (Gladbach was interested, but wasn't prepared to pay any more than initial £3,8m that they offered). Paul Nijhuis sale also went sour and he ended up on loan in Almere City (at least he'll get decent Eredivisie football there). So - my first team squad for the next season is shown below (* marks U-21 player that I'll post as screenshots later)

GK: Jan Kuijpers

Decent choice and can make very good saves when being confident and given some encouragements by team talks.

DR: Kenny Tete, Michel Meeuws*, Frank de Man

Very strong trio... perhaps too strong to give everyone a fair share of playing time. Tete is slightly older than others and has proved himself the most, but Meeuws is incredibly quick player and very talented for his age. DR is the position of most cover in my team with youth prospects coming from U-19 team as well.

DLC: Tom Noordhoff, Joel Veltmna, Elroy van Dalen

I've used to forgive Noordhoff couple of his defensiver errors. He's one of the defender who somehow manages to get some goals during the season (last year even 8 goals in all competitions - that's great for a DC). Noordhoff and Veltman are my preferred defensive pairing with van Dalen providing backup.

DL: Mitchell Dijks, Daley Blind

Dijks is a consistent member of Holland national team. Blind not so much any more (remember - we've in 2021 and he's 30+ yo now). Dijks have some problems with nervousness in big matches, so sometimes I prefer Blind against teams such as Feyenoord or Utrecht. Blind provides cover for both DL and DMC positions, so he actually gets a lot of playing time.

DMC: Ilan Boccara, Quincy Hoogendoorn

Boccara is one of my key players in midfield - solid reliable controlling player whose work rate is incredible. Because of him as DMC I can give more creative freedom to my other midfielders.

MC(support): Hulusi Aydingöz*, Melvin Vissers, Thulani Serero - Aydingöz is my new up-and-coming player who have overcome Vissers as the first choice midfielder. Serero is now also over 30 years old - he has been struggling with injuries and his physical stats are starting to decline. Still a solid substitution player who can turn the game around.

MC(attack): Siem de Jong, Jeroen Bouwhuis* - well balanced position with de Jong as an experienced NT player and Bouwhuis being young and talented understudy.

AMR: Daniel Buijs, Sheraldo Becker, Roel Doesburg* - Buijs is my first choice winger there, but Doesburg has been a revelation. In U-19 he was rated as 2,5* potential, but after successful tutoring and good training he's broken into first team squad and has now 3,5* potential rating. Becker at the same time has suffered a lot due to last season injury and I feel that rightfully I should think about selling him in Winter. Yes, he's versatile and can provide backup to both AMR and ST position, but he's not likely to become first XI player in my rotation and I should start giving chance to younger talents.

AML: Roberto Jansma, Dejan Meleg, Anthony Crüden, Evans Idrissu* - very crowded position and difficult to give all players equal playing time. Meleg is sometimes used in AMR too. Idrissu is new addition to my squad from U-19. Jansma is first pick and also part of Holland national team.

ST: Kolbeinn Sigdorsson, Dick Jansen* - Sigdorsson is now 31 and it's getting more difficult to prefer one player to another. Sigdorsson (despite his poor form in this season) looks to me more reliable mentally - more composed, motivated and the man for a big matches. But last season Jansen scored a lot when Icelander was injured and he actually looked formidable for a first choice striker.

[Draakon]

Summer transfer window has been awkwardly quiet. While my own players didn't attract any major interest it was the same for all Eredivisie. Only one notable deal happened in August and that's pretty much all. Biggest player movements in terms of money were following:

Jeon Jun-Hyeong from FC Twente to Norwich for £9m - FC Twente's best striker. Not sad at all to see him leave.

Matias Ordones from Feyenoord Rotterdam to Valencia for £7,25m - great left-back prospect. Feyenoord coulnd't keep them for more than a year after he demanded a move to bigger team

Yefrey Peralta from Feyenoord Rotterdam to Galatasarai for £5,25m - best Feyenoord midfielder. Big loss for them.

Nol van Breukelen from NEC Nijmegen to Manchester United for £3,3m - 15 yo great young talent from NEC youth team. Snapped up and signed by ManU scouts. 4,5* potential rating.

Dejan Petkovic from Sturm Graz to FC Twente for £3,1m - Serbian right winger

Valentin Fournier from Olympique Lyon to PSV for £3m - French left winger

[Draakon]

11.09.2021 - Ajax - RKC Waalwijk 4:1 (ED) - 28. Roberto Jansma, 73. pen. Anthony Crüden, 82. and 87. Jeroen Bouwhuis - 90.+1 Ahmed Saidi - home game against newly promoted RKC should be the easiest fixture of the season and I sent out a team of youngsters and substitute players. We took the lead fairly well, but then couldn't score second goal well enough - finishing was poor despite created chances. In the 2nd half Jeroen Bouwhuis took over and provided couple of goals, but before the whistle our defense relaxed too early and allowed a consolation goal for RKC. 3 goal winning margin is OK, but not perfect.

15.09.2021 - Ajax - Udinese 3:1 (Champions League Group Stage) - 39. Hulusi Aydingöz, 56. Kolbeinn Sigdorsson, 85. Daniel Buijs - 58. Djair - Udinese is unfairly underrated by bookies, but they're actually solid top half team in Serie A. But we could control our home game well enough. Sigdorsson scored his first goal in a while (from DFK, but nevertheless) and we took well the chances we got in front of the goal. Mitchell Dijks was the man of the match because of his defensive efforts and assist to Buijs' goal.

18.09.2021 - sc Heerenveen - Ajax 1:2 (ED) - 20. Felipe Gallegos - 76. Tom Noordhoff, 84. Dick Jansen - sc Heerenveen played an interesting counter-attacking tactics and it paid off in the first half when Gallegos got through after Finnbogason's superb 35 yard diagonal pass. We struggled to score, but finally Heerenveen broke in the last 15 minutes. Firstly Noordhoff scored from a header after free kick and then Jansen was the first to react to loose ball after tackle to fire it low. I'm happy that we fought til the end and managed to turn game around. Daniel Buijs was the man of the match.

21.09.2021 - Ajax - Drachtsters Boys 6:0 (Dutch Cup 2nd round) - 6. Thulani Serero, 9. and 29. Joel Veltman, 12. Jeroen Bouwhuis, 36. and 61. Dick Jansen - easy as it should have been

25.09.2021 - Ajax - AZ Alkmaar 1:0 (ED) - 25. Siem de Jong - very even game. In 90 minutes we had one good combination when ball from midfield found Jansen up front, he turned and passed behind AZ defense and de Jong was ready to run into that space to score the only goal of the game. Very satisfying when these thing work out and our defensive line worked their socks off to preserve that lead. AZ have been a solid no. 3 team in Holland last couple of seasons so this game was not easy by any means.

28.09.2021 - Arsenal - Ajax 1:1 (Champions League Group Stage) - 6. Raheem Sterling - 61. Dick Jansen - perhaps the toughest game of the group and we started with counter-attacking tactics, but conceded a quick goal. As it happens often, Arsenal eased pressure after scoring and we switched to balanced tactics, but we weren't a threat in attacking phase. In 2nd half the game evened a bit and we started to get more opportunities and Jansen's shot equalized in 61th minute. To be fair, two of Arsenal's goals were disallowed and one of them perhaps should have stood, but nevertheless I'm happy with a point from London. Without any outstanding individual performances in the game, Tom Noordhoff took man of the match award.

In conclusion, a fairly good month. European campaign has started well and we have had some good results in the league too, despite the fact that PSV still leads by 1 point.

Eredivisie

1. PSV Eindhoven 19 (7 games)

2. Ajax 18

3. Almere City 15 (sic!)

4. Feyenoord Rotterdam 14

5. AZ Alkmaar 13 (6 games)

6. NAC Breda 11 (6 games)

.........................

16. ADO Den Haag 5

17. Roda JC Kerkrade 4

18. RKC Waalwijk 0

Ajax goals: Dick Jansen 4, Jeroen Bouwhuis 4, Roberto Jansma 3

Ajax assists: Dick Jansen 3, Hulusi Aydingöz 3, Michel Meeuws 3

[Draakon]

03.10.2021 - Ajax - FC Den Bosch 3:0 (ED) - 6. and 41. Siem de Jong, 88. Kolbeinn Sigdorsson - a very confident performance at home. Captain Siem de Jong was efficient in front of the goal, defense was good and we took solid win with 3 goal winning margin. Only loss of the game was Daley Blind, who picked up a knock (strained knee ligaments) and is now sidelined for 5-6 weeks. Frank de Man was impressive in defensive right-back, and substitute Kolbeinn Sigdorsson picked up a rare goal.

15.10.2021 - Feyenoord Rotterdam - Ajax 0:1 (ED) - 81. Dejan Meleg - Boccara and Blind were injured, so Quincy Hoogendoorn had to start as DMC and that made me a little bit nervous. I didn't like that, especially in away rival match like this. Roberto Jansma returned from international break with a knock and Siem de Jong came back really tired, so I lost those two key players as well. Nevertheless, we played reasonably well. As usual, both sides were rather cautious and couldn't create too many chances, until in 81th minute Dick Jansen's through ball went behind Feyenoord defensive line and found Meleg on the run. Great opportunity and Serbian winger could keep his head clear to score from this opportunity. A valuable win away from home against tricky opponents. Mitchell Dijks was injured during the game and Elroy van Dalen took his place in left back position and did fairly well. I have to go with him for a while, with Dijks and Blind both injured.

19.10.2021 - Ajax - Olympiakos Piraeus 8:0 (Champions League Group Stage) - 1., 9. and 53. Daniel Buijs, 23. Tom Noordhoff, 69., 74., 85. and 90.+1 Anthony Crüden - yes, 8:0! We were favourites ahead of the game, but nobody expected this kind of result. Daniel Buijs started really well and his two quick goals really caused a shock in Olympiakos defense. After Noordhoff made it 3:0 (from Buijs' IFK) the heads dropped visibly and the rest of it was like a training match. It was a game of two halves - first half was entirely Buijs' show, but he came off after scoring his hat-trick and then substitute Anthony Crüden started to cause havoc in front of the goal. We scored almost from every opportunity and everything worked out for us. Olympiakos left Amsterdam completely disheartened and this goalscoring effort sent us into 1st place of the group table (thanks to impressive goal difference).

23.10.2021 - Almere City - Ajax 1:3 (ED) 19. Just Berends - 15. Tom Noordhoff, 62. Joel Veltman, 88. Jeroen Bouwhuis - it should be easy to play against your feeder team, especially when 3 of their key players are ineligible against your team, but it's always difficult against Almere City and to be fair - they're overachieving again and you probably have to credit their manager for that. First 3 goals of the game all came from set pieces and despite half time score was 1-1, we showed our superiority in the 2nd half. Ilan Boccara was back in the squad and we definitely need them against stronger teams.

26.10.2021 - Ajax - AGOVV Apeldoorn 3:0 (Dutch Cup 3rd round) - 34. and 45.+1 Dick Jansen, 51. Roel Doesburg - it was a chance for youth players and substitute/rotation players to show what they're capable of. Confident win against injury-ridden Jupiler League side. Good goalscoring form from Dick Jansen and a rare goal from young winger Doesburg. Elroy van Dalen was great in DL with 2 assists.

31.10.2021 - Ajax - FC Eindhoven 2:0 (ED) - 16. Jeroen Bouwhuis, 90. Kolbeinn Sigdorsson - despite the scoreline I wasn't happy with our performance. I feel that with all these results, a little complacency is starting to creep in and we couldn't show our usual attacking creativity in this game. Both teams had only one good chance - while Bouwhuis scored a good goal then Serhat Koc was unably to take advantage of poor mistake by Joel Veltman), but that was it. Most of the shots came from outside of the area and only 4 shots of 15 went on target. Despite that I'm pleased with Sigdorsson's goal - a well shot curling ball from 20 meters, showing more of individual skill than good teamplay. Good scoreline, but there are room for improvement.

In overall, excellent month. We've won 10 games in a row in Eredivisie, are still in Dutch Cup contention and undefeated in Champions Leage. I'm expecting the team to continue this run and rotate players to share playing time and responsibility.

Eredivisie

1. Ajax 30 (11 games)

2. PSV Eindhoven 27

3. AZ Alkmaar 23 (10 games)

4. Almere City 22 - still great start to the season

5. Feyenoord Rotterdam 21

6. NAC Breda 20 (10 games) - also pretty strong start

......................................

16. FC Den Bosch 6

17. Roda JC Kerkrade 5

18. RKC Waalwijk 2

Ajax goals: Dick Jansen 6, Jeroen Bouwhuis 6, Daniel Buijs 5, Anthony Crüden 5

Ajax assists: Dick Jansen 5, Hulusi Aydingöz 5, Daniel Buijs 4

[Draakon]

03.11.2021 - Olympiakos - Ajax 0:2 (Champions League Group Stage) - 36.Siem de Jong, 88. Mitchell Dijks - not a 8-0 blowout like it was in Amsterdam, but solid away win nevertheless. After Jan Kuijpers had to show his skills between the sticks in one occasion, it was de Jong's goal that gave us the lead. 2nd half was well under our control too and a rare goal by Dijks made it sure before the whistle. This win also secured us qualification from the group with 2 games to go.

06.11.2021 - Ajax - FC Utrecht 4:1 (ED) - 17. and 88. Thulani Serero, 58. Daniel Buijs, 90.+1 Jeroen Bouwhuis - 63. Tomas Necid - prior to this game young centre-back Johan Kramer returned from loan in Genk (prematurely, as his playing time there wasn't like I expected) and he was thrown into the rotation right here in rivalry match. Partly because there were few tired legs after midweek continental game, but partly because Tomas Necid with his solid heading skill was a particular threat in this Utrecht lineup and Kramer with his 16 heading/16 jumping skill could be a good match. Both Dijks and Blind were out with minor knocks and Elroy van Dalen was once again in DL, experienced Thulani Serero took de Jong's place as attacking midfielder. And preferring fitness over skill proved to be the right decision, with Serero leading the way with his two goals. I'm happy with 4:1 win against rivals even though we couldn't help Necid scoring agianst us. Kramer's debut was a solid performance as well.

19.11.2021 - ADO Den Haag - Ajax 1:2 (ED) - 71. Charlison Benschop - 19. Daniel Buijs, 42. Siem de Jong - back after international break and my team missed only Roberto Jansma because of injury. But we were in good rhythm in the first half and had solid 2-0 lead at half time. 2nd half we eased the pressure perhaps too early and allowed ADO to score, but our lead held until the whistle.

23.11.2021 - Udinese - Ajax 1:2 (Champions League Group Stage) - 57. Roman Zozulya - 36. Thulani Serero, 56. Dick Jansen - difficult to motivate the player when there's so little at stake. Thulani Serero started again in midfield after a while and again he scored. His attributes may be declining now at the age of 32, but his experience shows in those games I give him. Jansen's goal was quickly followed by his own lapseof concentration in defensive set piece situation and it cost us a goal. But overall we played better football than Udinese and it showed in their lack of motivation and enthusiasm.

26.11.2021 - FC Groningen - Ajax 2:3 (ED) - 39. Roberto Garcia, 86. Emiliano Banegas - 50. Kolbeinn Sigdorsson, 52. Siem de Jong, 57. Daniel Sandoval (og) - FC Groningen's team of Argentinian loanees were not exaclty title challengers, but I was aware of the technical skill they can put out, especially in their own home grass. First half was even, but Roberto Garcia's goal was the difference at half time. Our team was a bit nervous and Dijks looked outright complacent which was worrying. In the beginning of the secod half my team talk worked miracles - firstly Sigdorsson scored after mistake by Groningen's defensive rock Virgil van Dijk, then 2 minutes later de Jong scored our 2nd goal. Groningen's defense was in disarray and 5 minutes later it was 3-1 after their own goal and then the game was completely in our control. Substitute Banegas made a great dribbling followed by goal 5 minutes before the end, but that was all they could do. I'm not happy with our poor first half and lack of aggression prior to Banegas goal, but at the same time I have to be pleased that we came back in 2nd half as we did.

Despite minor flaws in performances it was a flawless month in terms of results. Thanks to our feeder club Almere City (and my loanee Cees van der Driessche who scored in 87. minute) 1:0 win over PSV we're now 6 points clear of them. AZ Alkmaar is also in the mix and their best striker Hakan Aeschlimann has scored already 20 goals in 11 games which is one of the best individual starts of the season I've seen.

Kenny Tete came to me and revealed that he's seeking for new challenge and I agreed to sell him to Atletico Madrid for £8m. I've got plenty of talent in DR position and need to make some space to my first team squad.

First 5 teams are moving away in the table and to be honest, Almere's title chances are slim at the best, despite of their good start. Feyenoord just lost their manager Anouar Diba to Girondins Bordeaux and are perhaps not the best bet either. But AZ looks really solid this season and after being the 3rd team twice in a row, they're looking to challenge the title this year.

Eredivisie

1. Ajax 39 (14 games)

2. PSV Eindhoven 33

3. AZ Alkmaar 32

4. Feyenoord Rotterdam 30

5. Almere City 28

6. FC Utrecht 22

.........................

16. FC Eindhoven 9

17. FC Den Bosch 8

18. RKC Waalwijk 2

Ajax goals: Dick Jansen 7, Daniel Buijs 7, Siem de Jong 7, Jeroen Bouwhuis 7

Ajax assists: Dick Jansen 7, Hulusi Aydingöz 6

[Draakon]

04.12.2021 - Ajax - NAC Breda 3:1 (ED) - 19. and 59. Dick Jansen, 21. Siem de Jong - 65. Xander Houtkoop - the game was more or less decided by 2 minutes in the first half, with successive goals by Jansen and de Jong. But in the 2nd half we conceded avoidable goal, so once again we relaxed a little too early.

08.12.2021 - Ajax - Arsenal 1:1 (Champions League Group Stage) - 90. Dick Jansen - Miquel Domene - we played an even game with Arsenal. In the end of the first half they scored an opener, but in the 2nd half De Man took the credit for injuring 2 Arsenal players and in the last 10 minutes we had one more player on the pitch. We took full advantage of that situation when Janses scored an easy tap-in in the final minute. I'm happy with a draw because that gave us 1st place in the table (equal points and goal difference, but we had 2 more goals scored than Arsenal - I told you this 8-0 trashing of Olympiakos will matter!).

11.12.2021 - Sparta Rotterdam - Ajax 1:3 (ED) - 90.+3 pen. Robert Manders - 11. Dick Jansen, 13. and 48. pen. Dejan Meleg - I rotated a lot of players and chose to rest several key players who had a tough game against Arsenal. Similarly to NAC game it took only 2 minutes to score 2 goals and newly promoted Sparta found themselves in trouble. Joel Veltman gave away needless penalty in injury time, but otherwise the game went as expected.

22.12.2021 - Ajax - FC Den Bosch 1:0 (Dutch Cup 4th round) - 20. Joel Veltman - a relatively easy opponent for a 4th round match, but we struggled to score and Veltman's goal after the corner proved to be a winner. Should have played better. Draw has not been kind to us and we'll go against PSV in quarter final.

29.12.2021 - Vitesse Arnhem - Ajax 2:2 (ED) - 67. Brahim Darri, 77. Julian Luque - 25. Dick Jansen, 70. Mitchell Dijks - I'm grown to fear those year-ending games, because usually then my team will find ourselves out of steam and surprised by minnows or something similar. Well, Vitesse aren't quite minnows, especially at home, but with 60/40 possession we should have won this easily. Shooting lacked accuracy and individual errors by Dijks and De Man gave Vitesse a goal-scoring chances. I'm not too downhearted by this draw, but I see room for improvement.

Generally, a good month, especially in Champions League. We've finished first half of the season with 46 points, which probably is a new record for us, but great work by PSV to keep up the pace and they are just 4 points behind. Top 4 have slided away from the rest of the pack. Feyenoord overcome AZ 1-0 and also passed them in the table.

Eredivisie

1. Ajax 46 (17 games)

2. PSV Eindhoven 42

3. Feyenoord Rotterdam 36

4. AZ Alkmaar 34

5. FC Twente Enschede 29

6. Almere City 29

................................

16. FC Eindhoven 10

17. FC Den Bosch 10

18. RKC Waalwijk 5

Ajax goals: Dick Jansen 12, Siem de Jong 8

Ajax assists: Dick Jansen 7, Hulusi Aydingöz 7

[Draakon]

Transfers

Firstly, agreed transfer of Kenny Tete to Atletico Madrid fell through (reason is still unknown to me), and I had to offer him again to clubs. This time offers were significantly lower and he finally went to Frankfurt for £3,5m. Cheap price for a right back of his quality. The were no transfer offers for Serero and Becker and I had to loan them out for the rest of the season to keep my promise. Serero went to Coventry and Becker to Almere City. Few youngster loans aside, that was pretty much it.

21.01.2022 - PSV Eindhoven - Ajax 3:5 (ED) - 35. Osmar, 53. Daniel Dayes, 64. Matias Jones - 12. Daniel Buijs, 15., 47. and 58. Dick Jansen, 70. pen. Siem de Jong - it's a difficult month with two back to back away games against PSV. Firstly in Eredivisie and then in Dutch Cup. The first game started well for us and we took quickly 2-0 lead, but then PSV started to add pressure and took initiative. The second goal of Jansen (that gave us 3-1 lead) came after horrible mistake by PSV's goalkeeper and despite 3 conceded goals (Mitchell Dijks was suspended, and Daley Blind wasn't able to handle Daniel Dayes on PSV's right wing) we scored more. Great game for spectators and a great game for our league ambitions - we now have 7 point cushion between us and PSV.

25.01.2022 - PSV Eindhoven - Ajax 4:2 (Dutch Cup Quarter Final) - 30. Osmar, 33. Anthony Been, 83. Tristan Willems, 90. Kristijan Brucic - 56. Siem de Jong, 77. Dejan Meleg - this time PSV were more focused in the beginning of the game and took 2-0 lead before half time. After the break we looked much better, de Jong scored from a beutiful free kick, but then earned his 2nd yellow card of the game. Despite being left with 10 men, we managed to equalize after good passing game between Sigdorsson and Meleg, but then PSV's pressure reached its target. We didn't have much chance being a man down.

30.01.2022 - Ajax - Roda JC Kerkrade 2:0 (ED) - 52. Dejan Meleg, 88. Daniel Buijs - okey result, but I'm not happy with the performance, especially with a dullfirst half. Should have been better at home - Roda is clearly a weaker team.

Eredivisie

1. Ajax 52 (19 games)

2. PSV Eindhoven 45

3. Feyenoord Rotterdam 42

4. AZ Alkmaar 37

5. FC Twente 33

6. Vitesse Arnhem 32 (good job by them to climb up after poor start to the season)

7. Almere City 32

...........................

16. FC Eindhoven 10

17. FC Den Bosch 10

18. RKC Waalwijk 6

Ajax goals: Dick Jansen 15, Siem de Jong 10, Daniel Buijs 9

Ajax assists: Hulusi Aydingöz 11, Dick Jansen 8, Daniel Buijs 7

[klose11]

Really enjoyed following this thread over the last few days. KUTGW.

[Draakon]

02.02.2022 - NEC Nijmegen - Ajax 1:1 (ED) - 86. Patrick Weber - 7. Roberto Jansma - there's a game that we let slip away just before the end. In first 10 minutes we scored a goal from individual dribbling of Jansma, but then our attack grew lazy and I couldn't motivate the team enough at half time. Just one gifted chance in the end and NEC managed to grab a valuable point in front of the home fans. Games like this are extremely frustrating, we've been good enough this season so that we haven't had moments like this too often, but not this time. We'd better bounce back quickly enough.

05.02.2022 - RKC Waalwijk - Ajax 0:3 (ED) - 25. Jeroen Bouwhuis, 27. and 45.+1 Roberto Jansma - second team players got their chance in this game. Things were done very easy for us, when RKC's Mike Vreekamp elbowed Aydingöz's face in 2nd minute of playing time and saw red card from referee. The rest of the game was just a formality. No wonder RKC is the weakest team of the league.

09.02.2022 - Ajax - FC Twente 3:0 (ED) - 55. and 66. Dick Jansen, 79. Jeroen Bouwhuis - FC Twente was much more bigger test for us after minnows. They looked tired and I tried to exploit it to our advantage. I could send out fresh team because our key players were rested against RKC. And wise rotation policy paid off in the end of the game - FC Twente looked more tired in the 2nd half and we scored3 unanswered goals. A good win against strong team. Unfortunately Siem de Jong picked up a knock and is out for 5-6 weeks with strained knee ligaments - troubling news ahead of our Champions League games against PSG.

12.02.2022 - Ajax - sc Heerenveen 1:0 (ED) - 76. Jeroen Bouwhuis - unexpectedly difficult game. We dominated easily in front of home crowd, having 63% of possession and 18 shots, but only 2 of them went on target and we couldn't test their goalkeeper enough, despite having 3 clear cut chances. Finally, substitute Kolbeinn Sigdorsson laid ball cleverly onto the path of Bouwhuis' run and again we scored a winner in the last 15 minutes of the game. This young attacking midfielder has a lot to prove with de Jong sidelined and expectant eyes on him to fill his shoes, and he did extremely well there to give us this win.

19.02.2022 - AZ Alkmaar - Ajax 0:3 (ED) - 26. Roberto Jansma, 28. Tom Noordhoff, 80. Jeroen Bouwhuis - AZ have been 3rd in the league in last couple of seasons and they are a strong team, so I was a bit nervous ahead of this away game, but in the endwe took comfortable win. Jansma scored his typical goal off-dribble, and just 2 minutes later Tom Noordhoff extended our lead after corner kick. AZ looked a bit nervous and downhearted, but to credit them, we didn't really break down their defense. Theu worked well as a unit, but couldn't defend against individual brilliance and set pieces. In the beginning of the 2nd half, a mistake by Veltman left AZ's Hakan Aeschlimann alone in our box with the ball, but the best striker in Eredivisie sent the ball wide.... unbelievable miss from a player who's scored 26 goals in 20 games! In the end half it took another individual performance as young Bouwhuis pulled off a Messi-like dribbling to get past Yannick Stark and score from a magnicifent individual effort. A great win away from home!

23.02.2022 - Paris Saint-Germain - Ajax 1:2 (Champions League 1st knockout round 1st leg) - 3. Salomon Rondon - 18. Kolbeinn Sigdorsson, 36. Roberto Jansma - we had a horrible start; Rondon found himself alone in front of the goal and headed in DFK when only 3 minutes where played. But we composed ourselves well. Sigdorsson scored from the first good chance we got and Jansma gave us a lead before the half time. PSG looked struggling to create anything from open play and our defensive line performed very well. With the final whistle we left from Paris with a win in 1st leg and 2 away goals.

26.02.2022 - Ajax - Feyenoord Rotterdam 3:0 (ED) - 39., 41. and 64. Dick Jansen - a great win against rivals. Our possession and pressure started to show in the end of the first half. Feyenoord's keeper Koen Casteels was perhaps too lazy to come off his line and Jansen scored an easy tap-in just in front of the goal. His 3rd goal came from GK's error as well - Casteel's punch wasn't good enough and ball landed to Jansen's head and it was easy to direct it to the back of the net. We didn't play very well as a team in attack, but Jansen's individual brilliance did the damage this time, and his hat-trick secured us a vital win. After the game Jansen signed a new contract extension to Ajax that more than doubled his modest salary. Well earned.

It's been a great month despite a draw against NEC. We've looked great against strong teams in Eredivisie, our defense has held, we've scored goals and I'm happy with away win against strong PSG. I'm pleased that we came through this month of tight schedule (7 games in 28 days), with good rotation, good performances from both more experienced and young players, and almost every game there was someone to take over and lead the team to victory.

Eredivisie

1. Ajax 68 (25 games)

2. PSV Eindhoven 58 (24)

3. Feyenoord Rotterdam 52

4. AZ Alkmaar 50

5. FC Twente 43

6. Almere City 41 (still 6th!)

.........................

16. Roda JC Kerkrade 17

17. FC Den Bosch 15

18. RKC Waalwijk 11

Ajax goals: Dick Jansen 20, Jeroen Bouwhuis 11, Siem de Jong 10

Ajax assists: Hulusi Aydingöz 12, Daniel Buijs 8, Dick Jansen 8

[Draakon]

06.03.2022 - FC Den Bosch - Ajax 2:3 (ED) - 15. Gianluca Maria, 60. Maarten Boddaert - 17. Dick Jansen, 22. Daniel Buijs, 89. Dejan Meleg - despite the fact that Den Bosch is one of the weakest sides in Eredivisie, we had our first team on the pitch, but seemed to struggle nonetheless. We recovered well from our first defensive mistake and went to half time with 2-1 lead, but Tom Noordhoff earned straight red card in 47. minutes for vicious tackle and soon Boddaert equalized. I was already prepared to settle with a draw, playing 10 against 11, but just before the end Frank de Man's cross found Meleg, completely unmarked in the box and he made no mistake to score the winner. Narrow escape in this one. Noordhoff's red card is a blow, of course, because he's now suspended for 3 games.

12.03.2022 - Ajax - Almere City 3:0 (ED) - 12. and 34. Dejan Meleg, 71. Roel Doesburg - it's always easier to play against a team with 5 key players ineligible against your side The game itself was rather boring, all goals came from individual efforts, with Roel Doesburg scored his first senior goal after a marvelous, Messi-like dribbling from the middle of the pitch. This time we were a lot better defensively and Almere didn't have a single shot during 90 minutes of football.

15.03.2022 - Ajax - Paris Saint-Germain 1:0 (Champions League 1st knockout round 2nd leg) - 83. Kolbeinn Sigdorsson - after 2:1 away win it wasn't necessary to attack and score goals. I just tried to control midfield and limit PSG chances and we managed to do just that. In the end Sigdorsson scored a goal from Blind's superb pass and that was enough to take convincing 3-1 aggregate win. Great two matches against strong PSG, perhaps a surprise for some fans and pundits.

19.03.2022 - FC Eindhoven - Ajax 0:2 (ED) - 29. Daniel Buijs, 63. Anthony Crüden - I opted a lot of substitute players against weaker FC Eindhoven. As a result we managed to take comfortable, although unimpressive win. Good game defensively, but our attacking play wasn't smooth enough and there was a lot of misunderstandings and poor passes.

25.03.2022 - Ajax - ADO Den Haag 1:0 (ED) - 87. Hulusi Aydingöz - back to first team, but goals came hard in this match. ADO came to the match with one purpose - to defend deep and avoid conceding with all costs. They had no shots in 90 minutes, but kept us at bay successfully, with help of their goalkeeper Joshua Smits' good saves. I was already accepted draw in my mind, but then Aydingöz pulled off a wonderful shot from 30 meters out that went straight to the upper corner and Smits was powerless. I know how it hurts to lose from such goals, and I almost felt sorry for ADO, but that's football.

29.03.2022 - Ajax - FC Barcelona 2:1 (Champions League Quarter Final 1st leg) - 50. pen. Daniel Buijs, 62. Melvin Vissers - 90.+3 Lionel Messi - there are no easy opponents in this stage, but I dare to say Barcelona is not the team they used to be, mostly because they are clinging onto their legends, despite the fact that years start to show - Messi, Busquets, Alex Song are all 34 yo. We played well, keeping 0-0 in the first half and then using our chances well after the break. Buijs' scored from the penalty he himself eraned 5 minutes into the 2nd half and Vissers scored his 1st goal of the season (in what match!). We managed to inject some nervousness into this Barca squad and Neymar especially looked troubled - Michael Meeuws handled him perfectly on our right defense. 2-0 would have been a great scoreline, but Messi pulled one back in injury time from DFK from 35 meters out. What can you say about that... we didn't give them any clear-cut or half-chances during 90 minutes and then a goal like that. Form is temporary, class is permanent. But I'm still hopeful ahead of 2nd leg, lets see how it goes. Melvin Vissers' first goal of the season was meant to be tha last one as well - he picked up a serious knock (torn calf muscle) and he's out until August. At the same time Siem de Jong returned from his injury break and played one half of football against Barca.

It's been a great month both in CL and domestically. PSV have lost some points against AZ and Feyenoord and can catch us only theoretically. In the bottom of the table things look grim for RKC, as Den Bosch and Eindhoven are bound to relegation playoff battle.

Eredivisie

1. Ajax 80 (29 games)

2. PSV Eindhoven 71 (27)

3. Feyenoord Rotterdam 59

4. AZ Alkmaar 57

5. FC Twente Enschede 48

6. Almere City 47

..............................

16. FC Eindhoven 19

17. FC Den Bosch 15 (28)

18. RKC Waalwijk 11

Ajax goals: Dick Jansen 21, Daniel Buijs 12, Jeroen Bouwhuis 11, Siem de Jong 10

Ajax assists: Hulusi Aydingöz 13, Dick Jansen 12, Daniel Buijs 9

[Draakon]

01.04.2022 - FC Utrecht - Ajax 0:3 (ED) - 51. Kristian Pol, 76. Anthony Crüden, 82. Kolbeinn Sigdorsson - it's a rival game against FC Utrecht, but I had to give our key players a rest ahead of important FC Barcelona fixture, so many 2nd choice players got their chance in this game - Johan Kramer in defense, Quincy Hoogendoorn as a controlling midfielder, Roel Doesburg on the right wing. The start looked shaky when we gave away penalty after 5 minutes were played, but Jan Kuijpers saved Tomas Necid's spot kick and denied FC Utrecht's best striker. It looked like Utrecht never recovered from this missed opportunity and we controlled the rest of the game, although without succes in front of the goal. At the half time I took off Roel Doesburg (who had been extremely poor so far) and another youngster Kristian Pol got his chance on the right wing, and after 5 minutes he scored his first official league goal for Ajax to gave us the lead. Substitutes Crüden and Sigdorsson added another two goals and in the end it was a comfortable 3-0 scoreline. With this win we also celebrated winning the title as PSV were already 13 points behind us with 4 games to go.

Just before the end of the game Hulusi Aydingöz picked up a bad knock and is out for a month. That's a real blow to our midfield opportunities.

06.04.2022 - FC Barcelona - Ajax 3:2 (Champions League Quarter Final 2nd leg) - 3. Neymar, 56. Ramon Ramos, 93. pen. Lionel Messi - 18. Dick Jansen, 96. pen. Siem de Jong - a very difficult task, to score at Nou Camp. Things turned even worse when we started sloppy in defense and let Neymar score a quick opening goal, but Jansen's equalizer still gave us a chance. We held on to 1:2 scoreline in the 2nd half that meant 3:3 aggregate score and extra time after 90 minutes were played. Then followed clumsy challenge by Buijs in our box and Messi scored a penalty. It was quickly followed by similar foul against Jansen in Barca's penalty box and de Jong returned the goal. 2-3 final score meant we were through to semi-finals because more away goals scored!

09.04.2022 - Ajax - FC Groningen 2:1 (ED) - 53. Anthony Crüden, 72. Kolbeinn Sigdorsson - 78. Leandro Sabas - after 120 minutes of quick tempo football at nou camp our lines looked exhausted and I had real troubles finding 11 fit players. We controlled the game nevertheless, but found it difficult to score, and tired feet in defense let FC Groningen to score a late consolation goal. I'm still pleased with a win, and Crüden has been in surprisingly good form and found his scoring touch lately.

14.04.2022 - NAC Breda - Ajax 3:5 (ED) - 33. pen. and 63. Gino van Kessel, 52. Nhlakanipho Ntuli - 29. and 65. pen. Siem de Jong, 31. and 73. Dick Jansen, 86.Roberto Jansma - a very poor game defensively, but NAC Breda's defense was even worse. After we took good 2-0 lead, things suddenly started to fall apart. First we conceded from penalty, then gave away another 2 goals after the break and found ourselves 2-3 behind. But the trio of de Jong, Jansen and Jansma were lethal in front of the goal and NAC finally didn't have the answers to our 5 goals. Not the best performance, but good spectacle for the fans.

16.04.2022 - Ajax - Vitesse Arnhem 0:0 (ED) - a dull draw. It was clear that everybody were already thinking about CL semi finals against Tottenham and we had nothing much to play for in this game. Vitesse didn't try to attack too boldly and played rather conservative defense, so 0-0 in the end and no real emotion after the whistle.

19.04.2022 - Ajax - Tottenham 1:1 (Champions League Semi Final 1st leg) - 83. Dick Jansen - 29. Douglas Costa - a draw in an even game. We defended well and looked organized at the back, but Douglas Costa scored from the fabulous DFK and Kuijpers was helpless to avoid that. Luckily we got our chance in the end of the game and Jansen equalized. 1-1 was a well deserved win, but from the look of how well Tottenham played, it was obvious it's not going to be easy for us at White Hart Lane. And of course, they got the precious away goal to go.

27.04.2022 - Tottenham - Ajax 2:1 (Champions League Semi Final 2nd leg) - 3. and 90.+1 Christian Edwards - 42. Dick Jansen - a full 8 days to prepare for 2nd leg match and both teams looked fit enough. Again we failed to start the game well and conceded quickly. But then we started to look more and more dangerous, until Jansen's shot concluded a lot of fumbling and tumbling in front of Tottenham goal to gave us equalizer before half time. Kuijpers made some excellent saves during the match and I was already concentrating to my full-time team talk to prepare lads for the extra time, but then Edwards squeezed in his 2nd goal of the night in injury time and we just lacked time to answer to that. It's a tough way to exit from competition, but we certainly showed that we can play against teams like PSG, Barca and others and with a little bit more luck, even go until the final.

Our Champions League journey had the main focus this month, but meanwhile we've gathered 90 points in Eredivisie after 33 games which is a new league record of points scored during season. Domestic season has been really impressive and I'm proud of the guys to pull together such a season after the loss against PSV in the 1st matchday back in August.

Eredivisie

1. Ajax 90 (33 games)

2. PSV Eindhoven 77

3. Feyenoord Rotterdam 68

4. AZ Alkmaar 66

5. Almere City 56 (sic!)

6. FC Twente Enschede 54

..................................

16. FC Eindhoven 28

17. FC Den Bosch 20

18. RKC Waalwijk 11 (relegated)

Ajax goals: Dick Jansen 26, Siem de Jong 13, Daniel Buijs 12, Jeroen Bouwhuis 11

Ajax assists: Dick Jansen 15, Hulusi Aydingöz 14, Daniel Buijs 10

[Draakon]

01.05.2022 - Ajax - Sparta Rotterdam 1:0 (ED) - 7. Joel Veltman - the last game of the season and no pressure, but we wanted to end the successful year with a win. Dominating easily, but lacking a little bit of luck. After Veltman scored from a beautiful header (from Siem de Jong's free kick) we couldn't find the target any more. Noordhoff, Buijs and Meleg missed their clear cut chances, Bouwhuis and Sigdorsson hit post and bar respectively. Nevertheless, a win and 3 points brought our total points tally to 93.

In terms of league table, Roda JC had a miserable last matchday. Firstly they let FC Eindhoven overtake them in the table, dropped to 16th and then failed to preserve their place in Eredivisie through play-offs. FC Den Bosch who were 17th, however managed to stay up. Season's comet Almere City extended their impressive run by beating sc Heerenveen in European places play-off and earned themselves a chance in continental competition next season. Well done!

Eredivisie

1. Ajax 93

2. PSV Eindhoven 78

3. AZ Alkmaar 69

4. Feyenoord Rotterdam 69

5. FC Twente Enschede 57

6. Almere City 57

7. sc Heerenveen 50

8. Vitesse Arnhem 49

9. FC Utrecht 45

10. FC Groningen 42

11. NEC Nijmegen 41

12. NAC Breda 39

13. Sparta Rotterdam 33

14. ADO Den Haag 31

15. FC Eindhoven 31

16. Roda JC Kerkrade 30 - relegated

17. FC Den Bosch 20

18. RKC Waalwijk 11 - relegated

Ajax goals: Dick Jansen 26, Siem de Jong 13, Daniel Buijs 12, Jeroen Bouwhuis 11

Ajax assists: Dick Jansen 15, Hulusi Aydingöz 14, Daniel Buijs 10

Goalkeeper Of The Year

1. Nkau Shoai (PSV Eindhoven)

2. Jan Kuijpers (Ajax)

3. Marijan Papa (FC Twente)

Golden Boot

1. Hakan Aeschlimann (AZ Alkmaar)

2. Dusan Misic (Feyenoord Rotterdam)

3. Tomas Necid (FC Utrecht)

Dutch Young Player Of The Year

1. Hulusi Aydingöz (Ajax)

2. Jeroen Bouwhuis (Ajax)

3. Davide Gambino (FC Twente)

Top Goalscorer

1. Hakan Aeschlimann (AZ Alkmaar) - 31

2. Tomas Necid (FC Utrecht) - 21

3. Alfred Finnbogason (sc Heerenveen) - 19

[Draakon]

23.07.2022 - Ajax - PSV Eindhoven 2:1 (Dutch Super Cup) - 84. Kolbeinn Sigdorsson, 120.+1 Anthony Crüden - 51. Anthony Been - I wasn't sure before the game how ready were we against PSV, but the game itself started pretty well. We quickly took initiative and had possession in PSV half, creating some half-chances and keeping PSV strikers away from danger zone. Roberto Jansma had a great chance when 8 minutes were played, but the first half ended with goalless 0-0. In the beginning of the 2nd half, perhaps against the run of play PSV were the ones to break through, after young Anthony Been left Joel Veltman standing and sprinted alone to our box to score 1-0. Veltman looked a bit sheepish, being fooled by lot less experienced player, but that's football. We recovered quickly, but couldn't create any clear cut chances until Sigdorsson unexpectedly found himself in front of the goal and ball bouncing onto his path. 1-1 with less than 10 minutes to go! In extra time we firstly survived a small shock when PSV's Freddy Santelices missed almost an empty net. And when I was already selecting penalty takers in my mind, Buijs made a good run inside PSV box and laid the ball to substitute Anthony Crüden who scored a winner in injury time! Great win against PSV and I'm sure it did hurt them.

31.07.2022 - Willem II Tilburg - Ajax 1:5 (ED) - 42. Gerrit Mühren - 25. and 66. Roberto Jansma, 30. and 63. Kolbeinn Sigdorsson, 88. Daley Blind - our Eredivisie season started with away game against newly promoted Willem II. To be honest, we ddin't have any troubles controlling the game and scoring at ease. Only letdown of the game was Hulusi Aydingöz's poor backpass that was easily intercepted by Mühren and he had no problem finishing off his chance. That goal gave Willem II a glimmer of hope with 1-2 half-time score, but 2nd half was completely in our control. Dick Jansen had a small injury while playing in Holland U-21 national team, so he's missed those two games, but Sigdorsson has taken his chance and his 3 goals in 2 games are a serious claim from veteran striker to grab his first team place back from Jansen.

First matchday was even better because PSV failed to win against sc Heerenveen. In fact, they barely escaped with a draw.

[DavidBeckham]

Congrats on the comfortable league win!

[Draakon]

13.08.2022 - AZ Alkmaar - Ajax 1:4 (ED) - 33. Joel Donald - 29. Kolbeinn Sigdorsson, 49. Roberto Jansma, 79. Daniel Buijs, 85. Dick Jansen - away game in Alkmaar looked like the first serious test this season. I spent some time thinking about tactics and using specific orders against certain AZ players. Key moment of the game was actually 46th minute when AZ's best striker Hakan Aeschlimann (who had been seriously hacked for first half by our defenders) earned his second yellow card and was sent off. Being 11 against 10, we easily scored 3 more goals and final scoreline looked like it was a really one-sided game that it actually wasn't.

21.08.2022 - Ajax - FC Groningen 3:0 (ED] - 18. Roberto Jansma, 22. Hulusi Aydingöz, 69. Jeroen Bouwhuis - that actually WAS a one-sided game and surprisingly so. We controlled whole pitch, applied Dortmund-like pressure to the ball and kept FC Groningen attacks in control. Very confident performance in front of home fans.

24.08.2022 - Ajax - Heracles Almelo 3:0 (ED) - 19. Jeroen Bouwhuis, 45.+2 and 66. Kolbeinn Sigdorsson - newly-promoted Heracles were no match for us. In fact they are likely to struggle for full season. After spending many years in lower division, they finally finished 4th in Jupiler League last season and surprisingly found themselves in Eredivisie after play-off matches. But they're not ready financially and their squad lacks depth and skill to play against big teams. We didn't let them have any single shot towards our goal, and our ball possession was 68%. But for Heracles there will be similar days coming.

Young goalkeeper Wilco Schouwenaar came in as a substitute in this game and made his league debut for Ajax.

Eredivisie

1. Ajax 12 (4 games)

2. FC Utrecht 10

3. FC Twente Enschede 9

4. Feyenoord Rotterdam 9 (5 games)

5. FC Den Bosch 9 (5 games)

6. PSV Eindhoven 7

............................

16. FC Eindhoven 3

17. Sparta Rotterdam 2

18. FC Groningen 1

[Draakon]

I didn't make any serious moves i ntransfer market this Summer. Sheraldo Becker left the club after his contract ended and signed with PAOK. Thulani Serero returned from loan at Coventry and still expressed his desire for ne challenges, so I sold him to Lazio for £800k.

Quincy Hoogendoorn figured in last season squa as a substitute DMC. He didn't recieve new contract because of his big salary demand (and he was 2* player anyway) and signed for Girondins Bordeaux.

Notable loanees are GK Wilco Schouwenaar to FC Sochaux and DLC Elroy van Dalen to AS Saint-Etienne, several other youngsters were loaned as well.

Ajax Squad 2022/2023

GK: Jan Kuijpers

DR: Frank de Man, Michel Meeuws

DRC: Joel Veltman, Rob Klijn

DLC: Tom Noordhoff, Johan Kramer

DL: Mitchell Dijks

DMC: Ilan Boccara, Daley Blind

MC: Hulusi Aydingöz, Melvin Vissers

MC: Siem de Jong, Jeroen Bouwhuis

AMR: Daniel Buijs, Roel Doesburg, Kristian Pol

AML: Roberto Jansma, Dejan Meleg, Anthony Crüden

ST: Dick Jansen, Kolbeinn Sigdorsson, Brian Tol

Only really new man is 17 years old Brian Tol who fills in as a 3rd striker and could be long term replacement for Sigdorsson. Anyway, he looks promising so far.

Eredivisie Transfers

Daniel Dayes from PSV to Tottenham for £10,5m

Igor Ticic from Dinamo to PSV for £8,75m - Croatian 20yo left-back

Dejan Petkovic from FC Twente to Stoke for £6,25m

Robert Messi from Red Star to PSV for £4,3m - 22yo midfielder from Cameroon. No relation to Lionel.

Gregory Huisman from Feyenoord to FC Salzburg for £3,3m

Lass Bangoura from PSV to Ipswich for £3m

Metodi Petkov from St. Pauli to FC Twente for £3m - Bulgarian young right winger

[Draakon]

10.09.2022 - sc Heerenveen - Ajax 0:1 (ED) - 77. Jeroen Bouwhuis - sc Heerenveen came to the match without professional goalkeeper. Their GK Brahim Zaari is injured and out for at least 2-3 months, so there was 17 yo youngster between the sticks and supposedly our task should have been easier. But it wasn't so at all. We dominated midfield, but Heerenveen defense was escellent until 77th minute when substitute Bouwhuis fired hard and low to give us 1-0 win. Attacking play had only few positives for me. We need to be more lethal in front of the goal.

13.09.2022 - Ajax - Basel 4:0 (Champions League Group Stage) - 22. Roberto Jansma, 28. and 62. Siem de Jong, 69. Anthony Crüden - for some reason or another, group outsiders often look complacent and uninterested when playing away from home and Basel was another example. Easy game (in terms of continental competition) and easy 4-0 win.

16.09.2022 - Ajax - Feyenoord Rotterdam 3:1 (ED) - 7. and 27. Daniel Buijs, 12. Jeroen Bouwhuis - 90.+1 Uche Nwofor - Feyenoord have started their season well and I was cautious ahead of this game, but in 30 minutes it was game over. We took our chances excellently, especially Buijs who doesn't score very often. de Jong looked tired after Basel game and Bouwhuis started in his place and scored again. In fact, they've been sharing MC-attacking role between them for a while and now it looks that they are more less equal in terms of skill and performances.

22.09.2022 - Ajax - Katwijk 8:0 (Dutch Cup 2nd round) - 3. Roel Doesburg, 7., 12. and 63. Anthony Crüden, 41. Jeroen Bouwhuis, 57. Melvin Vissers, 78. Kristian Pol, 81. Johan Kramer - younger players got their chance and ripped poor amateur side apart with 8 goals. Crüden picked up his hat-trick and we had a lot of players on scoresheet that usually don't score too many goals.

25.09.2022 - PSV Eindhoven - Ajax 0:1 (ED) - 27. Roberto Jansma - perhaps the most difficult game of domestic season. We started carefully, but inidividual brilliance by Jansma gave us a good lead before half time. PSV made a lot of fouls and picked up a lot of yellow cards, so in 75th minute their midfielder Franklin Badru earned his second yellow and our task was only to steer this game until the end. PSV never managed to hit the target, and their long shots went well wide. A very valuable win.

But we didn't make it without losses that night - Daniel Buijs will be out for 2 months with hip injury, Ilan Boccara 2 weeks with a groin strain, Jansma will miss next game with a bruised rib...

28.09.2022 - Atletico Madrid - Ajax 4:0 (Champions League Group Stage) - 19. Luiz Antonio, 45.+2 Ibrahima Mbaye, 59. Cedric Badjeck, 85. Michal Huber - I don't remember the last time we lost a continental game so decisively. Of course, I missed my 3 best wingers and had to rely on youngsters Crüden and Doesburg on the wings. Of course Blind couldn't quite replace Boccara as DMC. But 0-4 still was harsh. We couldn't pose any threat in attack and defensive mistakes accumulated into 4 goals. It's best to forget this night as soon as possible.

Aside of the last game, it was a great month domestically, wins both against PSV and Feyenoord and still 100% record in the table.

Eredivisie

1. Ajax 21 (7 games)

2. FC Twente 18

3. FC Utrecht 15

4. FC Den Bosch 13 (a little surprise)

5. sc Heerenveen 13

6. Feyenoord Rotterdam 12

................................

16. Willem II Tilburg 5

17. FC Groningen 4 (terrible start for them)

18. Sparta Rotterdam 4

Ajax goals: Kolbeinn Sigdorsson 6, Roberto Jansma 6, Jeroen Bouwhuis 5, Anthony Crüden 5

Ajax assists: Kolbeinn Sigdorsson 5, Daniel Buijs 4, Hulusi Aydingöz 4

[Draakon]

01.10.2022 - Ajax - FC Twente 2:1 (ED) - 14. Siem de Jong, 38. Kolbeinn Sigdorsson - 56. pen. Eric Tie-Bi - each year there are a team or two that I call 'black horse' team. Regular top-5 team who have a good start to their season and maybe, MAYBE could pose a serious threat and title challenger. In last couple of seasons it has been AZ Alkmaar, but this year FC Twente look more dangerous, so I took this game very seriously, knowing that our loss will give them extra boost. Things started well for us. We didn't dominate, but scored quickly enough (de Jong's skillfull shot outside of box that went in from underside of the bar). Sigdorsson stole a cheap goal when he intercepted careless pass by Twente's goalkeeper Marijan Papa. And despite conceding from penalty in the 2nd half we saw the game out with 2-1 advantage.

14.10.2022 - ADO Den Haag - Ajax 1:3 (ED) - 66. Aaron Meijers - 4. Roberto Jansma, 78. Kristian Pol, 88. Kolbeinn Sigdorsson - one of those games that you should win, score a quick goal and then see your players waste most of the first half to go to the break with only 1-0 lead. And then, as it usually happens, your opponent find a way to equalize. Luckily this time we pulled ourselves together and finished with 2 goals in the last 15 minutes to claim convincing 3-1 win, but I'm not happy with the first 70 minutes of the game. Kristina Pol was a revelation on the right wing, giving a cross to asssist first goal and scorig important 2nd. Dick Jansen started as ST and gave another miserable performance. I subbed him for Sigdorsson after equalizer and our attack was much better after that. I can't understand how Jansen, who had such a great season last year, can't pick up his form now...

19.10.2022 - Ajax - FC Porto 1:2 (Champions League Group Stage) - 11. Kolbeinn Sigdorsson - 51. Hugo Viana, 59. Adama Fofana - the special one Jose Mourinho is back with FC Porto and he taught me a lesson in this one. Despite going 1-0 to half time break, we conceded two goals in the 2nd half. Then controlled the game and attacked well for the last 30 minutes, but couldn't break down FCP defense... a bit frustrating, but I clearly understood what was the intention and tactical approach of Mourinho in this away game. This loss makes our chances of progression much more difficult.

22.10.2022 - Ajax - NAC Breda 3:0 (ED) - 5. Siem de Jong, 67. Bart Groenendijk (og), 84. Brian Tol - confident 3-0 win at home. Something that I like to see more often against mid-table teams. Young 17 year old striker Brian Tol scored his first goal for Ajax in this game.

26.10.2022 - Ajax - Rijnsburge Boys 1:0 (Dutch Cup 3rd round) - 33. Anthony Crüden - RB are in Jupiler League now and they are not the amateur team they used to be, and I put out my 2nd choice players, but 1-0 is still not good enough. Crüden's goal was well taken, but we lacked the last pass and creativity up front and couldn't pose a real threat to their goal. Average performance from most of the players....

29.10.2022 - Ajax - FC Eindhoven 0:0 (ED) - unfortunately, that sort of form went on in the next league game as well... while we controlled our defense and midfield well, our attack didn't work. Roel Doesburg on the right and Jansen as ST were disappointing. Jansen and Meleg both missed their ccc-s... FC Eindhoven could obviously be happy with their defensive performance and bus-parking skills, but I'm not happy with dropped points against smaller teams.

Eredivisie

1. Ajax 31 (11 games)

2. PSV Eindhoven 22 (10 games)

3. FC Twente 22 (11 games)

4. FC Den Bosch 22 (12 games)

5. AZ Alkmaar 21 (11 games)

6. sc Heerenveen 19 (11 games)

........................................

16. Heracles Almelo 7

17. Sparta Rotterdam 7

18. Willem II Tilburg 7

Very tight in the end of the table. FC Den Bosch is still going strong and overachieving and PSV is slowly climbing their way to up top.

Ajax goals: Kolbeinn Sigdorsson 9, Roberto Jansma 7, Anthpny Crüden 6

Ajax assists: Kolbeinn Sigdorsson 6, Hulusi Aydingöz 6, Daniel Buijs 4

[Draakon]

01.11.2022 - FC Porto - Ajax 2:0 (Champions League Group Stage) - 9. pen. Gustavo, 56. Rob Klijn (og) - it was do or die for us in CL and away against Porto + Mourinho is never preferrable opposition to do that. We struggled already in the first 10 minutes when Kuijpers saved one penalty by Hugo Viana, but had to concede from another spot kick. We tried to create something, to have some possession, building up play but we just lacked some flair and decisiveness in attack. Our shooting was poor as well, only 1 shot on target from 11 attempts. Klijn's own goal decided the game and our Champions League season ended then and there. I have to credit Mourinho for nullifying Jansma completely that night, Siem de Jong and Dick Jansen had a quiet game as well.

05.11.2022 - Ajax - NEC Nijmegen 3:0 (ED) - 3. Roberto Jansma, 58. Dejan Meleg, 90.+1 Brian Tol - very strong performance and solid win against mediocre NEC team. Man of the match was Frank de Man with his good defensive play and assist. Unfortunately, Jansma was hurt seriously in the game and is now sidelined for 2-3 months (torn hamstring). That means I have to get through at least 4-5 weeks without my two best wingers. Late goal by Brian Tol was a nice surprise by young striker.

09.11.2022 - Vitesse Arnhem - Ajax 0:2 (ED) - 26. Hulusi Aydingöz, 80. Anthony Crüden - tactically very solid away game. We controlled midfield, gave Vitesse virtually no chances to score and took our own chances well. Crüden stepped up well to fill Jansma's place on the left wing and Frank de Man picked up 2nd MoM award in cosecutive games. I almost start to regret that I agree to sell him to ManCity.

12.11.2022 - Sparta Rotterdam - Ajax 1:4 (ED) - 17. Jason Bola - 1. and 78. Anthony Crüden, 28. Joel Veltman, 57. Kolbeinn Sigdorsson - Crüden continued his good goalscoring form with only 16 seconds played. Sparta tried to counter-attack and send well-measured passes behind our pushed-up defensive line on the run for Jason Bola and they succeeded in the 17th minute. Equalizer came a little bit out of nowhere. Still, we picked ourselves up quickly and Veltman's header after IFK put us ahead once more. Bola scored his 2nd goal soon after, but referee decided to disallow it and gave foul against Kuijpers in the box. Replays showed that the goal should have stood, but I don't mind. We controlled the game better in the 2nd half and finished with a solid 4-1 scoreline. Veltman received his 2nd yellow card in the 2nd half and will be suspended for the next league game.

20.11.2022 - Ajax - FC Den Bosch 3:0 (ED) - 7. and 22. Kolbeinn Sigdorsson, 78. Hulusi Aydingöz - Den Bosch have been high-flying during this first half of the season, but they couldn't match us. Sigdorsson scored two goals quickly and it was game over after that. Later Aydingöz got his reward for several attempts to score. 3-0 final score.

23.11.2022 - FC Basel - Ajax 0:3 (Champions League Group Stage) - 23. Dick Jansen, 28. Jeroen Bouwhuis, 57. Anthony Crüden - beating uninterested FC Basel side was fairly uneventful fixture. Most noteworthy is the fact that Jansen managed to score after more than a month of dry spell. I've been relying on Sigdorsson's goal for too long - having another striker getting his aiming right is only a bonus.

26.11.2022 - Ajax - Almere City 4:1 (ED) - 20., 23. and 43. Kolbeinn Sigdorsson, 65. Hulusi Aydingöz - 49. pen. Stan Tol - Almere City haven't been able to match the success of last couple of years, but they're still solid mid-table team now. Anyway, it's not good enough against Ajax in Amsterdam Arena. Sigdorsson scored wonderful hat-trick (his 3rd goal marked his 200th for Ajax!). We let complacency creep in a little bit and Almere had 10 good minutes in the beginning of the 2nd half. Dijks' error gave away penalty that youngster Stan Tol turned into a goal, but in the end it didn't matter too much.

In Champions League it's been a struggle this season and I'm disappointed to be kicked out like that. After all, we were the 1st seed of the group! But in terms of quality (on paper), budget and wages paid we're well behind FC Porto and Atletico. I also got some football managemenet lessons from Jose Mourinho in the games against Porto.

Domestically, however, it's as good as it gets. 16 games played - 15 wins and a draw. We're well ahead of anyone in the table and one hand on the title. It's been easier in this month, with away game against Vitesse being a major test, but a lot of easier games with strong performances and results to match.

Surprisingly, I didn't miss Jansma and Buijs too much - Anthony Crüden has been a revelation. On the right wing Roel Doesburg has had most of the playing time (with Dejan Meleg injured in international duty). Jansma is still out for a while (probably until February) but fortunately Daniel Buijs is back in training and will be playing in December.

Eredivisie

1. Ajax 46 (16 games)

2. FC Twente Enschede 35

3. AZ Alkmaar 32

4. PSV Eindhoven 30 (15 games)

5. Feyenoord Rotterdam 27

6. FC Den Bosch 26

..............................

16. NEC Nijmegen 13

17. Sparta Rotterdam 11

18. Willem II Tilburg 10

Ajax goals: Kolbeinn Sigdorsson 15, Anthony Crüden 10, Jeroen Bouwhuis 6

Ajas assists: Kolbeinn Sigdorsson 7, Anthony Crüden 7, Hulusi Aydingöz 7, Frank De Man 6, Roel Doesburg 6

[Draakon]

03.12.2022 - FC Utrecht - Ajax 2:1 (ED) - 74. pen. and 85. Tomas Necid - 11. Hulusi Aydingöz - finally our undefeated streak of 50 games became to an end. Actually, we were a better side in the game, especially in the first half, but too many times we settled with long shots and despite parrying them wasn't easy for FC Utrecht goalkeeper, we couldn't grow our lead. And in the 2nd half Utrecht became more encouraged by their fans and two individual mistakes cost us dearly. First Daley Blind gave away penalty and then in the last 5 minutes, Dijks' missed interception gave Necid another chance to score. I'm disappointed by the manner of defeat - we could have showed better football that night, but were punished instead.

06.12.2022 - Ajax - Atletico Madrid 6:1 (Champions League Group Stage) - 10., 46. and 56. Anthony Crüden, 39. and 53. Jeroen Bouwhuis, 42. Dick Jansen - 90. Radoslav Ivanov - the final game didn't decide anything, but 6:1 scoreline was some consolation after defeat in Utrecht and overall poor continental season. Anthony Crüden was a man of the match, Bouwhuis stood out as well and Atletico's defense looked embarrassing at moments. They had a chance for a penalty, but Jan Kuijpers saved the spot kick. Our only goalkeeper in the team was later carried off from pitch with a pulled hamstring and right-back Frank de Man had to put on gloves. Atletico consolation goal was largely his making as he fumbled the ball to Ivanov's feet. Anyway, a good win. On darker side, Kuijpers is out for 2-3 weeks.

11.12.2022 - Ajax - Willem II Tilburg 9:0 (ED) - 25., 49. and 58. Dejan Meleg, 39., 62. and 74. Jeroen Bouwhuis, 81. Dick Jansen, 83. Daniel Buijs, 87. Jens de Haan - to my horror I discovered that our 2nd best goalkeeper Wilco Schouwenaar's loan cannot be recalled and I have to pick one of my youngsters to fill for Kuijpers' spot. 18 year old Leon Roorda was the man, but in this game at least he didn't have to do much. Willem II is one of the weakest teams in the league and we crushed them with 9-0 final result (also, a new club record for most goals in the game). Dejan Meleg and Jeroen Bouwhuis scored a hat-trick and young striker Jens de Haan had a memorable debut with a goal to celebrate.

17.12.2022 - Heracles Almelo - Ajax 3:4 (ED) - 16. Giovanni Korte, 32. Jeffrey van Nuland, 48. Elvis Manu - 15. and 22. Jeroen Bouwhuis, 34. Dejan Meleg, 72. Daniel Buijs - Heracles should have been easy prey for us, but our defense let us down several times. I was furious after we let the equalize only a minute after our own openng goal. Young goalkeeper Leon Roorda wasn't to blame as defensive line gave away ccc-s to Heracles strikers, but he couldn't save those situations either. In the end we had to rely on our attacking players to outscore Heracles and with Daniel Buijs' goal in the 2nd half, we managed just to do that. A win that I'm not pleased with at all; we should be a lot better against stronger teams.

22.12.2022 - Ajax - De Graafschap 4:2 (Dutch Cup 4th round) - 4. Dick Jansen, 57. Dejan Meleg, 65. Roel Doesburg, 90.+2 Brian Tol - 5. Dries Hendriks, 78. Kristopher Vida - comfortable win against Jupiler League side De Graafschap, but our defense again was in shambles. This time we conceded two goals from set-pieces. Luckily, Melega and Doesburg picked up their pace in the 2nd half and we scored enough goals to secure a win, but conceding 2 against smaller side is a two goals too many. Quarter finals see ourselves against FC Twente.

Despite the loss to FC Utrecht, we're still in good position in the table. Jan Kuijpers is back to fitness now and hopefully our defensive record will be better with it as well. Jeroen Bouwhuis has been a player of the month in December with his performances, unfortunately, he picked up a knock in a game against Heracles and will be sidelined for 2-3 months (torn hamstring). On the other hand, Roberto Jansma has recovered from his injury and will be ready for January's fixtures.

Eredivisie

1. Ajax 52 (19 games)

2. FC Twente Enschede 42

3. PSV Eindhoven 39

4. AZ Alkmaar 38

5. Feyenoord Rotterdam 33

6. Almere City 31

........................................

16. Heracles Almelo 14

17. Sparta Rotterdam 12

18. Willem II Tilburg 11

Ajax goals: Kolbeinn Sigdorsson 15, Anthony Crüden 13, Jeroen Bouwhuis 13, Roberto Jansma 8

Ajax assists: Kolbeinn Sigdorsson 11, Anthony Crüden 8, Hulusi Aydingöz 8, Roel Doesburg 8

[Draakon]

Transfer window started with a move of Frank De Man to Manchester City for £12,5m. Decent money for a good 24 year old right bck on the verge of breaking into Dutch national team. In long term I plan to replace him with youngster Tom Tepperik, who is currently on loan in France. The move means I'llrealy mainly on Michael Meeuws on the right back position.

20.01.2023 - FC Groningen - Ajax 1:0 (ED) - 13. Jan Velten - a very disappointing game and the 2nd loss in the league. We conceded a goal after corner and couldn't answer with our own. Appalling attacking performance with 0 key passes to show during 90 minutes of play. Very poor game from experienced players Sigdorsson and de Jong. 63% of possession and nothing to show for it - very frustrating indeed.

26.01.2023 - FC Twente - Ajax 1:0 (Dutch Cup Quarter Final) - 27. Jan Kuijpers (og) - two similar losses in a row. This time we conceded from IFK. FC Twente couldn't really get any shots on target, but unfortunate fumble from Kuijpers gave them a goal. This time the performance was there, only lack of clinical edge in front of the goal and ccc-s were missing. Lack of success in the cup gets quite frustrating after all those years. Still we somehow fail in quarter finals or 4th round and considering how we perform in the league, it's not good enough.

29.01.2023 - Ajax - AZ Alkmaar 3:1 (ED) - 35. Kolbeinn Sigdorsson, 39. Ilan Boccara, 72. Anthony Crüden - 48. Zola Menga - we were happy to get Roberto Jansma back from injury break, but after a couple of good moves he was carried away with another knock (not serous, fortunately). It was the ugliest game in terms of fouls and our players received 8 yellow cards in the game. Frankly it's a miracle we managed to avoid sending off. Yellow cards to Dijks and Sigdorsson mean that they will be suspended for the next game, but nevertheless we could celebrate a good win against strong AZ Alkmaar team. And after two previous games it was no less than we deserved. Ilan Boccara's goal from the corner was a rare delight. FC Twente, on the other hand, scored again from IFK. We have to pay more attention to defending in set piece situations or we'll lose more valuable points.

Fairly poor month it was. AZ result is not enough to lighten my mood after two disappointing defeats. Injuries to Aydingöz and Veltman does not make it easier. February schedule is tough, with several key games coming in a row and only 2-3 days between them - sc Heerenveen, Feyenoord, PSV Eindhoven and a league game against FC Twente.

In Euro Cup 1st knockout round we were drawn against Galatasaray. Equal to us, more-less, so I relish the challenge.

Eredivisie

1. Ajax 55 (21 games)

2. PSV Eindhoven 45

3. FC Twente Enschede 44

4. AZ Alkmaar 38

5. Almere City 37 (they've climbed up well in recent weeks!)

6. Feyenoord Rotterdam 35

7. sc Heerenveen 31

8. FC Den Bosch 31 (couldn't maintain their form after good start to the season)

9. FC Utrecht 29

10. Vitesse Arnhem 28

11. ADO Den Haag 26

12. FC Groningen 25

13. FC Eindhoven 23

14. NEC Nijmegen 22

15. NAC Breda 16

16. Sparta Rotterdam 15

17. Heracles Almelo 14

18. Willem II Tilburg 14

Bottom 4 are battling for relegation. FC Groningen are probably the most underperforming team this year.

Ajax goals: Kolbeinn Sigdorsson 16, Anthony Crüden 14, Jeroen Bouwhuis 13, Roberto Jansma 8

Ajax assists: Kolbeinn Sigdorsson 11, Anthony Crüden 8, Hulusi Aydingöz 8, Roel Doesburg 8

[Draakon]

01.02.2023 - Ajax - sc Heerenveen 11:0 (ED) - 1. Daniel Buijs, 6., 35., 42., 53. and 60. Dick Jansen, 10. Brahim Zaari (og), 21. and 33. Tom Noordhoff, 29. Melvin Vissers, 64. Daley Blind - that's right - 11:0! Just some weeks after breaking a long-standing record of most goals in league game (9:0 against Heracles) we did it again. This time it was Heerenveen who suffered on the other end of the beating. We just couldn't stop scoring - Dick Jansen won almost all headers in the box, crosses coming from right and left met the targets. Nooordhoff added another 2 from corners. Even Daley Blind got to the score-sheet. It could have been 12, but Noordhoff missed the penalty in 80th minute. Despite this penalty save, Heerenveen's goalkeeper Brahim Zaari made 3-4 personal errors in addition to his own goal and finished this game with 1.0 rating. I believe I've never seen a rating that low in FM. Dick Jansen, however, bagged his first 10.0 with 5 goals and an assist.

04.02.2023 - Feyenoord Rotterdam - Ajax 2:1 (ED) - 56. Marvin Roest, 82. Daniel Vigna - 4. Kolbeinn Sigdorsson - from heroes to zero. Or something like that. There are a string of important fixtures coming in Eredivisie this month and we lost the first on of those, despite a fantastic start. We found ourselves more and more under pressure in the 2nd half and defensive mistakes creeped in. Disappointing defeat in the end, especially the fact that we let them score the winner in final 15 minutes.

08.02.2023 - Ajax - PSV Eindhoven 2:0 (ED) - 18. and 62. Dick Jansen - in terms of overall standings this game was much more important than Feyenoord fixture. To my surprise, PSV attack was surprisingly tootless, we controlled midfield and two good goals by Jansen gave us a vital win.

11.02.2023 - FC Twente - Ajax 1:2 (ED) - 75. Paolo Rolando - 2. Daniel Buijs, 90.+4 Kolbeinn Sigdorsson - another good start in front of away fans, but we couldn't add another goal and in the 2nd half FC Twente found the net. I was afraid it's going to become another Feyenoord game, but this time we clinched the late win when substitute Sigdorsson found himself in front of the empty net well into injury time. FC Twente are level with PSV in terms of points and this loss hurt them badly. We haven't scored too many late winners this season, so this is a moment to saviour for a while.

16.02.2023 - Galatasaray - Ajax 2:2 (Euro Cup 1st knockout round 1st leg) - 68. Gökhan Töre, 88. Lacina Traore - 74. Dick Jansen, 86. Roel Doesburg - I couldn't decide correct strategy for this away fixture. Should I remain conservative and try to defend more or go for attack to claim away goal? First half was uneventful, but Galatasaray's goal forced us to more attacking tactics and this brought success. I'm disappointed that we couldn't hang onto lead in the end, but 2:2 from away game is still good scoreline in continental series. Worse is that both Daniel Buijs and Roberto Jansma were carried off with injuries and will be sidelined for a couple of weeks. Galatasaray's best striker Lacina Traore, however, will miss 2nd leg game because of yellow cards.

19.02.2023 - Ajax - ADO Den Haag 2:2 (ED) - 4. Siem de Jong, 59. Jens Jurn Streutker (og) - 52. Rob van Dijk, 88. Jean Celik - we should have win that game, but there were many reasons we couldn't. Firstly, we missed Buijs and Jansma and after Siem de Jong picked up a knock in the 2nd half we simply lacked creativity in midfield. Dejan Meleg and Roel Doesburg couldn't fill their places. Secondly, Ilan Boccara received unfair red card in the 68th minute and we just couldn't hold onto our lead with 10 men. Disappointing, but we can live with that. Thirdly - a lot of tired legs. This string of games without a good rest is starting to show on players fitness.

23.02.2023 - Ajax - Galatasaray 2:0 (Euro Cup 1st knockout round 2nd leg) - 32. Hulusi Aydingöz, 87 Brian Tol - we didn't give Galatasaray much chance in Amsterdam Arena and by the look of their players, a lot of them didn't seem too interested to put up a fight, too. Aydingöz scored a good goal after clever backheel pass by Sigdorsson, and young striker Brian Tol made things sure in the end of the game after a wonderful chipping pass by Aydingöz. A good win, but not without a cost - we lost Dejan Meleg for 4 weeks (broken ribs). We are steadily falling into injury crisis - Veltman, de Jong, Bouwhuis, Jansma, Buijs and now Meleg are all out. Our opponent in the next round are Spartak Moscow.

26.02.2023 - NAC Breda - Ajax 1:3 (ED) - 70. Bart Vriends - 17. Melvin Vissers, 38. Hulusi Aydingöz, 40. Rob Klijn - a tale of two halves. We showed good football in the first 45 minutes, scoring 3 goals, but gave a bit too much space to NAC Breda in the 2nd half. Hulusi Aydingöz scored a great free kick and Rob Klijn's header after corner marked his first league goal for Ajax. NAC Breda consolation goal came from DFK, which again points out that we are vulnerable in this area.

A lot of games, a lot of struggling with injuries and fitness problems, a lot of rotation of players to try to maintain fitness and share playing time. Despite Feyenoord and ADO Den Haag results I'm happy with a month, mainly because we beat both PSV and FC Twente, and we're still in Euro Cup. Other Dutch teams (AZ and PSV) who reached to first knockout round, were eliminated there, so it's once again on our shoulders to gain continental points to country and Eredivisie.

Eredivisie

1. AFC Ajax 68 (27 games)

2. PSV Eidhoven 58

3. FC Twente Enschede 57

4. Feyenoord Rotterdam 51

5. AZ Alkmaar 51

6. Almere City 44

7. FC Groningen 37

8. FC Utrecht 36

9. FC Den Bosch 36

10. sc Heerenveen 35

11. ADO Den Haag 34

12. FC Eindhoven 32

13. Vitesse Arnhem 30

14. Heracles Almelo 27

15. NEC Nijmegen 27

16. Willem II Tilburg 20

17. NAC Breda 19

18. Sparta Rotterdam 16

First 6 are well above others, as the last 3 are also clearly separated. Interesting to see Vitesse struggle so badly throughout the season and NAC Breda are also underachieving. Almere City are in top 6 third season in a row!

Ajax goals: Kolbeinn Sigdorsson 18, Anthony Crüden 14, Dick Jansen 13, Jeroen Bouwhuis 13

Ajax assists: Kolbeinn Sigdorsson 12, Hulusi Aydingöz 11, Daniel Buijs 10

[Draakon]

01.03.2014 - Ajax - Vitesse Arnhem 1:0 (ED) - 44. Roberto Jansma - an even game and we struggled to create chances, but one excellent counter-attack was all it took to score. It seemed that we contained Vitesse well enough, but after the game I read from statistics that they had 10 shots against our 5, so actually they could have felt it was harsh defeat. In injury time they had two clear cut chances in a row but Rob Klijn blocked the shot excellently while Kuijpers was laying injured on the grass. Nevertheless, clean sheet for us and 3 points in the bag.

05.03.2014 - FC Eindhoven - Ajax 0:1 (ED) - 75. Hulusi Aydingöz - a very difficult defense to break down. First match with them in Amsterdam Arena ended with 0:0, this time, we scraped it 1:0, but it was a struggle. Ilan Boccara earned his 2nd red card in the beginning of the 2nd half and with 10 men it was difficult to break through. Aydingöz's shot from 20 meters surprised their goalkeeper a bit and it was enough to get 3 points. Player of the match - Mitcell Dijks.

09.03.2014 - Ajax - Spartak Moscow 2:0 (Euro Cup 2nd knockout round 1st leg) - 24. and 90.+3 Dick Jansen - a great game for first leg against solid Spartak Moscow side. Our defense was superb and limited their chances and Jansen's two goals gave us solid advantage. Clean sheet was even more important though, in those continental games you don't want to give up away goals. But we lost Ayidingöz for 2 monts with hip injury that he picked up from this game and that's a big loss. Luckily Siem de Jong is back in training again.

12.03.2014 - NEC Nijmegen - Ajax 1:2 (ED) - 9. Emeric Perez - 51. Anthony Crüden, 61. Mitchell Dijks - a lot of tired legs in the squad and a very poor first half performance. Boccaras's suspension didn't make things easier and young Danny Spaan started as DMC. Joel Veltman was back from his long injury break (but in no way back to his best days) and his mistake cost us an early goal. Attacking play was equally poor - we couldn't keep the ball up and find teammates with passes. I raised my voice in the half time (don't really remember when was the last time I had to choose aggressive shouting from half-time team talk options) but it worked. Mitchell Dijks' first goal of the season (header from corner) was finally a winner.

16.03.2014 - Spartak Moscow - Ajax 0:2 (Euro Cup 2nd knockout round 2nd leg) - 53. Johan Kramer, 63. Anthony Crüden - away games in Russia are always difficult and I expected Spartak to put up a fight at home, but they never really did. We had more possession and chances and Kramer's goal settled things early in the 2nd half. Siem de Jong is back in injury list after couple of games he could play (strained knee ligaments, 5 weeks) and his season is virtually over. Daniel Buijs was the man of the match in this game. Our next opponent in quarter finals are Norwich City - reasonably strong team, currently 4th in Premiership.

Short month. The second part of March is without games due to international break. We need only 3 more points to secure Eredivisie title and can now focus more to Euro Cup competition. Norwich are strong, but not the strongest of the teams that remain in the competition, so I can't really complain about the draw.

New youth intake was pleasantly surprising with a great DR prospect (again!), couple of strikers and several decent players all around the pitch, but no left back that we really need.

Eredivisie

1. AFC Ajax 77 (30 games)

2. PSV Eindhoven 70 (31)

3. FC Twente Enschede 63

4. AZ Alkmaar 58

5. Feyenoord Rotterdam 57

6. Almere City 50

7. ADO Den Haag 43

8. FC Groningen 41

9. FC Utrecht 39

10. sc Heerenveen 39

11. Vitesse Arnhem 36 (31 games)

12. FC Den Bosch 36

13. NEC Nijmegen 33 (31 games)

14. FC Eindhoven 32

15. Heracles Almelo 28

16. Willem II Tilburg 23 (31 games)

17. NAC Breda 22

18. Sparta Rotterdam 16

Ajax goals: Kolbeinn Sigdorsson 18, Anthony Crüden 16, Dick Jansen 15, Jeroen Bouwhuis 13

Ajax assists: kolbeinn Sigdorsson 13, Hulusi Aydingöz 11, Daniel Buijs 11, Roel Doesburg 10

[Draakon]

01.04.2023 - Ajax - Sparta Rotterdam 5:0 (ED) - 10. Tom Noordhoff, 29. Daniel Buijs, 42. and 54. Jeroen Bouwhuis, 49. Anthony Crüden - nothing much to add. We rolled over Sparta and they could do nothing to stop us. Anthony Crüden gave a great performance on the left wing, setting up 3 goals and then adding another himself. Excellent game from him and staking a claim for a regular place. With this game we secured ourselves Eredivisie title for 2022/2023 season!

06.04.2023 - Ajax - Norwich City 4:1 (Euro Cup Quarter Final 1st leg) - 33. Ilan Boccara, 40. 88. Rob Klijn, 46. Dick Jansen - 72. Nicola Gaspari - with Bouwhuis and de Jong injured, I had to set up a curious midfield line, with Melvin Vissers in attacking role and Ilan Boccara beside him as BWM. Tom Noordhoff went to Boccara's regular place as DMC. Not the most creative midfield, but Noordhoff and Boccara were the ones that created the first goal between them. Norwich couldn't recover well and Klijn added another after corner. After 2-0 half-time and team-talks in dressing rooms, it took only 17 seconds for Jansen to add the 3rd goal. We couldn't keep a clean sheet and let Norwich score away goal, but Klijn's header just before the final whistle gaves us 4:1 lead from the first leg ad pretty good position ahead of 2nd game in England.

09.04.2023 - Ajax - FC Utrecht 2:0 (ED) - 11. Ilan Boccara, 39. Dejan Meleg - with title secured, I chose to rest key players as much as possible and gave chance to shine to younger prospects - Roel Bouwmeester started in midfield, Roel Doesburg on the left flank. Boccara got himself on the score-sheet again and Dejan Meleg, who had just recovered from injury, secured us 2-0 win.

13.04.2023 - Norwich City - Ajax 2:3 (Euro Cup Quarter Final 2nd leg) - 22. Billy Davenport, 75. Chris Wood - 24. and 57. Dick Jansen, 79. Melvin Vissers - it was a bit of struggle in away game, but after we scored 1:1 equalizer, we knew that Norwich had to score 4 goals and it always looked unlikely. Norwich had more possession and more shots on goal, but we played good counter-attacking football. In 2nd half, Visser's fierce shot down low surprised Norwich keeper and we left from England with 3:2 away win, 7:3 aggregate. We didn't expect much from Euro Cup competition but now we're in semi-finals and with Eredivisie title in hands, this continental competition looks like a great challenge. No weak teams are left though, and in semis we're against Arsenal.

16.04.2023 - FC Den Bosch - Ajax 0:1 (ED) - 10. Melvin Vissers - similar squad to FC Utrecht's game, but the lack of flair and creativity were evident. Drab match with only one good chance and Vissers did well to score from that.

27.04.2023 - Ajax - Arsenal 1:0 (Euro Cup Semi Final 1st leg) - 73. Rob Klijn - our main challenge against Arsenal was not to concede at home. Both teams were careful in defense and our wingers were limited down, but our defensive line worked admirably too. In the end, Arsenal only got 3 shots, 1 of them on target. We had 13 shots, but sent most of them wide and only 3 towards goal. Rob Klijn's wonderful header from IFK gave us a winner and a glimmer of hope before 2nd leg in London.

30.04.2023 - Almere City - Ajax 1:1 (ED) - 90.+1 Daan Verlijsdonk - 65. Brian Tol - Almere City defends deep, with 2 DMC's and they're rather difficult to break down. Our youngsters didn't have too much space and chances, but young striker Brian Tol, who had only his 2nd start in Eredivisie, managed to give us 1:0 lead. Unfortunately, we gave it away just before the whistle and let Almere equalize. That's a shame and not the best way to end our league season, but obviously some of the players were thinking about sandy beaches already.

Eredivisie

1. AFC Ajax 87

2. PSV Eindhoven 74

3. FC Twente Enschede 73

4. Feyenoord Rotterdam 69

5. AZ Alkmaar 61

6. ADO Den Haag 53

7. Almere City 52

8. FC Groningen 45

9. FC Utrecht 45

10. Vitesse Arnhem 42

11. FC Den Bosch 42

12. sc Heerenveen 42

13. FC Eindhoven 41

14. NEC Nijmegen 33

15. Heracles Almelo 31

16. NAC Breda 28

17. Willem II Tilburg 24 - relegated

18. Sparta Rotterdam 19 - relegated

ADO Den Haag and Almere City were surprises of the season, ADO having an excellent 2nd half to their campaign. Vittesse and Heerenveen were disappointing. NAC Breda find themselves surprisingly in relegation playoff (they managed to survive in the end) and FC Eindhoven who is recognized as the weakest squad on paper, managed to secure a safe mid-table finish for themselves.

With only continental game(s) to play in May:

Ajax goals: Dick Jansen 18, Kolbeinn Sigdorsson 18, Anthony Crüden 17, Jeroen Bouwhuis 15

Ajax assists: Daniel Buijs 14, Kolbeinn Sigdorsson 13, Anthony Crüden 12, Hulusi Aydingöz 11, Roel Doesburg 11

No player is likely to reach 20 goals to a season, but goals and assists are distributed nicely within the team, so good team football throughout the campaign.

[Draakon]

04.05.2023 - Arsenal - Ajax 1:0 (Euro Cup Semi Final 2nd leg) - 47. Jack Wilshere - a very difficult game... we played reasonably solid first half, but then Wilshere did a little bit of magic and equalized aggregate score just in the beginning of 2nd half. We didn't have too many good attacks, and Kuijpers had some good saves in defense. But we didn't give any clear cut opportunities to Ajax either. In the end of 90 minutes I just hoped to survive until penalties, even more so when Boccara received his 2nd yellow card in 110th minute. Still, our defense held and in the penalty shoot-out, Mitchell Dijks' 6th penalty was eventually a winner. It really was a lot of luck involved, perhaps even more than tactics or skill.

17.05.2023 - Ajax - FC Sevilla 3:0 (Euro Cup Final) - 14. Daniel Buijs, 59. and 90.+2 Dick Jansen - before the final we were considered underdogs, especially with Michael Meeuws, Rob Klijn and Ilan Boccara all suspended, but Sevilla looked clearly weaker side on paper, compared to Arsenal, and I was certain that we have at least some chance to win Euro Cup again after 5 years. Besides, Jeroen Bouwhuis, Hulusi Aydingöz and Roberto Jansma were back after injuries and our midfield looked a lot stronger.

And indeed, Sevilla showed surprisingly little resistance. After half time the game was well under our control and Jansen's inury time goal (his 20th of the season) put a cap to a marvellous cup win. Unexpected as it was, we were able to grab some European silverware again. Great success!

Ajax goals: Dick Jansen 20, Kolbeinn Sigdorsson 18, Anthony Crüden 17, Jeroen Bouwhuis 15

Ajax assists: Daniel Buijs 14, Kolbeinn Sigdorsson 13, Anthony Crüden 12, Hulusi Aydingöz 12, Roel Doesburg 11

To sum up the season, here are the award winners:

Dutch Goalkeeper Of The Year

1. Marijan Papa (FC Twente)

2. Jan Kuijpers (AFC Ajax)

3. Koen Casteels (Feyenoord Rotterdam)

Golden Boot

1. Hakan Aeschlimann (AZ Alkmaar)

2. Daniel Vigna (Feyenoord Rotterdam)

3. Joel Donald (AZ Alkmaar)

Top Goalscorer

1. Hakan Aeschlimann (AZ Alkmaar) - 32

2. Osmar (PSV Eindhoven) - 25

3. Tomas Necid (FC Utrecht) - 22

Dutch Young Player of The Year

1. Hulusi Aydingöz (AFC Ajax)

2. Paolo Rolando (FC Twente Enschede) - on loan from Juventus

3. Max Harttgen (AZ Alkmaar) - on loan from Werder Bremen

And for the alternative historians among us, 2023 Champions Cup Final: Tottenham - Mancheter United 1:0

[Draakon]

No major transfers so far. I've loaned out several youngsters, there has been minor interest about Roel Doesburg (Villarreal hasn't made an offer though). Kolbeinn Sigdorsson requested transfer because he needs a new challenge, but there's no interest in him - it's difficult to sell a player who's experienced and intelligent, but still past his peak. Elroy van Dalen (my 25 yo DLC that returned from loan) also felt that he needs to look around, but I talked him out of it - Daley Blind's best before is over, Mitchell Dijks is 30 now and I need van Dalen as left-back for at least 3-4 years. Still no decent youngsters in this position

Friendlies went so-so. A loss in friendly cup after penalty shoot-out, a draw against Wolfsburg. Couple of good games and couple of good lessons. But it's inevitable if mixing younger and older players together and sending out different squads each night.

29.07.2023 - Ajax - Feyenoord Rotterdam 4:1 (Dutch Super Cup) - 17. and 24. Dick Jansen, 56. Jeroen Bouwhuis, 74. Ilan Boccara - 55. Marvin Roest - both teams came to this Super Cup match with full squad and ready to attack from the kick-off. Feyenoord goalkeeper Koen Casteels was forced to make several good saves in the first half, but Jansen used well both his clear-cut chances and we went to half time with 2-0 lead. After the break Feyenoord composed themselves somewhat, but after they scored their opening goal, Bouwhuis answered just a minute later and Boccara's shot from 20 yards made it 4-1 as the final score. It's a good win against strong Feyenoord side and a loss like that from their rival must hurt their morale a good deal.

[Draakon]

05.08.2023 - Ajax - NEC Nijmegen 3:1 (ED) - 10. Daniel Buijs, 58. and 81. Dick Jansen - 65. Dean Miath - NEC is quite a good opponent to start our campaign against. Home game, mid-table/lower table opponent, full squad to operate with. But it didn't well as smoothly as I hoped for. Our attack was rigid and lacked creativity. Buijs pretty much created his own chance to score and used it well, but teamwork and flowing attack that we showed against Feyenoord was nowhere to be seen. Jansen's first goal was just a tackle inside 6-yard box and then, of course, NEC scored from the single chance they got to make the last 25 minutes quite nervous. Jansen's 2nd goal of the game put the result beyond doubt, but I still couldn't be fully happy with our performance. Roberto Jansma proved his reputation as a "winger made of glass" and his injury keeps him sidelined until the end of the month.

12.08.2023 - FC Twente - Ajax 0:0 (ED) - for the second game of the campaign, a serious test against strong FC Twente, in away stadium. We started with a bit shaky legs and offered Twente quickly two clear cut chances to open score but their strikers missed both times. Twente's goalkeeper Marijan Papa proved his status as the best golkeeper of the previous season with a good save from Jansen's clear cut chance. Neither team could break through in 90 minutes and in the end, 0-0 looked like a fair result. I wasn't too upset, because 1 point is a lot better than 0 and in away game against teams like Twente, AZ or PSV it's acceptable to drop 2 points. It's more important to avoid losing.

20.08.2023 - Ajax - FC Eindhoven 6:0 (ED) - 15. Dick Jansen, 45.+2 and 8. Daniel Buijs, 52. pen. and 57. pen. Anthony Crüden, 89. Brian Tol - in the last season, FC Eindhoven surprised everyone by staying up in Eredivisie and finishing with solid mid-table position. We struggled to score against their bus-parking tactics in both matches against them. This time, we managed to break them with good pressure and score 6. In fact, we still struggled in the first half and Eindhoven's defense held quite well. But Buijs' goal eased pressure from our strikers and 2 penalties in 5 minutes sealed the deal. I'm pleased that we continued to attack after the break and lifted our game in the 2nd half. Young right-back Tom Tepperik made his debut for Ajax in this league game. Daniel Buijs got MoM award with 2 goals and 2 assists.

25.08.2023 - FC Utrecht - Ajax 0:1 (ED) - 57. Dick Jansen - not the best game. We didn't gave Utrecht too many chances, but they still got one, and luckily for us, their best striker Tomas Necid headed over the bar from just couple of meters. Jansen intercepted after poor tackle by Utrecht defenders and scored our only clear cut chance. So you can say that clinical finishing was the key to that game and it's our first serious 'narrow-win-that-define-the-champions' kind of win. We lost Hulusi Aydingöz, however, who got battered so badly that he'll be sidelined for 2-3 months with torn hamstring. That's a blow....

Eredivisie

1. AFC Ajax 10 (4 games)

2. FC Groningen 10

3. PSV Eindhoven 10

4. NAC Breda 9 (good start for NAC, winning first 3 games)

5. sc Heerenveen 7

6. FC Twente Enschede 7

7. Roda JC Kerkrade 7

8. FC Utrecht 6

9. AZ Alkmaar 5

10. Vitesse Arnhem 5 (again not the best start for them)

11. FC Den Bosch 4

12. NEC Nijmegen 4

13. FC Eindhoven 4

14. Feyenoord Rotterdam 3 (they didn't recover from that Super Cup match)

15. ADO Den Haag 3

16. MVV Maastricht 3

17. Almere City 2 (it looks like it's more of a relegation battle season for Almere this year)

18. Heracles Almelo 1

Ajax goals: Dick Jansen 6, Daniel Buijs 3, Anthony Crüden 2

Ajax assists: Daniel Buijs 3, Hulusi Aydingöz 3, Melvin Vissers 2

[Draakon]

I made two major moves in August, both related to legendary players in need of a new challenge and requesting transfer themselves. Firstly, Daley Blind went to Vitoria Guimaraes for £1m, then Kolbeinn Sigdorsson left to England, Burnley, also for £1m. Obviously not the most popular decisions among fans. Both players had only 1 year left on their contract and despite I valued them as tutors they were both past their peak as players. So when requested transfer, I didn't stand on their way.

I freed almost £50k p/w salary money by those moves, so it's financially reasonable as well.

A bit more frustrating was the fact that Valencia stole my young defensive midfielder Clemens Hermens for only £625k+clauses. I signed a pre-contract for this 16 year old talented youngster, but still Valencia lured him away and that's a blow. He was a great prospect, already selected to Holland U-19 team and I saw him as a replacement for Ilan Boccara. Now, with Blind also gone, I have to rotate Tom Noordhoff more between DC and DMC positions to offer Boccara some rest and rotation.

Major transfers in Eredivisie Summer 2023

Patricio Morales from Flamengo to PSV Eindhoven for £10m - PSV opened their coffers for this Chilean striker

Bobo from Feyenoord Rotterdam to Genoa CFC for £4,8m - Feyenoord's best midfielder left the league with this deal

Coen Smits from Lokomotiv Moscow to PSV Eindhoven for £4,5m - an ex-FC Twente central defender returning to Eredivisie. Not the career he hoped for, though. Now 26 years old, but no caps under his belt.

Valentin Fournier from PSV Eindhoven to Sevilla for £4,5m - forced to bech in PSV last season, this Frech winger was now sold to Spain. Good deal of business for PSV though, making 1,5m profit out of it

Mauricio Arias from PSV Eindhoven to FC Twente for £3,5m - Costa Rican striker. A move to make room for Morales, both in terms of squad rotation and payroll

[Draakon]

Goalkeeper

Jan Kuijpers - probably the 2nd best goalkeeper in Eredivisie after Croatian Marijan Papa of FC Twente. Not good enough for Dutch national team thgouh (Tim Krul, Mickey van der Hart and Nick Olij are currently in selection there), but at the same time solid enough for Ajax and unambitious enough to stay put and not attract too much interest from big clubs.

Defenders

Michel Meeuws - my first choice right back. Quick as a devil and his speed is a good match to any winger in continental games, but he lacks technical skill that his precessor Frank de Man had. For example his crosses doesn't met their target as often and Meeuws gives a lot less assists than de Man did. Also, he can be beaten in air and that's a liability in the box. Nevertheless he earned his first cap for Holland national team this summer, despite the fact that the country has great selection for DR places (Jordy Looyen, Frank de Man).

Tom Tepperik - up-and-coming young right-back. Spent previous season on loan at French side AS Nancy Lorraine and now returned to Ajax. Great prospect. Has almost all that's necessary to become one of the best right-backs in Holland and is certainly getting some match practice this season in Ajax.

Rob Klijn - a centre-back that pushed Joel Veltman out of the first team last season. Very good mental skills. He never gets nervous on the pitch, always fully concentrated. Not the best technical abilities, but very hard-working player on the pitch and physically strong.

Tom Noordhoff - rock in the defense for several seasons now. Almost on the verge of national team, but never earned an invitation and now, at the age of 28, is less likely to recieve one. Because I have more good centre-backs than solid DMC-s he started to get more games as a controlling midfielder in my 4-1-2-2-1 formation.

Mitchell Dijks - at the age of 30, in his prime as a footballer. National team left-back with more than 50 caps under his belt. His only problem is his agent with notoriusly outrageous wage demand. Because I still haven't discovered any good DL prospect from my youth team, he'll be very difficult to replace.

Johan Kramer - rotation player in defense, usually replacing Tom Noordhoff as left-side central defender. Very good in the air, and, despite his slower feet and poor technical skills, it seems to be good enough in Eredivisie. Now almost 24, he's not likely to improve by much, but he's good enough for the squad.

Joel Veltman - never excelled in my save and his single cap for Holland didn't bring success in national team level. For a long time was Noordhoff's partner in defense, but his mental stats are worse in the game. He's more error-prone than Noordhoff or Klijn and less powerful in the air. Now, considering his age, he's in danger to fall to backup role in my squad.

Elroy van Dalen - because my left-back situation, he's more of a left-back than central defender, but he can play both positions. Very ambitious player - I had to loan him out in previous seasons to offer him first team football. Now he's back in team and already complaining about his status and demands more starts in future games. Very difficult to please, but as I said, I need him in the future.

[Draakon]

Midfielders

Ilan Boccara - my only pure DMC after Blind left this Summer. On and off in national team, but now he's in Holland squad, at least for a moment. Set a new record in worst discipline in Eredivisie last season (2 red cards and 8 yellow cards, if I recall correctly), so his card issues are a problem.

Hulusi Aydingöz - great young midfielder, very good vision and creativity, creates most goals and gives out assists. Despite only 21 years of age, has earned already one cap in Holland national team and I can predict great future for him.

Jeroen Bouwhuis - came through youth rank quite at the same time with Aydingöz, but his more attacking-minded and great understudy for Siem de Jong. Very quick, good balance and passing skills. His movement from midfield to opponent area creates him a lot of chances and he's likely to score 10+ goals in one season.

Melvin Vissers - shares playing time with Aydingöz, but his role is a bit different. I use him as deep-lying playmaker, to maintain possession and distribute ball from the back. Solid player, although not so talented as his younger teammates. Good in the air, in terms of midfielder standard, and wins a lot of aerial challenges.

Siem de Jong - Ajax captain, now in age 34, but still important player in the squad. Great tutor too.

[Draakon]

Wingers

Roel Doesburg - number 2 on the right wing. Interesting player, doesn't have much qualities rather than his speed, but when in form he can give some very good performances.

Roberto Jansma - probably the best player in terms of quality in my squad. And the one that really earns his £40k+ weekly salary. But as I said, his injury-proneness prevents him becoming regular national team player and often disrupts his good form and season. I sometimes wonder even if I should sell him just to allow other players more playing time and chance to progress.

Kristian Pol - another right winger. Again, very quick player but lacks other skills. I tried to loan him out in Summer, but surprisingly no team was interested. Could be good in the future, but lacks first team opportunities here in Ajax.

Evans Iddrisu - left-winger, 20 years old. His story is similar to Pol's - too many good players in Ajax to get match practice that he needs to progress. Spent last season in AS Nancy Lorraine with Tom Tepperik, and returned to Ajax in Summer.

Anthony Crüden - because Jansma and Dejan Meleg were injured for long periods last season, he was probably the most progressing player in first team squad. Scoring and assisting more than 10 goals each. Good with the ball, good finishing when having chances, can give corners and crosses as well.

Daniel Buijs - my best right winger and part of Holland national team. Very good creativity, and is powerful in the air, scoring a lot from headers against smaller full-backs. Can play on both wings, but is right-footed, hence I use him there mostly.

Dick Jansen - young 18 years old right-winger. Not to mix up with my best striker, his namesake. Promoted to first team this season, but mostly backup-fringe player at the moment. Rated as a good prospect by my coaches.

Dejan Meleg - experienced Serbian left-winger. Can also play on the right. 3rd-4th in the pecking order with Crüden. Good in set-piece situations, corners etc.

Strikers

Dick Jansen - finally overcome Sigdorsson last season to prove he's the man for the future. Very powerful figure, good in the air, can hold up ball as a target man. Has developed a furious 'shoot with power' move that makes his shots from point blank range virtually unstoppable. A bit like Ruud van Nijstelrooy - can disappear on the pitch for 80 minutes and then score the winner.

Brian Tol - my young up-and-coming striker. Only 18 years old, but excellent work rate, first touch and balance. Perhaps not ideal for complete striker role and could be a bit quicker, but let's give him some time. Good finisher and rarely misses any clear cut chances.

[Draakon]

01.09.2023 - Ajax - Tottenham Hotspur 2:1 (European Super Cup) - 70. Dick Jansen, 103. Daniel Buijs - 73. Alexander Hofer - before international break, European Super Cup game created a little bit of excitement for our fans. Five years ago we had a chance to win this particular trophy, but lost to Chelsea. This time we were against Tottenham in an evenly contested battle and managed to scrape 2-1 win in extra time. Mitchell Dijks was a player of the match with his defensive performance.

17.09.2023 - Ajax - Heracles Almelo 5:0 (ED) - 21. and 58. Dejan Meleg, 33. Jeroen Bouwhuis, 56. and 67. Dick Jansen - Heracles played good counter-attacking football and succesfully. They managed to send long balls behind our defensive line and created impressive 3 clear-cut chances in the first half. Unfortunately for them, their top striker Johnny van de Meulenhof missed twice from point blank range and 3rd time Joel Veltman's late challenge prevented the shot. In the 2nd half we switched to controlling tactics and didn't left so much space behind, and Heracles' defense finally crumbled, so in the end it was comfortable 5-0 win. Man of the match was Dejan Meleg with 2 goals and 2 assists, showing that it's a real fight for this AML spot between him, Anthony Crüden and Roberto Jansma. Daniel Buijs picked up a bad knock and is out until the end of September.

20.09.2023 - Ajax - Granada 3:0 (Champions League Group Stage) - 66. Anthony Crüden, 74. Tom Noordhoff, 84. Roel Doesburg - we were drawn against PSG, Granada and Hapoel Tel Aviv in Champion League. Not the worst draw, but games against Granada will be the key, so it's important to win at home. We turned the game to our favor in the 2nd half with 3 goals. In 90 minutes we had 7 shots and managed to send them all on target. Pretty rare in my statistics. I was pleased with defensive performance and Granada had only one good shot from free-kick, otherwise they were well restrained. Siem de Jong had a miserable game, surprised to see him struggle like that. He even missed a penalty. Melvin Vissers was carried away in the 1st half and he'll be sidelined for 4-6 weeks with fractured ribs. Tom Noordhoff earned man of the match award with his goal and defensive performance. Good start to our continental campaign, but injuries are starting to trouble us. Losing both Aydingöz and Vissers is a bad omen.

23.09.2023 - FC Groningen - Ajax 1:1 (ED) - 71. Daryl Haak - 17. Dick Jansen - we dropped valuable points in Groningen. I was a bit nervous about this game because we had some tired legs in the squad after midweek game and Groningen was still unbeaten in the league. They managed to fight 0-0 draw against PSV and now earned a point against us. We played solid first half, but Groningen's goal was always in the air. Finally they got it after corner when our goalkeeper Jan Kuijpers went down to catch the ball, but missed it and our own loanee in Groningen - Daryl Haak - was first to get to the ball and fire in an equalizer. Besides dropping two points we also lost two players - Roel Doesburg (out for 4-6 weeks with strained knee ligaments) and Ilan Boccara (5-6 weeks with fractured wrist). Our midfield problems only get worse by every match...

27.09.2023 - Ajax - WKE (Dutch Cup 2nd round) - 23. Johan Kramer, 38. and 63. Brian Tol - cup game against amateur side WKE allowed us to field the team of reserv/youth players and still end up with a cofortable 3-0 win. Prior to this game, Danny Spaan returned from loan (from Telstar). He didn't get as much first team football as I expected and I really needed at least someone to fill DMC place. Even if this someone is 19 year old 2* PA youngster. Right-winger Dick Jansen made his debut for Ajax in this game. So did 17 years old attacking midfielder Arnold Janssen (that I promoted from U-19 side). Despite 2 goals by Brian Tol, man of the match award went to right-back Tom Tepperik who put up a great defensive performance and added an assist in attacking part of the game.

30.09.2023 - FC Den Bosch - Ajax 1:3 (ED) - 32. Yanic Wildschut - 19. Anthony Crüden, 38. and 50. Jeroen Bouwhuis - we're leaking in defense. Massively. Heracles' game was the first warning, here we had another. Michel Meeuws gifted Yanic Wildschut 2 great chances from crosses out of the left flank. Wildschut wasted first two, but scored from the 3rd. Meeuws made it up a little by giving excellent long ball to Bouwhuis to create our 2nd goal of the game. Goalkeeper Jan Kuijpers had to show his skills couple of times and earned his 7.8 rating in the end of the game with good saves. On the other side of the pitch, we just couldn't finish our chances. In fact, from 7 clear cut chances we managed to get only 3 goals. Dejan Meleg played on the right wing that night and missed 2 ccc-s. Kramer headed over from 3 yards out. Crüden missed one chance, so did Dick Jansen... we really have to step up against better sides. Fortunately for us, PSV couldn't break down NEC Nijmegen's defense and had to settle with goalless draw against them, so we're back in 1st position by goal difference.

Solid month despite FC Groningen result. Injury troubles have made an impact, but I'm happy with our start in Champions League.

Eredivisie

No surprises there, as bigger teams ar in top. Almere City have climbed up from relegation zone, but ust in safe mid-table position for now. Vitesse are still underperforming, so are, probably, ADO Den Haag.

Ajax goals: Dick Jansen 10, Anthony Crüden 4, Jeroen Bouwhuis 4, Daniel Buijs 4

Ajax assists: Dick Jansen 4, Daniel Buijs 3, Hulusi Aydingöz 3

[Draakon]

A little overview about prospects that I have on loan or in my youth teem, along with U-20 players in my current first team squad.

Goalkeepers

Wilco Schouwenaar - almost good enough for first team squad, but has been loaned out to French Ligue 1 side FC Socheaux to give him steady first team football. He'll probably be better than Jan Kuijpers in couple of years.

Defenders

Tom Tepperik - I have been receiving plenty of good right-backs in these past years. Kenny Tete, Frank de Man, Michel Meeuws... now Tom Tepperik is the next up-and-coming right-back from that system. Not all of them didn't have the career they dreamed of. Kenny Tete were unable to break through in Spain and now he's unhappy and transfer-listed in Eintracht Frankfurt. Frank de Man is doing better in Manchester City.

Martin Peek - 17 year old, next in line of those right-backs, currently playing in my U-19 squad. Rated as 4* prospect.

Daryl Haak - this is a classic centre-back at its best. Strong, good in the air, marking-tackling-heading ratings high enough. Last season he played on loan in Vitesse. This year he's the rock of the defense in FC Groningen and probably one of the reasons why Groningen find themselves in top-3 in Eredivisie at the moment. Only 18 years old, but already 2 seasons of Eredivisie football under his belt.

Bambo Ouologuem - a year younger than Haak, this young kid from Mali found himself in our youth ranks due to our scouting and knowledge in West-Africa. In a year he received invitation to Holland U-19 team and decided to represent Holland rather than his African homeland. Very similar player to Haak, good in the ear, confident in tackling, strong in presence. Currently on loan at Jupiler League side FC Den Bosch.

Michel van Breugel - came through in the same year with Daryl Haak, but is rated 3rd behind Haak and Ouologuem. Unfortunately so, because he could be a great player in Eredivisie for most cllubs. Currently on loan at Sparta Rotterdam.

Midfielders

Danny Spaan - defensive midfielder, started his season in Telstar, but I recalled him because he didn't get enough of playing time there and I needed some cover in my injury-ridden midfield. 2* prospect, so not very good but unfortunately he's the best one I've got after Valencia stole away Clemens Hermens from us. His intelligence stats are obviously low, but in actual game he has been playing without stupid mistakes and passed the ball well.

Strikers

Ricky Meijs - not really a complete striker that would suit my single-striker formation, but he could become a good winger either in left or right flank. His technical attributes are not as good, but he's quick and stille rated as a great prospect. Currently on loan at Almere City and already has found his scoring touch in Eredivisie

Bart Verbeek - probably the best 17-year old striker in my U-19 squad. Still needs a lot of development. Physical ability is there, teamwork mentality too, but technical skills and understanding of the game needs to progress alongside those qualities.

Harry Gillhaus - currently on loan at Jupiler League side Telstar. Looks like more suitable player for single-striker formation - slower in speed, but very good finisher in front of the goal and physically strong to hold up the ball.

Jens de Haan - a VERY quick striker and excellent finisher in such a young age, but has to improve a lot in his skills with the ball and creativity. Currently on loan at FC Oss, giving quite inconsistent performances.

Edwin Meijs - 16 years olf striker/AMC. Because I feel I've got a good selection of strikers and I'm lacking prospects in midfield, I'm thinking about retraining him to MC-attacking role under the tutelage of Siem de Jong. Very good flair player.

[Draakon]

03.10.2023 - Paris Saint-Germain - Ajax 2:3 (Champions League Group Stage) - 29. and 47. Gianluca Caprari - 2. pen. and 84. pen. Siem de Jong, 39. Jeroen Bouwhuis - away game against well-funded PSG is a major test, but somehow we walked away with 3-2 victory. Quick penalty certainly worked in our favor. When 37 minutes were played, PSG midfielder Sandro recieved absurd red card - for deliberate handball in innocent situation in the middle of the pitch. I remember Cristiano Ronaldo recieving a similar red card in one game IRL, but it certainly is fairly rare in FM franchise. Nevertheless, PSG equalized the score after half-time, and it was a lucky penalty in final minutes that gave us a valuable win (Dejan Meleg perhaps went down a bit too easy in the box, but I'm not the one to question referee's decision in that one). Captain Siem de Jong got himself in the scoresheet and, despite being scoreless in Eredivisie, has found the net 2 times in Champions League. Value of experience perhaps

06.10.2023 - Ajax - ADO Den Haag 0:1 (ED) - 45. Rob van Dijk - I knew I might pay for this PSG win - we had a lot of tired legs in the squad and with injuries it made our midfield quite thin. Johan Kramer came in as DMC and Danny Spaan went to midfield. De Jog had to be rested, old man as he is, but Bouwhuis was fit enough. Unfortunately, we wasted 3 good chances in the first half (Dick Jansen, Anthony Crüden and Bouwhuis were to blame and ADO used the only one they managed to get. 2nd half our tanks were empty and the last bit of creativity that was present in the beginning, was gone as well... very poor performance in front of our fans and cheaply lost 3 points. The first time of that season when I kept players in dressing room and screamed myself empty on them.

21.10.2023 - AZ Alkmaar - Ajax 0:2 (ED) - 19. Roberto Jansma, 60. Dick Jansen - international break allowed us to recover from this difficult schedule, and I welcomed Roberto Jansma and Daniel Buijs back into squad after their time out with injuries. Jansma instantly got himself to score-sheet after AZ defender made a costly mistake, but it was Buijs' presence that really changed our game - there's one player who can create chances to others, play great passes and also give good crosses and corners. That was missing in our game against ADO and I'm really happy to see Buijs gearing up so soon after his return. Man of the Match award went to Johan Kramer, though, who gave a great defensive performance.

24.10.2023 - Hapoel Tel-Aviv - Ajax 0:3 (Champions League Group Stage) - 7. Rob Klijn, 55. Anthony Crüden, 79. Siem de Jong - I often see that 4th seed teams are not motivated enough in continental games. Perhaps it's not their priority, perhaps they're sure they'll going to lose anyway. Don't know. But they don't give enough effort and you can see nervous and uninterested faces in their squad, so it's not really problem to win against such teams. Klijn put in a header from corner, and de Jong's beautiful free-kick made it 3-0 and gave us a very good chance of progressing from this tough group. Unfortunately de Jong himself is sidelined for a couple of weeks with twisted ankle.

28.10.2023 - Ajax - Almere City 2:0 (ED) - 44. Dick Jansen, 50. Anthony Crüden - de Jong was out, but Melvin Vissers is back in the team (and also, Ilan Boccara and Hulusi Aydingöz are finally back in light training), so my midfield troubles ease a bit. Uneventful game that we controlled well. Two goals this time were enough. Jansen's volley from Buijs' pass was a true beauty, perhaps the goal of the month. Mitchell Dijks decided to show that he's still the best left-back in the squad and snapped MoM award (good defending plus assist from him).

31.10.2023 - Ajax - RKC Waalwijk 2:0 (Dutch Cup 3rd round) - 24. Jeroen Bouwhuis, 48. Johan Kramer - with important fixtures coming in early November, I fielded our second team and they did well enough. Our first team players (few of them as they were on the pitch) did take care of the goalscoring. Kramer's goal came from Dejan Meleg's corner and he was also the one to take MoM award. But the game itself was fairly dull and died out quickly after 2nd goal.

It was a mixed month - after nice surprise win in Paris the ADO game was a real kick into the teeth, but we picked ourselves up well. A row of consecutive clean sheets shows that we've finally got our defense back in order and returning midfield players make our selection options better. Loss against ADO still put us 3 points behind PSV in Eredivisie table.

Ajax goals: Dick Jansen 12, Anthony Crüden 6, Jeroen Bouwhuis 6

Ajax assists: Daniel Buijs 5, Dejan Meleg 5, Dick Jansen 4, Anthony Crüden 4

[Draakon]

04.11.2023 - Feyenoord Rotterdam - Ajax 2:2 (ED) - 15. Alejandro Poltronieri, 17. Bas de Bree - 12. Daniel Buijs, 76. Dick Jansen - we were better team in this match, but conceded two set-piece goals within 3 minutes and that was our weakness that night. We have to do better than that in those situations. Good counter-attack pass by Dick Jansen was followed by Buijs' goal, but then our concentration lapsed for 5 minutes and that was it. Dick Jansen's equalizer in the 2nd half allowed fans to leave away stadium in good mood, but I was not as happy. We could have win this game and get 3 points over our rivals, and that's a cheap giveaway of points.

08.11.2023 - Ajax - Hapoel Tel-Aviv 4:0 (Champions League Group Stage) - 14. and 20. Dejan Meleg, 31. Dick Jansen, 87. Brian Tol - we bounced back with very confident 4-0 win in continental game and that secured our qualification from the group. 4th win in 4 games and I can be happy with our European campaign so far. Dejan Meleg was the star of the game with 2 goals and 2 assists.

11.11.2023 - Ajax - PSV 0:0 (ED) - we wanted to win, but PSV focused on parking the bus. And they were successful in that. We had the possession and more shots, but couldn't create any clear-cut chances and our shooting was rather poor. My manager options were halved because Mitchell Dijks and Roberto Jansma both picked up injuries and two substitutions were made before 60 minutes were played. Melvin Vissers earned his 2nd yellow card in injury time, but it didn't affect the outcome - goalless draw and point shared between leaders, so PSV retained their 5 point advantage in the table.

25.11.2023 - MVV Maastricht - Ajax 2:3 (ED) - 65. Guillermo Rottenveel, 83. Nigel Vreven - 30. and 80. Jeroen Bouwhuis, 72. Nigel Vreven (og) - Eredivisie debutants MVV should have been easy prey to us, so I rotated some players. Melvin Vissers was obviously suspended and I lost Daniel Buijs to injury during international break. Young right-back Tom Tepperik made two high-profile mistakes that both resulted in MVV goal, and only Jeroen Bouwhuis' clinical finishing prevented this game turning to nightmare. Not happy with performance at all, despite 3 points in the table.

28.11.2023 - Granada - Ajax 0:2 (Champions League Group Stage) - 39. Roberto Jansma, 67. Dick Jansen - a very good match against strong Granada, especially in away game. I personally would have settle for a draw, so I went out with more balanced tactics. Granada had the possession, but our counter attacking created altogether 5 clear-cut-chances. Despite the fact that we missed most of them (including Dejan Meleg's poor penalty kick), we took confident 2-0 win and still hold top spot in the group. PSG has also secured promotion and the last game of the group stage will decide which one of the two teams will go to knockout rounds as 1st seed team.

Month as a whole was okay. No bad results as such (I always consider away draws against teams like AZ, Feyenoord or Twente acceptable) and good going in Europe, but we're 5 points behind PSV in Eredivisie and have to improve to overtake them. Performances on the pitch have lot of improvement space, but at least I've past our worst injury crisis and most of the key players are fit and available for selection.

Eredivisie

Ajax goals: Dick Jansen 15, Jeroen Bouwhuis 8, Anthony Crüden 6

Ajax assists: Dejan Meleg 8, Dick Jansen 7, Daniel Buijs 5, Anthony Crüden 5

[Draakon]

02.12.2023 - Ajax - sc Heerenveen 3:0 (ED) - 20. Roberto Jansma, 44. and 48. Jeroen Bouwhuis - Jansma was back in fitness and scored an opening goal, Bouwhuis added another two. He's the kind of midfielder that comes into the box with late runs and often picks up rebounding balls from tackles and Heerenveen defensive midfield were unable to cope with that. Comfortable 3-0 win.

09.12.2023 - NAC Breda - Ajax 0:3 (ED) - 7. and 67. Dick Jansen, 51. Dejan Meleg - another very convincing win in the league. 18 shots, 10 on goal, pretty much constant pressure to NAC goal. Goal of the game was Meleg's excellent direct free kick. He had another great game on the right wing.

13.12.2023 - Ajax - Paris Saint Germain 1:1 (Champions League Group Stage) - 40. Roberto Jansma - 53. Roman Kolesnyk - we needed a draw against PSG at home to clinch the 1st place in the group and we managed to do that. An even battle between even teams. We had perhaps more shots, but both sides defended well and in the end it was an even game and fair result. I'm happy with a draw and 1st seed in 1st knockout round, obviously. Great Champions League campaign so far. 1st knockout round drew us against Bayer Leverkusen. Not the worst possible option.

16.12.2023 - Ajax - Vitesse Arnhem 5:1 (ED) - 14. and 90.+4 Jeroen Bouwhuis, 15. Hulusi Aydingöz, 25. and 54. Roberto Jansma - 8. Pierre Benoit - we conceded a quick goal (lack of preparation for the match, perhaps?) but picked ourselves up very quickly and had a full attacking mode on for the next 80 minutes. Roberto Jansma could have scored a hat-trick, but he missed a penalty in the 2nd half. 5 good goals, with Jansma and Bouwhuis shining the most in attacking phase and Vitesse defense were unable to cope with us. But the game was marred with a bad injury to Dick Jansen - my first goalscorer and best striker is out for 6 months with broken foot. That's virtually until the end of the season and it's pretty much death blow to our ambitions in Champions League... bummer.

20.12.2023 - Ajax - Vitesse Arnhem 4:1 (Dutch Cup 4th round) - 3. Johan Kramer, 22., 40. and 54. Brian Tol - 82. Aron Johansson - two back-to-back games against Vitesse in one week and Vitesse defenders had not learned anything from our last match. I had to start with 18 year old striker Brian Tol and because I had nothing to lose, I talked him up in press conference as a possible replacement for injured Jansen, said to him not to worry and no pressure in pre-match team talk and his answer was - marvellous hat-trick to prove that our youth team still can provide talented youngsters who can prove themselves on top level if necessity arises. Despite the great result, Dejan Meleg is another player on injury list (5-6 weeks out with strained knee ligaments). But I'm pleased that Roel Doesburg has gained some form and replaced him well, giving 2 assists after coming in from substitution. Quarter final match in January will be against Willem II who stunned PSV in penalty shout-out win.

Good month with 5 games and because Almere City managed to grab a point against PSV, we're now only 3 points behind leaders with all chances to fight for the title. Jansen's injury is a bitter blow, obviously, and I just have to hope that Tol can carry at least some weight through the second half of the season.

January transfer window brings additional troubles because Mitchell Dijks' agent demands outrageous wages for his contract extension (£60 000+ p/w) that I'm not willing to pay and he's most likely to leave as a free agent in Summer. Not the best for my already thin left-back position. I loaned out Kristian Pol to Augsburg and Evans Iddrisu to Almere City until the end of the season to gain them some first team football. Wingers (despite Roberto Jansma's injury proneness) are not worrying me in terms of cover and rotation options (Jansma, Crüden, Meleg, Buijs, Doesburg are all reliable options).

Eredivisie

Ajax goals: Dick Janses 17, Jeroen Bouwhuis 12, Brian Tol 7

Ajax assists: Dejan Meleg 12, Dick Jansen 8, Mitchell Dijks 6, Anthony Crüden 6

[Draakon]

No major transfers. Joel Veltman has turned 31 and found himself on the bench most of the time. Partly because Rob Klijn is so good, partly because I'm always looking to younger players. So he's looking for a new challenge, but after he turned down loan offer from Standard, there wasn't any more interest from other clubs, so at least for now he stays.

21.01.2024 - Roda JC Kerkrade - Ajax 1:4 (ED) - 23. Abdoulaye Toure - 34. Brian Tol, 41. Mitchell Dijks, 46. Roberto Jansma, 66. Rob Klijn - more like a rugby match. Both of my midfielders (Aydingöz and Bowuhuis) were carried away from the pitch on stretchers in the first half and Jansma continued to play through the knock. We just tried to survive and keep 11 men on the pitch. It was Jan Kuijpers' mistake that gave Roda the lead, but we recovered well. Brian Tol scored again, followed by a rare goal of Mitchell Dijks and Jansma quickly decided the game after 2nd half kick-off.

24.01.2024 - NEC Nijmegen - Ajax 0:1 (ED) - 36. Brian Tol - a very nervous game against relatively weaker team. Brian Tol again took his goal well, but the 2nd half was full of nervous faces on the pitch and stupid errors in defense. We gave NEC two clear-cut chances, but they missed both, so this win was a lucky escape in terms of points. It seems that team understood that too. Man of the Match award went surprisingly to Michel Meeuws, who gave a cross to Tol's goal and played superbly in defense.

27.01.2024 - Ajax - FC Twente 2:0 (ED) - 25. and 84. pen. Siem de Jong - Brian Tol has played superbly for his 18 years, but setback came in this match, when his stupid challenge in midfield sent him to dressing room after only 15 minutes were played. Without proper striker, I arranged our team to 4-2-2-1 formation and put Siem de Jong up front. He finished the game with two goals and showed that despite his 35th birthday tomorrow, there's still something left in the tank. FC Twente couldn't keep possession and create chances despite their one man advantage and we took a crucial win despite Tol's red card. Unfortunately, for a challenge like that he's likely to miss 3 next games and this is bad news for us.

31.01.2024 - Ajax - Willem II Tilburg 4:1 (Dutch Cup Quarter Final) - 29. and 48. Anthony Crüden, 37. Brian Tol, 52. Roel Doesburg - 8. Maikel Kieftenbeld - I rested some players (Meeuws, Jansma, Buijs, Noordhoff, Dijks) in this cup game. Brian Tol and Ilan Boccara were played full 90 minutes because they will be suspended for next league game anyway. Match itself was similar to Roda game - we conceded quickly, but recoverd well and turned game around in 2nd half. Anthony Crüden and Roel Doesburg were impressive on the wings, Doesburg also hit the post twice. Comfortable win in the end and draw has been favorable too - our opponent in semi-final are MVV Maastricht (who have done brilliantly to get this far). Second finalist will be decided between FC Twente and Almere City (kudos to them too!).

Good month in terms of result and because PSV lost 1-2 against FC Groningen, we're now virtually level in points and we rose to 1st position for a while because of our better goal difference. But the margin isn't big. Results like 8-0 or 11-0 haven't been there this season, so it's pretty tight. Other teams are already way behind.

Eredivisie

Ajax goals: Dick Jansen 17, Jeroen Bouwhuis 12, Brian Tol 10, Anthony Crüden 8

Ajax assists: Dejan Meleg 12, Dick Jansen 8, Roel Doesburg 8, Anthony Crüden 7, Daniel Buijs 7

[Draakon]

03.02.2024 - Ajax - FC Utrecht 2:1 (ED) - 24. Tom Noordhoff, 82. pen. Siem de Jong - 73. Abdallah Yaisien - so, Dick Jansen injured, Brian Tol suspended - that meant Siem de Jong played a role of complete forward and 35 year old veteran did well enough. We dominated possession 73/27, but couldn't finish all our chances. Roberto Jansma was particularly poor in that department. And when FC Utrecht got their only chance - long indirect free kick - they immidiately found unmarked player in our box to equalize. Frustrating. Luckily we earned penalty before the end of the game and de Jong's spot kick gave us deserved 3 points.

10.02.2024 - FC Eindhoven - Ajax 1:3 (ED) - 37. Yovany van der Stelt - 28. Tom Tepperik, 45. Siem de Jong, 68. Roberto Jansma - should have been easy game, but we conceded a poor goal and it was a bit nervous until the 3rd goal secured our position. Highlight of the match was undoubtedly Tom Tepperik's first ever goal for Ajax. Young right-back sent long indirect free kick towards forwards, but it went too far and should have been easy catch for Eindhoven goalkeeper. Surprisingly, the goalie completely missed the ball and it bounced up in front of him, over his reach and then to goal! You see those things sometimes happen in IRL football, but I've never seen anything like that in FM. A total fluke and otherwise good performance gave Tepperik man of the match award.

14.02.2024 - Heracles Almelo - Ajax 0:3 - 13. and 75. pen. Siem de Jong, 56. Roel Doesburg - valentine's day, but no love lost between us and Heracles, so we put 3 goals to their net and took comfortable 3-0 win. Business as usual. I'm pleased with our cleen sheet, especially in away game.

17.02.2024 - Ajax - FC Groningen 2:0 (ED) - 39. Hulusi Aydingöz, 83. Anthony Crüden - it was easy win because we had a working rotation during this month, but FC Groningen overexhausted their pöayers, so they sent out pretty tired squad against our relatively fresh midfield. Brian Tol was back in line-up. Roberto Jansma's poor form continues - he's been fit for a good period now, but goals have become rare and he misses his chances even when he has one. Central defender Johan Kramer was the man of the match this time, with his strong defensive performance and good long assist to Crüden's goal.

25.02.2024 - Ajax - FC Den Bosch 4:1 (ED) - 28. Johan Kramer, 60. and 72. Jeroen Bouwhuis, 67. Bart Verbeek - 90.+1 Edward Bruns - again good three goal winning margin against weaker team, but then late conceded goal completely out of nowhere. Shows lack of professionalism for me, but personally it was Tom Tepperik's missed tackle that gave Bruns this chance. Good attacking football in the 2nd half. We had 21 shots during 90 minutes and 12 of them went on target. 18 year old striker Bart Verbeek, who came on from substitution, scored his first ever goal for Ajax.

28.02.2024 - Bayer Leverkusen - Ajax 2:1 (Champions League 1st knockout round 1st leg) - 83. Cristian Bertotto, 88. Alemao - 79. Dejan Meleg - all went according to plan in the first 80 minutes. We stood strong in defense and despite not having too many chances, we used the one we got and Dejan Meleg's goal gave us valuable away goal. So all that was left to do was to defend well for the last 10 minutes. Unfortunately, this was the time when our defensive plan gave way and Leverkusen smashed 2 goals to get 2-1 home win from the first leg. Not the end of the world, because 1-2 from away game is quite OK scoreline, but it could have been so much better.

Just a week ago Leverkusen had a change of managers - after Frank de Boer left this position was even offered to me, but I refused. Now the new man at helm is Bruno Labbadia.

Despite the defeat against Leverkusen, it was a solid month. Not even so much because our success, but because PSV's failures. They shared points with sc Heerenveen and Vitesse and there's now 4 points between us and them, so it gives us confidence and some breathing space in the table. Of course, couple of tough matches are yet to come before the end of the season (at home against AZ Alkmaar, away with Feyenoord and PSV themselves).

Right back Michel Meeuws surprised me this month demanding new contract and when we couldn't reached to agreement with his agent, demanded transfer. Well enough, I agreed to let him go to Ipswich town for £10m. I'm not worried too much about our right back position. There's Tom Tepperik getting better and better, and young 17 year old Martin Peek who plays for U-19 team at the moment, but is rated 4,5* by my coaching team.

Eredivisie

Ajax goals: Dick Jansen 17, Jeroen Bouwhuis 14, Brian Tol 10, Anthony Crüden 9, Siem de Jong 9

Ajax assists: Dejan Meleg 13, Roel Doesburg 10

[Draakon]

A lot of games in March and competing in all fronts so far means that our schedule will be rather tight up to the end of the season.

02.03.2024 - ADO Den Haag - Ajax 1:2 (ED) - 69. Mikhail Rosheuvel - 18. and 56. Johan Kramer - we played better football, actually, but ADO defenders had a busy day and their goalkeeper (ex-Ajax man Indy Groothuizen) played superbly to make several key saves. In the end, set-pieces were the difference and Johan Kramer scored both of his goals from corner. But again we couldn't keep a clear sheet and allowed ADO back to the game. Roberto Jansma was disappointing in attack and couldn't make his skills count. Otherwise solid performance from the rest of the team.

06.03.2024 - Ajax - AZ Alkmaar 6:3 (ED) - 2., 41. and 60. Brian Tol, 31. Roberto Jansma, 83. and 89. Daniel Buijs - 48. and 79. Bob Schepers, 76. Santos - here's one for the fans, certainly. Scoring 6 goals is always nice, especially against strong squad like AZ had. We had a great first half and went to half-time break with 3-0 lead. But in 2nd half our defense break down, especially between 75-80 minutes when we allowed AZ back to 4-3 scoreline. But when AZ pushed forward to find an equalizer, Daniel Buijs took advantage of the space and punished them with two more goals. Attacking play was brilliant and great hat-trick by young Brian Tol, but I can't be happy with 3 conceded goals. In fact it's the first game in the league this season when we conceded 3. Too sloppy.

10.03.2024 - Almere City - Ajax 2:2 (ED) - 10. Wesley Boot, 82. Reinder van Zanten - 3. Johan Kramer, 34. Elroy van Dalen - disappointing draw, because we had chances to secure the result and score 3rd goal, but we didn't and late equalizer by Almere City gave them a valuable point. They are not a bad team, especially at home, but we should have win this game. Attackers looked not present and goalscoring duty was carried by defenders. Perhaps a slight relapse from AZ game? Hulusi Aydingöz gave assists to both goals and earned man of the match award.

15.03.2024 - Ajax - Feyenoord Rotterdam 2:2 (ED) - 14. Jeroen Bouwhuis, 22. Brian Tol - 40. and 45. Daniel Vigna - we started excellent, but gifted Feyenoord two clear-cut chances in the end of the first half and their best striker Daniel Vigna didn't even blink when he scored twice. So we went to break with 2-2 scoreline. We were a better team actually and pressured Feyenoord for whole 2nd half, had a lot of corners and set pieces, but couldn't break down their defensive line, so they held onto a point. Another disappointing game in terms of defense. We've now conceded 7 (seven!) goals in last 3 games and that's way too much. It's also getting clear that Jan Kuijpers is otherwise a solid keeper, but he can't save crap. Whenever there's a real chance to opponents, it's either a goal or a very bad shot that goes wide from goal. Our goalkeeper just can't save these situations and his one-on-one rating of 9 is well evident on the pitch. In fact he's just saved 1 ccc in whole this season. So we better pull ourselves together defensively and try not to give those chances away so easily. I'm seriously thinking about bringing young Wilco Schouwenaar back from loan (he's been playing in France for past couple of seasons) and replacing Kuijpers after Summer.

Only good thing about this matchday - PSV collapsed completely and were trashed 4-0 at home against Heracles Almelo. Embarrasing defeat to them and now we're back to 6 point advantage in the table.

19.03.2024 - Ajax - Bayer Leverkusen 2:0 (Champions League first knockout round 2nd leg - 62. Brian Tol, 88. Johan Kramer - we had away goal from first leg and nothing to lose, so lads put up a great game and brought us through to quarter finals. We had a good pressure for all 90 minutes and in the 2nd half we found a way through twice, both times from corners (again). A late goal by Kramer gave Leverkusen no time to recover, but even 1-0 win could have given the advantage to us. Man of the match performance came from veteran captain Siem de Jong. I'm happy with attacking play - 9 out of 11 shots found target, so we were really patient with our attacking play and decisions. Our quarter final opponents will be Arsenal.

26.03.2024 - Ajax - MVV Maastricht 5:1 (Dutch Cup Semi Final) - 2., 58. and 65. Brian Tol, 19. Daniel Buijs, 79. pen. Siem de Jong - 64. Giovanni Klinkers - minnows MVV have done brilliantly to reach semi finals this year, but we were too strong for them. Great hat-trick from Brian Tol again (he now passed Dick Jansen as our best scorer) but once again I'm not pleased that we conceded a goal so easily, even if it didn't mean anything in the end.

30.03.2024 - Ajax - MVV Maastricht 8:1 (ED) - 7. Melvin Vissers, 21. Siem de Jong, 25. Tom Tepperik, 36. Joel Veltman, 45. Elroy van Dalen, 55. Roel Doesburg, 70. Dick Jansen, 74. Johan Kramer - 85. Mark Goedhart - back to back games against MVV, this time in the league. Despite fielding weaker team and giving several players a day off, we scored 8 goals and steamrolled MVV easily. But again - poor defensive work in the end to give them consolation goal. Goals distributed evenly within team. In fact, all 4 defenders got to scoresheet. Joel Veltman scored his first goal of the season (he hasn't played too many games lately), so did Melvin Vissers. Young right winger Dick Jansen (not to mistake him with my injured striker Dick Jansen) scored his first goal for Ajax. Roel Doesburg was the man of the match after adding 3 assists to his goal.

So, not bad month at all. I'm still 6 points clear in the league, reached quarter finals in Europe and Dutch Cup Final will be against FC Twente. Everything is still open. MVV result was great to our goal difference - we now have a sizeable advantage even if we would be level with PSV in the end.

We had a new youth intake of players and I planned to make separate post to introduce the best newcomers, but to be honest, I've rarely seen so poor selection of youngsters for Ajax. 3-4 players were worthy of merely 2* potential and I'm rather doubtful if any of them will make it in the first team in the end. That's a year lost in our talent upgrade program.

Eredivisie

Ajax goals: Brian Tol 18, Dick Jansen 17, Jeroen Bouwhuis 15, Siem de Jong 11 (6 of them from penalties)

Ajax assists: Dejan Meleg 16, Daniel Buijs 14, Roel Doesburg 11