FM20 AFC Ajax - the best youth system in Eredivisie

[Draakon]

February 2026

 

Transfer window has passed and it’s time to settle into the rhythm again. February’s schedule is more intense than usual - we have our regular Eredivisie games, but the pressure has eased a little, as our points advantage increases. It’s certain that youngsters will get more playing time because of the players who departed in January and that could benefit the club in the long term.

The Champions League resumes with the first knockout stage and we were drawn against Tottenham. It could have been a little easier, but also a lot worse, so I can’t complain about it too much. Most of the favourites got through the group stage without problems and there weren’t any small teams remaining in the competitions.

The same can be said about the domestic cup - most of the favourites are still in the mix and the competition resumes with quarter finals. We play against Feyenoord in February - another derby, another extremely important game for the fans, so we have to be at our best in this game.

 

04.02.2026 - Willem II Tilburg - AFC Ajax 0:0 (ED)

But first, we traveled to the Southern Netherlands to play against Willem II. Our opponents haven’t changed much over Winter and look like the same mediocre team they were in August. I haven’t noticed that, but Willem II has a new 21,000+ John Feskens Stadium, so as the organization they’re developing well. As the football team - not so much.

We have some good news from physios. Jay Enem got some minutes against AZ Alkmaar and is fit to start. Joel Veltman is also fully fit and Gürcan Dere is close to returning (but I prefer not to risk him just yet). My selection options are much better and the only player still injured is Tim Brown.

Squad: van den Heuvel, van der Sloot, Hillen, Lopes, Salah-Eddine, Regeer, Sangare-Aka, Hansen (61. Promes), Karahasanovic (69. Fitz-Jim), Boer, Enem (58. Braspenning)

The John Feskens Stadium welcomed us with rain and cold weather. It was a damp evening and the football was perhaps affected by it. Our opponent’s intentions were clear - their 4-2-1-3 DM Wide tactics played with strong defensive block and quick counter-attacks and they were difficult to break down. We had a couple of good attempts that required fine stops from their goalkeeper Maarten Paes, but we weren’t really dangerous and couldn’t create proper chances. It has to be said that Willem II defended wholeheartedly - diving into tackles, helping each other out and working hard to stop us and they succeeded.

In the second half I needed to make changes. Jay Enem came off, because he had been completely invisible on the pitch for the first 60 minutes. Sontje Hansen looked a little bit nervous with the ball and he, too, was replaced, but new players didn’t make much of a change and I wasn’t willing to take additional risks and make our formation more attacking. The final whistle was called to a goalless draw and with that result I can’t be pleased with - we should have played better, but nobody stepped up today and Willem II’s plan worked out well.

• we had 60% of possession, but only 8 key passes in this game
• our average rating was just 6.78 - nothing exceptional from any of the players
• Player of the game: Pascal Struijk (Willem II Tilburg) - the centre-back did well to lead their defensive efforts

 

08.02.2026 - VVV Venlo - AFC Ajax 0:3 (ED) - 4. Remy Boer, 27. Sontje Hansen, 38. Ismael Sangare-Aka

The second away game in a row against a little bit smaller team. We’re not travelling to Venlo, actually. Because VVV’s home stadium is closed for expansion, they use NEC Nijmegen’s ground for their home games until April. Not sure it has any effect, but VVV finds it more difficult this season. Their third place finish in Spring catapulted them into continental football, but that has been harsh - all straight defeats in the Europa League group stage have disrupted their rhythm in Eredivisie as well, and if they finally dropped out of continental competitions, their form picked up slightly in December and January as a result. So, let’s see what sort of VVV we’re facing today.

We needed to make some changes too, mostly because of poor performances against Willem II. Kian Fitz-Jim returns to the starting line-up, Gürcan Dere is finally fit and will start and Jay Enem is benched. Anass Salah-Eddine had a tight muscle in training and as a precaution he won’t play.

Squad: Dere, van der Sloot (55. Veltman), Hillen, Lopes (69. Taylor), Douglas, Regeer, Sangare-Aka, Hansen, Fitz-Jim, Boer, Braspenning (69. Claes)

Nijmegen welcomed us with similar weather than Tilburg - cold and wet at the kick-off, but at least the downpour ended in the first half. VVV Venlo looked rather optimistic with their tactics - a positive 4-2-3-1 (mirrored our setup) was a little bit bullish against the favourites. I get it - they had a couple of good results in January against smaller teams, home crowd behind them and perhaps they can stage an upset? But they left too much space behind their defensive line and our forwards always had space to run into after we won the ball back. That was exactly what happened - the VVV goalkeeper Michael Verrips was a little bit careless with his pass and Remy Boer made an interception. He was too quick for defenders and his solo run from midfield finished with our first goal. VVV had no other choice now than to continue to take risks, because otherwise the equalizing goal gets even more difficult to score. Their attacking midfielder Michel Vlap got the ball after a corner in 22’ and his good attempt needed an equally fine save from Gürcan Dere. Sontje Hansen was difficult to contain and his goal in 27’ put us in full control - it was a wonderfully taken volley from 15 meters that landed in the bottom corner and Verrips had no chance against it. Hansen was again in the middle of action in 36’ - he was tripped just inside the box and Youri Regeer had an opportunity to score from the spot, but his penalty was saved. That was a wasted moment, but didn’t matter too much, because Ismale Sangare-Aka scored with an accurate shot that landed right next to the post. At half-time we had a comfortable 3:0 lead and it was safe to say that the optimistic gamble of the VVV manager had backfired.

Things turned from bad to worse for VVV Venlo in the second half. Their left-back Ian Maatsen had struggled to stop Sontje Hansen in the first half and in 51’ he received his second yellow card for another foul against Hansen. That left VVV with just 10 men and although we didn’t score another goal, it took all pressure out of the game. I used the chance to substitute early and give youngsters some minutes in the second half. It remained 3:0 until the end and it was a fairly easy win for us. It’s nice to return to winning ways and I was happy with the way the team reacted after our poor display against Willem II.

• our shooting was 22/11 in this game
• we still made just 8 key passes
• Kik Taylor made his league debut in the second half
• Player of the game: Sontje Hansen - another great performance from the right winger - outstanding goal, assist and very difficult to stop by VVV defenders

 

11.02.2026 - AFC Ajax - Feyenoord Rotterdam 2:1 (TOTO KNVB Beker Quarter Final) - 42. Remy Boer, 45.+2 Carlos Manuel Lopes - 36. Soulyman Allouch

Now then, here’s the derby. It feels like it matters more when we meet Feyenoord in the cup, because it’s a must win there. League points can be recovered (or lost) in the next round, but cup defeat limits the chance of silverware and that’s something that counts for big clubs. It’s my first time to go against Mark van Bommel as the Feyenoord manager - he was a tricky opponent back in his days with ADO Den Haag and it’s interesting to follow what direction Feyenoord will take under his leadership.

The club and players offer little surprises - I know where their strengths lie. Feyenoord had a few injury problems coming to this game, most notably their best goalscorer Tamer Erdem injured himself in training and 2-3 defenders were out as well.

Our situation was much better. Sontje Hansen had minor problems with his muscle tightness before the game, but Anass Salah-Eddine has recovered from his issues and is ready to start. Difficult part is to select our starting striker - neither Jay Enem nor Kik Braspenning have impressed in recent games and Braspenning gets a green light only because of his better match sharpness.

Johan Cruijff Arena welcomed us with the full stadium - 65,000 fans had come to see this derby match - and a fairly decent weather. It’s February, after all, and if there’s clear pitch and nothing raining down, then it’s already a positive.

Squad: Dere, van der Sloot (76. Veltman), Hillen, Lopes, Salah-Eddine, Regeer, Sangare-Aka, Promes, Fitz-Jim, Boer (82. Karahasanovic), Braspenning (69. Enem)

We started with more momentum and had initiative in the first 20 minutes or so. Young Feyenoord goalkeeper Tein Troost had plenty of action, but we didn’t get a clear cut chance, so no goals in the first 30 minutes. Kian Fitz-Jim fired his half-chance on target and Kik Braspenning headed just wide from an IFK - those were the best moments we had, before Soulyman Allouch gave Feyenoord the lead in 36’ - we allowed them to build up patiently from our right wing and left Allouch way too much space in the box and his strong attempt was too good for Gürcan Dere to save. Feyenoord looked comfortable in the lead, but before half-time we managed to answer with two goals of our own. Both came from corners and Quincy Promes made excellent deliveries. Remy Boer headed in the first one and right before the half-time whistle Lopes powered in the second. Feyenoord players looked stunned - all of their hard work in the first half undone by two corners in the final five minutes. Our half-time team talk was much more positive after those goals and the players looked even more motivated after the break, but I knew that we didn’t need to take unnecessary risks and switched to a balanced mentality. Despite that Feyenoord’s striker Milan van de Riet found their best chance of the game in 50’ in a counter, but his attempt from a one-on-one situation went wide of the post. We managed to control the rest of the second half better and Jay Enem almost scored our third in 83’ - hitting the post on a counter. The final whistle marked a narrow win in a close derby game and once again I have to thank set pieces and Quincy Promes for deciding that game for us.

• Player of the game: Quincy Promes - outstanding game from the veteran; two corners led to goals

 

15.02.2026 - AFC Ajax - Heracles Almelo 1:1 (ED) - 88. Sontje Hansen - 51. Aime Omgba

The February league schedule is fairly easy - at least it looks so on paper. It’s strange that we lost to Heracles 3:4 in the away game, but they’re still their usual bottom half team and in recent months their main problem seems to be scoring goals - four last games without scoring and that certainly has hurt their morale, too.

Playing at Johan Cruijff Arena should give us an advantage and I’m thinking about the amount of rotation and changes we could do for the game. Steven van der Sloot is injured, so Joel Veltman starts in his place. The club doctor treated Remy Boer for a nasty gash on his arm that he suffered in the Feyenoord game and it’s perhaps best to give him a day off (and Alen Karahasanovic is eager to get a start). Kik Braspenning hasn’t shown much in recent games, so Jay Enem gets back his place in the starting line-up.

Squad: Dere, Veltman, Hillen, Lopes, Salah-Eddine, Regeer, Sangare-Aka, Promes (65. Hansen), Karahasanovic, Fitz-Jim, Enem (46. Braspenning)

That was a very disappointing game. Weather was dreadful - cold and rainy - and the first half was completely uneventful. We couldn’t create a single noteworthy chance in the first period and Heracles sat deep to prevent us any space.

I switched to an attacking 4-2-3-1 formation in the second half, but that backfired quickly. Heracles had an IFK in 51’ and the ball found its way to Aime Omgba, who fired in from 15 meters. Straight into the top corner - just one of those shots that the goalkeeper can do nothing about. We were desperate to turn the game around in the final thirty minutes, but it didn’t seem to happen. Kik Braspenning had our best chance of the game in 85’, but his shot was saved and it looked like a miserable failure against Heracles (again!), until Sontje Hansen stepped up and scored a late equalizer to rescue a point for us. I was relieved with the goal, but nowhere happy with the performance - unacceptable against the smaller team, at home. We couldn’t create chances and Heracles looked way too comfortable in defense.

• we had 60% possession in this game
• we made just 9 key passes
• our average rating was just 6.78 - nothing praiseworthy
• our shooting was 20/9 - flattering stats, but not enough good opportunities
• our attacking players were in offside 8 times - that hindered our attacks as well
• Joel Veltman managed to make 9 fouls in this game - another referee could have sent him off, but he didn’t get a single booking!
• we’re now unbeatable in 18 games
• Player of the game: Aime Omgba (Heracles Almelo) - best goal of the game

 

22.02.2026 - AFC Ajax - NAC Breda 0:1 (ED) - 10. Ayhan Kurt

Another home game, another smaller team and I expected us to do much better in this game. We don’t seem to do well against Heracles, but NAC Breda is a different story.

Squad: Dere, van der Sloot, Hillen, Lops, Salah-Eddine, Regeer, Sangare-Aka, Promes (61. Hansen), Karahasanovic, Fitz-Jim (70. Boer), Braspenning (61. Enem)

NAC is a different team, but their approach to this away game looked very similar to Heracles’ - defensive 4-2-2-2 DM formation with two defensive midfielders is again extremely difficult to break in attack and to make matters worse, we had a really poor first ten minutes of the game. NAC’s Andre Vidigal hit the post with a powerful shot in 7’ and three minutes later we allowed them to score - criminally poor defending from the right (Steven van der Sloot and Rio Hillen to blame) allowed Ayhan Kurt to score and that suited NAC extremely well. For the rest of the game they sat in defense and gave us all possession, but we failed to find an equalizer. I tried all kinds of tactical changes in the second half - made our attacking formation wider, switched to attacking mentality and tweaked individual instructions, but it didn’t help. Our best chance came in 53’, but Kik Braspenning’s close range attempt was blocked by the arriving defender and the final whistle was called for a frustrating defeat. I was absolutely furious at the sidelines - it was by far our worst performance of the season in front of home fans. All creativity was lost for several games now and I had no idea how to change things. None of the attacking players seemed to perform at their usual level and there were some harsh conversations in my office after the game. We’ve now dropped five points in two games and need to bounce back quickly, or the other team will start to catch up.

• our shooting was 28/10 - decent stats, but no use for us without good chances
• we made only 8 key passes - lack of creativity evident again
• our average rating was just 6.78
• Player of the game: Ayhan Kurt (NAC Breda) - scored the winner 

 

25.02.2026 - Tottenham Hotspur - AFC Ajax 1:0 (Champions League 1st knockout stage 1st leg) - 22. Dele Alli

After two poor games we travelled to London. Tottenham isn’t the worst possible opponents to meet in the knockout stages and there we some happy reunions, because several of our former players now play in Spurs (Andre Onana, Perr Schuurs), but our confidence was low and I didn’t expect us to win the game after performances against Heracles and NAC. 

We started with our balanced 4-2-3-1 formation and London welcomed us with rain (who would’ve thought?!), so it was to be a poor evening overall.

Squad: Dere, van der Sloot, Hillen, Lopes, Salah-Eddine (70. Douglas), Regeer, Sangare-Aka, Hansen, Fitz-Jim (70. Karahasanovic), Boer, Enem (57. Braspenning)

Tottenham had a slight initiative in the game and that was expected, but only one good moment. Harry Kane found a one-on-one opportunity on a counter in 19’, but was denied by a brilliant save from Gürcan Dere. That didn’t save us from conceding a goal, though. Dele Alli headed in three minutes later and that was it. The rest of the game was a drab affair - we couldn’t create much in attack, but our defensive organization was good enough and we limited their chances fairly well. The Spurs’ players were individually better than us and in certain situations it showed, but overall we did OK. It was an away game, after all, and to return from London with 0:1 wasn’t too bad in the end. Tottenham looked comfortable in this game and were never really threatened, but they might need a better cushion before the second leg. We have now over a month to get ourselves sorted and let’s see what happens then. The only really worrying thing for me was that this defeat was our second in a row and we’re now three games without a win - that starts to hurt our morale.

• our shooting was just 5/2 in this game and we couldn’t create decent chances
• our average rating was just 6.70
• we made only 2 key passes
• Player of the game: Dani Olmo (Tottenham) - created moments from midfield and controlled the game well 

 

28.02.2026 - Helmond Sport - AFC Ajax 1:3 (ED) - 76. Jannes Wemmer - 44. Rio Hillen, 61. Carlos Manuel Lopes, 74. pen. Youri Regeer

A number of games have gone poorly and we need a win to bounce back and regain some of our lost confidence. We play our last game of the month against minnows - Helmond Sport is heading towards relegation play-offs and they’re in equally poor form. Our problem is morale that has been hit by the results and harsh team talks, but also fatigue - Tottenham match is still in our legs and we have to rotate the starting line-up solely on purpose of keeping our first team players fresh. Also, some of the players are in really poor form over the last 3-5 games and there’s little point in playing them if I know that they produce the same kind of performance - it’s better to give someone else a chance.

Squad: Dere, van der Sloot, Hillen, Lopes (65. Taylor), Douglas, Regeer, Sangare-Aka, Hansen, Fitz-Jim, Boer (68. Karahasanovic), Braspenning (73. Enem)

Helmond welcomed us with heavy rain and that left the mark on the whole match. Our opponents came against us with a simple 4-4-2 and we continued to play with our usual positive 4-2-3-1 formation. In the first half we controlled the game, but it didn’t lead to good chances. Kik Braspenning was very active up front and two of his headers touched the crossbar on the way over, so we were a little bit short of luck, too. I asked the team to play wider to create more space and it looked to work out a little bit better. In the end of the first half Braspenning took a free kick from 25 meters and it was a very good attempt towards the top corner. The Helmond goalkeeper was in trouble, but managed to make a save. However, Rio Hillen was the first one on the ball and finished from close range. That late goal gave us the lead at half-time.

The second half continued well for us. Another set piece led to our second goal when Carlos Manuel Lopes headed in from an IFK (another delivery from Braspenning). Braspenning tested the goalkeeper with another good header in 63’ and Kian Fitz-Jim blew his easy chance in 68’. The third goal came from the penalty after Braspenning was pushed in the box and although Helmond’s Jannes Wemmer scored a consolation goal for them, it was a solid win for us. I was satisfied with the performance - we were careless with the conceded goal, but conceded three from set pieces and that’s a big improvement compared to our previous games.

• we had 68% possession in this game
• our shooting was 25/13
• we created 3 clear cut chances - good enough
• Player of the game: Carlos Manuel Lopes - scored a goal and was solid defensively

 

Summary

It’s been ups and downs in February. Too many points dropped in the league, too many poor performances with equally poor results, with the only bright moment our 2:1 derby win over Feyenoord. We’ve hit the slump and need to get ourselves sorted quickly. For a moment it looked like we don’t miss Donny van de Beek and Perr Schuurs too much, but perhaps we still do. Ismael Sangare-Aka needs to pick up his form and start to contribute more in midfield and most of our attacking players haven’t scored for a long while now.

The only good thing is that we’re still leading the table and we still have a small gap with AZ Alkmaar.

 

Eredivisie

AZ Alkmaar is our closest competitor. FC Utrecht, PSV Eindhoven and sc Heerenveen have all played good football, but they’ve dropped points too and so haven’t made a real challenge for the title.

[Draakon]

March 2026

 

04.03.2026 - AFC Ajax - Willem II Tilburg 5:0 (TOTO KNVB Beker Semi Final) - 4. Carlos Manuel Lopes, 13. and 41. Remy Boer, 39. Kian Fitz-Jim, 80. Steven van der Sloot

We’ve reached the cup semi-final and hosted Willem II at Johan Cruijff Arena. The last time we met was just a month ago and that game finished 0:0. Willem II had a good February - they’re unbeaten in seven games and managed to beat AZ Alkmaar 4:3 to reach semi-finals and they’re definitely solid opponents.

We have regained some of our confidence after our last win and hope to improve our form in March. Tim Brown is still injured and Ismael Sangare-Aka suspended, so our midfield is a little bit thin. Alen Karahasanovic starts as a DLPd and Youri Regeer moves to BBMs role.

Squad: Dere, van der Sloot, Hillen, Lopes (55. Taylor), Salah-Eddine, Karahasanovic, Regeer, Hansen (55. Tiago Silveira), Fitz-Jim, Boer, Braspenning (68. Claes)

It was difficult to score against Willem II in the away game in February, but we had no problems with that now. Lopes continued his goalscoring form with a flyer from a free kick. We lost our concentration in defense for a moment at 9’ - space opened up and the Willem II left-back Kay Dollenkamp ran into it, he was well picked out with the long ball forward and Dollenkamp found himself in one-on-one situation, but the shot went wide and we escaped that situation without a goal. Set pieces were our friends in the previous game and it was the case here, too. Rio Hillen had a chance from a corner - his close range attempt hit the post, but Remy Boer was there to tuck it away and so it was 2:0. Kian Fitz-Jim showed his technical ability with a brilliant solo goal - he cut inside with the ball from right, turned around three defenders and finished into the near corner. Boer volleyed in from Braspenning’s cross two minutes later and we went to half-time with an excellent 4:0 lead. I was very happy with what I’ve seen so far and so we made substitutions in the second half to give youngsters some game time. That, partly, allowed Willem II to become more comfortable and find chances of their own. Gürcan Dere needed to make two good saves to parry attempts from Vangelis Pavlidis and Mats Köhlert - both came from counter-attacks after we lost possession in midfield. Our goalkeeper kept the clean sheet, though, and we wrapped things up with our fifth goal of the night and what a goal that was! Steven van der Sloot fired a volley straight to the top corner from 22 meters out! An incredible strike and a fitting finish to the game. Willem II conceded five goals and we were in the cup final.

I was delighted with the result and performance - variety of goals and good attacking display is something we’ve been missing lately and we get a lot of confidence from this.

• our shooting was 18/10 in this game
• our average rating was 8.23
• Player of the game: Remy Boer - scored two goals and was one of the best performers on the pitch

 

08.03.2026 - AFC Ajax - Vitesse Arnhem 1:2 (ED) - 65. Ismael Sangare-Aka - 50. Darren Eiting, 54. Elliott Boyce

Back to Eredivisie. Good thing that we have home games coming up one after another, but Vitesse is a much tougher opponent than Willem II. They have bolstered their ranks with another few Chelsea loanees and now have five of them - a huge force in terms of Eredivisie. Their English striker Mark Hamilton has scored 15 goals so far and honestly I’m surprised that they aren’t higher in the table - their 7th position doesn’t reflect the ability of the squad. If they could be a little more consistent they could challenge for the title, surely. 

We need to find an answer to their attacking quality and the job is a little bit more difficult as Carlos Manuel Lopes will be sidelined with a small knock.

Squad: Dere, van der Sloto, Taylor, Hillen, Salah-Eddine (74. Douglas), Karahasanovic (58. Sangare-Aka), Regeer, Hansen, Fitz-Jim, Boer, Braspenning (50. Enem)

We had two good goal scoring chances in the first half. In 29’ Sontje Hansen found Boer with a brilliant pass. Boer took the ball into the six yard box and somehow managed to hit the post from close range when it was easier to score. Kik Braspenning had a great opportunity four minutes later, but his attempt was blocked and we went to the half-time without goals. The first half looked promising, though - we had two of the best chances so far and it looked like our home advantage could give us the edge in this game.

It was all about to change in the beginning of the second half. Darren Eiting fired in from a corner to give Vitesse the lead. Jay Enem had a chance to score a quick equalizer in 53’, but he blew it (another shot hit the framework as he tried to mop up his first attempt) and in the next attack it was 0:2 - Steven van der Sloot allowed the cross to reach Elliott Boyce who was unmarked at the far post and the Chelsea loanee scored with a simple tap-in. Another Englishman Mark Hamilton could have made it 3:0 to Vitesse, but from his clear cut chance the ball landed safely in the hands of Gürcan Dere. We looked clearly in trouble and needed a miracle to save anything from this game and the substitute Ismael Sangare-Aka was the man to provide it. We went to a counter-attack in 65’ and Sangare-Aka got the ball deep in our half, but he went on to run with it for at least 50 meters before firing in with power from the edge of the area. A brilliant goal and pure inspiration for the whole team, but sadly it wasn’t enough to initiate our come-back. Remy Boer was close to equalizing, but his shot in 70’ clipped the outside of the post and Kian Fitz-Jim blew his chance in 81’. Extremely frustrating defeat in the end - I felt that we had the chances and we were unlucky, but at the same time I have to admit that we couldn’t get good control over the game and looked fragile defensively. Some really poor individual performances left their mark on this game and we looked unprepared. That should go down as the manager’s defeat, I’m afraid.

• we lost possession 43/57 in this game
• our average rating was just 6.71 
• we created 3 clear cut chances, but wasted all of them, and hit the woodwork amazing four times
• we made only 5 key passes
• Player of the game: Darren Eiting (Vitesse Arnhem) - their centre-back scored the first goal and had a solid game defensively

 

14.03.2026 - AFC Ajax - SC Telstar 4:0 (ED) - 20., 34. and 45. Jay Enem, 78. Kik Taylor

We need to recapture our form and leave the Vitesse defeat behind us, and the home game against Telstar is the easiest fixture in our calendar, so it’s a perfect opportunity to score goals. We have the second leg fixture with Tottenham coming up in a few days, so it’s wise to rotate players - Carlos Manuel Lopes is fully fit again, but Rio Hillen is suspended for this game, so it’s Taylor-Lopes partnership in central defense and Kik Taylor will have another start.

Alen Karahasanovic will not start and Anass Salah-Eddine will be benched because of their poor performances against Vitesse. My trust in Kik Braspenning is also starting to run out, so Jay Enem gets a go this time.

Squad: van den Heuvel, Veltman, Taylor, Lopes, Douglas, Regeer, Sangare-Aka, Promes, Fitz-Jim (67. Karahasanovic), Boer, Enem (46. Claes)

It was a much better game for us (or Telstar is just a much worse team than Vitesse). We took control of the game in the first half and Jay Enem completed his hat-trick before the break. His second goal was a beautiful strike from the edge of the area and I was delighted to see him getting his usual confidence back during those forty five minutes. The game was pretty much over at the half-time and I made substitutions - Vincent Claes had a whole second half to prove himself. He showed some good off the ball movement, had some chances to score, but couldn’t finish properly and will be unhappy with his effort. SC Telstar’s Arie Tol had a chance to get his team back into this game in 53’ when Ismael Sangare-Aka was a little bit careless with his pass and Tol made an interception to get a one-on-one opportunity, but Dani van den Heuvel made a good save to deny him and kept our clean sheet until the end. Kik Taylor finally headed it home from a corner to make it 4:0 and that was it. The second half wasn’t exactly perfect, but the game was decided way before that and I was happy with the win.

• our shooting was 26/16 in this game
• we created 4 clear cut chances
• we somehow allowed SC Telstar to make 26 dribbles in this game
• Kik Taylor scored his first career league goal for Ajax
• Player of the game: Jay Enem - hat-trick hero for us with a brilliant first half performance

 

17.03.2026 - AFC Ajax - Tottenham Hotspur 1:1 (Champions League 1st knockout round 2nd leg) - 57. Remy Boer - 4. Harry Kane

It wasn’t hopeless after our 0:1 defeat in London. We didn’t play well in the first leg and to be fair - Tottenham looked like a much better team on the pitch, but everything is possible in football and a 0:1 deficit is not something we can’t turn around if we play our cards right in the home game. I chose the same balanced 4-2-3-1 formation that worked well for us in the Champions League, started with Terrence Douglas in left defense because of his physical abilities and hoped for the best.

Squad: Dere, van der Sloot, Hillen, Lopes, Douglas (77. Salah-Eddine), Regeer, Sangare-Aka, Hansen, Fitz-Jim (44. Taylor), Boer, Enem (77. Braspenning)

We showed good promise in the early minutes and Jay Enem had our first half chance in the very first attack, but in 4’ we conceded an early goal and allowed Tottenham to gain control of the game from early on - Steven van der Sloot made a mistake and missed his interception, allowed the cross in from the right and Kane moved into the near post to finish. That’s not good. In fact - that’s almost as good as game over for us - we now needed to score three goals and that’s a big ask against a team like Spurs, but we weren’t ready to give up. I switched to positive 4-2-3-1 and we did our best - had a couple of good attempts on target and for a while it looked like the Spurs defense struggled to handle Sontje Hansen, but ultimately our half chances didn’t lead to a goal in the first half. That half ended very badly for us, as Carlos Manuel Lopes earned his second yellow card in the game and was sent off - careless from the defender. Both yellow cards came in the Tottenham box, the second one for an unnecessary handball. That’s not good enough - the player of his calibre should know better. I had no other option than sending on Kik Taylor and taking off one attacking midfielder. We didn’t look too poor in the first half, but that red card before the half-time was pretty much a sign of game over for us.

We switched back to a balanced mentality with 10 men, but the second half obviously looked a lot different for us. Excellent counter-attack in 57’ resulted in an equalizing goal, but that was mere consolation for us. Jay Enem had a great chance in 73’, but he totally blew it and when Steven van der Sloot had to come off with an injury in 81’ we had no substitutions left and had to play with nine men for the last ten minutes.

I wasn’t too disappointed with our game in general - we obviously had no real chance after the red card, but fought bravely until the end and can be proud of our efforts. A draw against Tottenham is not a bad result anyway, but this is where our Champions League journey ends for the season.

• our shooting was 16/10 in this game - pretty good, considering how the game developed
• Steven van der Sloot twisted his ankle and he’ll be out for 4-5 weeks
• Player of the game: Remy Boer - great goal from him in the second half

 

21.03.2026 - FC Eindhoven - AFC Ajax 0:0 (ED)

Back to Eredivisie and our focus now is on securing the title. We traveled to Eindhoven to play with another small team. This time we’re without Steven van der Sloot and Tom Brown. Joel Veltman played a full game against Telstar and he’s practically match fit, so the right-back position shouldn’t be an issue and I make small changes in the squad. Terrence Douglas had a tight muscle in yesterday’s training and it’s better to start with him on the bench, too.

Squad: Dere, Veltman, Hillen, Lopes, Salah-Eddine, Regeer, Sangare-Aka, Hansen, Karahasanovic, Fitz-Jim (70. Boer), Enem (79. Braspenning)

Well, that was a bummer. We were stuck again in attack, lacked creativity throughout the game and allowed FC Eindhoven to defend deep. I tried to change smaller things in our tactics, but without much effect and those few half-chances that we managed to get didn’t lead to anything really dangerous. I sent on Remy Boer and Kik Braspenning in the second half, but couldn’t decide if it helped or made things even worse. In games like this it gets evident that our bench lacks depth, especially attacking options. Frustrating draw and a poor performance - another two points dropped in the title race and I know we should do better against small teams like FC Eindhoven.

• Player of the game: Leandro Fernandes (FC Eindhoven) - not really a noteworthy performance, but did fairly well in FC Eindhoven’s midfield

 

Summary

March had big ups and downs for us. I wasn’t really upset that we dropped out of the Champions League, because success in that level wasn’t really on the cards for us anyway, but those weeks in the second half of the season have exposed our lack of depth and inconsistency. Our attacking creativity has dried up in some games and both Jay Enem and Kik Braspenning look short of the necessary quality to play for Ajax at times. I need to get more out of every attacking player in the team and I hope things improve in April.

It’s really difficult to select our player of the month - so much inconsistency in performances. If I had to pick one it would be Remy Boer - he has scored some goals and created some chances and showed that he could play well in the Champions League level, too, with his goal against Tottenham. I hope that he can continue and get even better in the next season.

 

Eredivisie

We have dropped some points, but the same can be said about AZ Alkmaar and so we still hold a small lead in the table.

[Draakon]

Youth Intake 2026

 

It’s time for our annual youth intake in March. In December our head of youth development Said Ouaali gave me the following preview of our academy graduates:

 

 

A promising bunch of players - good overall level, with one good centre-back and a Surinamese striker. That left me with some hope that we will get at least a few good additions to our squad for the next few seasons.

The actual youth intake looked following:

 

 

That was indeed a good bunch of youngsters. Four to five decent players in different positions, but the obvious star of the year was Tochero Tjon-A-Loi - fantastic talent. I have rarely seen a player who is ready to play for the first team right after coming up from the youth ranks, but Tjon-A-Loi is such a player - really good technically, good with set pieces, very good finishing and passing and no obvious flaws in his game. He could become a world class player for us in less than five years. I promoted him to the first team squad and offered him his first professional contract without a second thought.

 

 

The sheer talent of Tochero Tjon-A-Loi and overall level of that youth intake made me smile for a while.

[Draakon]

April 2026

 

Four big games in April. Big games in every sense of the word - we need points to secure the title, but the opponents are difficult. We have Klassieker derby coming up this month and we meet sc Heerenveen twice (second game is the cup final), and FC Utrecht could be tough opponents as well. Full focus on every game.

 

03.04.2026 - sc Heerenveen - AFC Ajax 0:3 (ED) - 24. Sontje Hansen, 44. and 58. Kik Braspenning

First, a trip to Heerenveen. We need to win this game to give ourselves a positive start in April, but it’s also a preview of the cup final that’s being held in two weeks. We are still weakened by injuries - Steven van der Sloot is close to returning, but not yet fit. Tim Brown is injured, Jay Enem pulled his calf muscle and Kian Fitz-Jim hurt his heel in training and they too are out of this match, but we have the new youngster Tochero Tjon-A-Loi in our first team and he could make his debut from the bench. Also, Quincy Promes are back in full training, so although I lack options, it’s not too bad.

We need to be a bit more careful in this one - it’s an away game and sc Heerenveen are in good form, so I chose a balanced 4-2-3-1 with a few tweaks in tactics.

Squad: Dere, Veltman, Hillen, Lopes, Salah-Eddine (72. Douglas), Regeer, Sangare-Aka, Hansen (81. Tiago Silveira), Karahasanovic, Boer, Braspenning (72. Tjon-A-Loi)

sc Heerenveen started with a positive mentality, but it didn’t give them chances in the first half. Our balanced approach looked much more… balanced and actually led some good moments in attack. Carlos Manuel Lopes headed against the crossbar from a corner in 11’ - unlucky. We took the lead at 24’ - Sontje Hansen had an attempt from a narrow angle, but his finish was perfect and the ball landed right next to the far post. Hansen was active in attack through the first half and most of our moments came from the right wing. So was our second goal - Sangare-Aka delivered a cross from right and Kik Braspenning executed an outstanding volley to send it into the goal. At half time we had a 2:0 lead and although I can’t say that we dominated the game so far, we created better chances and ultimately deserved to lead. 

Things continued well in the second half - in 52’ Alen Karahasanovic spotted the pass and delivered a through ball to Remy Boer, who timed his run perfectly from the left and squared it to Braspenning for a simple finish into the empty net. Lovely move and that settled the game. I made substitutions in the last twenty minutes and the youngster Tochero Tjon-A-Loi made his debut for the club. sc Heerenveen managed to test Gürcan Dere a couple of times, but the goalkeeper did well to parry those shots and so we maintained that three goal advantage. Great result from an away game for us and clinical finishing was probably the difference in this game.

• we had 62% possession
• our shooting was 16/10
• Tochero Tjon-A-Loi made his debut for Ajax in this game
• Tiago Silveira made his league debut for Ajax
• Player of the game: Kik Braspenning - his brace secured the win

 

10.04.2026 - Feyenoord Rotterdam - AFC Ajax 1:1 (ED) - 75. Andre Pander - 80. Remy Boer

Next up, the Klassieker derby and a trip to De Kuip. The sc Heerenveen result gave us confidence, but also some tactical ideas and we continued with our balanced 4-2-3-1 formation that worked well in Heerenveen. We had some injury problems and they worsened in the days before that game - Youri Regeer twisted his ankle in training and I had to make changes in midfield. Alen Karahasanovic takes his place as DLPd.

Squad: Dere, Veltman, Hillen, Lopes, Salah-Eddine (85. Douglas), Karahasanovic, Sangare-Aka, Hansen (85. Promes), Fitz-Jim, Boer, Braspenning (71. Enem)

We played a  very good first half. Especially the first 30 minutes. Remy Boer found the first good chance in 11’ - Sangare-Aka found him with a lovely through ball, but Boer’s first attempt was saved and when he tried again from the rebound, he managed to hit the bottom of the post and the shot was wide. Just a minute later he had another great look, but fired just a meter wide from 15 meters out. Kik Braspenning was pushed in the box and we got a penalty in 26’, but Braspenning couldn’t score from the spot and so the first half finished 0:0. Very pleased with what I saw, but our finishing let us down and we wasted way too many good chances.

Feyenoord probably made some changes at half-time and they got their defense more organized in the second half. Carlos Manuel Lopes made a bad mistake in 64’ and gave the ball away to Tamer Erdem, who went one-on-one against Gürcan Dere. Our goalkeeper made a great save with his feet to stop the shot. Feyenoord took the lead after another ten minutes, though - Andre Pander turned around Lopes in the box and this time Dere couldn’t save it. 0:1 and we looked in trouble. We reacted well and the players remained confident and motivated, so in less than five minutes we found the equalizer. Rio Hillen took a deep free kick after a Feyenoord player was called for offside. He spotted Remy Boer further on the pitch and delivered a long ball to him, Boer took it down and scored a sensational goal from the edge of the area - lovely strike! Both teams played attacking football in the final ten minutes, trying to find the winner, but it remained 1:1 - could be a fair result based on the second half, but we missed so many chances in the first half, so that feels like we let that one slip away.

• we created 3 clear cut chances in this game, but so did Feyenoord - attacking football on both ends
• Player of the game: Remy Boer - moved well, created chances for himself and others and scored a great goal 

 

19.04.2026 - AFC Ajax - sc Heerenveen 3:0 (TOTO KNVB Beker Final) - 51. Jay Enem, 81. Remy Boer, 85. Rio Hillen

With our 3:0 away win in the table, we looked really confident going against sc Heerenveen for the second time this month. The final was held at De Kuip - neutral ground for both teams. I felt that we didn’t need to invent anything new and went with our proven 4-2-3-1 balanced formation. Some players had recovered from injuries, but we missed Carlos Manuel Lopes due to suspension - that’s a big loss in our defense. My main challenge was choosing between Steven van der Sloot and Joel Veltman for the right-back. I chose Veltman because of his better match fitness and aerial ability, but van der Sloot is likely to come on from the bench. Kik Braspenning was brilliant in Heerenveen, but messed things up against Feyenoord, so he was benched again and Jay Enem started up front.

Squad: Dere, Veltman (69. van der Sloot), Taylor, Hillen, Salah-Eddine (74. Douglas), Karahasanovic, Sangare-Aka, Hansen, Fitz-Jim, Boer, Enem (82. Tjon-A-Loi)

Both teams looked to start carefully. It was the final, after all. However, we looked to have a little more initiative, a little more ball in midfield and that could be significant in an important game like this. Despite that sc Heerenveen found the first good chance of the game - in 13’ a good pass found Jay-Roy Grot behind our defense and Joel Veltman was caught on his heels - he was two steps behind Grot and never looked able to catch him, but Gürcan Dere was alert and made a good save to deny the shot. After that moment we looked more concentrated in defense and had more of the possession, but neither of the teams could score in the first half. Jay Enem had a couple of half chances, but failed to beat sc Heerenveen’s goalkeeper Justin Bijlow, so we went to the half-time with 0:0.

It looked like we had a small edge in the first half and we made it count after the break. Remy Boer found Enem with a lovely pass and the striker had a good attempt from the edge of the area - the ball hit the post and slowly rolled over the line, but it was a goal and an important one! A brilliant strike from Enem and he clearly showed that he’s the player for big games. Now sc Heerenveen had to hurry and switch to more attacking mentality, so space started to open up for us and long balls behind their defense started to find Enem more frequently. We looked comfortable for the most of the second half and with ten minutes to go, Heerenveen started to take more risks and that backfired badly for them. In 81’ Remy Boer moved to a counter, took the ball with him and finished his long run with a brilliant strike from a narrow angle. The second goal looked to secure our win, but the scoring wasn’t over - Rio Hillen wrapped things up with a header from IFK and that was it - another 3:0 win over sc Heerenveen and another cup win for us! Two brilliant goals in the second half were decisive and sc Heerenveen had no answers for those.

• we had 60% possession in this game
• our shooting was 19/12
• it was our sixth cup win in the last seven seasons when I have been in charge, and sc Heerenveen have lost three cup finals during that period (twice to us and once against PSV Eindhoven in 2023/2024)
• Player of the game: Rio Hillen - he stepped up to lead our defense in the absence of Lopes, scored a goal and gave an assist in the process - great game

 

26.04.2026 - AFC Ajax - FC Utrecht 3:1 (ED) - 47. Jay Enem, 66. Ismael Sangare-Aka, 90.+2 Carlos Manuel Lopes - 23. Albert Gudmundsson

Another Sunday game for us and PSV Eindhoven increased pressure on us - they managed to beat Feyenoord 1:0 on Friday and they’re now just two points behind us in the table. We have another tough game against FC Utrecht who have had a great season and find themselves in the top four at the moment. Pretty amazing, considering that they were down in the Eerste Divisie just two years ago. I can’t expect anything easy at this point and we have to take every game as a must win. Our morale is high after the cup win, though, and we look eager to prove a point, especially against rivals of FC Utrecht.

We have almost the full squad ready for this game. Tim Brown is still injured, Youri Regeer is very close to returning, but the rest of the players are fit and well rested. Rio Hillen gets the captain’s armband for the game.

Squad: Dere, van der Sloot, Hillen, Lopes, Salah-Eddine, Karahasanovic, Sangare-Aka, Hansen, Fitz-Jim, Boer, Enem (81. Tjon-A-Loi)

The first half didn’t have a lot of chances. We had the best moment in 6’ - Jay Enem spotted a poor back pass by the FC Utrecht defense, intercepted it and found a good look, but couldn’t beat the keeper. FC Utrecht took the lead in 23’ and the goal came against the run of play - they didn’t create too many dangerous moments in the first half, but when Anass Salah-Eddine missed his interception on the left and allowed the cross in, Albert Gudmundsson headed it into the net. At half-time we were 0:1 down and our job looked much more difficult.

I asked the team to play wider in the second half to create more space, and it resulted in a quick goal. Good build-up from our right led to the equalizing goal - Sontje Hansen crossed to Enem at the near post who placed his shot well. My half-time team talk got the players more motivated and that quick goal added some confidence, so we continued to create more threat in the FC Utrecht box. Jay Enem had a good chance to double his tally in 63’, but that attempt was blocked. Ismael Sangare-Aka gave us the lead with a brilliant strike that was driven low from 22 meters and Enem wasted another chance just a minute later. We now had the lead, but kept blowing our goal scoring moments and I was afraid that we somehow let it slip away from us. FC Utrecht switched to a more attacking formation, but that didn’t help them a lot. The youngster Tjon-A-Loi had a chance to score his first goal for the club in 84’, but he headed it over from point blank range, before Lopes finally wrapped things up with a header from corner in injury time. Good win in the end, the quality of football improved a lot in the second half, but we still should have decided it much earlier.

• our shooting was 25/12 
• we created 5 clear cut chances and 5 half-chances in this game
• we had 16 corners - eventually scored a goal from the last one
• Player of the game: Steven van der Sloot - tremendous game from the right-back - 7 key passes, 4 chances created by him and an assist, too

 

Summary

Four tough games, but April went well for us. Slightly disappointed that we couldn’t beat Feyenoord when we had the chances, but seven points in the league and the cup win makes this month fairly successful.

Again it’s difficult to choose the player of the month, but Remy Boer has continued to carry us when we needed it the most - two goals and two assists from him this month, including goals in the final and the equalizer against Feyenoord.

 

Eredivisie

Two games to go and we have a healthy five points lead over PSV Eindhoven. The bottom three seem to be clear as well.

[Draakon]

May 2026

 

03.05.2026 - PSV Eindhoven - AFC Ajax 2:0 (ED) - 21. Kevin van den Broek, 36. Jeremy Antonisse

That’s what all of the fans are waiting for - a title match right at the end of the season. We’re five points ahead of PSV in the table, so you could say that we’re relatively safe and need just one point to clinch the title, but PSV have home advantage and they’ve been doing well in recent weeks - after suffering terrible 0:8 defeat in the hands of Vitesse in March they’ve picked themselves up, organized their defense better and collected four 1:0 wins in a row to put themselves to a good position and challenge us for the title.

We have a few selection decisions to make - Steven van der Sloot played so well against Utrecht so that he’ll continue in right defense. Youri Regeer is back in full training and it’s a decision between him and Alen Karahasanovic for DLP and Carlos Manuel Lopes has a small problem with achilleus, but I decided to take a risk and play him, because we need our best eleven against PSV. It’s an away game and PSV is strong enough to make us worry, so it’s a balanced 4-2-3-1 for us in this match.

Squad: Dere, van der Sloot, Hillen, Lopes, Salah-Eddine, Karahasanovic (72. Regeer), Sangare-Aka, Hansen, Fitz-Jim, Boer, Enem (72. Braspenning)

Well, it didn’t go well for us. PSV had a slight initiative and it culminated in their first goal in 21’ - Kevin van den Broek timed his run perfectly to get to the cross first and scored with an easy tap-in. We had to switch to a positive mentality after that, but it didn’t help us a lot - Jeremy Antonisse won an aerial duel against van der Sloot to extend their lead further and at half-time we were in trouble.

We managed to improve our game a little bit in the second half, but PSV always looked in control defensively. Jay Enem had a couple of half-chances, but nothing too dangerous and in the end I just ran out of ideas. It was a game that we couldn’t afford to lose, but we failed and were unable to match PSV. What’s worse - it makes our last game of the season really nervous, because now the title depends on just one result.

• our shooting was just 7/2 - not good enough in attack
• we made only 8 key passes
• Player of the game: Kevin van den Broek (PSV Eindhoven) - their wonderkid scored a goal and gave an assist

 

10.05.2026 - AFC Ajax - FC Groningen 3:0 (ED) - 15. pen. Youri Regeer, 30. Carlos Manuel Lopes, 45. Kian Fitz-Jim

Well, after our failure against PSV, this was a must win game for us. Or at least must draw. No margin of error in the table - two points ahead of PSV Eindhoven and we can’t hope for them to drop points in their last game.

FC Groningen is a fairly strong team, but we have our best eleven available and home advantage, too, so no excuses.

Squad: Dere, van der Sloot (70. Veltman), Hillen, Lopes, Salah-Eddine, Regeer, Sangare-Aka, Hansen (70. Promes), Fitz-Jim, Boer, Enem (70. Tjon-A-Loi)

Mental preparation was much better for this game. There wasn’t any nervousness, just motivation in the eyes of the players and it showed from the very first minutes. Remy Boer got close to a goal in 2’ when his volley clipped the crossbar and went over. We took the lead from a penalty in 15’ - Youri Regeer scored his 10th goal of the season after Sontje Hansen was pushed in the box. Set pieces were our friends today - Lopes added another goal from a corner and we finished the first half by playing FC Groningen defense apart and Fitz-Jim finished the move off into the empty net. Great forty-five minutes to give us the control.

We could relax in the second half - Jay Enem wasted his clear cut chance in 47’, but it didn’t affect the result. I made substitutions in the 70’ - Joel Veltman and Quincy Promes played their last game for Ajax and they deserved those 20 minutes in front of the home crowd. The final result was 3:0 and the convincing win secured our title on the last day of the season.

• we had 63% possession in this game
• our shooting was 23/13
• we created 4 clear cut chances - much better in attack
• we didn’t allow FC Groningen to create any real chances in this game
• Youri Regeer scored his 10th goal of the season
• Player of the game: Carlos Manuel Lopes - won numerous headers in FC Groningen box, scored a goal

 

Summary

A little bit nervous in the end, but we managed to hang on and secure the title in May.

 

Eredivisie

FC Emmen, Helmond Sport and SC Telstar were relegated. ADO Den Haag won promotion as the Keuken Kampioen Divisie champions. The other teams to be promoted were PEC Zwolle and NEC Nijmegen.

[Draakon]

Season Update 2025/2026

 

Our season wasn’t bad. We won the Eredivisie title, the cup and reached the first knockout round in the Champions League, but at the same time I feel that the second half of our season was a failure. We couldn’t beat Tottenham (weren’t really close) and the second half of our league campaign didn’t go as well. The title race went all the way to May and was really close, too close, in the end. We missed Perr Schuurs and Donny van de Beek in crucial games and their departure in January left us with gaps in leadership. Add some injuries in the mix and we weren’t as dominant as we’ve used to be. 

Who stepped up? Rio Hillen played well and filled in for Schuurs in defense, Remy Boer shone in attack with his technique and goal scoring abilities. I hoped that Ismael Sangare-Aka could take a bigger role in midfield, but his performances were a little bit inconsistent. We were let down the most by our strikers - neither Enem nor Braspenning were consistent enough and wasted a lot of chances. Enem had a great season in 2024/2025, but this time he failed to keep this form.

 

We finished our season with less than 80 points and that’s the lowest the title has been won. My stat sheet looks fairly similar to the last season - we converted roughly 50% of clear cut chances (fairly good number), scored a similar amount of goals from set pieces and long shots and I didn’t see anything exceptional there.

 

Ajax goals: Remy Boer 19, Jay Enem 15, Youri Regeer 10

Ajax assists: Quincy Promes 13, Remy Boer 9, Alen Karahasanovic 9

 

AFC Ajax End of Season Awards 2025/2026

 

Loan players report

 

• Cor Drommel made a big development in KV Oostende - he played over 20 games for the Belgium club. He looks good for Ajax for the next season.
• Julius Dirksen had a good season in Cercle Brugge, but at 23 years of age his development has somewhat stalled. He’s a decent player and now it’s time to decide if he gets his chance in Ajax or if it’s better for him to move on.
• Youri Baas played most of the games for Serie B side Alto Adige. The team was predicted to finish 12th in pre-season, but they ultimately finished 3rd in the table and had a chance to reach Serie A through the play-offs. At the end of the season they suffered heartbreak after losing in the play-offs finals and couldn’t secure the promotion. Ultimately, Baas has the same problem as Dirksen - with 23 years of age, he’s good enough to be a backup for us and with Anass Salah-Eddine, Cor Drommel and Terrence Douglas in his position I didn’t offer him a new contract here in Ajax. With his good season in Serie B he shouldn’t have problems getting offers from elsewhere, though.
• Tiago Chaves turned up for Helmond Sport, but he usually came from the bench - his performances were unremarkable and he couldn’t save Helmond from relegation.
• Philippe Barriere’s season in Belgium was a disappointment. He couldn’t earn the Royal Antwerp manager’s trust and usually played for reserves or the U-23 team. Perhaps he’ll get his chance in Ajax in the next season after Quincy Promes has left the team.

 

Eredivisie Awards

Golden Boot

1. Remy Boer (AFC Ajax)
2. Kevin van den Broek (PSV Eindhoven)
3. Mark Hamilton (Vitesse Arnhem)

 

Top Goalscorer

1. Mark Hamilton (Vitesse Arnhem) - 22
2. Aron Schrijver (FC Groningen) - 20
3. Tamer Erdem (Feyenoord Rotterdam) - 14

 

Goalkeeper of the Year

1. Gürcan Dere (AFC Ajax)
2. Timon Wellenreuther (Vitesse Arnhem)
3. Indy Groothuizen (FC Groningen)

 

Young Player of the Year

1. George Power (Vitesse Arnhem)
2. Remy Boer (AFC Ajax)
3. Kevin van den Broek (PSV Eindhoven)

 

Manager’s Manager of the Year

1. Erik ten Hag (AFC Ajax)
2. Marinus Dijkhuizen (FC Eindhoven)
3. Luc Nijholt (Sparta Rotterdam)

[Draakon]

Summer 2026

 

World Cup

It was the year of the World Cup. Gürcan Dere, Anass Salah-Eddine and Youri Regeer were part of the Holland national team. Ismael Sangare-Aka turns up for Burkina Faso and Steven van der Sloot for Cameroon.

Holland did fairly well and eventually reached the semis where they lost to France. Burkina Faso and Cameroon failed to impress and didn’t reach the quarter finals.

 

Staff

First of all - my almost perfect assistant manager John Heitinga was offered the manager’s position at SPAL and he left the club in June. Previous Jong Ajax assistant manager Winston Bogarde was appointed as his replacement, but that was a poor decision that went over my head, because I forgot that I had delegated it to our technical director. I guess I’ll just have to live with it for now.

But I was determined to improve the quality of our backroom staff and signed Arne Slot as the new assistant manager for Jong Ajax. His judgment and man management qualities are obvious.

 

 

I also signed the new U-19 coach Ronnie Pander - he was recommended to my by my staff and his attributes looked promising.

 

 

Eredivisie’s reputation grows and it attracts better managers, too. Luka Modric left AZ Alkmaar this Summer and took charge of Club Brugge, but AZ managed to sign Roberto Mancini as his replacement. Wow. Erik ten Hag joined Vitesse last season and now Mancini is in the league! The business really gets serious in Eredivisie

 

Players and contracts

Quincy Promes, Joel Veltman, Youri Baas and Roderick Maas left the club in July after their contracts ran out. Losing leadership qualities like Promes and Veltman had will affect our dressing room, but their age started to show and they’re probably not our first team material any more. Their departure freed a significant amount of money for wages, so I took a good look at our contract situation.

Alen Karahasanovic signed a new deal - £30,000 p/w until 2031 - his role should increase in the coming seasons. I see him as a squad player - capable of filling roles in AMC and DLP, so I don’t doubt that he’ll get enough starts to keep him happy.

Anass Salah-Eddine is another star player who’s contract is expiring in 2027. He accepted my offer for £44,000 p/w until 2031 and that should settle down most of our key players in the squad.

Rio Hillen also signed a contract extension until 2031 and his salary raised to £30,000 p/w and Ismael Sangare-Aka signed a new contract extension (£17,000 p/w) until 2030.

 

Departure of so many leaders led to choosing our new captain. Youri Regeer took the armband and Anass Salah-Eddine will be our vice-captain.

 

Transfers

After losing so many first team players in the last season I expected it to be a rather quiet transfer window. Remy Boer attracted attention from FC Barcelona and Chelsea was interested in Carlos Manuel Lopes, but we didn’t reach an agreement about transfer fee and eventually both moves fell through. We had one incoming transfer, though, and that is rare in this save. I matched the bid for Ajax CT’s Dino Andrew - the attacking midfielder joined us for a fee of £425,000 and will feature for Jong Ajax in his first year.

 

Loans

Our best young talent Tochero Tjon-A-Loi moved out on loan to Willem II Tilburg for a season. Willem II were willing to offer him first team playing time and they’re a decent squad with good training facilities. More first team football would be great for Tjon-A-Loi’s development. Portuguese wingers Tiago Silveira and Tiago Chaves went to NAC Breda and Fortuna Sittard respectively and talented centre-back Adil Hadji from our U-19 joined Helmond Sport for a season.

 

25.07.2026 - AFC Ajax - PSV Eindhoven 3:0 (Johan Cruijff Schaal) - 24. Remy Boer, 40. Jay Enem, 88. Carlos Manuel Lopes

The super cup final was a revenge match for us more than anything. Our lacklustre defeat to PSV Eindhoven in May was still fresh in our minds and now we had a chance to show in front of our home fans (the game was held at Johan Cruijff Arena) that we can do better.

The PSV squad was unchanged in two months - they haven’t made any transfers this Summer so far and so we knew what to expect. We had most of the players fit (Tim Brown was still in rehabilitation phase after his cruciate ligament injury) and a couple of options added to the team.

Squad: Dere, van der Sloot, Hillen, Lopes, Salah-Eddine (81. Douglas), Karahasanovic, Regeer, Hansen (68. Barriere), Fitz-Jim, Boer (56. Sangare-Aka), Enem

We took control of the game in 24’ - Remy Boer moved to a counter attack and finished his long run with the ball with a lovely finish. Jay Enem added to our lead with a header in 40’ and so we went to half-time with a 2:0 lead. We didn’t have too many chances in the first period, but we were clinical with those that we got and had good confidence as a result.

PSV couldn’t get their things going. Their 4-1-4-1 defensive/cautious formation was too defensive to put us under pressure and their chances were limited. In 80’ their wonderkid Kevin van de Broek was sent off - he received his second yellow card for stopping Kian Fitz-Jim on a break, and that was it. Lopes headed in from a corner to wrap things up and the 3:0 win was as good revenge as it gets.

• our shooting was 20/11
• we didn’t give PSV Eindhoven any real chances in this game
• Player of the game: Carlos Manuel Lopes - good defensively and added a goal, too

[Draakon]

Squad Update 2026

 

It’s been an unusual Summer - we have no departures. It became clear that our squad was way too thin in Spring and now I try to recover and bolster it with players returning from loan, some new youngsters and players who have recovered with injuries.

 

Goalkeepers

No changes here. Gürcan Dere is still the best goalkeeper in the league and current number one in Holland national team, too.

 

 

Defenders

Joel Veltman is gone and I’ve included the young Renato Molnar to the first team. We’re a bit thin in the right-back department, but I hope that he’ll get some minutes and if injuries start to bother us then Kik Taylor can play there, too. Julius Dirksen returned from loan and is bolstering our central defense and we have more options on the left. Cor Drommel is exciting attacking player while Terrence Douglas is more physical, but lacks technique - I can use them according to our approach and opponent’s strengths.

 

 

 

 

Midfielders

No changes in midfield. Hopefully Tim Brown will avoid injuries - his cruciate ligament trauma kept him out for more than half of the last season. I’ve included 18 years old Daan Smit to the first team. He’s a quite talented youngster - aggressive, clever and can win the ball back in midfield.

 

 

 

 

Wingers

It looks like we’re too thin out wide, but actually no - Kian Fitz-Jim can play on the left, Steven van der Sloot and Alen Karahasanovic on the right. Eventually I believe we’ll be fine, so I allowed Tiago Chaves and Tiago Silveira to go on loan. Philippe Barriere returned from loan and took over Quincy Promes’ place in the team.

 

 

Strikers

The same duo here as in the previous season, although Tochero Tjon-A-Loi will probably push into the first team in a year.

 

[Draakon]

August 2026

 

Five games in August. The strongest opponent for us is probably AZ Alkmaar, but the away game in Utrecht at the end of the month could be tricky, too. I don’t expect any transfers in August, because we have a good number of players in the team now and interest in our star players from big clubs is not sufficient to indicate any offers over £50m. 

 

02.08.2026 - AFC Ajax - Sparta Rotterdam 3:1 (ED) - 44. Remy Boer, 57. Jay Enem, 60. pen. Youri Regeer - 81. Abdel Belarbi

We start our campaign by hosting Sparta Rotterdam - a fairly strong team who could cause problems to us if we’re not careful in defense. They have managed to retain their best player Ayodele Lauteria (a small miracle, I might say - Lauteria with PSV’s Kevin van den Broek are probably two of the best players in the league outside of Ajax), but they miss their midfield playmaker Jairo Simons because of yellow cards from the last season.

We have our best eleven available and the spirit is high after our win over PSV - let’s see if we can carry this form into the league season.

Squad: Dere, van der Sloot, Hillen (74. Taylor), Lopes, Salah-Eddine, Regeer, Sangare-Aka, Hansen (26. Barriere), Fitz-Jim (68. Karahasanovic), Boer, Enem

We played fairly well in the first half, but our problem was that we couldn’t convert our possession into chances. Sontje Hansen was unlucky to be on the other end of a couple of rough tackles by Sparta defenders and my physios indicated that he might have twisted his knee, so I took him off in the first half to avoid a more serious injury. Philippe Barriere came on and played well - he was the one who had the best chance in the first half - his counter-attack ended up with one-on-one situation, but his finishing ability just wasn’t good enough and the Sparta goalkeeper Karol Niemczycki made a good save to parry his shot. We looked fairly comfortable in midfield, but it didn’t mean that Sparta didn’t get any chances at all - a couple of times they threatened our goal and Gürcan Dere had to be alert and make saves when necessary. The change came at the end of the first half - we had a corner and initial clearance got to Remy Boer, who curled in a fabulous strike right next to the post from 20 meters. Great goal and another proof of his excellent form - he had been very active in attack so far, hit the free kick against the post early in the game and hence a little bit unlucky, too, but the ability to change the game with such a brilliant goal is so crucial in difficult games. Boer’s goal was the difference at half-time and we had the lead to protect in the second half.

Sparta made things easier for us after the break. We were motivated and willing to work hard and this hard work paid off in 57’ - Jay Enem covered a lot of ground to work without a ball and apply pressure on Sparta defenders and he got lucky when the Sparta goalkeeper was careless with his touch. Enem was the first to reach the ball and he finished into the empty net. 2:0. Philippe Barriere was tripped in the box three minutes later and our skipper Youri Regeer scored from the spot to make it 3:0 and the game was over. Philippe Barriere was active in attack - he really wanted to show he deserves a place in the first team - won several headers in the Sparta box and found a couple of half-chances, but failed to get his name on the score sheet. We had a good lead by three goals, but Sparta can always create something out of nothing and it was exactly what happened in 81’ - their striker Abdel Belarbi moved to attack, decided to try his luck from 24 meters and hit the ball so sweetly that it flew past Gürcan Dere and went in off the post. It was the second beautiful strike of the match and this time it was from Sparta. Our opponents seemed to understand that they don’t have enough time to wait patiently for their chances and shooting in sight is their best opportunity. In 85’ their winger Helgi Viktorsson tried to repeat Belarbi’s goal with an attempt of his own and almost got his shot on target - it glanced the post on its way wide. Close! That’s why we need to score two or three goals - to avoid conceding points to goals like that.

It remained 3:1 in the end and I was generally pleased with our performance - three goals in the opening game was good enough and I was happy with what I saw on the pitch.

• our shooting was 31/19
• we created 3 clear cut chances in this game
• Sontje Hansen suffered a twisted knee, but it was better than feared - he only needs to recover for a week or so
• Player of the game: Remy Boer - he really is in excellent form, a beautiful goal from the winger, but he was our best attacking player in the game, made 13 dribbles and always posed a threat running with the ball on the left flank

 

09.08.2026 - Willem II Tilburg - AFC Ajax 1:3 (ED) - 9. Vangelis Pavlidis - 4. Rio Hillen, 8. Philippe Barriere, 58. Kian Fitz-Jim

A week later we travelled to Tilburg. Willem II hasn’t changed too much over Summer, but they added two familiar players - they signed Youri Baas who left Ajax in June as their new left-back and our young talent Tochero Tjon-A-Loi features in attack, so it’s nice to meet them in the opposition squad. Our opponents didn’t have any luck in the first round - they created plenty of chances against newly-promoted PEC Zwolle, failed to score a goal and  conceded a late goal themselves. 0:1 defeat from Zwolle isn’t a result that reflects their abilities and they’re definitely motivated to improve in front of home fans.

We don’t need to change our squad too much - things worked out well against Sparta and we continue with the same line-up. The only change is on the right wing - Sontje Hansen will need another day or two to recover from his twisted knee, so Philippe Barriere starts this game. Tim Brown is also very close to full training and I’m sure that he’ll play later in August.

Squad: Dere, van der Sloot, Hillen, Lopes (73. Dirksen), Salah-Eddine, Regeer, Sangare-Aka, Barriere, Fitz-Jim (69. Karahasanovic), Boer, Enem (65. Braspenning)

We started the game on fire - in 4’ we had a corner and Philippe Barriere found Remy Boer in front of the goal with his delivery. Boer saw his header being tipped against the crossbar by the goalkeeper, but the ball bounced in front of the goal and Rio Hillen was there to tuck it away. Four minutes later it was Barriere who headed in from Salah-Eddine’s cross and we were 2:0 ahead with less than ten minutes played. Willem II seemed in trouble and we looked confident, but perhaps overly so, because in the next attack they scored one to get themselves back into this game - Che Nunnely’s cross took a small deflection from Salah-Eddine and surprised our defenders. Vangelis Pavlidis was the first to get to it on time and scored with a simple tap-in. After a turbulent ten minutes the game settled a little - Willem II got their defense in order, but we remained in control of the midfield and possession and weren’t really threatened in defense. 

We needed the third goal to secure the result and it came in the second half. Barriere was in action again - he took the ball to the box, made a smart pause and delivered to late-arriving Fitz-Jim, who scored with a powerful header. Good goal and that was it - another 3:1 win, this time from an away game and it was good enough to me.

• we had 61% possession in this game
• our shooting was 20/13
• we had 16 corners and scored the second goal from a corner in consecutive games
• Player of the game: Philippe Barriere - excellent first half from him, big improvement compared to the Sparta game

15.08.2026 - AFC Ajax - AZ Alkmaar 4:1 (ED) - 7., 30. and 85. Remy Boer, 27. Kian Fitz-Jim - 55. Rio Hillen (og)

This is interesting. The Noord-Hollandse derby against AZ Alkmaar. Their new manager Roberto Mancini has been a puzzle so far and their beginning of the season has been a rollercoaster - after being beaten 0:3 by Feyenoord and losing their Champions League play-off match to Basel (another 0:3) their morale looked shattered, but in midweek they turned this around by winning the second leg at home 4:0 (the fourth goal by Kingsley Ehzibue deep in injury time) and so they’re still in the Champions League run and Mancini has proved that he can turn things around when going gets tough. Interesting to see what kind of AZ we’ll witness at Johan Cruijff Arena this Saturday.

We have the full squad available to us - Tim Brown is now back in full training and Sontje Hansen has recovered from his twisted knee - so we field our best eleven. Hansen returns on the right wing and Barriere moves to the bench despite his good game against Willem II. AZ has some problems - their first choice goalkeeper Mees Bakker is injured and Sem Westerveld will take his place between sticks - that’s a possible weakness that we can take advantage of.

Squad: Dere, van der Sloot, Hillen, Lopes, Salah-Eddine, Regeer (83. Brown), Sangare-Aka, Hansen (66. Barriere), Fitz-Jim (77. Karahasanovic), Boer, Enem

We started things off well and took the lead at 7’ - it was another goal from a corner, actually a carbon copy of the goal that Remy Boer scored against Sparta two weeks earlier. Sparta defenders managed to clear our corner, but Sangare-Aka won the ball back, laid it left to Boer who bent it from 20 meters - outstanding strike and just unstoppable for Sem Westerveld. We continued well and had a slight initiative in the game. That could be expected, because we were the home team, after all, but our finishing was as clinical as it gets. Kian Fitz-Jim doubled our lead in 27’ and soon after that Boer extended it further. His goal was proof of individual brilliance. After receiving the ball some 30 meters out of the goal he just started to run and before any defender could react he was inside the box and finished into the near post. AZ players were way too passive to stop him and so it was 3:0 - our opponents started to look desperate already. At half-time we had a good lead, although I don’t feel that we dominated the first half - we were just very good with finishing and Remy Boer showed why he’s probably the most difficult player to stop in the league.

AZ Alkmaar were no pushovers, though. I believe that Mancini worked them up in the dressing room, so they came out well motivated and eager to fight back. We started to get a little complacent and the initiative slowly turned to our opponents. Darryl Hose managed to test Gürcan Dere with a shot on target in 54’ and it was a sign. We were careless in defending the following corner and Marcos Senesi had a shot from point blank range. Dere made a brilliant save to parry it, but then Anass Salah-Eddine made a poor clearance and hit Rio Hillen with the ball, so it deflected into our own goal - AZ had found a goal and I could just rue our poor concentration in set piece situations. That was not good enough. AZ smelled blood and in 67’ Gyrano Kerk found a clear cut chance, only to be stopped by Dere’s fine save. AZ Alkmaar had no other chance than to take more risks in the second half, so in the final ten minutes we had more space in attacks. Philippe Barriere was excellent in our previous game, but failed to deliver today. His missed clear cut chance in 81’ was an example of that. Remy Boer was unlucky to hit the post with his free kick before he finally completed his hat-trick with another brilliant goal. This time it was a real Maradona-like dribble from midfield, darting past three defenders on his way and finishing from close range - a wonderful individual goal. I’ve rarely seen a better individual performance from an attacking player in one game. All of his goals were not open chances or caused by clever tactical play, but just the result of individual brilliance. That hat-trick goal wrapped things up and AZ had to leave Johan Cruijff Arena with a 1:4 defeat. 

• our shooting was 23/16 in this game
• we created 4 clear cut chances - not bad against the team like AZ Alkmaar
• we made 27 individual mistakes in this game - not sure why so many, but AZ players were obviously individually skilled
• Player of the game: Remy Boer - brilliant performance from the winger and he really looks unstoppable. Any manager that faces us needs to find a way to stop Boer if they want to have any chances to get something out of those games. In this kind of form he looks way too good for Eredivisie.

 

23.08.2026 - AFC Ajax - Heracles Almelo 4:1 (ED) - 12. Remy Boer, 33. Kik Braspenning, 41. Ismael Sangare-Aka, 44. Kian Fitz-Jim - 18. Radinio Balker

We’re on a good run here and the home game against Heracles didn’t look like a challenge to me. I made a few changes in the line-up (attacking player), but our approach remained the same, because there was no need to fix what was not broken.

Heracles look a fairly similar mid-table side - not too many changes in Summer and they should finish comfortably around 10th position. A bit higher, if they do well.

Squad: Dere, van der Sloot, Hillen, Lopes (46. Dirksen), Salah-Eddine (69. Douglas), Regeer (46. Brown), Sangare-Aka, Barriere, Fitz-Jim, Boer, Braspenning

Indeed, we didn’t seem to have any problems in the game and controlled the game in the first half. Heracles used a cautious 4-2-2-1-1 DM formation that was rather defensive, but our wider setup found space for crosses and in 12’ we took the lead. The first goal came after a free kick that was initially cleared, but Carlos Manuel Lopes picked the ball up and spotted Remy Boer in the box - his pass went through and Boer scored another goal in this season (his 6th so far). Unfortunately we allowed Heracles to equalize from a similar free kick situation - Youri Regeer lost the header in our box and the ball found Radinio Balker at the goal post who had an empty goal in front of him. We had been the better team so far, but the score was 1:1, so it could be a little bit tricky for us - at least I sensed it until Heracles’ Aime Omgba made things easier for us by getting sent off. His two-footed tackle on Steven van der Sloot was completely unnecessary and irrational, but the referee had no other option than to show him the red card. After that it was easy - Kik Braspenning quickly scored our second goal, Ismael Sangare-Aka took care of the most beautiful goal of the game by scoring a volley from 24 meters and Kian Fitz-Jim wrapped the first half by scoring our fourth. That was game over and I could start to make substitutions at half-time.

We dominated the second half and it looked more like a training match at times, but Heracles defended deep and didn’t allow us too many chances. One good attack in 75’ led to several good attempts - neither Braspenning nor Boer could finish their clear cut chances, so it remained 4:1 - an excellent result nonetheless. Our winning streak continues, but our first clean sheet in the league keeps itself waiting.

• we had 65% possession in this game
• our shooting was 29/17
• we created 2 clear cut chances and 8 half-chances - pretty one-sided
• we made 24 key passes
• we had 17 corners in this game
• Steven van der Sloot and Ismael Sangare-Aka were outstanding for us in this game
• Player of the game: Steven van der Sloot - the full-back could play more attacking role than usual, gave 5 key passes and created 3 chances

 

30.08.2026 - FC Utrecht - AFC Ajax 1:0 (ED) - 2. Juruel Bernadina

We’re on a high and I want us to continue this way for as long as possible. Another mid-table team in FC Utrecht to face and this time it’s an away game for us. FC Utrecht had a great season and they finished 4th in the last campaign - they’re now playing in Europa League as a result and look decent enough to finish in the top half of the table. 

It’s the end of August and some transfer rumours around Lopes and Boer start to distract us a little, but it’s nothing extraordinary and these kinds of stories can be expected with the transfer deadline approaching.

I’m not eager to make too many chances to the starting line-up, but Barriere’s inconsistency means that Sontje Hansen returns for the first eleven and Jay Enem is preferred over Braspenning - I expect FC Utrecht to leave a little bit more space at home and Enem is better in exploiting that. FC Utrecht is likely to play 4-2-3-1 formation with 2 DMC-s - it makes sense to use a wider formation against them.

Squad: Dere, van der Sloot, Hillen, Lopes, Salah-Eddine (12. Douglas), Regeer, Sangare-Aka, Hansen, Fitz-Jim (55. Karahasanovic), Boer, Enem (78. Braspenning)

FC Utrecht scored an early goal and put us under pressure. Rio Hillen lost a header and Juruel Bernadina had some space in our box. That was enough to get a shot in and it went past Gürcan Dere. Great start for FC Utrecht and we now had a lot of work to do, but almost the entire game to do it, so we stepped up immediately and took control of the game. Our rhythm was interrupted again at 11’ when Anass Salah-Eddine had to come off with an injury, so Terrence Douglas took his place in left defense. We had our best moments in the first half after 30’ - Remy Boer sent a good free kick on target and FC Utrecht’s goalkeeper Robin Roefs did extremely well to reach there and save it from the post. Jay Enem had a free header at 36’ and got it on target, but Roefs managed to tip it against the crossbar. We were still trailing at half-time and I was not happy, because despite those couple of chances we didn’t look sharp in attack and needed to be a lot better in the second half. Interesting fact - both teams boasted 100% shot accuracy in the first period, so goalkeepers had plenty to do even though all of the attempts weren’t too dangerous.

Jay Enem continued to miss his opportunities in the second half - his clear cut chance in 54’ was blocked by arriving defender and then FC Utrecht got their best chance of the game - their centre-back Wes Bottenburg was unmarked after an IFK and his shot from close range was parried by a great save from Dere. I asked the team to be more urgent in attack and shoot on sight. That almost led to an equalizer, but we narrowly missed out a couple of times. Substitute Kik Braspenning tested the goalkeeper with a fierce shot in injury time and Remy Boer saw his shot clip the outside of the post and deflect wide. Really disappointing defeat - we played nowhere near to our standards and failed to finish even when we created moments to ourselves. FC Utrecht did well to hold on to their early lead and I couldn’t find a way to change our tactics to break them.

• our shooting was 21/10 in this game
• we made only 8 key passes
• Anass Salah-Eddine came off with a broken foot and he’ll be out for at least 6-7 months - that’s the first serious injury in this season and I’m disappointed to lose him for so long
• Player of the game: Jordy de Wijs - the FC Utrecht centre-back did well, made interceptions and won important headers in their box

 

Summary

We started the season well, but stumbled in the end of August and dropped our first points. Generally I’m still pleased with our performance - defense has been a little shaky and a clean sheet would raise our confidence, but we’re scoring goals and creating chances and that’s important. Remy Boer has been our best player so far - he’s leading the Eredivisie scoring charts with five goals and has put in so many great performances over this month. 

Sadly Anass Salah-Eddine is our first serious casualty and we have to get by without him  until February - that’s a blow, but it gives opportunities to Cor Drommel and Terrence Douglas to show what they can do.

 

The Champions League groups were drawn. I was delighted to see that there were three Holland clubs represented on this stage - we and Feyenoord had automatic places and AZ Alkmaar got through qualification play-offs after beating Basel and Dynamo Kyiv - great success and hopefully they do well in this competition. We’re rivals in Eredivisie, but it’s best for domestic football if more clubs collect coefficient points from Europe.

 

Champions League Group A

1. AFC Ajax
2. Chelsea
3. Napoli
4. Celtic Glasgow

 

We were drawn into Group A and it’s a fairly average draw. Chelsea is the biggest club here, Napoli should be around our level and Celtic needs to do extremely well in all games if they want to progress from this group.

 

Eredivisie

We’re leading the table, but the gap is not big. Feyenoord is up there too, but PSV and AZ Alkmaar have failed to impress so far. From the newly-promoted teams NEC Nijmegen is down in the relegation zone, but ADO Den Haag have impressed everybody with their start - undefeated so far, with two wins and three draws and they look good enough to keep their place in the top division.

[Draakon]

Eredivisie Transfer Window Update - Summer 2026

 

It was a really busy Summer for some clubs. Feyenoord started what seems like a full clearance in July and they sold some key players of their first team, signed a few replacements in the process as well, but brought up several youngsters to fill places in their first team squad. Sparta Rotterdam made a decision about Ayodele Leuteria - perhaps the most talented youngster in Eredivisie next to Remy Boer and Kevin van den Broek - he finally signed with Manchester United for a whopping £60m.

 

The biggest transfers this Summer:

• Ayodele Leuteria from Sparta Rotterdam to Manchester United for £60m - Sparta sold their best players and filled their bank account, but failed to bring any serious replacements to Leuteria. Perhaps in January
• Tamer Erdem from Feyenoord Rotterdam to Arsenal for £32m - one of the best strikers in Eredivisie leaving. Interesting where Feyenoord goals will come this season
• Carlos Cuesta from Feyenoord Rotterdam to Brighton & Hove Albion for £16m - the centre-back spent two seasons in Feyenoord and the club made a small £3m profit with this deal
• Ferdi Kadioglu from AZ Alkmaar to Napoli for £15,25m (£18,5m) - talented midfielder, perhaps not the best decision from AZ Alkmaar
• Owen Wijndal from AZ Alkmaar to AC Milan for £15,25m
• Jesper Jongmans from Feyenoord Rotterdam to Napoli for £12m (£14,5m) 
• Tahith Chong from sc Heerenveen to Norwich City for £11,5m - the best attacking player for sc Heerenveen left. They have a young 17 years old talent in Claudio Andrade for this position and decided to give him a go
• Olivier Tilahun from Manchester City to Feyenoord Rotterdam for £11,25m (£14m) - this is something. This is actually a great signing for Feyenoord. Tilahun left from AZ Alkmaar to Manchester City as a teenager, spent the next five years in UK and now comes back as one of the best wingers in Eredivisie. Interesting that Manchester City was willing to let him go, interesting that he agreed to come back to Holland, but I predict that he'll be very difficult to stop for defenders
• Joey Veerman from Dinamo Zagreb to PSV Eindhoven for £10m - Veerman left PSV Eindhoven in January 2024. Played one year in Crystal Palace and 1,5 seasons in Dinamo Zagreb before returning to PSV. In my opinion not the best decision by the club - there are better players than Veerman for this kind of money.

[Deisler26]

Tilahun reminds me of when Stengs came back to AZ from Inter on my FM21 save and ripped up the Eredivisie

[Draakon]

September 2026

 

The month began with an international window. Few things to point out from this - Carlos Manuel Lopes earned his first cap for Holland. The youngster Aleksei Stolts that came through our youth ranks in March was selected for Estonia and made his debut, but managed to score in the second game for his country and so made his mark on international level. Well done.

We have five games in schedule for September. We start with a trip to Nijmegen and that should be relatively easy, but the next games look much tougher - two Champions League fixtures will be a serious test for us and the Topper derby against PSV Eindhoven between those continental games. If we come through this with good results we have done really well.

 

12.09.2026 - NEC Nijmegen - AFC Ajax 0:0 (ED) 

The newly-promoted NEC Nijmegen haven’t impressed so far and are still looking for their first win in Eredivisie. I don’t know too much about their team and took extra time to analyze them before the game - they don’t look too strong, but not too bad either and they’re focusing on the right aspects of the club and organization like finding good staff, for example. They’re predicted to finish 17th and haven’t been able to surprise pundits, but I wouldn’t count them out and they may as well find their ground and get higher in the table.

Our approach was usual - a positive 4-2-3-1 formation. I made a few changes to rotate the team - I had the upcoming Chelsea game in mind, too. Obviously we needed to replace our left-back and Cor Drommel got the nod. International window has left some players tired and Youri Regeer got a day off for that reason.

Squad: Dere, van der Sloot, Taylor, Lopes, Drommel, Regeer, Sangare-Aka, Barriere (69. Hansen), Karahasanovic (49. Fitz-Jim), Boer, Braspenning (69. Enem)

That game was a huge disappointment. NEC Nijmegen did exactly what a small team is supposed to do - they sat patiently in defense and waited for their chances. It didn’t come in the first half (they had no attempts before half-time), but at the same time we couldn’t create anything remotely dangerous either. Attacking creativity was lost and even more so than against Utrecht. We had some shots, but nothing too threatening and wasted our set pieces.

In the second half it started to happen for NEC. Their first good chance came in 52’ when Ole ter Haar Romeny got a long ball behind our defense. He searched the far post with his shot, but Gürcan Dere made a great save to tip it wide. We then left their defender Kars van Veldhoeven unmarked while defending a free kick and his header from far post struck our post and went wide. That was exactly what I was afraid of - a rare goal from NEC and we’d be struggling to equalize. We got our defense in order in the last 30 minutes, but our attack didn’t improve despite tactical changes. Sontje Hansen and Jay Enem joined from the bench, but couldn’t make the impact either, so - a frustrating goalless draw. The stat sheet looked flattering, but we weren’t really close to a goal in any situation.

• we had 62% possession
• our shooting was 22/9
• we made only 7 key passes in this game
• Player of the game: Ismael Sangare-Aka - just a decent performance in midfield, nothing special, but that was enough to get named as the player of the game

 

15.09.2026 - Chelsea - AFC Ajax 3:2 (Champions League Group A) - 21. and 26. Martin Dias, 29. Mikel Oyarzabal - 33. and 71. Jay Enem

To start our Champions League campaign we travelled to London - to play the most difficult game in this group on Stamford Bridge. A draw would count as success, but to achieve that we had to be very well organized and defend well. Unfortunately had to play without Carlos Manuel Lopes, who was suspended for the game. Julius Dirksen took his position in defense.

Squad: Dere, van der Sloot, Hillen, Dirksen, Douglas, Karahasanovic (86. Brown), Regeer, Hansen, Fitz-Jim, Boer, Enem

Chelsea was a little bit more attacking from the start and in 12’ they had their first clear cut chance - Benjamin Nygren was clear on goal, but Gürcan Dere made a great save to deny him. That save alone didn’t help us for long - Chelsea’s Martin Diaz headed in two goals from free kicks and we looked beaten. Soon, Mikel Oyarzabal added their third goal (he rose above Steven van der Sloot to win the header) and it was clear that we’re losing the war in the air. We clearly missed Lopes with his height and aerial ability and looked powerless in set pieces against the British school of football. It got slightly better after 30’ - Remy Boer had a good attempt on target and Jay Enem managed to score a goal to get us to 1:3 before  half-time. Sontje Hansen found him with an excellent defense-splitting pass and Enem finished with a top class strike. At half time we were 1:3 down, but it looked just a little bit unfair, because Chelsea’s goals came from a little bit out of nowhere. They didn’t create enough real chances to score three, but their individual skills were evident in several situations - they won headers, dribbled with the ball and passed well.

Chelsea had one good moment at the beginning of the second half when Oyarzabal headed over from a point blank range, but for the rest of the game we had a small initiative - Remy Boer almost broke through, but his good shot was brought away from the top corner by Kepa. We then scored the second goal - Boer delivered a cross and Enem provided the finish and for the last 20 minutes it was game on, but we couldn’t find an equalizer, although the hope was there, motivation was high and the players worked hard to get something out of this game. In the end we had to accept a narrow defeat from away game, but I feel that we played well and can keep our heads high. It wasn’t our night, it was a bad ten minutes in the first half, but we showed determination and spirit after that.

• Player of the game: Martin Diaz (Chelsea) - two set piece goals from the midfielder decided the game

 

19.09.2026 - FC Groningen - AFC Ajax 0:1 (ED) - 33. Kian Fitz-Jim

We didn’t play badly against Chelsea, but we can’t hide the fact that we’re without a win in our last three games and desperately need one to get back on track. Away game against FC Groningen is perhaps not the easiest one to win, though. We have our first team fit, but Youri Regeer looks tired after tough games and probably needs a rest so if we can give him a day off we might do that here.

FC Groningen have problems of their own - they replaced a lot of first team players in Summer, brought in 10 new players and no wonder that their form has been a little inconsistent. Their recent defeat against FC Eindhoven was unexpected and shows weakness, but their best striker Aron Schrijver is still a threat that needs to be recognized.

Squad: Dere, van der Sloot, Hillen, Lopes, Douglas, Karahasanovic, Sangare-Aka (60. Regeer), Hansen (72. Barriere), Fitz-Jim, Boer (73. Brown), Enem

FC Groningen are a difficult team to beat and there weren’t any clear goal scoring opportunities in the first half before in 31’ Sontje Hansen was tripped in the box. It was a seemingly innocent situation, but the penalty was awarded and we had a great chance to take charge of the game. Jay Enem stepped up to take the spot kick, but sent it wide of the post - a terrible miss from the striker. However, the team reacted in the right way to that miss and in the next attack we scored - Remy Boer crossed for Kian Fitz-Jim in the middle and his close range volley put us up with a goal. Late in the first half FC Groningen defender Nathan Grigorie had a half-chance to score an equalizer, but Gürcan Dere made a good save to parry it against the post and we went to half-time with a 1:0 lead. Should have been 2:0, I know, but at least we had a goal and that mattered the most.

FC Groningen switched to a positive 4-1-4-1 DM Wide in the second half and really good chances were more difficult to find. Remy Boer had to come off in 72’ with a pulled hamstring and that hampered our attack further - Kian Fitz-Jim moved to the left, Karahasanovic took the AMC role and Tim Brown came to midfield. FC Groningen started to take more risks and went with a 4-3-3 hail mary tactic. We were under real pressure from 75’ to 85’, but then countered it with a balanced formation, no gegenpress and counter-attacks and one of those counters almost led to a goal in 88’ - Alen Karahasanovic had a good look in the box, but his shot hit the post - that could have decided it, but the tension remained high until the final whistle. We held on to that win, though, and in the final ten minutes it looked like our balanced 4-2-3-1 worked well to counter that late-game all-in tactics that many AI managers use to save the game in the final ten minutes - might use it again in the future. A very good win from a difficult game.

• we had 63% possession in this game
• our shooting was 22/8 - not very accurate
• we managed to create 3 clear cut chances - pretty good, but our finishing wasn’t good enough
• we still made just 7 key passes in this game and that’s a sign of our problems in midfield
• Remy Boer will be out for 2 weeks with a pulled hamstring - that’s a blow
• Kian Fitz-Jim made his 100th league appearance for Ajax and celebrated that with a goal
• Player of the game: Rio Hillen - played a good game in defense and handled Aron Schrijver well

 

26.09.2026 - AFC Ajax - PSV Eindhoven 1:0 (ED) - 82. Philippe Barriere

The FC Groningen result gave us a little confidence and we needed that, because next in our schedule was the Topper Derby against PSV Eindhoven. It’s a home game for us and fans at Johan Cruijff Arena have always made a huge difference, so we’re taunted as favourites before the match. Two months ago we did beat PSV 3:0 and I hope we can put together a similar performance today.

We miss Remy Boer and (obviously) Anass Salah-Eddine for the game. It means that Kian Fitz-Jim starts on the left wing and Karahasanovic moves up to AMC position. PSV have injury problems in their attacking department - Robert Bozenik, Brian Brobbey and Eldridge Kuwas are all doubtful and need more time to recover from different traumas, so it’s the main challenge to their manager Ernest Faber and we’ll see if he’s risking it with somebody or goes to a safer option.

Squad: Dere, van der Sloot, Hillen (90. Taylor), Lopes, Douglas, Regeer, Sangare-Aka (74. Brown), Hansen (68. Barriere), Karahasanovic, Fitz-Jim, Enem

The fact is that PSV plays way too defensively in away games against us and that’s a blame to their manager. They did that mistake in the super cup game in July and now again - a cautious 4-1-4-1 DM formation gave all the midfield to us - we took control of the game and slowly started to find chances in the first half and while at first PSV defended well in open play, we had plenty of set pieces and those were always dangerous. Carlos Manuel Lopes powered a header on target from corner and PSV’s goalkeeper Aron van Lare made a good save to parry it. Jay Enem tested van Lare with a good attempt from the first touch and Sontje Hansen almost got to the target with his attempt in 30’. Lopes had the best chance of the first half in the following corner, but his header went against the post and Karahasanovic saw his opportunity being blocked by the arriving defender. The first half finished goalless, but it really should have been 1:0 or 2:0 or even more - we were so dominant in certain periods and kept PSV under real pressure. Aron van Lare had done an excellent job to keep them in this game so far.

PSV waited patiently for their chance though, and it came in the second half and from a set piece. An IFK found Jeremy Antonisse in our box and he was odds-on to score. This time it was Gürcan Dere who showed that he’s the best goalkeeper in the league and made a great save to deny him. With that danger averted, we continued to search for the winner and it finally came in 82’ - Kian Fitz-Jim delivered a cross and substitute Philippe Barriere rose above the defender to head it in from a close range. That goal was no less than we deserved and as it came so late in the game PSV had little time to find an equalizer. It remained 1:0 and the score marked another hard-fought win in September. Good result nevertheless - winning against PSV is never easy (nor granted) and I’m happy with that. Also it was our third consecutive game in the league without conceding; that’s a big improvement compared to August.

• we had 62% possession in this game
• our shooting was 24/12
• we had 17 corners and managed to create enough dangerous moments from them as well
• Steven van der Sloot and Carlos Manuel Lopes made their 100th appearance for Ajax
• Player of the game: Kian Fitz-Jim - always active in attack, played well on the left flank and delivered the assist in the end

 

30.09.2026 - AFC Ajax - SSC Napoli 1:1 (Champions League Group A) - 18. Kian Fitz-Jim - 59. Leon Bailey

It’s Wednesday and the end of September. We finish our month with another Champions League fixture and host Napoli at Johan Cruijff Arena. Our opponents look like a good team - my scout report points them out as our equal, with perhaps more depth in the outfield squad, but their clear weakness is the goalkeeper’s position. They won their first home game against Celtic (2:1) which is a good start, but not impressive, so we definitely have a shot here. Our physios couldn’t get Remy Boer back to full fitness for this game and that’s where we could need him a lot. I made one change in the line-up - Jay Enem has had two rather poor games in attack and Kik Braspenning will take his place.

Squad: Dere, van der Sloot, Hillen, Lopes, Douglas (77. Drommel), Regeer, Sangare-Aka, Hansen (67. Barriere), Karahasanovic, Fitz-Jim, Braspenning (46. Enem)

We started with a positive mentality and hoped to score the first goal. Kian Fitz-Jim managed to do just that in 18’ when he used the first half-chance that we created and got himself onto the score sheet. I switched to a balanced mentality after our goal and was really happy to see that it worked excellently. We contained Napoli well (they didn’t get any shots on target in the first half) and controlled things on the pitch, looking for the second goal. We managed to create two excellent chances at the end of the first half. Youri Regeer found Kik Braspenning on the run and the striker had time and space with the ball to finish it, but his attempt was brilliantly saved by the Napoli goalkeeper and that moment was blown. Thirty seconds later there was another clear cut chance, but this time it was blocked by a defender and we went to half-time with a 1:0 lead. I was pleased with Kian Fitz-Jim (he has scored important goals for us in recent games) and with the way we handled Napoli in the first half, but those two missed chances by Braspenning were unacceptable.

Braspenning looked nervous on the pitch and I decided to take him off at half-time. The cost of his missed chances got clear in 59’ - Steven van der Sloot made a small mistake on our right, missed his interception and allowed a cross. Leon Bailey moved well to get to the end of it and finished with an excellent strike to equalize the game. We went back to a positive mentality, but it didn’t give us too many opportunities to score the winner. Kian-Fitz-Jim cut in from the left in 75’, but his shot was too soft and landed in the hand of the goalkeeper. Gürcan Dere did well at the other end ten minutes later to save a clear cut chance from Napoli’s Edon Zhegova. It remained 1:1 and I was disappointed. We played well, but missed out on a win, because Braspenning let us down with his finishing. Selecting him to our starting line-up was a mistake, but that’s just post-match analysis that doesn’t make any difference. Sontje Hansen was another disappointment tonight. Those two can find themselves benched in the next games.

• we lost possession 43/57, but it didn’t show on number of chances
• Player of the game: Leon Bailey (SSC Napoli) - scored a great goal

 

Summary

We started slowly in September and dropped points against NEC. Win against Chelsea wasn’t really on the cards, but then we turned important games in the league our way and I’m happy with that. It looks like we’re not able to do enough to win those close Champions League wins - had a chance to take all three points against Napoli and wasted it. Without a single win it makes our standings in the group much more difficult.

My player of the month in September is Kian Fitz-Jim. He wasn’t in spectacular form, but scored important goals in important games, delivered an assist to Philippe Barriere late in the game that gave us the derby win over PSV Eindhoven and made a huge difference to fill in for Remy Boer.

 

Eredivisie

After winning important games in September we now have a six points lead in the table. AZ Alkmaar have collected just 10 points from their first 8 games and are down in the table, alongside sc Heerenveen (another good team from the last season who have underachieved now). Seeing Heracles and NAC Breda so high in the table is a big surprise and it’s interesting to see how long they can continue that good form.

[Draakon]

October 2026

 

Our Eredivisie schedule gets much easier - we have smaller teams coming up in our fixture list and the only difficult challenge would be Vitesse, but we have home advantage in this match, so that could work to our favour. NAC Breda could be tricky, too, because they’re overachieving and sitting in 4th position after September.

In the Champions League we travel to Glasgow - after the draw with Napoli we have two must win games against Celtic coming up. These two matches could decide if we have any hopes of qualification from this group or not.

 

04.10.2026 - AFC Ajax - FC Twente Enschede 5:0 (ED) - 11., 18. and 51. Carlos Manuel Lopes, 30. and 83. pen. Alen Karahasanovic

In the past three years FC Twente have been in the bottom third of the Eredivisie table and they show too little ambition to actually improve as a club. Yes, they’re building the new stadium that will replace Grolsch Veste in 2028, but they are keen to sell their first team players if a decent bid arrives and they rarely spend more than £1m on any new signing, so it’s hard to imagine their squad improving a lot in those circumstances. No wonder we’re clear favourites for this game.

I made several changes in the line-up. Cor Drommel will get a start in the left-back position (Terrence Douglas has done OK, but hasn’t impressed), Philippe Barriere replaces Sontje Hansen on the right wing (Hansen has been really poor in September) and Jay Enem returns to the line-up (not sure if Braspenning will get another chance in the league game in October). Remy Boer is back in full training and is available on the bench, if needed.

Squad: Dere, van der Sloot, Hillen, Lopes (60. Dirksen), Drommel, Regeer (56. Brown), Sangare-Aka, Barriere, Karahasanovic, Fitz-Jim, Enem (60. Claes)

FC Twente fell apart in the first half and it was all because of the set pieces. Before 20 minutes were played, Carlos Manuel Lopes had already scored two goals from corners and FC Twente looked in trouble. Alen Karahasanovic delivered both assists and scored the third goal himself, finishing his solo run from midfield with a powerful strike from 18 meters. That was game over - FC Twente looked so much in shambles that they couldn’t even take a single shot in the first period.

Lopes completed his hat-trick with another header from corner soon after the second half kick-off and I could make substitutions early in the game. Young striker Vincent Claes had a great chance in 69’, but that was parried by a brilliant save from the FC Twente goalkeeper. Karahasanovic added another goal from the spot after Barriere was tripped in the box and that wrapped things up - an emphatic 5:0 win for us, largely because of our strength from attacking set pieces, but a great result to start our October with.

• our shooting was 23/18 in this game
• we created 3 clear cut chances
• Player of the game: Carlos Manuel Lopes - you don’t see too often that the centre-back scores a hat-trick, that was just outstanding

 

18.10.2026 - NAC Breda - AFC Ajax 0:0 (ED)

Two weeks of international break is behind us and unfortunately it hasn’t passed without casualties. Remy Boer suffered another injury in training and pulled hamstring will delay his return to first team football. Young striker Vincent Claes is out for 2-3 months with a torn hamstring (that’s a serious one) and perhaps the one that affects us the most in the short term is Steven van der Sloot’s pulled knee ligaments. He will be sidelined for 2-3 weeks and we have some important games in that window.

In those circumstances we travelled to Breda. NAC have had a great start to their season - predicted to finish 16th, but at one point they found themselves in the 4th position and look like the team to beat for any other club. They destroyed Feyenoord 3:0 on that very same Rat Verlegh stadium that we’re heading to and we can’t take this game lightly - that’s for sure. Their trademark is pace - most of their outfield players have excellent (16 or above) pace and/or acceleration and we have to be aware of that risk to our defense. NAC loaned our young winger Tiago Silveira in Summer, but he’s still to make his debut for the club - I recently talked with the manager Said Bakkati about his game time and hopefully I can see him in action against us.

My squad selection is affected by injuries. I also need to take into account who is the most fit after international games and keep in mind that we have an important match against Celtic coming up in just three days. Kik Taylor will start in DR (not the best option, but what can I do) and Cor Drommel keeps his place in the left defense. I’d like to give Youri Regeer and Carlos Manuel Lopes a day off, if possible, so they start on the bench.

Squad: Dere, Taylor, Hillen, Dirksen (68. Lopes), Drommel, Brown, Sangare-Aka, Barriere (60. Hansen), Karahasanovic, Fitz-Jim, Enem (68. Braspenning)

NAC Breda had the best chance of the game in 24’ - their striker Arie Tol received a long ball behind our defensive line and went one-on-one against Gürcan Dere, but our goalkeeper made a great save and kept our clean sheet. I was disappointed to see that NAC had better chances in the first half and we were not able to create anything. In addition to that, we looked vulnerable when defending set pieces and it looked like it could have been much worse for us.

The second half was equally disappointing - we handled things better in defense, but our chances were still missing in attack and in the end it remained 0:0. A drab match - motivation was there from the players, but ideas were missing from the bench and that was that.

• our shooting was 21/7 - 12 shots from outside of the box
• we didn’t create any real chances in those 90 minutes
• we made just 4 key passes - that must be all time low for us in the league
• Player of the game: Django Warmerdam (NAC Breda) - good game from their midfielder

 

21.10.2026 - Celtic Glasgow - AFC Ajax 0:0 (Champions League Group A)

Our third game in the Champions League. Celtic have lost their first two matches and we need a win here, but a sensible approach might be the way to go - I chose a balanced 4-2-3-1 formation for the away game. Our first team players were adequately rested, Remy Boer is fully fit again and he returns to the starting line-up and Kik Taylor continues to fill the right-back position. Celtic has tried some unorthodox formations in their games (like 4-2-3-1 narrow), but let’s see what they try against us.

Squad: Dere, Taylor, Hillen, Lopes, Douglas, Regeer, Sangare-Aka, Hansen (77. Barriere), Fitz-Jim, Boer (63. Karahasanovic), Enem (77. Braspenning)

Our best chance of the match came in 16’ - we had a free kick and delivery got to Carlos Manuel Lopes in the box. The centre-back saw his shot being blocked, before Sontje Hansen got control over the ball, but couldn’t get his attempt through the bodies in the six yard box. The rest of the first half was fairly even in football terms and neither of the teams were willing to take more risks than necessary.

I felt that we needed to win this game if we wanted to keep our hopes alive in this competition, so we switched to a positive 4-2-3-1 + gegenpress for the second half. That didn’t make too much of a difference. Sontje Hansen had two half-chances in the second period, but we couldn’t create any more opportunities and it remained goalless until the final whistle. Fair result, because neither of the teams did enough to win this, but I’m disappointed that we’ve just collected two points from our first three games - it’s getting increasingly difficult to catch Napoli and Chelsea like that.

• we made just 7 key passes in this game
• our shooting was 14/5 - not enough shots on target
• we didn’t allow Celtic any real goal scoring chances - good game defensively
• Player of the game: Carlos Manuel Lopes - very solid in defense and won important headers

 

24.10.2026 - AFC Ajax - Vitesse Arnhem 2:0 (ED) - 52. Philippe Barriere, 86. Jay Enem

Back to Eredivisie and we host perhaps the strongest team that we face in October. Vitesse has been there or thereabouts, challenging for the place in the top three - but failed by just a little bit so far. Their link with Chelsea gives them access to several talented youngsters to loan and so their quality is at the same level with Feyenoord and PSV, but the fact that they’ve replaced around ten players in their squad in Summer means that teamwork and consistency needed to be found again. They’re notoriously strong at home, but at Johan Cruijff Arena we’re still the favourites for this game.

We still miss Steven van der Sloot, Renato Molnar and Vincent Claes due to injury and Kik Braspenning had minor problems with fitness coming into this game. As a result I don’t have many options for changes in our starting line-up. Sontje Hansen had another miserable performance against Celtic and he will be replaced by Philippe Barriere.

Squad: Dere, Taylor, Hillen, Lopes, Douglas, Regeer, Sangare-Aka (87. Brown), Barriere (82. Hansen), Fitz-Jim (71. Karahasanovic), Boer, Enem

Vitesse had the best chances in the first half - their winger Elliott Boyce found plenty of space in the box early in the game, but sent his shot wide of the far post. Jerry Schouten headed inches wide of the post from a set piece. The first half finished without goals, but we had nothing to be satisfied with - couldn’t create a single decent chance and it looked like Vitesse’s goal was just a matter of time. I changed our tactics to a balanced mentality, without counter-press and counter-attacking, because that looked like the way we could find some space behind a very well organized Vitesse defense.

In the second half it brought results - Philippe Barriere found just a little room in the box and fired in from 10 meters. Vitesse started to look for an equalizer and they did create some chances, indeed. Their best striker Giorgio Addessi (who was leading the Eredivisie goal scoring table at this point) took a good attempt on target, only to be stopped by a good save from Gürcan Dere. Addessi had a clear cut chance from close range in 70’, but Lopes was there with a strong block and removed the danger. Aarion Bastiaans had a half-chance from a corner, but blasted it over. Vitesse looked like a much better team and we were just holding on to our lead, but then our counter-attacks finally paid dividends - Sontje Hansen took the ball into the box, got a good shot on target. It was parried by Timon Wellenreuther, but Jay Enem was there to finish from the rebound and that second goal clinched the result. Good win in a really tough game - Vitesse had better chances in the second half, but we managed to keep our clean sheet. Perhaps we didn’t deserve to win by two goals, but that’s football.

• again we only made 8 key passes in this game - no wonder we can’t find chances
• Player of the game: Kik Taylor - played well in defense, worked hard to stop Elliott Boyce on our right and gave assist to Barriere’s goal

 

27.10.2026 - AFC Ajax - UNA 5:0 (TOTO KNVB Beker 1st round) - 7. pen. Alen Karahasanovic, 15. and 79. Philippe Barriere, 41. Kik Braspenning, 58. Kian Fitz-Jim

The easiest match in October against an amateur side. We have serious problems in DR position - with van der Sloot and Renato Molnar injured, Kik Taylor also suffered a minor knock in the Vitesse game and so I called up Thomas van der Meulen from Jong Ajax to play the right-back in this cup game. Otherwise it was pretty usual rotation - substitutions and youngsters had their chance to impress.

Squad: van den Heuvel, van der Meulen, Hillen, Dirksen, Drommel, Brown (46. Smit), Sangare-Aka, Barriere, Karahasanovic (46. Andrew), Fitz-Jim, Braspenning

Well, it was easy as expected. After the first 15 minutes we were up 2:0 - an early penalty and Barriere’s powerful header led the way and we never looked in trouble after that. Kik Braspenning had two great goal scoring chances at the end of the first half - he scored from the first opportunity (a lovely long ball from Julius Dirksen to release him) and wasted the second one, but at the half-time we were leading 3:0 and looking confident.

Daan Smit and Dino Andrew came on for the second half, but that didn’t slow us down. Kian Fitz-Jim had a great game - he added our fourth goal with a fabulous strike into the top corner from 22 meters, before delivering a free kick to assist our fifth (another good header from Barriere). Dino Andrew was unlucky to see his long distance effort hit the woodwork, but generally I was pleased with what I saw in him. The final result was pretty much what I expected from the game - scoring goals gives some confidence back before our next games.

• our shooting was 40/24
• our average rating was 8.27
• we created 3 clear cut chances in this game
• Thomas van der Meulen made his debut for Ajax in this game
• Player of the game: Philippe Barriere - did extremely well to score two goals and earn a penalty in the first half

 

31.10.2026 - AFC Ajax - FC Eindhoven 5:0 (ED) - 25. and 41. Philippe Barriere, 34. pen. Youri Regeer, 45.+2 Jay Enem, 83. Sontje Hansen

We finish October against FC Eindhoven - another minnows in the league. They’ve retained their position in Eredivisie for the past three seasons, but this time it’s surely the relegation battle for them. Their squad is nowhere near to be good enough and they have injuries to make things worse. No wonder that their form has been poor and they’ve gone the last five games without a win, so I’m very confident ahead of this home game.

Playing against such a small team allows me to play with the starting line-up and rotate a little. Dani van den Heuvel will have one more game in goal. Steven van der Sloot and Renato Molnar are starting to get fit again after their injuries, but I don’t need to rush them back and Philippe Barriere will start on the right wing.

Squad: van den Heuvel, Taylor, Hillen, Dirksen, Drommel, Regeer (73. Brown), Sangare-Aka, Barriere (69. Hansen), Karahasanovic, Fitz-Jim, Enem (57. Braspenning)

Our attack in the first half wasn’t as impressive as I expected - we had enough attempts on target, but not too many really good chances. Despite that we had an impressive 4:0 lead at half-time. Philippe Barriere scored twice with headers, Youri Regeer converted the penalty and Jay Enem added another goal with a good finish after Karahasanovic found him with a lovely through ball. I felt that we could have played a lot better and created more chances, but I can’t complain about the result and number of goals, though.

The second half was more relaxed. Kik Taylor came off with an injury after a brave tackle in 81’ and we were left with 10 men. Despite that Sontje Hansen scored our fifth goal with a fine strike that was driven low into the far post and that was it. FC Eindhoven got two decent opportunities to score a consolation goal, but Dani van den Heuvel did well to stop those attempts and the final score was pretty impressive 5:0. Excellent result and I was happy with that game.

• our shooting was 26/12
• we had 8.11 average rating
• we created 3 clear cut chances in this game
• FC Eindhoven committed 27 fouls
• Kik Taylor suffered an injury after a brave challenge and he’ll be out for 6-7 weeks with torn wrist ligaments - really unusual trauma for a footballer
• Player of the game: Philippe Barriere - another great game from the winger - 2 goals, 9 dribbles and always made himself available in the box

 

Summary

Mixed results in October, but what stands out is our defense - we have conceded clear cut chances, but didn’t concede a single goal this month and that’s really impressive. On the other hand, our attacking creativity was lost against NAC Breda and Celtic and our win over Vitesse wasn’t perhaps really deserved. We started and finished the month strong and we go to November with high confidence as a result.

Injuries have started to creep in and the right-back position is the most affected by them. Kik Taylor held the fort while Steven van der Sloot and Renato Molnar were out, but is now sidelined as well, so the problems will continue into November. Taylor earned a new contract with his performances and will now earn £10,000 p/w until 2031 - a good deal to the club, because he’s a considerable talent.

Our Eredivisie campaign has gone smoothly, but two draws in the Champions League leaves our qualification chances just theoretical. We’ll take one game at a time in November, but it’s clear that we need to win at least two games if we want to retain any chances.

Our player of the month in October is Carlos Manuel Lopes - he had a fantastic hat-trick against FC Twente and was our defensive rock in tough games with Celtic and Vitesse.

 

Eredivisie

We have a good lead in the table. Feyenoord have dropped several places and now PSV Eindhoven and FC Utrecht are the closest challengers to us. The relegation battle has become much more tight at the bottom of the table - everything is still open there.

[Draakon]

November 2026

 

We have five games in November - before the international break we host Celtic and travel to De Kuip for the Klassieker Derby, and after the international window we will have a tough home game with Chelsea. The PEC Zwolle match is the one we’re clear favourites for.

 

03.11.2026 - AFC Ajax - Celtic Glasgow 2:0 (Champions League Group A) - 23. Ismael Sangare-Aka, 59. Remy Boer

A must win game for us, but the right-back problem is at its worst before the game. Kik Taylor is out and Steven van der Sloot is not yet fully fit, so I have virtually nobody in the squad to fill this role. The best option is Cor Drommel who is a left-back, but because he’s comfortable with both feet he might do OK on the right as well (at least his height and jumping ability could be handy when defending set pieces). I’d consider us favourites because we have home advantage, but with the situation in DR position it’s a wild guess how this game will go.

Squad: Dere, Drommel, Hillen, Lopes, Douglas, Regeer (73. Brown), Sangare-Aka, Barriere (73. Hansen), Fitz-Jim (67. Karahasanovic), Boer, Braspenning

Celtic started with a very defensive 4-4-1-1 formation and in the first half it looked like their tactics worked fine for them. It was difficult to find open space in attack and the positioning and strength of opposition defenders didn’t allow us any scoring opportunities. But if you’re too defensive, the goals can still come out of set pieces and some individual moments and Ismael Sangare-Aka provided one of those moments in 23’. His brilliant shot from 22 meters was just too good for Celtic goalkeeper to save and we had the lead at half-time.

In the second half the Celtic defense started to show some cracks in it. A lovely combination from our midfielders released Philippe Barriere in the box, but the winger saw his shot being turned away by the Celtic goalkeeper. However, Remy Boer doubled our lead from the following corner and we had full control over the game from there. Jay Enem and Sontje Hansen wasted their half-chances and Carlos Manuel Lopes powered a header on target from an IFK. We couldn’t add more goals, but we didn’t need to - 2:0 was exactly what we were after and that’s at least one good win in the bag.

• our shooting was 36/17 - looks impressive, but 10 attempts came from distance, as the box was often just too full of bodies
• we didn’t give Celtic any real chances in this game
• Player of the game: Ismael Sangare-Aka - brilliant goal from the midfielder

 

08.11.2026 - Feyenoord Rotterdam - AFC Ajax 2:2 (ED) - 64. Milan van der Riet, 90.+1 Cheick Toure - 5. and 53. Kian Fitz-Jim

We come to the derby on Saturday after a Champions League fixture on Tuesday. Feyenoord played their Europa Conference League match on Thursday, so the opponent’s legs look more tired than ours. Feyenoord sold a large part of their first team in Summer transfer window (£70m worth of transfer) and brought in a few replacements, but they are definitely weakened as a result and find themselves in 8th position in the table. They have several talented youngsters in the squad who don’t get enough chances to play to really develop, so it’s difficult to figure out what their long term plan is.

We’re favourites for the derby and hope to capitalize that with a win. I continue with my positive 4-2-3-1 tactics despite the fact that it’s Feyenoord and we’re at De Kuip. The best news - Steven van der Sloot is fully fit and back in the right-back position.

Squad: Dere, van der Sloot, Hillen, Lopes, Douglas, Regeer, Sangare-Aka (60. Brown), Barriere (76. Hansen), Fitz-Jim (85. Karahasanovic), Boer, Enem

We were off to a flyer after just five minutes. Philippe Barriere crossed for Kian Fitz-Jim and the attacking midfielder finished with a clinical volley. Barriere had a clear cut chance of his own a few minutes later, but this attempt was tipped wide by the goalkeeper and then Jay Enem got a close range header on target. We looked on fire in the first fifteen minutes, before Feyenoord got a decent grip on the game and there were more good chances towards the end of the first half - Remy Boer had a good shot on target and Philippe Barriere made an impressive solo run into the Feyenoord box, only to see his finishing let him down once again. We were leading 1:0 at half-time, but deserved to have two or three goals - I was very happy with what I had seen so far. Feyenoord’s defense looked disorganized and we constantly found space between their lines.

At half-time they had a moment to regroup and so they came out of the dressing room with better focus and motivation. We gave away the first clear cut chance in 51’ when Ferdy Druijf headed towards our goal from a point blank range. Fortunately, that one came off the crossbar and was then cleared by Rio Hillen. Two minutes later we were on the counter-attack and even though Boer’s first attempt was saved off the line, Kian Fitz-Jim was there to mop it up and double his tally. Two goal lead looked like an early win already, and we looked confident enough, but Feyenoord wasn’t willing to give up. In 63’ Terrence Douglas completely missed the run by Cheick Toure and Gürcan Dere made a great save to rescue another one-on-one. Unfortunately he had to pick the ball out of his net just a minute later - another wide open space on our left allowed the cross in and Milan van de Riet headed it in from eight meters. Serious questions about Terrence Douglas’ positioning in those situations. For the final ten minutes Feyenoord switched to an attacking 4-3-3 and we countered it with a balanced 4-2-3-1 + counter-attacks. Feyenoord was willing to take risks and the gamble paid off late in injury time - Cheick Toure found the target with a powerful header - didn’t look too dangerous at first and was some way away from the goal, but the header itself was just too good and Gürcan Dere couldn’t get his hand to it. It finished 2:2 and I was extremely disappointed to let it slip away in the final 30 minutes. We should have buried it in the first half, but didn’t and then allowed Feyenoord back into this game. Our defensive organization fell apart in the second half and we were punished for it. Terrence Douglas looked disappointed with himself and so did Barriere - he knew that he missed two big chances in the first half.

• our shooting was 15/10 in this game
• we created 3 clear cut chances and that’s pretty good against Feyenoord at De Kuip
• Player of the game: Kian Fitz-Jim - his brace put us in control of the game

 

22.11.2026 - AFC Ajax - PEC Zwolle 4:1 (ED) - 4. Julius Dirksen, 43. pen. Youri Regeer, 45.+2 and 81. Sontje Hansen - 21. Furgill Kisoor

The international window has passed and we’re back to Eredivisie action. In just three days we will host Chelsea, so getting the newly-promoted PEC Zwolle right before them helps us a lot - we can rotate and I still expect us to win comfortably. Zwolle haven’t put together a good enough squad to actually retain their place in the top division, but despite their last position in the table they’re not too far away from safety either, so anything can happen if they improve their form. We have won our last 11 games against them, though, and I expect it to continue.

The squad selection is a tough choice for this one. We have some players (van der Sloot, Sangare-Aka) who are tired and need some rest after international games and all of the travelling, then some injuries to deal with - Terrence Douglas had food poisoning, Alen Karahasanovic has to skip this one because of blisters. The right-back position is still a problem and I’d like to keep our best players fresh for the Chelsea game.

Squad: van den Heuvel, van der Sloot (51. Lopes), Hillen, Dirksen, Drommel, Brown (61. Smit), Regeer, Hansen, Fitz-Jim (61. Andrew), Boer, Enem

We started well and after just four minutes we took the lead - Julius Dirksen headed in from a corner to score his first ever league goal for the club. I knew that we would get plenty of attacking set pieces in this game and to score early from one of those was a good omen. We continued to dominate the midfield, but allowed Zwolle to equalize after 21’ of football - their young striker Furgill Kisoor received a long forward pass and just beat our defenders with pace. With only Dani van den Heuvel to beat, he looked calm and composed with a finish to the far post. That equalizer was certainly frustrating and for the next 20 minutes we worked hard to find another goal. Set pieces were our most dangerous moments - both Hillen and Dirksen got some dangerous headers on target. One free kick even found Rio Hillen completely open in the box, but the centre-back saw his shot being tipped wide by a great save from the Zwolle goalkeeper. Zwolle clearly struggled to cope with our set pieces defensively and they finally made a mistake - Dirksen was pushed in the box and Youri Regeer gave us the lead from the spot. Sontje Hansen added another goal deep in injury time and we went to half-time with a solid 3:1 lead. To be fair to Zwolle - they were under pressure for most of the first half and that they finally buckled under it before the half-time whistle was a clear result of that.

It was much more relaxed for us in the second half - I made substitutions and gave playing time to youngsters. Dino Andrew almost got on target with his attempt in 73’, but it clipped the post and went wide. Sontje Hansen doubled his tally with a lovely effort in 81’ and had a chance to complete his hat-trick two minutes later, but that didn’t happen. The final score 4:1 looked impressive enough, so in the end I was satisfied with the performance and result.

• we had 64% possession in this game
• our shooting was 29/15
• we created 3 clear cut chances and gave 20 key passes - finally some good creativity
• PEC Zwolle players committed 28 fouls and that highlighted their problems when defending set pieces
• Julius Dirksen scored his first career league goal for Ajax
• Daan Smit and Dino Andrew made their league debuts for the club
• Player of the game: Sontje Hansen - an outstanding game from the winger and two goals to his name tonight

 

25.11.2026 - AFC Ajax - Chelsea 2:1 (Champions League Group A) - 8. Kik Braspenning, 65. pen. Youri Regeer - 70. pen. Mason Mount

The task is simple, but extremely difficult - to beat Chelsea at Johan Cruijff Arena. Because we lost the first match at Stamford Bridge, we need to win this one here, but those two goals that Jay Enem scored in the away game might come handy now. If we manage to win this one, we might have a shot at qualification. Because we need to win and score goals, we have to be somewhat more attacking tactically, so we start with our usual 4-2-3-1 positive formation, but without counter-press.

We have some injuries remaining - Kik Taylor and Alen Karahasanovic will miss this one. Anass Salah-Eddine and Vincent Claes are out with long term problems, but the rest of the squad is fit and ready.

Squad: Dere, van der Sloot, Hillen, Lopes, Douglas, Regeer, Sangare-Aka, Hansen (84. Barriere), Fitz-Jim, Boer, Braspenning (73. Enem)

I say that we started with a positive 4-2-3-1 formation, but the reality check hit us in the first two minutes - Chelsea’s Mikel Oyarzabal won an aerial duel against van der Sloot and his header from a point blank range hit the crossbar, so I chickened out after that and switched to a balanced mentality. Not sure if that made a difference or not, but the next two chances fell for us - at first Ismael Sangare-Aka delivered a good ball to Kian Fitz-Jim, but the midfielder didn’t strike it cleanly and his shot was easily held by Kepa. It was a different story two minutes later, though - Remy Boer’s cross surprised Kepa a little and he had difficulties to keep it away from the goal. The ball bounced on the line and Kik Braspenning was the first to get there - easy finish and we were leading 1:0! The balanced formation definitely kept our defense in order and we limited Chelsea chances in the first half. Their best opportunity came right before the half-time whistle when Benjamin Nygren found some space behind our line - Gürcan Dere madea great save to keep our clean sheet and we had the lead at half-time. So, both teams had two big chances in the first half, but our finishing was just a little bit better and that gave us the edge before the second half.

Chelsea came out swinging after the break and they put us under real pressure. Martin Diaz headed against the crossbar. Mikel Oyarzabal and Oliver Anderson had half-chances and it looked like the equalizer was just a matter of time. We were helped by the fact that Chelsea players were partly motivated, but anxious at the same time so the quality of finishing was worse than expected. And that nervousness was evident when Kian Fitz-Jim took the ball into the box and was tripped by a defender. Your Regeer converted from the spot and gave us a two goal lead, but we soon conceded a penalty of our own. Steven van der Sloot made an unnecessary foul on Julian Brandt and substitute Mason Mount converted from the spot. In the final ten minutes Chelsea’s pressure was huge. In 87’ Pierre-Alexis Poirot was open in our six yard box, but Gürcan Dere made a huge save to parry it. Barriere blocked Frenkie de Jong’s attempt and Mount’s volley was tipped over by Gürcan Dere. Remy Boer had a rare moment on a counter in injury time, but he only hit the post twice and couldn’t finish it, but then the final whistle was called and it was over. We had taken a huge win! To beat Chelsea in a game like that was a great proof of character from us and I was delighted with the team. It was a wild game that could have gone either way, but we scraped it and kept our chances alive. Our 2:1 home win next to a 2:3 defeat from the away game means that we have an advantage over Chelsea on aggregate.

• we created 3 clear cut chances, but conceded 4 ccc-s at the same time
• Player of the game: Carlos Soares (Chelsea)

 

29.11.2026 - AFC Ajax - sc Heerenveen 2:0 (ED) - 35. Daley Sinkgraven (og), 37. Remy Boer

We’ve done pretty well in November so far and want to finish this month strong. For the last game we will host sc Heerenveen - the club that has been firmly in the top half of the table in the past, but find themselves in 12th position at the moment and they travel to Johan Cruijff Arena with two straight defeats under their belt from previous fixtures. The main reason for this poor performance lies in their Summer transfer window - they allowed their best winger Tahith Chong to leave to Norwich City - the money was good, but the replacements they signed have failed to make a good impression or have not got a decent chance so far and we’re already in November. It’s pretty difficult to understand what their manager Ruud Kaiser is trying to achieve, but if they fail to pick up some wins soon it might be too late for him.

We have high confidence after beating Chelsea. Also, Alen Karahasanovic is back in full training and we have a little more attacking options. Kik Braspenning scored against Chelsea, but hurt himself in training after that and he’ll be out for a couple of weeks. Jay Enem will take his place.

Squad: Dere, van der Sloot (74. Molnar), Hillen, Lopes, Drommel, Regeer (65. Brown), Sangare-Aka, Barriere (59. Hansen), Fitz-Jim, Boer, Enem

It was a fairly quiet first half until 35’. We had a free kick then - Fitz-Jim delivered it to the far post, Carlos Manuel Lopes headed it across the goalmouth and sc Heerenveen’s Daley Sinkgraven was unable to clear it off the line and put it into his own goal. Two minute later Remy Boer doubled our lead - his first touch to take the ball down in the box was just world class and the following finish, after he let the ball drop, was exceptional as well - lovely goal from the winger. Philippe Barriere had a great chance to extend our lead further, but that time the Heerenveen goalkeeper made a great save to deny him. We went to half-time with a solid 2:0 lead and it was a deserved one. sc Heerenveen did little to put us under pressure and we looked comfortable enough on the pitch.

The second half continued in the same fashion - we never looked in trouble and sc Heerenveen weren’t willing to take more risks with their tactics. Jay Enem had good opportunities in the second period - his attempt from one-on-one hit the post in 51’ and his close range header from a corner rattled the crossbar. A little bit unlucky, but a striker should finish those chances better. Nevertheless - a solid win and a clean sheet. I’m pleased.

• Rio Hillen made his 100th appearance for Ajax in this game
• Kian Fitz-Jim made his 200th appearance for Ajax in this game
• young right-back Renato Molnar made his league debut in the second half
• Player of the game: Remy Boer - a lovely goal from the winger

 

Summary

It’s been a pretty good month for us. Conceding a late equalizer in the Klassieker derby was our only regret, but the win over Chelsea and good results elsewhere show that we’re in good form at the moment and I want to continue it further.

The player of the month is Remy Boer - he scored two important goals (against Celtic and Heerenveen), gave assist to Braspenning’s goal against Chelsea and played the key role in big games in November.

 

Eredivisie

Our good run has extended our lead over PSV Eindhoven to six points. Vitesse is already further down. Feyenoord continues to struggle in the middle of the table (they rescued a point against us, but the defeat from VVV Venlo didn’t help) and AZ Alkmaar have continued their long streak without a win - defeats are mixed with draws, but their last win in Eredivisie came in August (sic!). Roberto Mancini’s position is seriously threatened and one poor result in December could be enough to get the sack.

[Draakon]

December 2026

 

It’s a difficult schedule - we have seven games in three weeks, so pretty much two games per week until Christmas. The most important fixture is without a doubt our Champions League match against Napoli. No big derbies coming up in the league, but some tricky away fixtures against mid-table sides.

 

02.12.2026 - VVV Venlo - AFC Ajax 0:2 (ED) - 5. Steven van der Sloot, 41. pen. Youri Regeer

That’s a tricky one. VVV Venlo surprised everyone two seasons ago with their third place finish. The following year was difficult for them, partly because they had to adjust playing both in domestic and continental competitions, so they dropped back to the middle of the table, but now they can concentrate to Eredivisie again and are back up there - in the 5th place when almost half of the season has been played. Their manager has worked miracles with them and their current form (five straight wins, including away over Heerenveen and defeating Feyenoord 2:1 at home) is a clear warning sign for us - this trip to the sold out Covebo Stadion is not going to be walk in the park. One wise move by VVV in the Summer transfer window was signing of Quincy Promes - our long-serving winger has scored five goals for them and added leadership and experience to their game.

Squad: Dere, van der Sloot, Hillen (70. Dirksen), Lopes, Douglas, Regeer (74. Brown), Sangare-Aka, Hansen, Fitz-Jim (63. Karahasanovic), Boer, Enem

We scored a flyer just five minutes after the kick-off. Steven van der Sloot timed his run into the box perfectly and Hansen found him with a pass. Then the right-back scored with an outstanding finish into the far post - the VVV goalkeeper was helpless to stop it and so, seemingly easy, we had the lead. After that the game was fairly even - good chances seemed more difficult to find and VVV had some moments of their own. Our opponents continued with a positive 4-2-3-1 formation, showing that they’re not afraid of us and are willing to take risks in the home game, if that’s necessary to get points against Eredivisie giants. After a hard-fought first half we had a penalty - Remy Boer was tripped in the box by Lennard Hartjes - and Youri Regeer converted it with confidence. VVV goalkeeper Michael Verrips guessed it correctly, but Regeer’s shot was just too good to be stopped. VVV had their best chance of the game in the end of the first half - in injury time Cailin Knock had way too much space - he left van der Sloot behind and went one-on-one against Gürcan Dere, but our goalkeeper did well to parry this shot wide and lead us to half-time with a solid 2:0 lead.

It continued to be a battle in the second half, but we did slightly better defensively and limited VVV’s chances (perhaps because I switched to a balanced mentality after half-time). Sontje Hansen had our best chance in 76’ - Remy Boer found him with a lovely ball and Hansen just needed to finish his opportunity, but he couldn’t beat Verrips (who had a good game despite those two conceded goals). The final score 2:0 looked solid enough, but in truth it was much more difficult for us - that was a hard-fought 2:0 from start to finish and VVV played well. I expect them to finish in the top six if they continue like that in the second half of the season.

• our shooting was 24/11 in this game
• we’re now unbeaten in 15 games - let’s see how long this run continues
• Player of the game: Steven van der Sloot - scored an outstanding goal and worked hard in defense to stop Cailin Knock on our right wing, made two key tackles in the process

 

05.12.2026 - ADO Den Haag - AFC Ajax 0:3 (ED) - 7. Carlos Manuel Lopes, 26. Julius Dirksen, 90.+1 Jay Enem

Our schedule is difficult in the beginning of December. Our most important match of the month against Napoli is just in three days and so the away game against ADO Den Haag is the one where we need to rotate to keep our legs fresh for the midweek game.

Our opponents suffered relegation two seasons ago, but bounced back and won the Eerste Divisie in the last season. They’re one of the three promoted clubs that are actually expected to stay in the league. Pundits predicted them to finish 13th in pre-season analysis, but at least so far ADO have exceeded expectations and find themselves in 7th position. As a result I don’t expect anything easy from this away game at Cars Jeans stadion, but as I said - I need to rotate and some of the decisions about the starting line-up are made thinking about the Napoli game. We still have some injury problems (Kik Taylor, Kik Braspenning and Vincent Claes are in light training, but not yet fit) and Rio Hillen is suspended after collecting five bookings.

Squad: Dere, van der Sloot (65. Molnar), Dirksen, Lopes, Drommel, Brown, Regeer (64. Sangare-Aka), Barriere, Karahasanovic, Fitz-Jim (74. Boer), Enem

We have practiced set pieces in extra sessions throughout the season and it really paid off in the first half. Lopes headed in from a corner after just 7 minutes and Julius Dirksen scored with another header from IFK in 26’. We didn’t have to create too many chances, but found ourselves 2:0 ahead after 30 minutes of football. ADO didn’t give up, though - their striker Jay-Roy Grot found himself one-on-one with Gürcan Dere after a good combination from our right wing, but our goalkeeper was up to the task and stopped him with a fine save. Jay Enem wasted one clear cut chance in the first half as well, so in terms of chances it was fairly even, but we had a solid lead at half-time.

ADO pushed forward in search of goals in the second half. The weather turned to rain after half-time and it predicted a physical battle for the second period, but our defense looked exceptionally good. We parried all ADO attacks, won key headers in our box, blocked shots and didn’t give any space. In turn we found plenty of space in attack and Jay Enem offered several runs behind the defensive line. Youri Regeer and Kian Fitz-Jim found him with passes there, but Enem couldn’t finish his clear cut chances. He finally got the goal in injury time - another counter-attack and a pass from substitute Remy Boer gave him time and space in the box. This time he eventually scored and capped his miserable game with a goal, at least. Meanwhile, ADO attacks didn’t give them any real chances in the second half and so the final result indicated our comfortable 3:0 win.

• we had 62% possession in this game
• our shooting was 18/12
• we created 4 clear cut chances
• Philippe Barriere made his 100th appearance for Ajax
• Player of the game: Julius Dirksen - a good goal and was exceptional defensively

 

We have now played 17 games in this season in Eredivisie and collected 42 points - on course to secure another title.

 

08.12.2026 - SSC Napoli - AFC Ajax 1:1 (Champions League Group A) - 62. Gianluca Gaetano - 26. Remy Boer

We arrived in Italy just three days later. In fact we haven’t had much chance to train in the past week because of the matches and all the travelling. San Paolo stadium with its almost 77 000 crowd waited for us - Napoli had suffered a 0:2 defeat from Bologna in that stadium just a couple of days earlier and I wasn’t sure if it would help us in this game or not. What might help us is the fact that after collecting 10 points from their first four games and securing the place in the knockout stages Napoli looked like they’ve taken their foot off the pedal and lost 0:2 to Celtic in the away game. Let’s see if they continue to be so generous here in Italy. But first - the odds. We need a draw from this away game. A win would help us past Napoli and we’d be the group winners, but a draw would be good enough to keep Chelsea behind us. If we lose, we need Celtic to help us out, but I don’t expect them to get any points from Stamford Bridge and everything is still in our own hands, so let’s not think about that too much.

We have our usual first eleven ready for this game. Carlos Manuel Lopes looks a little bit tired, but hopefully lasts through the game and the fact that I could at least give some part of the game off for most of the first half players means that we are on a decent level of fitness. Kik Braspenning is almost fit and he’s available on the bench if we need him - that’s good news.

Squad: Dere, van der Sloot, Hillen, Lopes, Douglas, Regeer, Sangare-Aka, Hansen (58. Barriere), Fitz-Jim (77. Karahasanovic), Boer, Enem

It looked like a fairly even game in the first 20 minutes or so. Neither of the teams could create good enough chances, but our right wing looked way too vulnerable - Steven van der Sloot has proved to be a liability over and over in the Champions League games - he has way more attacking qualities and he struggles against top class wingers and that was evident again as he allowed his opponent into the box too easily and twice those moves finished with a good attempt on target. However, in 26’ we took the lead and it was a moment of individual brilliance from Remy Boer that put us in control. The winger took the ball from midfield and started his 40m run into the box - it looked like he caught the whole Napoli defense napping and ended up alone in the area. His finish from the one-on-one situation was just world class and the Napoli goalkeeper had no way to save it - a wonderful goal and now we had a decent cushion in this game. We had another opportunity to score in 38’ when both Jay Enem and Sontje Hansen saw their attempts being blocked and so we went to the half-time break in a confident mood - we had shown that we can break Napoli’s defense down and had put ourselves into a strong position.

We couldn’t hold on to that lead too long in the second half. In 62’ Napoli built up from the right exposed Steven van der Sloot again, the cross came in and Gianluca Gaetano received it near the penalty spot. His shot went in right next to the post and Gürcan Dere couldn’t get there. The last 20 minutes were getting rather nervous for us. I sent in Alen Karahasanovic and he instantly made an impact in attack. His fine pass found Philippe Barriere in the area with plenty of time to finish, but the winger hit the post. That was an absolute sitter and the opportunity one just can’t afford to miss. Napoli switched to 3-4-3 in the final ten minutes and pressure on our goal increased, but at the same time we started to find opportunities as well. Jay Enem had a great chance to finish it in 89’, but he blasted it straight at the goalkeeper and it wasn’t the most difficult save of the evening. Philippe Barriere sent another attempt narrowly over in injury time before Gürcan Dere caught Mateo Bajamich’s close range header. The final whistle was called and I was more than delighted with the result - a draw takes us to the knockout stages and that’s more than expected from the team, especially after failing to win in our first three games. The finishing against Napoli in this final game left much to be desired - we should have decided the game ten minutes before the end, but failed to do it. At this level you need to be lethal to win close games.

• we created 4 clear cut chances so opportunities to score were there
• Player of the game: Remy Boer - brilliant goal in the first half and created 3 chances to teammates, made 8 dribbles too

 

Champions League Group A

1. SSC Napoli 11
2. AFC Ajax 9
3. Chelsea 9
4. Celtic Glasgow 4

Chelsea destroyed Celtic at Stamford Bridge in the final round, but that didn’t save them - our aggregate advantage over them in the games between us kept them in third place so, against all odds, Chelsea failed to qualify from the group. Napoli secured their first place with a draw against us.

 

12.12.2026 - FC Twente Enschede - AFC Ajax 0:0 (ED)

After getting the result that we needed in Napoli we have to be aware of complacency and loss of focus in Eredivisie. We have a few more games to go before Christmas and I don’t want to lose any cheap points. Our remaining opponents this year are not the strongest and the trip to Grolsch Veste is our last away game of the season. FC Twente is actually at the bottom of the table before this match day (although not too far off from safety) and their manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst is close to losing his job. It’s no surprise - they’ve won just one game from their first 17 games. I believe that FC Twente as a club is a little bit too big to go down, but their squad looks…. neglected. Mediocre at best and although big improvements are necessary to increase the quality of players, none have been made during this Summer. No wonder their results are as poor as they’ve been.

We, on the other hand, need to be wise and rotate - some first team players could use a day off after playing several games in the past couple of weeks. Kik Taylor and Kik Braspenning are ready to start, but unfortunately Alen Karahasanovic twisted his knee in training and he’ll be out for around a week.

Squad: Dere, van der Sloot, Hillen, Lopes (68. Taylor), Douglas, Brown, Regeer, Hansen (46. Barriere), Fitz-Jim, Boer, Enem (68. Braspenning)

We were still quite buzzed after our good result in Napoli, so just a few days later it was really difficult to motivate the players equally for an Eredivisie game. My assistant noted that some players looked overly confident in the dressing room before the kick-off and the loss of focus was clear in the first half, too. It was the most evident in Sontje Hansen who was nervous and complacent at the same time and he blew our first chance just a couple of minutes after the kick-off. We had pretty poor luck, too - Kian Fitz-Jim headed against the post from a free kick and in 38’ both Hansen and Jay Enem blew their clear cut chances (Enem managed to hit the bar from just a few meters out). FC Twente had a few moments from set pieces, but those were dealt with comfortably by Gürcan Dere. We weren’t in trouble defensively, but our attack needed much better focus and commitment.

Unfortunately we couldn’t turn things around in the second half and our luck didn’t improve either. Philippe Barriere had a decent attempt from 18 meters that hit the post, but that was it. I tried to switch to an attacking 4-2-3-1 for the final 10 minutes, but that didn’t lead to a breakthrough, so it remained goalless. A drab match - we should have been much better, but on some level our loss of focus could be understood. 

• we hit the woodwork 3 times - could have used a bit more luck in those situations
• Player of the game: Tim Brown - good playmaking from him, made 8 key passes and created moments

 

15.12.2026 - AFC Ajax - De Graafschap 1:0 (TOTO KNVB Beker 2nd round) - 45.+1 Remy Boer

To lose focus for one game is OK, but it’s time to get back on track. We had four away games so far in December, but the next three will be at Johan Cruijff Arena - that will make our job a little easier. Our cup opponent is De Graafschap - they’re 3rd in the Keuken Kampioen Divisie at the moment, so no pushovers, but our quality should be enough to take the win and a big home crowd certainly adds pressure to our visitors. I rotated the line-up and distributed game time to squad players, but I still expect to win by two or three goals.

Squad: van den Heuvel, Molnar, Taylor, Dirksen, Drommel, Brown, Sangare-Aka, Barriere (46. Hansen), Andrew (69. Karahasanovic), Boer (69. Fitz-Jim), Braspenning

It was another drab match - perhaps because we had too many new players in the line-up and there weren’t enough well established partnerships, but we lacked good understanding in attack and players didn’t time their runs and passes very well. After the first 20 minutes it was De Graafschap who got the first good chance of the game - their counter-attack allowed Joep van der Berk to get one-on-one against Dani van den Heuvel, but the goalkeeper showed that he too can save those moments. Good save to him to tip the shot wide and our goalkeeping coaches nodded approvingly on the bench. We switched to wider formation, but it didn’t improve our attack. The most dangerous player for us was Remy Boer - he cut in from the left and his attempts were generally on target and difficult to save for the goalkeeper. It was Boer who managed to score the goal in injury time before the half-time whistle and give us the lead before half-time. His goal was the only bright moment in the first half and I let the team know that expectations are way higher for them in the second half.

Things improved a little - at least we controlled defense more effectively and got more shots on target. Kik Taylor headed against the crossbar soon after the second half kick-off and Taylor was the one who was clearly fouled in the box in 62’ - the following penalty was missed by Kik Braspenning, though (another poor game for him) and Remy Boer saw his shot in 64’ being saved from the bottom corner. It remained 1:0 - a win and a clean sheet is always good, but the margin of victory and performance itself was below par.

• our shooting was 23/7 in this game
• Remy Boer’s goal was his 10th of the season and 50th overall for Ajax
• Player of the game: Remy Boer - only good performance from him in this game

 

20.12.2026 - AFC Ajax - NAC Breda 4:1 (ED) - 21. pen. Youri Regeer, 28. Remy Boer, 35. Kian Fitz-Jim, 65. Carlos Manuel Lopes - 24. Soufyan Ahannach

Back to Eredivisie and it’s time for our regular line-up to return, because things get more serious again. We had a difficult 0:0 draw with NAC Breda in the away game, so the win at home is not guaranteed either.

Anass Salah-Eddine and Vincent Claes are very close to returning back to full training, but not yet. Rio Hillen is at home because of illness and so Kik Taylor will start in the central defense. I made a few changes compared to the De Graafschap game, but not all of the first eleven.

Squad: Dere, van der Sloot (68. Molnar), Taylor, Lopes, Drommel, Regeer, Sangare-Aka, Barriere, Fitz-Jim (60. Karahasanovic), Boer, Enem (60. Braspenning)

Things were fairly quiet for the first 20 minutes, but then it started to happen. Ismael Sangare-Aka sent a thunderous strike on target from 18 meters - that one was parried with a good save from the goalkeeper, but Carlos Manuel Lopes was shoved during the following corner situation and Youri Regeer converted the penalty to give us the lead. NAC answered quickly, though - three minutes later it was 1:1, because Soufyane Ahannach curled his free kick over the wall and beat Gürcan Dere. We didn’t let it affect us for too long - Remy Boer’s well taken shot re-established our lead and then Kian Fitz-Jim drilled in a low shot from 23 meter to make it 3:1 before half-time. NAC’s joy for the equalizer remained short and we showed good attacking football after that so I was pretty happy with the quality of goals and individual skills on display. At 3:1 it didn’t look like NAC had a real chance to turn things around, but in the second half they found one great chance to do that - in 54’ an excellent trough ball ripped our defense apart and Antonio Cabral found himself one-on-one against Gürcan Dere, but the goalkeeper made a great save to turn the shot away. Lopes headed in another goal from a corner to score our fourth and Philippe Barriere was unlucky to hit the post from a counter just before the final whistle. Great result in the end - it was a big improvement from our last game, especially in attack and I was very happy with our performance.

• we had 63% possession
• our shooting was 31/17
• Jay Enem made his 100th league appearance for Ajax in this game
• we’re now unbeaten in 20 games
• Player of the game: Carlos Manuel Lopes - had an outstanding game, scored a goal, earned a penalty and won 13 key headers

 

23.12.2026 - AFC Ajax - Willem II Tilburg 4:0 (ED) - 19. Remy Boer, 36. Jay Enem, 71. and 89. Carlos Manuel Lopes

The last game of the year. Our opponents have been a little inconsistent in recent months and as a result find themselves in the 14th position which marks underachievement - their squad has enough quality for at least top half finish. The most interesting thing about this game is that I’ll get to see our 17 years old Tochero Tjon-A-Loi in action - the striker has scored 7 goals in 14 games so far and is starting to make his reputation in the league.

We have Rio Hillen recovered from illness and Vincent Claes is back in full training, so plenty of options to choose our starting line-up.

Squad: Dere, van der Sloot (71. Molnar), Taylor, Lopes, Douglas, Brown, Regeer (71. Smit), Barriere (60. Hansen), Karahasanovic, Boer, Enem

That one was a pretty one-sided affair. Lopes headed against the crossbar in 10’ and this was merely a sign of things to come. In 19’ Youri Regeer took a good attempt from distance - the Willem II goalkeeper had some difficulties to save it and Remy Boer slotted in from the rebound. Jay Enem managed to waste his clear cut chance three minutes later, but made up for it with a good header that doubled our lead. Willem II didn’t make a single shot in the first half and it looked like the white flag was already hoisted above their goal.

The same continued in the second half - Philippe Barriere almost got lucky when his cross landed against the crossbar, but we didn’t need much luck to keep scoring. Lopes scored two headers from corners (Willem II really couldn’t defend the set pieces) and the final score 4:0 was no less than we deserved. A proper hammering.

• our shooting wa 34/18 in this game
• Willem II didn’t create any real chances
• Player of the game: Carlos Manuel Lopes - another brilliant performance from the defender and two goals to his name tonight

 

Summary

Well, it has been an incredible month for us - we delivered the result against Napoli and continued to win in Eredivisie, so can’t complain about anything, really. I don’t mind that relaxed draw with FC Twente, to be honest.

My player of the month is Carlos Manuel Lopes - our defense has been incredible and he’s been consistently good in set pieces as well - four goals from him in December.

 

Few other players stood out with award ceremonies. Remy Boer was named as the Best FIFA U-21 player and European Golden Boy. 

Steven van der Sloot was the runner-up in African defender of the year and Ismael Sangare-Aka was the second place in African midfielder of the year.

 

In the Eredivisie several teams have grown impatient with their manager and we saw first sackings in December. Ruud Kaiser was fired by the sc Heerenveen board (their 14th position in the league clearly not good enough for the team of their calibre). Roberto Mancini was finally sacked by the AZ Alkmaar board after failing to win games in the first two weeks of December - too bad that a manager of his reputation couldn’t make it in Eredivisie. Filippo Inzaghi was appointed as the new AZ Alkmaar manager later in December.

 

Eredivisie

Strong results in December have increased our lead to 12 points and that’s more than comfortable. To my big surprise AZ continued to struggle even after Mancini left and they’re now in the last position, but there are 4-5 clubs that fight against relegation and I seriously doubt that AZ will be the one going down. They’re way too good for that.

[Draakon]

January 2027

 

January started well. We had two friendlies - showed good attacking football in the 4:1 win over Anderlecht and then defended well to hold our 1:0 lead against Bayer Leverkusen. The main problem looming over our first games after the Winter break was the African Cup of Nations - both Steven van der Sloot and Ismael Sangare-Aka were away in the tournament. Renato Molnar could have got his chance in those weeks, but he picked up a serious injury that will keep him out for 6-7 weeks and that’s another frustrating trauma in the youngster’s career - he doesn’t seem to get his season going without fitness problems. Kik Taylor is struggling with a minor knock and so our problems with the right-back position seem to mount and we’re quite thin in midfield.

 

19.01.2027 - AFC Ajax - Feyenoord Rotterdam 1:0 (TOTO KNVB Beker 3rd round) - 75. Philippe Barriere

I didn’t expect to get Feyenoord so soon. The third round in the cup should be against someone easier, but there we are - another Klassieker derby. Fortunately we had the home advantage and pretty confident spirit coming to this game. I found a creative solution to our right-back issues - Cor Drommel will start in right defense. Tim Brown and Youri Regeer make up our midfield and Sontje Hansen will get the nod after his great performance in the friendly with Anderlecht.

Squad: Dere, Drommel, Hillen, Lopes, Douglas, Brown, Regeer, Hansen (61. Barriere), Fitz-Jim, Boer (72. Karahasanovic), Enem (86. Claes)

The first half was a close game. As usual, both teams looked well organized and chances were rare. Sontje Hansen managed to beat the defender and bring the ball into the box, but Karim Rekik slid in to block his attempt. In 41’ Remy Boer had a half-chance, but he made the angle too narrow and the shot wasn’t too difficult to parry. We looked like a slightly better team in the first half, but it wasn’t a big margin. At least both Feyenoord centre-backs were booked before half-time and that could give us some sort of advantage for the second period.

We continued to have a slightly better control over midfield in the second half, but around 70’ Feyenoord found a few good moments. Karim Rekik headed against the crossbar from a free-kick and then Halil Dervisoglu found a crack and hit the fierce shot on target that was parried by a great save from Gürcan Dere. That was Feyenoord’s best chance of the game. Philippe Barriere had an answer to that - he took the ball into the box and drilled it low into the bottom near corner - a magical goal that stunned Feyenoord. Their goalkeeper looked puzzled and couldn’t believe that he let it slip in from the near corner that he should have controlled. That turned out to be the winning goal - Alen Karahasanovic had a good attempt on target in 81’ and Barriere saw his powerful header being tipped over by the goalkeeper, but neither of the clubs could create any real chances in the final 15 minutes, so the moment of brilliance by Philippe Barriere proved to be the difference between two clubs today. Solid game defensively from us. Would have preferred to see more creativity in attack, but I’m pleased with a 1:0 win.

• our shooting was 18/10 in this game
• we made just 9 key passes
• Alen Karahasanovic made his 10th assist to the season
• Player of the game: Philippe Barriere - scored a great goal and used his 30 minutes well
• we will play NAC Breda in the quarter final

 

24.01.2027 - Sparta Rotterdam - AFC Ajax 1:2 (ED) - 67. pen. Branco van den Boomen - 15. and 68. Remy Boer

This is probably my last trip to Het Kasteel. Sparta’s new Sparta Rotterdam Stadium will be finished in a couple of months and that will double their crowd capacity for the coming seasons. The club that sold Ayodele Lauteria in Summer is starting to invest the money back into the club and while they didn’t make big signings in Summer they have added some decent players in January transfer window - they signed an ex-Ajax striker Brian Brobbey from PSV for a £1,5m fee (Brobbey spent three seasons in PSV, but never really had a chance - he made just 16 appearances, but only 2 starts in three years), brought in an experienced defender Jerry St. Juste from Brentford and added a talented young defender from Vitesse. Decent transfer fees between £1m-£4m and not the worst players in my eyes, so it could be that Sparta is starting the journey to top three level. However, their best striker in this season Abdel Belarbi (10 goals) is injured for this game and that could make our job a little bit easier.

We have our own problems - Anass Salah-Eddine is still in light training. Kik Taylor and Sontje Hansen doubtful - Hansen suffered a small knock in the Feyenoord game and that will force me to start with Philippe Barriere on the right wing - and African players still away on international duty. As a result - not a lot of options to make changes.

Squad: Dere, Drommel, Hillen, Lopes, Douglas, Brown, Regeer, Barriere, Karahasanovic (64. Andrew), Boer (84. Fitz-Jim), Enem (70. Braspenning)

We took the lead in 15’ - Philippe Barriere crossed for Remy Boer and the Boer strike was just too good for Karol Niemczycki to save. The goalkeeper got his hand to it, but not well enough and the ball went in. Boer was very active in attack and in 20’ he was unlucky to hit the post. We didn’t have exactly clear cut chances in the first half and we failed to get our shots on target, but at times we could have used a little more luck. Like in 41’ when Cor Drommel’s cross came back from the crossbar instead of going over the line. At half time we had a narrow lead, but it didn’t look too convincing.

Philippe Barriere almost got his name on the score sheet with a good attempt after the break, but Niemczycki stretched out to tip it wide. Impressive save from him. And then it happened - Youri Regeer was unable to stop Bruma without fouling him in our box and Branco van den Boomen equalized from a penalty. A cheap goal to concede - we allowed Sparta back into the game and needed to dig deep to win this one. We reacted superbly - in the next attack Barriere crossed for Boer again and the young winger hit it with a volley - a great shot. Niemczycki could do nothing about it and we were back in charge. It remained 2:1 and we secured another three points. I was satisfied with our performance - nothing too exceptional, but it was a tricky game and I’m pleased to win this one.

• we had 61% possession in this game
• Player of the game: Remy Boer - scored two goals and had a good game

 

31.01.2027 - FC Eindhoven - AFC Ajax 1:4 (ED) - 79. Christopher Mamengi - 11., 22. and 64. pen. Jay Enem, 32. Alen Karahasanovic

The last game before the end of January (and the end of transfer window). We will travel to Eindhoven. Our opponents are 18th in the table, a small team that looks like one of the main candidates for relegation. They definitely have a chance to avoid it, but in my honest opinion if I’m comparing the teams in terms of club organization and quality of players, FC Eindhoven should go down. But it’s an away game, so we don’t have a guaranteed win in this game.

We have minor problems in our squad as well. Carlos Manuel Lopes has left for Tottenham, so our centre-back partnership is Rio Hillen and Kik Taylor. Ismael Sangare-Aka has returned from the African Cup of Nations and he’ll take his usual position in midfield (Tim Brown did well to hold the fort in his absence, but didn’t provide anything exceptional to retain the place in the starting line-up). Anass Salah-Eddine still has some work to do before his return and Steven van der Sloot continues the tournament with Cameroon international team. Kian Fitz-Jim is ill and has to skip this game, so all in all I don’t have too many players to choose from.

FC Eindhoven has the smallest stadium in Eredivisie (their Jan Louwers Stadion was sold out with a 6,911 crowd), but the weather welcomed us with hail and just a few degrees above zero. Not the best conditions for playing football.

Squad: Dere, Drommel, Hillen, Taylor, Douglas, Regeer (46. Smit), Sangare-Aka, Barriere, Karahasanovic (46. Andrew), Boer, Enem (66. Braspenning)

The game itself was fairly easy, as expected. After the first half we were leading 3:0 and felt comfortable. Jay Enem opened things up with a deflected shot that left FC Eindhoven goalkeeper Nick Olij no chances and added his second goal with a fine header from Cor Drommel’s cross. FC Eindhoven’s defense struggled to cope with our attack and in 32’ they were ripped apart by another of our attacks. Barriere crossed to the near post where Karahasanovic timed his run perfectly and slotted in for our third. At half-time I felt so confident that we made two changes and youngsters got the full second half to play. That gave our opponents a few more chances in the second half. Their Wingers Tom Hendriks had a half-chance in 51’, but the ball was comfortably held by Gürcan Dere. In the very next attack Barriere had a great opportunity to score, but the shot was tipped over by Olij. Jay Enem completed his hat-trick after Remy Boer was tripped in the box and later in the game Christophe Mamengi scored a consolation goal for FC Eindhoven. Substitute Kik Braspenning had a great chance to score in injury time, but he blasted it over the crossbar so the final score was 4:1. We didn’t look in trouble for a moment in this game, even though our attack seemed more quiet after Jay Enem came off. I was happy with the result and performance.

• our shooting was 20/10 in this game
• we created 4 clear cut chances
• we allowed FC Eindhoven to make 22 dribbles - a bit too much freedom with the ball, but it wasn’t evident from the sideline
• Jay Enem scored his 10th goal of the season - nice to see him finally scoring
• Player of the game: Jay Enem - hat-trick hero for us tonight

 

Summary

Smooth sailing for us in January - three wins, good goal scoring form and we’re looking confident going forward. 

The transfer window might affect our second half of the season - we allowed Carlos Manuel Lopes to leave to Tottenham for £50m and on the transfer deadline day Chelsea came with a bid for Remy Boer - he departed to London for £60m. Good transfer fees, but we’re short of two key players. Before the Lopes transfer I allowed Julius Dirksen to go on loan to Serie A club Benevento, so our central defense looks rather thin (in fact, we have just Hillen and Taylor who are proper centre-backs), but we can recall Dirksen when needed. Remy Boer’s departure means that Kian Fitz-Jim will move back to AML position and Alen Karahasanovic with Dino Andrew compete for the AMC role.

My player of the month is Philippe Barriere - the winger scored an important goal against Feyenoord. Dished two assists to Remy Boer in our win over Sparta and created another goal against FC Eindhoven. Important part of our attack in all three games.

 

Eredivisie

Nothing much to report - our lead looks very comfortable and Vitesse has shown their quality - they can finish in the top three in my opinion if they continue like that. With other clubs failing to show consistent form Feyenoord have climbed to the 5th place and might end up playing European football in the next season.

Clubs continued to make important decisions about their managers. FC Twente hired John Van’t Schip as their new manager. Willem II is another club who has been underachieving and they sacked their manager Pavel Vrba in January. Philip Cocu took his place soon after.

[Draakon]

February 2027

 

Six games in August. The schedule isn’t too difficult, but the opponents are. We play four games in Eredivisie, but three of those are against Feyenoord, PSV and Groningen - all in the top five, currently. Champions League returns as well, so plenty of challenging games and we have to keep our focus.

 

05.02.2027 - AFC Ajax - Feyenoord Rotterdam 4:1 (ED) - 25. and 74. Jay Enem, 78. Kik Taylor, 82. Vincent Claes - 90.+3 Arnaut Danjuma

We did beat Feyenoord just a couple of weeks ago, but they’ve left this defeat behind and won their next three league games, scoring 4 goals on average. Impressive come-back from them, so their confidence is definitely high and we must prepare for a tough game.

Compared to the previous game our squad is definitely weakened because of transfers of Lopes and Boer. We have less options from the bench and players like Anass Salah-Eddine are still to return from injury. We miss Ismael Sangare-Aka due to suspension, so the midfield partnership is Tim Brown and Youri Regeer again. Steven van der Sloot is still away in the international tournament, so Cor Drommel continues in right defense. Our only advantage is the home crowd and I also hope that Jay Enem can carry his newly-found goal scoring form into this derby game as well.

Tactically we didn’t change  anything - our usual positive 4-2-3-1 formation should suit well for the home game and with Karahasanovic in the starting line-up I hope that our corners would be a little more dangerous than average.

Squad: Gürcan Dere, Drommel, Taylor, Hillen, Douglas, Brown, Regeer, Barriere (67. Hansen), Karahasanovic (62. Andrew), Fitz-Jim, Enem (79. Claes)

It was an even battle at first. Feyenoord came against us with a balanced 4-2-3-1 formation which looked like a right choice for an away game and both teams carefully started to look for openings. Around the 10’ mark Alen Karahasanovic found Philippe Barriere with a good through ball, but the shot was comfortably held by the Feyenoord goalkeeper. Feyenoord’s Arnaut Danjuma tried to surprise Gürcan Dere with a fierce shot from a narrow angle, but our keeper was ready and got his hands to it to deflect it away. The first good chance fell to Rio Hillen - he found a ball on his foot in the Feyenoord’s box after a free kick in 24’, but there were too many bodies in front of him and the attempt was blocked. The breakthrough came just a minute later, though - Philippe Barriere got through from the right, Feyenoord defenders weren’t able to clear the ball and even though Barriere’s shot was saved by the goalkeeper, the ball fell to Jay Enem who finished into the empty net. Two minutes later Karim Rekik received a straight red card for elbowing Rio Hillen in our box (a completely unnecessary and violent foul) and Feyenoord were left with just ten men. Obviously it was a different game after that. We controlled the midfield comfortably and searched for our second goal, but the first half finished 1:0. Alen Karahasanovic took a promising shot from 18 meters before the half-time whistle and it was curling right next to the post, but Feyenoord goalkeeper Panagiotis Veloudios stretched to tip it wide.

Feyenoord inevitably collapsed in the second half. Kian Fitz-Jim couldn’t convert his clear cut chance in 56’, but Jay Enem doubled his tally after a lovely counter-attack. Kik Taylor headed in from a corner (his first goal of the season) and then substitute Vincent Claes added the fourth - arguably the best goal of the game: Tim Brown found him with a long ball forward and Claes got through, but the striker’s finish was just excellent and Veloudios had no chance. Arnaut Danjuma managed to score a header from IFK in injury time, but it was small consolation to Feyenoord who lost another Klassieker derby in this season.

• our shooting was 17/10 in this game
• we created 5 clear cut chances - very good in a derby game
• Vincent Claes scored his first ever league goal for Ajax
• we’re now unbeaten in 25 games
• Player of the game: Jay Enem - another two goals for the striker

 

10.02.2027 - NAC Breda - AFC Ajax 1:1p (TOTO KNVB Beker Quarter Final) - 9. pen. Tiago Silveira - 45.+2 Cor Drommel

We have played NAC twice in this season and know what to expect - quick, pacey team with excellent counter-attacks if we allow them any space behind our lines.

Our own ranks are much stronger for this game - Anass Salah-Eddine is finally back in full training (he’ll be available on the bench), Steven van der Sloot returned from the African Cup of Nations, Ismael Sangare-Aka is back in the line-up after being suspended for the last game - we look pretty good. We have 10 players on the bench which is a big improvement over January games when we had only 6-8 options.

Squad: Dere, van der Sloot, Taylor, Hillen, Drommel (91. Salah-Eddine), Regeer, Sangare-Aka, Barriere (63. Hansen), Karahasanovic (17. Andrew), Fitz-Jim, Enem

Our young winger Tiago Silveira was in the starting line-up for NAC Breda and in the first 10-15 minutes he looked like a handful for Cor Drommel. Drommel made a careless foul stopping him and conceded a penalty that Silveira himself converted and gave NAC the lead in 9’. We lost Alen Karahasanovic early in the second half; he pulled something while sprinting to a counter-attack and had to come off. NAC’s Ayhan Kurt had a great chance to score the second goal, but Gürcan Dere rescued us and tipped it wide. It wasn’t the most convincing performance in the second half and our first decent chance came just in 39’, but we still managed to equalize before the half-time whistle. Cor Drommel (from all of the unlikely candidates) produced a moment of magic when taking a shot from 20 meters. It went low, but I suppose that the NAC goalkeeper didn’t see it until it was too late and couldn’t react properly, so the placed shot landed in the goal at the far post. I suppose we didn’t deserve the equalizer, but it was a great goal from Drommel and we were level with the whole second half to play.

Things looked better for us after the break or at least we controlled the midfield better. We had more of the possession and soon chances started to come our way. Jay Enem was unlucky to direct his header against the crossbar in 49’, Youri Regeer made a good attempt from distance and Kik Taylor’s effort was tipped over by the keeper in 84’. It remained 1:1 though and the game went to extra time. We were in control of the additional thirty minutes as well, but failed to find the winner and so the game went to the penalty shoot-out.

There we looked very convincing. Gürcan Dere made one save in the shoot-out, but all of our five players scored very confidently and that was the win! We were in the semi-finals after a tough 120 minutes and it was no less than we deserved. NAC Breda gave us the battle, but they didn’t look too dangerous after 20-30 minutes.

• our shooting was 25/11 in this game
• Cor Drommel scored his first ever goal for Ajax
• Alen Karahasanovic will be out for 4-5 weeks with a groin strain
• we will play FC Eindhoven in the semi-final
• Player of the game: Cor Drommel - made a mistake at first, but scored a great goal and had a good game after that

 

13.02.2027 - AFC Ajax - FC Groningen 2:0 (ED) - 41. Kian Fitz-Jim, 81. Jay Enem

Just two days between games was not enough to recover from that extra time against NAC Breda. Some of the players looked very tired before warm-up, despite two rest days (I didn’t schedule any training). Fitness forces my squad selection and we miss Alen Karahasanovic anyway, so let’s hope that this game doesn’t add any players to our injury list.

FC Groningen is a difficult opponent - they miss a few players as well, but they’re in good form and their 4th place in the table shows that they can’t be underestimated.

Squad: Gürcan Dere, Drommel, Taylor, Hillen, Douglas (71. Salah-Eddine), Brown, Regeer (71. Smit), Barriere, Andrew, Fitz-Jim (64. Hansen), Enem

The first half started slowly. We failed to register a single shot on target in the first twenty minutes or so, and it was Groningen’s danger man Aron Schrijver who tested Gürcan Dere with a good strong attempt from the edge of our box. Slowly, but surely the game then started to go our way and opportunities came with it. Jay Enem won a header after our free kick and saw it clip the bar on its way over. We had plenty of free kicks from promising areas, a number of corners as well and one of those led to our first goal at the end of the first half. Kian Fitz-Jim was the one to head it in to give us the lead and we seemed in control of the game after that.

Groningen continued to be too passive in the second half and pressure started to mount on their goal. Kik Taylor won headers from corners and their goalkeeper Joey Kesting did well to tip those over the bar. FC Groningen failed to create anything dangerous in attack and the second goal was just a matter of time - it eventually came in 81’ when substitute Anass Salah-Eddine delivered a cross to the near post from our left wing and Jay Enem was there to win the header. It went in off the bar and Kesting couldn’t save it. A couple of half-chances for Enem and Philippe Barriere in the remaining ten minutes, but it remained 2:0 and in the end it looked like a fairly comfortable win. FC Groningen should have been a more serious test, but I believe that their manager went for too defensive formation and that gave us all the midfield with plenty of possession - that eventually sealed the result.

• we had 65% possession
• our shooting was 28/14 in the end
• no real chances to FC Groningen
• we had 20 corners and inevitably one of those resulted in a goal
• Kian Fitz-Jim scored his 10th goal of the season
• Player of the game: Philippe Barriere - delivered a corner to our first goal, made 9 dribbles and was active in attack

 

21.02.2027 - PEC Zwolle - AFC Ajax 0:2 (ED) - 28. and 66. Kik Taylor

We’ve done really well in February so far and now we head to Zwolle to our (arguably) easiest game of the month. I’m really happy that we came through the FC Groningen match without injuries, we had a full week to prepare for this one and almost all players available for selection (with exception of Alen Karahasanovic). We will meet FC Bayern in midweek, so I have that in mind when choosing our starting eleven, but at least we have plenty of options.

PEC Zwolle is one of the four or five teams that are fighting against relegation at the moment and recent events (FC Eindhoven’s win and AZ Alkmaar’s draw) have pushed them to 18th position. Safety isn’t far away though, and a win or two could improve their position a lot, so I have to prepare for a difficult game - they’re probably willing to give everything in front of their home fans. However, their tactical choice was rather defensive 4-1-4-1 DM and that didn’t indicate their willingness to take any risks.

Squad: van den Heuvel, van der Sloot (63. Molnar), Taylor, Hillen, Salah-Eddine, Brown, Sangare-Aka, Hansen, Andrew, Fitz-Jim (63. Martens), Enem (63. Claes)

PEC Zwolle found an early half-chance when Melayro Bogarde found some space after their free kick. The ball was comfortably held by Gürcan Dere, but it seemed like the first warning to us. After that moment in our box the game started to go our way and we had an easy opportunity to take the lead after twelve minutes of football - Sontje Hansen was tripped by Mohamed Hajji in the box, but Jay Enem’s penalty was saved by the goalkeeper. It wasn’t the worst penalty I’ve seen, but the keeper guessed it right and made the save as a result. PEC Zwolle players could have been relieved with the penalty save and the score was still 0:0, but then our opponents lost all their discipline. Evert Linthorst was sent off in 14’ after he made an ugly two-footed tackle on Ismael Sangare-Aka and ten minutes later Hennie Wijnterp received his second yellow card of the game and could go to the shower as well. Zwolle was down to nine men and it was no contest after that. Kik Taylor headed in from a corner to give us the lead, Dino Andrew scored a wonderful goal from 20 meters (but it was questionably chalked off by the referees who called offside on Jay Enem who was nowhere near the ball) and the rest of the game was well under our control.

We could play without much pressure in the second half and I made substitutions, giving some game time to youngsters. Young winger Yoni Martens came on for Kian Fitz-Jim and he had two good chances to score on his debut in short time, but couldn’t beat the goalkeeper. He took the corner that led to our second goal (another good header from Taylor) and got an assist to his name - good start. In the end it remained 2:0 and perhaps it was a disappointing score for some of the fans who expected more goals (especially against 9 men), but I was pleased that first team players got some rest and we had another three points in the bag.

• we had 66% possession in this game
• our shooting was 25/10
• we made only 6 key passes - not a lot of creativity despite having most of possession
• 18 years old winger Yoni Martens made his debut for Ajax
• Player of the game: Kik Taylor - outstanding performance with two goals from corners

 

24.02.2027 - AFC Ajax - Bayern Munich 1:3 (Champions League 1st knockout round 1st leg) - 20. Jay Enem - 8. Armel Bella-Kotchap, 21. Jean-Francois Besnard, 65. Gabriel Barbosa

At this stage every opponent is pretty much one of the European giants and that we got a club Bayern was quite expected. Tough two games. The first leg is in Amsterdam, so we want to defend well and get something to play for in Munich. Again - I have a good selection available for the starting line-up. Karahasanovic is out and Terrence Douglas had a minor problem after yesterday’s training, but no other problems. I’ve played all of our domestic matches with our usual positive 4-2-3-1 tactics with gegenpress, but now we resume our Champions League formation - balanced mentality and more compact lines.

Squad: Gürcan Dere, van der Sloot (65. Drommel), Taylor, Hillen, Salah-Eddine, Regeer (81. Brown), Sangare-Aka, Hansen (69. Barriere), Andrew, Fitz-Jim, Enem

We allowed Bayern to score an early goal from a corner. Ismael Sangare-Aka forgot to mark their centre-back Armel Bella-Kotchap properly and a good header from far post looked like a relatively easy finish. We should have been better - to concede a goal like that in the home game looked like a gift to Bayern and made our work much more difficult. The game itself looked fairly even, though - we had enough possession and attempts on target, so when Jay Enem equalized with an outstanding header it looked like a fair reflection of the game so far. It was 1:1 and enough time to play, but we then conceded a quick goal pretty much from the next Bayern attack. Both Sontje Hansen and Steven van der Sloot couldn’t stop Khotso Mazibuko’s run from our right and the South African winger delivered a cross into the six yard box where Besnard arrived on time and headed it in from a point blank range. Extremely disappointed to concede so quickly and give initiative away. To make things worse, we had a penalty in 33’ but Youri Regeer’s spot kick was saved by the Bayern goalkeeper Davide Zandonai, so at half-time it was 1:2 and we had nobody else to blame but ourselves. In certain situations it was just difference in class that made the difference - Bayern was more clinical with their finishing and avoided stupid mistakes in defense.

I tried to switch to positive 4-2-3-1 in the second half, but it led to some dangerous chances for Bayern. Gürcan Dere did well to save some of the easy opportunities. To sum things up, Steven van der Sloot gave away a penalty by tripping Mazibuko, but Gürcan Dere saved and held (!) the spot kick that was taken by Gabriel Barbosa. In the end Bayern scored their third goal after Rio Hillen pretty much passed it on the foot for Barbosa (another ridiculous error in defense) and that was it. We lost 1:3 and after conceding three goals at home it’s very difficult to imagine how we could overturn this deficit at Allianz Arena. I was especially disappointed with the manner of our defeat - stupid mistakes in defense and in attack showed that we are just not good enough to be in the quarter finals of the Champions League with that squad.

• we conceded 4 clear cut chances in this game - way too many
• Player of the game: Jay Enem - only good performance from our players, scored a good goal and won five key headers in attack

 

27.02.2027 - PSV Eindhoven - AFC Ajax 0:1 (ED) - 16. Jay Enem

Time to shake off that defeat and finish the month strong. The last challenge is the trip to Eindhoven and the Topper derby. What made this game even more special was the fact that it was my 400th game in management. Although we have more than a big enough lead in the table (16 points at this stage) we don’t want to lose any rival games and PSV is definitely a challenge, at least in an away game. Their defense has been impressive this season and they’re difficult to break down, so it’s a challenge for our midfield and creative players.

The only player that impressed me against Bayern was Jay Enem. All the other performances were under scrutiny and I’d like to shuffle things up, but at the same time I have to admit that my options are rather limited. We have plenty of youngsters on the bench, but most of them lack quality to start in that sort of match against PSV.

Squad: Gürcan Dere, van der Sloot, Taylor, Hillen, Douglas, Brown, Regeer, Barriere (63. Hansen), Andrew (70. Drommel), Fitz-Jim (86. Martens), Enem

PSV started with a defensive 4-1-4-1 DM formation - formation itself is what their manager Ernest Faber has used before, but defensive mentality at home? I was a little bit surprised by that. It made PSV’s defense even more difficult to break down and so both teams had just a few attempts in the first half. It didn’t help that it started to rain and players continued on a wet and windy pitch. Our breakthrough (and the only good opportunity of the game) came in 16’ - Dino Andrew lobbed it over defense and Jay Enem timed his run well. He was going one-on-one and the PSV goalkeeper Aron von Lare came off his line to stop him, but was too slow to get to the ball on time. Enem finished with an excellent shot - it isn’t difficult to score from one-on-one opportunities, but the manner of how you shoot might make a difference and this time von Lare had no chance to save it. Great goal!

The second half continued in the same fashion. PSV didn’t dare to attack and we never looked in trouble, but couldn’t find another goal. Steven van der Sloot was sent off after his second booking and so we had to keep our defense tight in the last twenty minutes. We had no problems doing that and so returned with a narrow 1:0 win. I was happy with the result - away derbies are always difficult and to win them is always an achievement in itself.

• we had 60% possession despite playing over 20 minutes with 10 men
• our shooting was just 4/1 and we gave only 6 key passes
• we didn’t concede any real chances to PSV
• Player of the game: Jay Enem - scored an excellent winner

 

Summary

I was a little bit disappointed that we couldn’t give Bayern a decent fight, but in domestic competitions it has gone really well for us - straight wins in the table. My player of the month is Jay Enem - he has found his scoring touch again and he started the month well against Feyenoord, scored against Groningen, Bayern and then finished off with a winner against PSV - he’s in good form and looks like he excels in big games.

 

Eredivisie

Massive lead in the table. It looks like we could secure the title already in March. Vitesse might finish as runner-ups if they continue their good form.

[Draakon]

March 2027

 

Five games in March. Schedule gets more manageable, but there’s four away games, including the trip to Munich that we’re not anticipating too eagerly. We will finish March with a trip to Vitesse, but if all goes smoothly we have secured our title before that game.

 

04.03.2027 - FC Eindhoven - AFC Ajax 1:4 (TOTO KNVB Beker Semi Final) - 31. Adrian Dalmau - 26. Dino Andrew, 107. Kik Taylor, 108. Vincent Claes, 119. Anass Salah-Eddine

To be honest, I didn’t expect to see FC Eindhoven in the cup semi finals, but they’ve got every right to be there after beating Vitesse. It’s strange to see clubs that struggle in the Eredivisie doing so well in the cup. To prove my point AZ Alkmaar won the first semi and got themselves into the final. FC Eindhoven should be easy prey for us. Should, because we did beat them at Jan Louwers Stadion in January (4:1) and it wasn’t the most difficult game, but away fixtures are always tricky. At least we know that we can’t afford the game to go all the way to the penalty shoot-out, because FC Eindhoven have won their last two cup games after penalties and they are probably looking forward to the shoot-out.

Rio Hillen, Cor Drommel and Youri Regeer are suspended for this game. That leaves us with a weakness because Terrence Douglas will make a debut in the central defense and I have no idea how he’ll fare. FC Eindhoven also miss three players due to suspensions, so it’s equal in that regard.

Squad: Gürcan Dere, van der Sloot, Taylor, Douglas, Salah-Eddine, Brown (101. Smit), Sangare-Aka, Barriere (61. Hansen), Andrew, Fitz-Jim (106. Martens), Enem (75. Claes)

It was a quiet first half for around 20-25’ but then we opened things up with a set piece goal. Kian Fitz-Jim delivered a deep free kick into the box, Dino Andrew had quite a difficult angle on goal, but managed to squeeze it in and give us the lead. It didn’t last long though - FC Eindhoven’s long ball (it looked more of a clearance than actual pass) found Adrian Dalmau on the run. He had so much distance between him and defenders that for a moment I was certain that this would be called for offside, but the flag stayed down and Dalmau finished his one-on-one calmly. It looked like Anass Salah-Eddine was to blame for missing his interception in midfield, but I was just disappointed to concede just five minutes after our goal. Jay Enem had a clear cut chance two minutes later, but that was blocked by the arriving defender and so the first half finished 1:1. Blocks and defenders arriving on time were common in the first half - we didn’t look sharp enough in attack and FC Eindhoven ran their socks off to close the gaps and get their feet to our crosses. We didn’t get shots on target and although we had more possession and initiative, failed to put their goalkeeper under real pressure.

It got slightly better after the break and Jay Enem managed to test their keeper with a good attempt, but that was tipped wide by a fine stop. Another mistake from Salah-Eddine gave Adrian Dalmau his second clear cut chance of the game in 63’, but this time Gürcan Dere made a great reflex save to deny him. I tested different widths and other minor tactical tweaks, but those didn’t seem to have much effect and the final whistle was called - extra time.

Extra time in cup games is tough on legs. Fatigue starts to mount and I had to make substitutions just to spare players and avoid injuries. For the final 15 minutes we switched to attacking 4-2-3-1 and I’m not sure if that was the key change that made the difference, but Kik Taylor scored from a corner and then FC Eindhoven simply collapsed. Vincent Claes added another goal just two minutes later (brilliant pass from Kian Fitz-Jim to set him up) and Salah-Eddine made up for his defensive mistakes with a fabulous goal (expertly placed shot right next to the far post from 15 meters) to make it 4:1. In the end we made it look easy, but it was a real struggle for the first 105 minutes.

• our shooting was 30/10 in this game - not impressed by accuracy
• Player of the game: Kian Fitz-Jim - delivered three assists (has now 14 assists to his name in this season) and made a lot of impact on our attacking game

 

07.03.2027 - AFC Ajax - NEC Nijmegen 1:0 (ED) - 29. Philippe Barriere

Newly-promoted NEC has done excellent so far this season. They’re 13th at the moment, six points above relegation and even though the trip to Johan Cruijff Arena is a huge challenge for them, they shouldn’t be downhearted even if they lose this one. Hey, at home they managed to keep us goalless and take a valuable point.

We have serious problems with fatigue, because 120 minutes of football three days ago is still in the legs of the players and some of them look exhausted. Kik Taylor, Ismael Sangare-Aka and Steven van der Sloot are all below 80% and I don’t want to use them (van der Sloot is suspended anyway). Kian Fitz-Jim looks tired as well and he will start from the bench - Yoni Martens will get his first league start, along with centre-back Thomas van der Meulen.

Squad: van den Heuvel, Molnar, van der Meulen, Hillen, Drommel, Brown (79. de Vries), Regeer, Barriere, Hansen (82. Andrew), Martens, Enem (62. Claes)

We had two good moments in the first half and both those attacking moves included Philippe Barriere. In 11’ he skipped past two defenders to find himself one-on-one with the NEC goalkeeper Nigel Loenen, but Loenen made a great save to deny him. Not for long, though - in 29’ Barriere took the ball in from our right wing and fired with power - too strong a shot for any keeper to stop and that goal gave us a deserved lead at half-time.

NEC Nijmegen had better moments in the second half. Noa Lang moved to a counter-attack in 61’ and his shot from some way out cracked against the post. Barriere continued to carry the load in our attacks - he had another clear cut chance in 70’ and his 80’ attempt was parried away from near post. It could have been a hat-trick for him, but finishing needs improvement. It remained 1:0 - a narrow win for us, but I’m still pleased. We created good moments for us in attack, youngsters got some playing time that will give them a boost and we looked good in defense.

• our shooting was 22/10 in this game
• Thomas van der Meulen and Jochem de Vries made their debut for Ajax
• Player of the game: Philippe Barriere - scored a great goal and could have scored more

 

12.03.2027 - AZ Alkmaar - AFC Ajax 0:2 (ED) - 48. Jay Enem, 70. pen. Youri Regeer

AZ Alkmaar…. the season they’re having. Just one (!) win since August. Sacked Roberto Mancini in Winter, but Filippo Inzaghi hasn’t been able to turn this ship around and at this point they’re 18th in the table. Safety isn’t far away though, and they definitely have the quality to get some wins, so I expect a tough game at AFAS Stadion.

Our squad is at full fitness - Alen Karahasanovic is back in full training, we don’t have any suspensions and so the selection available to me is our best possible.

Squad: Gürcan Dere, van der Sloot (65. Drommel), Taylor, Hillen, Salah-Eddine, Regeer (75. Smit), Sangare-Aka, Barriere, Andrew (65. Karahasanovic), Fitz-Jim, Enem

We saw a fairly even first half with just a few noteworthy moments. The first twenty minutes were relatively quiet, but then AZ had the first chance of the game - Brian Petersen was left unmarked at the far post, but his attempt was comfortably held by Gürcan Dere. Jay Enem had the best opportunity in the first half - in 28’ he won the ball back from Marcos Senesi and went one-on-one with the goalkeeper, but couldn’t finish it off. AZ players looked a little bit nervous, but we couldn’t take advantage of that and so the first period finished without goals. 

Things improved after the break. Jay Enem made up for his missed chance in the first half by scoring our first goal after a free-kick. Philippe Barriere wasted his opportunity in 68’, before Kik Taylor was pulled down by Darryl Hose and Youri Regeer doubled our lead from the spot. The second half was much more under our control and after our second goal AZ didn’t really challenge us, so after full time I was happy with the win and performance.

• we had 64% possession in this game
• our shooting was 16/10 and we created 4 clear cut chances
• Player of the game: Youri Regeer - led the game from midfield and scored from a penalty

 

17.03.2027 - FC Bayern - AFC Ajax 0:1 (Champions League 1st knockout round 2nd leg) - 30. Jay Enem

Well, it’s a difficult trip to Allianz Arena. Weather didn’t welcome us either - the match was held in heavy rain and that made our task even more daunting. We had to beat Bayern 3:0 (or score even more) and that itself looked simply impossible. Bayern knew that they didn’t need to risk anything and started with a simple 4-4-2 formation. I didn’t want to risk complete humiliation and went for a balanced 4-2-3-1.

Squad: Gürcan Dere, van der Sloot, Taylor, Hillen, Salah-Eddine, Regeer, Sangare-Aka (74. Brown), Barriere (63. Hansen), Karahasanovic (63. Andrew), Fitz-Jim, Enem

It was almost a terrible start for us - Jean-Francois Bernard won a duel against Rio Hillen, went one-on-one, but somehow sent his shot wide of the target. Less than two minutes were played and we had already conceded the first clear cut chance - that didn’t predict anything good for us, but against all odds, we managed to take the lead. Ismael Sangare-Aka was the creating force in midfield - he spotted a pass and delivered a long ball forward. Jay Enem broke the offside trap and got free of defenders and finished it off calmly. 1:0!. At certain points in the first half Bayern’s superior individual skills were evident, but we managed to hold onto our lead and we went to half-time in high spirits.

Bayern were certain to get more opportunities in the second half and surely, they did. Jairo Dilrosun caused problems for our defense on our right flank and he was unmarked in 47’, but Gürcan Dere comfortably held the shot. Ismael Sangare-Aka tried his luck with a free kick and hit the crossbar, but we never looked like we could score two more goals and Bayern didn’t push us too hard, either (they didn’t need to). We came away with a good 1:0 win and even though the aggregate score was 2:3, I was pleased with our display in the away game.

• Player of the game: Ismael Sangare-Aka - created a goal and gave good passes from midfield

 

21.03.2027 - Vitesse Arnhem - AFC Ajax 0:1 (ED) - 76. Philippe Barriere

It’s been a great month so far, but we want to finish strong and the away game at GelreDome is a difficult test. We go against in-form Vitesse with Giorgio Addessi, who is easily the best striker in Eredivisie in this season - 21 goals in 28 league games so far is incredible. He truly looks unstoppable. But this Vitesse side has a weakness and it’s their thin squad - with a couple of injuries in defense their replacements lack the quality of the first team and we could take advantage of that.

We miss Dino Andrew who twisted his knee against Bayern and has to recover for a week, but the rest of the first team is available. I chose to begin with a balanced 4-2-3-1 in this away game and change it according to how this game will play out. Vitesse opted for a cautious 4-2-3-1 despite playing at home, so that was a curious choice.

Squad: Gürcan Dere, van der Sloot, Taylor, Hillen, Salah-Eddine (79. Douglas), Regeer, Sangare-Aka (66. Brown), Barriere, Karahasanovic (60. Hansen), Fitz-Jim, Enem

Vitesse held initiative in the first half and we were way too passive. We had things under control defensively and we didn’t concede any clear cut chances, but we couldn’t take a single shot in the first half and that just won’t do for a club of our stature. Vitesse players looked way more comfortable with the ball and it looked that with some patience they might find that one goal after the break.

Indeed, cracks in our defense started to appear in the second half. Giorgio Addessi received a long ball behind defense in 59’, but at the last moment Kik Taylor got his foot in to disrupt his rhythm and the shot was eventually held by Gürcan Dere. We finally had our first shot of the game in 63’ and it looked that while Vitesse started to change their tactics to be more positive, we, in turn, started to find space and chances in attack. But first we had to deal with their attacks - Elliott Boyce had a good shot on target that was tipped over by Gürcan Dere and Addessi found another half-chance, before our counter-attack in 75’ cracked Vitesse open for the first time in this game - Philippe Barriere laid it forward for Youri Regeer and the captain had just the goalkeeper to beat. He beat the keeper, indeed, but the shot hit the post. Unlucky! It didn’t matter, because just a minute later Barriere fired in from the edge of the area - an unstoppable shot that no goalkeeper could save and out of nowhere we were in control of the game. Vitesse players looked under pressure to turn things around and they failed to score in the final 15 minutes, even though Addessi managed to get a couple of shots on target. We had taken an absolutely unlikely and probably undeserved victory and Vitesse fans were probably wondering how they could lose this one after being so much in control for the first 60 minutes or so. I had to admit, begrudgingly, that despite the result our performance was below-par and it counts as a failure in that regard.

• we had only 8/3 shots (Vitesse had 16/10 in comparison)
• we allowed Vitesse players to make 25 dribbles in this game
• Philippe Barriere scored his 10th goal of the season and not the first winner in important games
• Payer of the game: Philippe Barriere

 

Summary

Ultimately, results don’t lie and even though I wasn’t always happy with our performances, we managed to win all games in March - I’m pleased with the results and hopefully the winning streak goes forward. We’re out of the Champions League, but 3:0 at Allianz Arena was never likely and I’m rather happy with our 1:0 win there. My player of the game in March is Philippe Barriere - two important goals this month and both were really incredible goals, straight into the season highlight reel. We have secured our league title and can take our league games in April and May without pressure.

 

Eredivisie

 

Our lead has increased even further. PSV Eindhoven, Vitesse and Feyenoord are fighting for second place. At the bottom of the table the relegation fight gets more intense as well.

[Draakon]

Youth Intake 2027

 

I was promised a good youth intake by my head of youth development Said Ouaali, but the players that came in March were merely adequate. One good-looking attacking midfielder, but the rest of the bunch were mediocre or poor, with plenty of undesirable personalities like unambitious etc. It might be time to replace Ouaali after all. 

 

 

Young attacking midfielder. Has plenty of flair and no major flaws, except unsporting personality. Unfortunately he plays the position where we have enough young talent already (Dino Andrew, Jimmy Kamphuis) so we didn’t exactly need another attacking midfielder.

 

Right-back with an interesting name. To be fair, he doesn’t seem special to me. Can’t cross, can’t jump, terrible with ball at his feet. Despite that my coaches keep insisting that he has enough potential to make it into the first team. We’ll see.

[Draakon]

April 2027

 

We have four games in April. Our league games should be relatively easy and, with the title secured, I hoped to spread out playing time and include more youngsters. The most important fixture in April is obviously the cup final at De Kuip.

 

04.04.2027 - AFC Ajax - VVV Venlo 2:0 (ED) - 49. Jay Enem, 50. Kian Fitz-Jim

Interest in those home games is declining, and I understand, because there’s little at stake. Only around 45 000 spectators have come to Johan Cruijff Arena on this wet Sunday afternoon.

We’re clear favourites for this game and morale is high. The captain Youri Regeer is suspended after collecting five bookings this season, but that shouldn’t be a problem for us.

Squad: Gürcan Dere, van der Sloot, Taylor, Hillen, Salah-Eddine (59. Drommel), Brown, Sangare-Aka, Hansen, Karahasanovic (59. Andrew), Fitz-Jim, Enem (67. Braspenning)

VVV was perhaps a little optimistic with their cautious 4-2-3-1 formation, because they left some space behind their lines and in the first half we had a couple of moments when we could exploit that. Ismael Sangare-Aka delivered a wonderful pass (around 50 meters) to Jay Enem who was clear on goal, but the VVV goalkeeper Michael Verrips made a great save to deny him. In 13’ Kian Fitz-Jim won the ball in midfield and his technical ability was a bit too much for VVV defenders to handle. He could take the ball all the way to the box, but again Verrips managed to get his hand to it and parry the shot. In 28’ Rio Hillen was unlucky to hit the upright from close range - the ball reached him in front of the goal after a corner and Anass Salah-Eddine hit the crossbar with his free kick. The first half finished 0:0, but we had two big chances and a little bit of poor luck in this period.

Things got better after the break. Jay Enem opened things up with a good finish from a narrow angle. Credit to Steven van der Sloot who found him with a deep free kick. Just a minute later Kian Fitz-Jim cut in from the left and pulled the trigger from 21 meters - his low shot was just too good for Verrips and landed in the goal - a great strike! We could then relax and the game slowed down. VVV had their best opportunity deep in injury time - Ruben Melchiot somehow got past Kik Taylor and found himself alone in the box with the ball, but Gürcan Dere came out of his line on time and made a great save to keep his clean sheet. It finished 2:0 and it looked easy enough - we never had to push too hard.

• our shooting was 19/10 in this game
• Player of the game: Kian Fitz-Jim - scored a great goal and made 9 dribbles, causing problems to VVV defense

 

11.04.2027 - Heracles Almelo - AFC Ajax 0:1 (ED) - 68. Kian Fitz-Jim

It’s a nice rhythm - to play every Sunday, without midweek games. Enough time to train and prepare for the next fixture. Our next opponent is Heracles Almelo - they have done well for a small team, holding 8th position at the moment, without significant investments to their squad. For me their team looks unbalanced - good quality in attack, but mediocre defense and their midfield definitely needs improvements, but somehow their manager has been able to make it work out fine.

For us it’s time to balance out game time. I took a closer look at who has been training well this week and deserves a chance.

Squad: van den Heuvel, van der Sloot, Taylor, Hillen, Drommel, Brown, Sangare-Aka, Barriere (63. Hansen), Karahasanovic (63. Andrew), Fitz-Jim, Enem (73. Claes)

Heracles started with a cautious 4-4-1-1 (with 2 DMC-s) which was expected of them, but their defense looked vulnerable despite that formation. We had our first great chance in 15’ when Alen Karahasanovic won the ball back near their box and went one-on-one against the goalkeeper, but messed up the shot and the ball was held easily. That was a terrible miss from the midfielder. Ismael Sangare-Aka delivered a great ball to Jay Enem in the 29’, but the striker was denied by the post. Two easy chances missed in the first half, but it wasn’t over - Enem blundered another later in the first half. Ismael Sangare-Aka fed him excellent long balls on the run and I expected Enem to score most of those opportunities, but it didn’t happen in this game. Meanwhile, we didn’t look exactly concentrated in defense either. Cor Drommel was the guilty party who lost a challenge and Heracles’ Dani de Wit went one-on-one against Dani van den Heuvel, but our backup goalkeeper stood his ground and held the ball as a result - a bad mistake from Drommel and equally terrible finishing from de Wit.

The second half continued in the same fashion - Heracles’ Naoufal Bannis tested van den Heuvel on a counter attack in 58’. We had less good opportunities in attack - Sontje Hansen saw his shot going inches wide before Fitz-Jim finally scored - a good combination between Jay Enem, Dino Andrew and Fitz-Jim led to a devastating attack and this time the keeper couldn’t save it - one goal was enough to win the game and despite our missed chances we left with all three points. Dani van den Heuvel managed to impress me in our goal with a couple of good saves.

• we created 4 clear cut chances in this game
• Player of the game: Ismael Sangare-Aka - delivered 5 key passes and created big chances for attackers

 

18.04.2027 - AFC Ajax - AZ Alkmaar 1:0 (TOTO KNVB Beker Final) - 14. Kian Fitz-Jim

The most important game in our remaining season. The final is held at De Kuip - neutral ground for both teams. It has to be said that Filippo Inzaghi has finally improved his team’s form after a slow start. They have won their last three league games and leaped out of the relegation zone. Their confidence has improved a lot because of that and you might say it’s a different team altogether compared to our last meeting. And the fact that they reached the cup final despite struggling so badly in the league indicates their quality. However, it looked to me that Inzaghi might not relish the pressure of the final and perhaps his ability to remain calm in those sort of situations (and relatively small experience as a manager) might play to our favour. We have our best eleven available and I’m very confident in our starting line-up.

Squad: Gürcan Dere, van der Sloot, Taylor, Hillen, Salah-Eddine, Regeer, Sangare-Aka, Barriere (62. Hansen), Karahasanovic (70. Andrew), Fitz-Jim, Enem (86. Claes)

The game itself was a tactical battle - both teams looked very organized and concentrated and open chances were difficult to create. As it often happens in games like this, you need to produce something magical to win and Kian Fitz-Jim managed to do exactly that with his goal in 14’ - he cut in from the left and sent the ball straight into the roof of the goal. The goalkeeper had no chance. AZ tried to find an equalizer and I have to admit that they had a slight initiative later in the first half. Gürcan Dere was tested with a couple of good attempts, but at half-time we had the lead. I decided to switch to a balanced 4-2-3-1 in the second half to avoid any unnecessary risks.

Our opponents had their best opportunity to equalize late in the game. They were patient enough not to make any errors in defense and waited for their moment in attack and it came in 86’ - Gyrano Kerk received the ball behind our defensive line, broke the offside trap and had a big chance to equalize, but the shot was comfortably held by Gürcan Dere and that was it. AZ couldn’t find the goal they needed and Fitz-Jim’s brilliant strike from the first half was enough to secure us another cup win! Great success!

• our shots were just 7/3 in this game and we made only 8 key passes
• we couldn’t create any real chances in this game - not enough creativity, but at the same time we didn’t need to take any risks after our goal
• Player of the game: Kian Fitz-Jim - decided the final with his goal

 

25.04.2027 - AFC Ajax - ADO Den Haag 3:0 (ED) - 2. pen. and 59. Vincent Claes, 90.+4 Sontje Hansen

With the cup final behind us, I decided to rotate the squad more in the coming games. We were favourites at home against ADO Den Haag, so it was a good opportunity to distribute playing time. Rio Hillen and Daan Smit were suspended for the game and that forced some choices in the line-up - Terrence Douglas started as centre-back and young winger Denso Grim made his debut on the left flank. Vincent Claes was selected to start up front.

Squad: van den Heuvel, van der Sloot (71. Molnar), Taylor, Douglas, Drommel, Brown, Sangare-Aka (71. de Vries), Hansen, Andrew, Grim (65. Martens), Claes

It didn’t take long for us to take the lead. Sontje Hansen was tripped just inside of the box and Claes scored from the spot. It was a quiet first half after the quick goal, but we always had control of the game and didn’t have to push too hard.

ADO Den Haag was close to a come-back in the second half. Perhaps we got a little bit too complacent after the break, but Kik Taylor lost the ball dangerously close to our box and Joel Piroe went one-on-one against Dani van den Heuvel, but the goalkeeper made a good save to keep the ball away. Piroe was close to a goal again three minutes later, but his shot from a narrow angle deflected away from the post and then Claes scored his second goal of the game to put the result beyond doubt. Tim Brown created the chance to deliver him a long ball and Claes scored with an excellent finish into the far post. ADO’s Tyrell Malacia was sent off after his second booking in 89’ and Sontje Hansen wrapped things up with a good goal late in injury time - convincing 3:0 win in the end for us - I was impressed by the result, because of our line-up and I have to say that youngsters did fairly well in this game.

• our shooting was 20/9
• we made only 2 fouls in entire game
• Denso Grim made his debut for Ajax in this game
• Player of the game: Sontje Hansen - scored a great goal, made 8 dribbles and was difficult to stop for ADO defenders

 

Summary

Another great month for us - won all four games, including the cup final and continued our winning streak. Our defense has been really impressive - we didn’t concede a single goal in April. My player of the month is without a doubt Kian Fitz-Jim - scored three goals, including the winner against AZ Alkmaar.

 

Eredivisie

Vitesse have dropped to 4th and it’s back to usual three in the top. Our lead is massive, though - 24 points ahead with two games to go. Relegation battle is looking to become fierce in the final match days.

[Draakon]

May 2027

 

02.05.2027 - AFC Ajax - FC Utrecht 0:0 (ED)

The last home game of the season and the fact that we lost to FC Utrecht back in August (our only loss this season!) gives this match some edge. We miss Philippe Barriere, who pulled his thigh muscle in training, but the rest of the players are fit. There’s some rotation anyway, because I want to distribute playing time more evenly.

Squad: van den Heuvel, van der Sloot, Taylor, Hillen, Salah-Eddine (65. Drommel), Brown, Sangare-Aka, Hansen, Karahasanovic (65. Andrew), Fitz-Jim, Enem (46. Braspenning)

We had a big opportunity early in the game - a good transition football and a clever pass from Jay Enem released Kian Fitz-Jim, who saw his shot being saved by the goalkeeper before four minutes were played. Otherwise we held initiative in the first half, but lacked creativity in midfield. Jay Enem indicated some problems with his achilles, so I had to take him off at half-time and Kik Braspenning came on. The second half was very similar - FC Utrecht looked happy to defend with their defensive 4-1-2-3 DM formation and we didn’t have too many really good opportunities, until Sangare-Aka found Kian Fitz-Jim in the box - again the left winger blew his opportunity and the ball landed safely in the hands of Robin Roefs. So, it remained goalless and FC Utrecht was obviously more happy with the result. We should have been more clinical in front of goal, but obviously I wasn’t too upset with the result

• our shooting was 22/10 in this game
• we didn’t allow FC Utrecht to create any real chances in this game
• we’re now 9 games without conceding - a new club record
• Player of the game: Jonas Clein (FC Utrecht) - the full-back worked hard defensively and had a fine game

 

09.05.2027 - sc Heerenveen - AFC Ajax 0:1 (ED) - 41. Kian Fitz-Jim

The last game of the season and it could be a tricky one. sc Heerenveen is one of the clubs who haven’t played out their potential this season, so they finish in the middle of the table, but their form has been better in Spring and they recently defeated FC Groningen 3:0. Their 17 years old winger Claudio Andrade is one of the most exciting young prospects in the league and so I am preparing for a tough match. We have to get through without Steven van der Sloot who is suspended, but Philippe Barriere is back in full training and Jay Enem’s achilles problems didn’t turn out to be anything serious.

Squad: van den Heuvel, Molnar, Taylor, Hillen, Salah-Eddine (69. Drommel), Regeer, Sangare-Aka, Hansen (62. Barriere), Karahasanovic, Fitz-Jim, Enem (62. Claes)

We had the best chance of the game already in 9’ - Youri Regeer showed his ability to spot a pass and his long ball found Jay Enem on the run, but the shot wasn’t good enough and it was tipped wide by the goalkeeper. We had just a slight edge in the first half and in the end we found a goal as well - Kian Fitz-Jim delivered a fabulous strike down low from behind defenders and it landed at the far post - great goal, another one from distance for Fitz-Jim who has been just outstanding with his goals in Spring.

We continued to control the game in the second half, although sc Heerenveen weren’t really pushovers either. They started to take more risks in the end of the game, so we found some good opportunities in the final minutes - Ismael Sangare-Aka had a promising attempt that was tipped against the crossbar and Vincent Claes had a half-chane in injury time, but it remained 1:0. A deserved win again and good defensive performance from the team.

• our shooting was 19/10 in this game
• Player of the game: Kian Fitz-Jim - a great goal to win this for us

 

Eredivisie

Familiar top three in the end. Vitesse couldn’t keep their form until the end of the season. AZ Alkmaar escaped the relegation zone and all three clubs at the bottom were relegated.

[Draakon]

Season Summary 2026-2027

 

It was another successful season for us - we won the league by a landslide and the cup with it. I wasn’t sure that our squad is good enough to be competitive in the Champions League (especially after letting Remy Boer and Carlos Manuel Lopes go in January), but we reached the knockout stages and that delighted both fans and the board. The most important thing is that we became better with every month - we have a lot of young players in the squad and we’re still developing and improving and I feel that we have a lot more quality and depth in the team than we had in last Summer. That’s a cause for celebration.

A lot of players emerged into the first team - Kik Taylor took over in central defense after Carlos Manuel Lopes left in January. Cor Drommel got plenty of experience, playing both left-back and right-back roles (partly because Salah-Eddine had a long injury), Philippe Barriere pushed Sontje Hansen to the bench and competition on right wing was fierce. Youngsters Jochem de Vries and Denso Grim got close to first team football.

We also had several players out on loan in good clubs. They all had enough game time and will return with more experience. Julius Dirksen helped Benevento to survive in Serie A and he’ll bolster our defense and will add competition. Tiago Silveira had a rather mediocre season in NAC Breda, but he developed a lot as a player, individually. Tochero Tjon-A-Loi couldn’t save Willem II from relegation, but he looks even better than Jay Enem now and had his first games for the Suriname national team.

Some facts from the stat sheet. We were extremely poor with our finishing from clear cut chances - in Eredivisie we scored just 28 times out of 72 clear opportunities - in some years it’s been 50%. Jay Enem was especially poor (and that’s a bad sign for a striker) and that’s why he couldn’t reach 20 goals. At the same time we relied more on set pieces - 15 goals from corners (in the league) is higher than average and our defense looked pretty solid, too (10 games without conceding at the end of the season marks our new record).

 

AFC Ajax End of Season Awards

 

Ajax goals: Jay Enem 19, Kian Fitz-Jim 14, Remy Boer 14, Philippe Barriere 10

Ajax assists: Kian Fitz-Jim 13, Alen Karahasanovic 10

 

Eredivisie Awards

 

Golden Boot

1. Giorgio Addessi (Vitesse Arnhem)
2. Zico Buurmeester (FC Groningen)
3. Aron Scrhijver (FC Groningen)

 

Top Goalscorer

1. Giorgi Addessi (Vitesse Arnhem) - 22
2. Jason Pigmans (VVV Venlo) - 14
3. Jay-Roy Grot (ADO Den Haag) - 14

 

Goalkeeper of the Year

1. Gürcan Dere (AFC Ajax)
2. Timon Wellenreuther (Vitesse Arnhem)
3. Michael Verrips (VVV Venlo)

 

Young Player of the Year

1. Remy Boer (AFC Ajax)
2. Giorgio Addessi (Vitesse Arnhem)
3. Kik Taylor (AFC Ajax)

 

Manager’s Manager of the Year

1. Me
2. Luc Nijholt (Sparta Rotterdam)
3. Jeffrey de Visscher (VVV Venlo)

[Draakon]

Summer 2027

 

Offseason began with news that Serbia and Montenegro have joined the European Union. That will make it easier for their footballers to work in European countries, but it doesn’t affect us (or our competitors in Eredivisie) too much.

 

Staff

To begin with our preparations for the next season I took a good look at our coaching staff and four of them left in July after their contracts expired. I decided to aim for at least 4,5* coaches at first team level and that sets the bar really high. We’re talking about 45+ points in determination/motivating/discipline categories and 18+ attributes in main coaching groups. The selection of personnel who match those criterias are getting rather thin. For a moment it leaves me three vacant positions in the first team coaching staff. Let’s see if I can find the right people to fill those with. I didn’t need to bring anyone to add quality, but with the departures I soon noticed that the workload of some coaches has increased too much and we need a little more personnel to distribute that more evenly. So I signed three new coaches.

 

 

There was enough manager movement in other clubs. Feyenoord’s Mark van Bommel started the snowball when he accepted the Athletic Club’s  offer and moved to La Liga. Feyenoord didn’t waste any time and approached AZ’s Filippo Inzaghi who has spent less than 6 months in his current position - he was brought to save AZ’s season and avoid relegation, and after a slow start he managed to keep them safe. At the end of the last season there were some signs that Inzaghi’s approach could be a good foundation to the next successful season, but now he decided to move on and the AZ board needs to find a new manager to drive them further. They invited Jordy Reneerkens from ADO Den Haag to take charge.

The Ajax board also grew restless and they offered me the new contract to make sure that I don’t want to leave in the near future. The offer was pretty generous - £92,000 p/w until 2032 - that’s almost twice as much as our highest earning footballer receives, so I was delighted to accept.

 

Transfers

I had two decisions made in my head before this transfer window. The first one involved selling Kik Braspenning - 24 years old backup striker who looks unlikely to develop much further and with Tochero Tjon-A-Loi back in the squad I didn’t see any space for him. I transfer listed Braspenning in June and instantly received three offers. He decided to join Basel for £8,25m (around £10,5m with additional clauses) and that’s a huge fee for a player who was essentially deadwood with just one year left of his contract.

The second decision involved the team captain - Youri Regeer is also nearing the end of his contract and although I’d love to see him stick around, his current wage (£50,000 p/w) is the maximum that I’m willing to pay, so unlikely that we reach a new agreement. There were some big clubs like Real Madrid and Arsenal interested in him in Spring and I expected somebody to make a decent bid so we could cash in for him, but it didn’t happen and so he’ll enter his last year of the contract.

 

Eredivisie Transfers

 

No major transfers this Summer - transfer fees rarely reached to £10m.

• Bas Ijzerman from Vitesse Arnhem to Sevilla for £10,75m (£13,5m)
• Edward Gyamfi from AZ Alkmaar to Norwich City for £9,25m
• Kik Braspenning from AFC Ajax to Basel for £8,25m (£10,5m)
• Jairo Riedewald from Sheffield United to Feyenoord Rotterdam for £7,25m - another former Ajax player returning to Eredivisie
• Adnane Mansour from ADO Den Haag to PSV Eindhoven for £7m - talented 20 years old centre-back
• Roy van Gastel from sc Heerenveen to AZ Alkmaar for £6m
• Arnaut Danjuma from Feyenoord Rotterdam to Villarreal for £6m (£7,25m)
• Carel Eiting from Newcastle United to PSV Eindhoven for £5,5m (£6,5m) - ex-Ajax midfielder, went from AZ Alkmaar to Premier League with high hopes, but flopped magnificently and spent the last season in Czech club Viktoria Plzen before returning to Holland
• Soulyman Allouch from Bologna to PSV Eindhoven for £5,25m (£6,5m) - ex-Feyenoord winger who couldn’t make it in Serie A

 

24.07.2027 - AFC Ajax - Feyenoord Rotterdam 5:0 (Johan Cruijff Schaal) - 2., 13. and 75. Alen Karahasanovic, 55. Kian Fitz-Jim, 81. Tochero Tjon-A-Loi

As always, we start our season with the super cup game and this time it’s a derby against Feyenoord. The final is held at Johan Cruijff Arena - that gives us the home advantage and it could make a huge difference in this sort of game. It’s interesting to see what sort of football Filippo Inzaghi will play with Feyenoord - he hasn’t been in charge for too long, so it could be a little rough at the edges. At least he was extremely flattering towards me in his pre-game comments.

We have all players fit and we could field our regular first eleven, but we have some new, young and exciting players on the bench - if everything goes well we could see them in the second half.

Squad: Gürcan Dere, van der Sloot (75. Molnar), Taylor, Hillen, Salah-Eddine, Regeer, Sangare-Aka, Hansen, Karahasanovic, Fitz-Jim (72. Chaves), Enem (69. Tjon-A-Loi)

We had a flying start to the game - good build-up from our left side, we brought the ball into the box, Fitz-Jim delivered it in front of the goal where Karahasanovic did extremely well to create himself some space and finished with an accurate shot - we had the lead with less than two minutes played and Feyenoord looked a bit shocked. In 13’ we had a free kick and Anass Salah-Eddine stepped up to take it. He sent the ball around the wall, but it hit the post. Jay Enem was first on the ball and laid it right to Karahasanovic who was again alone in front of the goal - two goals in fifteen minutes from the Bosnian midfielder. Great start to the game. Sontje Hansen wasted his clear cut chance a few minutes later, but we were well in control of the game in the first half. We only allowed Feyenoord to break once - in 37’ Salah-Eddine saw his pass being intercepted by Olivier Tilahun. Tilahun moved forward on a counter and got one-on-one against Gürcan Dere, but our goalkeeper made a great save to stop his shot and at the end of the first half we held a well-deserved 2:0 lead.

It got better in the second half - Feyenoord had almost no answers to us and it was just a matter of time before goals started to mount up. Kian Fitz-Jim scored our third before Karahasanovic completed his hat-trick with a fabulous low drive from 19 meters out - what a goal to score in such a game and what a fantastic night for Karahasanovic. Wonderkid Tochero Tjon-A-Loi got his minutes in the second half and he completed the rout with a good header from Renato Molnar’s cross. Feyenoord were thoroughly embarrassed by that 5:0 defeat, but our performance was just impressive - top drawer stuff so early in the season.

• our shooting was 23/13 in this game
• we created 3 clear cut chances
• we had 8.11 average rating
• it was our 9th consecutive Johan Cruijff Schaal win
• Tochero Tjon-A-Loi scored his first ever goal for Ajax
• Player of the game: Alen Karahasanovic - absolutely brilliant performance from him with the hat-trick

 

30.07.2027 - AFC Ajax - FC Twente Enschede 4:0 (ED) - 4. pen. Youri Regeer, 35. Philippe Barriere, 40. Kian Fitz-Jim, 47. Jay Enem

The first league game of the new campaign. It looks like a good start for us - a home game against FC Twente who should be in the bottom third of the table. No wonder that we’re heavy favourites, especially after that impressive win over Feyenoord. We have all players fit and some loans are still waiting to be confirmed, so our squad sheet looks long and we have all twelve substitutes for the game (that would be rare after September). We don’t have to fix anything with the team, but Philippe Barriere replaces Hansen on our right wing.

Squad: Gürcan Dere, van der Sloot, Taylor, Hillen, Salah-Eddine (60. Drommel), Regeer, Sangare-Aka, Barriere, Karahasanovic (67. Andrew), Fitz-Jim, Enem  (76. Claes)

FC Twente made things easy for us - less than three minutes in, Barriere was pushed in the box and the captain Youri Regeer scored from the spot. Barriere was unlucky to hit the crossbar with a header four minutes later, but then our initial pressure eased for a moment and in 24’ FC Twente had their best chance of the game - Ondrej Mihalik won a header against Salah-Eddine in our six yard box. It should have been 1:1, but the ball hit the crossbar and was cleared by arriving defenders. That was a close call, FC Twente might rue this chance and wonder if the game would have played out differently if it had gone in, but we didn’t mind. Barriere headed in from a free kick to make it 2:0 and Fitz-Jim added the third goal before half-time - it looked like it’s game over for Twente after that.

We scored another goal from a set piece at the beginning of the second half - Kik Taylor headed towards the goal from a free kick and Jay Enem poked his head out to put it over the line. The rest of the second half was quite comfortable for us - we held possession and didn’t need to push too hard. Substitutes came in and the rhythm suffered a bit, but that was OK. In hindsight, this game was won by set pieces - FC Twente couldn’t defend our free kicks and they struggled every time when the ball was delivered into their box. Hours in practice paid off for us.

• our shooting was 27/13 in this game
• we made only 7 key passes - FC Twente limited our opportunities well, except in dead ball situations
• Player of the game: Kik Taylor - outstanding game from the centre-back, 8 key headers and assist to his name

 

06.08.2027 - Feyenoord Rotterdam - AFC Ajax 1:2 (ED) - 88. Olivier Tilahun - 12. Erik Coumans (og), 55. Kik Taylor

Another Klassieker derby, but I expect this game to be completely different. Feyenoord are certainly itching to get back for that defeat from two weeks ago and at De Kuip they prove to be a much more formidable opponent. In their first league game they won 3:2 against FC Utrecht in an away game and although that was a tough battle, it gave them some confidence back after the thrashing and so this one might be an extremely challenging away derby.

Squad: Gürcan Dere, van der Sloot, Taylor, Hillen, Salah-Eddine (70. Drommel), Regeer, Sangare-Aka, Barriere (70. Hansen), Karahasanovic, Fitz-Jim, Enem (67. Tjon-A-Loi)

We started with our usual positive 4-2-3-1 formation, but it probably was a mistake, because Feyenoord had early chances in the game. Their centre-back delivered a long ball behind our defense in 2’ and Cheick Toure took it way too easily past Steven van der Sloot, only to be stopped by a great save from Gürcan Dere. Feyenoord seemed to have a small initiative, but we took the lead and it was a lucky own goal for us - Feyenoord struggled to clear the ball away from the box after our free kick and it took a bad deflection from Erik Coumans and landed in the goal - probably a little bit undeserved, but the goal did calm us down and made Feyenoord more anxious. We soon had another great chance when Salah-Eddine crossed to the near post and Jay Enem was there on time to head it on target. The ball almost crossed the line before the goalkeeper got his hand to it. Despite those moments Feyenoord had way better opportunities in the first half - Halil Dervisoglu had two one-on-one opportunities (one of those was caused by a bad error from Kik Taylor), but he missed his first one and the second was stopped by Gürcan Dere. Jay Enem wasted another clear cut chance late in the first half and then the half time whistle was called - both teams had big chances in this first half and both teams failed to score from them. Our defense had been extremely error-prone and we were lucky to have the lead at half-time - Gürcan Dere was just superb in this first half.

I knew that we needed to calm things down and get our defense in order, so I switched to a balanced 4-2-3-1 for the second half and instructed the team not to counter-press and that made a lot of difference - we looked much more organized and Feyenoord rarely had an opportunity in the second half. Kik Taylor doubled our lead with a header from a corner and that gave us further control over the game. Substitute Tochero Tjon-A-Loi had two one-on-one opportunities in the final ten minutes when Feyenoord started to push forward and left space behind their defense, but the youngster failed to convert the chances and then out of nowhere Olivier Tilahun scored for Feyenoord - a little bit ambitious attempt from Tilahun and it should have been saved by Gürcan Dere, because the keeper got his hands to it, but let it slip through his fingers into the goal. That goal didn’t change the result, though, and was mere consolation for Feyenoord players - we returned with another derby win from De Kuip and I was happy enough with that.

• we created 4 clear cut chances in this game, but allowed Feyenoord to create 3 equally good opportunities
• Player of the game: Alen Karahasanovic - the best player on the pitch, made 8 key passes and gave a corner to Taylor’s goal. Main creative force in midfield for us

 

14.08.2027 - AFC Ajax - Helmond Sport 4:1 (ED) - 5. pen. Youri Regeer, 45. and 47. Alen Karahasanovic, 75. Cor Drommel - 28. Clint Verbeek

That should be the easiest game for us in August - newly-promoted Helmond Sport will fight against relegation and we should win the home game without much effort. I’ll use this opportunity to rotate a little, but some of the changes are forced - Ismael Sangare-Aka is out for 6-8 weeks with a back injury and that means we’ll start with Tim Brown and Youri Regeer partnership (with Jochem de Vries hopeful to get some minutes). Both Jay Enem and Tochero Tjon-A-Loi missed several easy chances in the Feyenoord game, but Tjon-A-Loi will get the place in the starting line-up today.

Squad: van den Heuvel, van der Sloot, Taylor, Hillen, Salah-Eddine (61. Drommel), Brown, Regeer (70. de Vries), Hansen, Karahasanovic (70. Andrew), Fitz-Jim, Tjon-A-Loi

We had initiative from the beginning. Helmond started with a defensive 4-2-3-1 formation and although they did well enough to limit our chances in the first half, attempts and shots on targets still mounted and the pressure increased. It didn’t help that they conceded an early penalty, but we allowed them to equalize and that goal came virtually out of nowhere - the first decent attack by Helmond, a cross came in and Clint Verbeek created himself a little bit of space to send a header past of Dani van den Heuvel. The players felt the pressure to restore our lead and we managed to do that right before half-time - Philippe Barriere delivered a cross into the six yard box and Alen Karahasanovic slid in expertly to send it over the line. Karahasanovic added another goal from a counter right after the second half kick-off and then the game seemed to be over. Substitute Cor Drommel scored a lovely goal in 75’ to complete the rout and in the end there were no doubts about who deserved to win this game - good result.

• our shooting was 35/14 in this game
• we didn’t allow Helmond Sport to create any real chances
• Helmond players made 25 fouls and that contributed to their defeat
• Cor Drommel scored his first league goal for Ajax
• Player of the game: Alen Karahasanovic - another two goals for the midfielder, the Bosnian really is in outstanding form at the beginning of the season

 

20.08.2027 - NAC Breda - AFC Ajax 0:2 (ED) - 32. pen. Youri Regeer, 65. Alen Karahasanovic

Next up is a trip to Rat Verlegh Stadion - NAC Breda is a tricky team to play against - two away games that we played against them in the last season finished 0:0 and 1:1 - their pace is a danger and they’re not afraid to use it in the home game, so we have to be aware of that and be clinical in front. It’s a warm Sunday evening in Breda and that should suit our technical style of football.

We still miss Ismael Sangare-Aka and after the Helmond game Tim Brown was diagnosed with a hernia so he too will be out for around 3-4 weeks. That’s a shame - an injury right when he has a chance to prove himself in the first team. These injuries mean that our midfield is rather thin - Daan Smit will start alongside Youri Regeer and de Vries will be sitting on the bench eagerly.

Squad: Gürcan Dere, van der Sloot, Taylor, Hillen, Salah-Eddine, Smit, Regeer, Barriere (73. Hansen), Karahasanovic (73. Andrew), Fitz-Jim, Tjon-A-Loi (67. Enem)

NAC Breda used a unique 4-2-3-1 DM AM Wide formation with DMCs sitting deep in front of their defensive line and four players forward. It left a gap in midfield, but it didn’t seem to bother them, because they did well to cover this distance with pace and direct balls forward, so initially we had the possession in the first half, but had to be wary of their counter-attacks. It showed that our midfeld partnership (Smit-Regeer) haven’t played together much and there were occasions of miscommunication and lost balls in midfield. However, we had possession and attempts, but nothing really dangerous until Philippe Barriere was tripped in the box in a seemingly innocent situation and Regeer gave us the lead from the spot. Barriere had our first decent chance from open play late in the first half, but that attempt was turned away by the NAC goalkeeper and at half-time we had a narrow lead.

I knew that 1:0 was a small margin and we needed to improve our attacks. I switched to a wider formation in the second half, but at first it didn’t change much - we remained in control of midfield and at least we avoided mistakes after the break so NAC’s chances to break dried up. Alen Karahasanovic narrowly missed his half-chance in 60’, but his attempt five minutes later decided the outcome - it was another fabulous goal from the Bosnian, scored from 20 meters out and the NAC goalkeeper could just watch it land right next to the post. Complacency started to show in the players’ behaviour after our second goal and through the remaining 30 minutes I tried to keep their focus. In the end we took a good 2:0 away win and neutralized NAC very well. I was happy with our defense and organization - less happy with attitude and complacency.

• we had 66% possession
• our shooting was 24/12
• we didn’t allow NAC Breda to create any real chances in this game
• we had 18 corners (some good headers on target by Kik Taylor, but no goals)
• we made 32 dribbles (while NAC defended well, their left flank was very vulnerable and both Barriere and Hansen skinned their left-back with ease)
• NAC Breda is now 18 games without a win - didn’t even notice it before the match, but that streak started deep in the last season and continues - their last win came in January
• Player of the game: Alen Karahasanovic - another good performance from the man who has scored six goals in this season already

 

29.08.2027 - FC Groningen - AFC Ajax 0:0 (ED)

Another tricky away game. FC Groningen is a good team - they’ve invested into their squad, made good transfers and have the outstanding striker in Aron Schrijver, so the away game at Hitachi Capital Mobility Stadion is not an easy fixture. We have to keep our focus and take points from this one. Unfortunately our injury problems worsened during the week - Youri Regeer is also out with a hernia and for the next couple of weeks we’re dangerously thin in midfield. I’m not sure that Jochem de Vries would be a good option against Groningen, so I had no other choice than to pull Karahasanovic away from his AMC role and start with Dino Andrew. Tochero Tjon-A-Loi has made two starts now, but hasn’t impressed and Jay Enem will get the nod in this game.

Squad: Gürcan Dere, van der Sloot, Taylor, Hillen, Salah-Eddine (76. Drommel), Smit, Karahasanovic, Barriere (76. Hansen), Andrew, Fitz-Jim, Enem (68. Tjon-A-Loi)

Both teams had early chances from set pieces. We had a corner in 5’ and the ball got through to Rio Hillen at the far post, but his attempt was blocked by the arriving defender and Daan Smit couldn’t finish from a follow-up. In 10’ it was Groningen’s turn to return the gift - their centre-back Arno van Es had a good look from an IFK, but Anass Salah-Eddine managed to block it. Daan Smit was unlucky to see his long shot rattle the crossbar in 29’ and Jay Enem sent his header just inches wide in 36’. No goals in the first half as a result and I have to say that FC Groningen looked very good in defense - not a lot of opportunities to us and 5/0 shooting so far, even though we had 10 corners.

We struggled to create chances in the second half as well. At the same time FC Groningen weren’t a threat in attack either, but they were clearly more happy with 0:0 than we were. Daan Smit found Philippe Barriere with a good diagonal ball in 63’, but the winger couldn’t finish and Jay Enem wasted a clear cut chance from a counter-attack in 66’. That was it - substitutions couldn’t improve our attack and we failed to score. I have to admit that there’s something with those last games in August that I don’t like - we often drop points right before the international break and can’t keep our form even when we start the season well. It happened again and we failed to win, despite being a slightly better team.

• we had 61% possession in this game
• we had 15 corners - one good chance from those, but no goals
• Player of the game: Zico Buurmeester (FC Groningen) - no player stood out, but Buurmeester took the award with a good game in midfield

 

Summary

It’s been a pretty good start to the season. Some difficult games in August, but we did well and are still undefeated. Transfer window didn’t decimate us, but midfield injury problems could still cost us some points in September. My player of the month is Alen Karahasanovic - clearly the best attacking player so far - incredible goals, good creativity. He’s contributed more than anyone else.

The Champions League draw was also made and we landed in Group D with Manchester City, Napoli (again!) and KRC Genk. The Belgium team is the smallest one in this group and it means that both fixtures against them are almost must win games. Manchester City offers the toughest challenge, but I know that we can play with Napoli (if we choose our tactics right).

 

Eredivisie

We’re doing good, but AZ Alkmaar have started with a bang - five straight wins with incredible goal difference. They don’t miss Inzaghi one bit and could be the team to beat in this season. PSV Eindhoven and Vitesse are also up there, so it will be a tough fight.

[Draakon]

Squad Update 2027

 

Goalkeepers

No problems with our goalkeepers. Gürcan Dere is the current number one in the Holland national team. I’m trying to give Dani van den Heuvel at least 10 games in a season to keep him match-fit. His attributes don’t look like much, but his performances in the last season were top-notch and at this point he looks like a good backup, at least at Eredivisie level. We have one decent player in Daniel Reckers coming up from academy, so the future does not look too bleak.

 

 

Defenders

We’re still fairly thin in the right-back department. Steven van der Sloot looks way too attacking-minded and in truth we need somebody there who has the ability to tackle and stop the quick defenders. Otherwise we’ll struggle in the Champions League in the upcoming seasons. Renato Molnar is a decent backup, but his development has stalled (partly because of injuries) and I doubt if he’ll become a first team right-back for us.

We have a good centre-back partnership in Kik Taylor and Rio Hillen and Julius Dirksen is a very good third option, so no problems there. Left side is also very well covered - Anass Salah-Eddine missed the half of the last season because of injury, but Cor Drommel and Terrence Douglas are both very good players (and in times of crisis, Douglas can play in DLC when needed).

 

 

 

 

Midfield

In the AMC position Dino Andrew had a good year - he trained well, developed quickly and we now have two good options in him and Alen Karahasanovic for the attacking midfielder role and also Jimmy Kamphuis coming up through the youth ranks.

 

 

 

Wingers

Big change on the right wing in the last season. Sontje Hansen was our clear number one, but now Philippe Barriere surpassed him and his potential ability looks much higher, so Hansen has to fight for minutes. Kian Fitz-Jim is the obvious number one on the left with Denso Grim and Thiago Chaves both hopeful to get some match time alongside him. We have plenty of youngsters capable of playing on both wings - Tiago Silveira ……

 

 

Strikers

Kik Braspenning wasn’t good enough to remain in Ajax and he left this Summer. Tochero Tjon-A-Loi spent his last season on loan at Willem II, but failed to keep them in the Eredivisie. He used this year to train well, though, and his first team experience sped up his development, so on paper he looks way better than Jay Enem. It’s time to test him in our first team and see if the AFa role suits him. Enem has a lot to do to keep his first team place. In the academy we have a young Estonian international Aleksei Stolts who is looking for his first team debut.

 

 

 

[Draakon]

September 2027

 

Some difficult games are coming up in September - Eredivisie fixture list includes sc Heerenveen, FC Utrecht and Vitesse - all top half teams in my eyes - and also two Champions League games against Napoli and KRC Genk.

 

11.09.2027 - AFC Ajax - sc Heerenveen 1:0 (ED) - 20. Kian Fitz-Jim

sc Heerenveen is the team that could do so much better if they used their talented youngsters well and built the rest of the team around those players. Instead they make questionable choices on the transfer market and somehow mess things up so that they’re bound to mid-table mediocrity. That’s why I believed that the home advantage should be enough to win this game and rotated a little bit, keeping in mind that we have our first Champions League match in midweek. The international window offered us time and Tim Brown returned to full training, adding another player to our midfield (he’ll start on the bench against Heerenveen).

Saturday afternoon in Amsterdam had nice weather and Johan Cruijff Arena had around 58,000 crowds. It was nice to play in front of home fans after most of our matches in August were away.

Squad: Gürcan Dere, van der Sloot, Taylor, Hillen, Drommel, Smit (61. Brown), Karahasanovic, Hansen (61. Barriere), Andrew, Fitz-Jim, Tjon-A-Loi (80. Enem)

sc Heerenveen started with a cautious 4-1-4-1 formation, but they were anticipating our mistakes and eager to search for counter-attacks with both wingers on attacking orders. We were slow to start and defenders looked error-prone with the ball - one mistake early in the game almost gifted sc Heerenveen the first goal. Rio Hillen was caught in possession by Che Nunnely and the winger was way too quick for our defenders to catch. He proceeded into the box and it looked like Gürcan Dere was beaten as well, but the ball cracked against the post and we were saved by that miss. Steven van der Sloot tested sc Heerenveen’s goalkeeper Justin Bijlow with a fierce shot, but Bijlow was ready and tipped it over. sc Heerenveen looked fairly attacking despite their tactical formation and at times we even looked a little bit under pressure. Nunnely’s chance gave them a little bit of hope, but then we managed to score. The goal came from an IFK - Dino Andrew recovered the ball after initial clearance and found Fitz-Jim with a pass and the winger scored with a well placed shot - great goal! sc Heerenveen players obviously looked disheartened and felt that they should have been leading instead, but that’s football. Tochero Tjon-A-Loi saw his half-chance being blocked, but that was it and the first half finished 1:0. It was good to lead, but I wasn’t happy with our performance so far - we haven’t created good chances in attack and looked vulnerable in defense and relied on individual brilliance of the players.

Fairly equal game continued in the second half - we tested Justin Bijlow with some good attempts, but sc Heerenveen continued to counter dangerously. We struggled to stop Che Nunnely with the ball and Teun Wilke Braams got a dangerous shot on target as well. But as I prepared for the inevitable hail mary attacks from Heerenveen in the last ten minutes, their centre-back Andreas Skovgaard was injured in 81’ and carried away from the pitch. With all substitutions made, sc Heerenveen was left with 10 men and that made our job a lot easier. Steven van der Sloot hit the post from distance in 88’, but that was it - 1:0, a narrow win with mediocre performance and room for improvement across the pitch.

• we had 64% possession in this game, but made only 4 key passes
• our shooting was 17/10 
• we made 31 dribbles in this game
• Kian Fitz-Jim scored his 50th goal for Ajax
• Player of the game: Kian Fitz-Jim - an outstanding goal, 9 dribbles and clearly our best player today

 

14.09.2027 - AFC Ajax - SSC Napoli 0:1 (Champions League Group D) - 37. Matteo Guenzouzi

I’ll start with the good news - it’s a home game to start our Champions League game and we have all chances to get a positive start. We know Napoli from last season and I have all my notes from that game, so I remember that a balanced 4-2-3-1 worked well against them and just poor finishing from Kik Braspenning held us back and the game finished 1:1. I know that we can do better and I’m eager to prove it. Tim Brown is back in the starting line-up, so are Barriere and Enem (Hansen and Tjon-A-Loi failed to impress against Heerenveen) and Alen Karahasanovic continues to fill in the BBMs role (Ismael Sangare-Aka is getting close to returning, but he still has some work to do).

Squad: Gürcan Dere, van der Sloot, Taylor, Hillen, Salah-Eddine, Brown, Karahasanovic, Barriere (73. Hansen), Andrew (66. Smit), Fitz-Jim, Enem (60. Tjon-A-Loi)

We started very positively and Jay Enem had two half-chances in the first six minutes, showing that we had a slight initiative, but then Napoli picked themselves up and showed that they, too, can be dangerous. Their right back Cesidio Luzzi and midfielder Javi Ontivios both hit the post and we had to be alert not to concede careless goals. Then came the blow - Matteo Guendouzi took the ball and just hit the unstoppable shot from 20 meters to change the game. A goal out of nowhere, as Napoli didn’t create any real chances in this first half, but there it was. We had to react and change the game, so we switched to a positive 4-2-3-1 and started to use gegenpress. It looked effective enough - Dino Andrew had a clear cut chance in 38’ (blocked) and Philippe Barriere had a half-chance in injury time after Hillen picked him up with a lovely diagonal ball. Jay Enem managed to head it against the post right before the half-time whistle, but we went to the break, trailing, despite all those chances.

Our motivation remained in the second half and I was positive that we could turn this game around, but I needed to find some creativity in midfield, so Daan Smit came on, Dino Andrew was off and Alen Karahasanovic was pushed back to the AMC role. That made a huge difference! Substitute Tochero Tjon-A-Loi hit the fierce shot that was parried by the Napoli goalkeeper and then had a couple of half-chances on a counter. Karahasanovic was active in attack and was part of several attacking moves, but we couldn’t find a way through. Our miserable evening in front of the goal was summed up by Sontje Hansen missing his clear cut chance in injury time and when the final whistle sounded I was dismayed. How could we lose that game with so many goal scoring chances? With no goals? Absolutely devastating. The game was ours to take. All three points were on the table and we failed with so many chances missed. That’s an incredibly tough result to take.

• our shooting was 24/13 in this game
• we made 21 key passes and created 3 clear cut chances - a lot of creativity, especially in the second half
• Player of the game: Matteo Guendouzi (SSC Napoli) - his goal made all the difference, unfortunately

 

19.09.2027 - FC Utrecht - AFC Ajax 1:1 (ED) - 18. Juruel Bernadina - 57. Kik Taylor

Back to Eredivisie. As I said, September has some tricky away games and although we were slight favourites against FC Utrecht, I didn’t expect anything easy at Galgenwaard. Both teams looked a little bit tired because both teams play European football this season (FC Utrecht in the Conference League) and that shows. We still miss Youri Regeer and Ismael Sangare-Aka in midfield, so I kept Alen Karahasanovic in BBMs role and started with Dino Andrew in AMC.

Squad: Gürcan Dere, van der Sloot, Taylor, Hillen, Salah-Eddine, Brown, Karahasanovic, Barriere (68. Hansen), Andrew (46. Smit), Fitz-Jim, Tjon-A-Loi (68. Enem)

It was a difficult choice, whether to start with a balanced or positive mentality, but in the end I continued with a positive formation. Perhaps a mistake, because FC Utrecht was using a 4-2-3-1 DM AM Wide formation with two DMCs - playing for counter-attacks and moving the ball quickly from defense to attack - similar to what NAC Breda used against us, so we should have been prepared, but we weren’t. I’m not sure if it was the tactics or not, but the first half was a disaster. We gave FC Utrecht the first opportunity already in 7’ and although the first shot landed safely in the hands of Gürcan Dere, it was a bad omen. Terrible back pass from Rio Hillen was easily intercepted by Juruel Bernadina and the striker made it 1:0 with 18’ on the clock. At 25’ Albert Gudmundsson hit the post with a fierce shot and we were lucky not to go to the break 0:2 behind. The first half was just frustrating - we couldn’t create anything, didn’t get any chances and made defensive mistakes. Dino Andrew was awful in AMC and was taken off. I asked the team to play wider in possession and pushed Alen Karahasanovic back to the AMC role. That made a little difference in the second half. Kian Fitz-Jim started the second period with a dangerous attempt on target (tipped wide by Robin Roefs), before Kik Taylor equalized from a corner - not sure that we deserved to get that goal, but I was happy to get the equalizer and we still had over 30 minutes to play. However, FC Utrecht had more promising moments in this time - Wes Bottenburg was unmarked in an IFK situation and Gürcan Dere did well to tip it over. Evan Rottier hit the crossbar in 65’ (another good attack by FC Utrecht) and Jeroen Louwers was unlucky not to score from the rebound. It remained 1:1, but in the end FC Utrecht could rue their missed chances and I had to admit that perhaps we didn’t deserve to get that point. I was really upset with the poor performance - we were unable to control the game and create chances and were almost punished by defeat. The second half was better tactically, but still not good enough.

• we made only 8 key passes and couldn’t create a single chance in this game
• FC Utrecht were unlucky to hit the woodwork 3 times
• Player of the game: Kik Taylor - only defender to play well and scored the equalizer

 

25.09.2027 - Vitesse Arnhem - AFC Ajax 0:2 (ED) - 33. Alen Karahasanovic, 50. Rio Hillen

A few disappointing games in September haven’t hurt our morale, but it looks like we need new ideas. The best news is that Youri Regeer and Ismael Sangare-Aka are both back in full training (although not exactly match fit) and our midfield problems look to be behind us.

Vitesse is a formidable opponent - another former Ajax manager Erik ten Hag at helm and I remember that despite beating them twice last season they were clearly the better team in both games, so perhaps we need to change something tactically (or rather - not to change, because last time at Gelredome we used a balanced formation without gegenpress and it gave Vitesse too much time with the ball). Every season they rely on loan players from Chelsea and sometimes the squad they assemble is almost too good to be true. This season the quality of loanees seems a little more mediocre. We have George Power back (who has spent a season in Eredivisie before), but there are some weaknesses in their squad and overall I have a feeling that if we play our best game we should be able to defeat them. I made several changes in the starting line-up after disappointing performances against FC Utrecht. 

Squad: Gürcan Dere, van der Sloot, Taylor, Hillen, Salah-Eddine, Brown (65. Regeer), Sangare-Aka (76. de Vries), Hansen, Karahasanovic, Fitz-Jim, Enem (72. Tjon-A-Loi)

We started with our usual positive 4-2-3-1 formation and high pressing and that caused Vitesse a lot of problems in the first half. We put them under pressure with the ball and won it back in dangerous positions, so both Sontje Hansen and Jay Enem had a clear cut chance as a result in the first ten minutes, but both of those two chances were wasted. It starts to become the story of the season - enough good moments, but extremely poor finishing. Alen Karahasanovic started in his usual AMC position in this game and instantly showed why he should be in this attacking role - when Anass Salah-Eddine found him with a cross in 33’ he was sure to finish with composure and give us the lead at half-time.

We continued to play in the second half - Rio Hillen headed in from a free kick and Vitesse had no answers to that. They tried hard, but never really looked like they could come back from 0:2 and so we took a valuable away win. I was impressed with a clean sheet and very well controlled game, especially possession and midfield performance.

• our shooting was 17/10 in this game
• we created 3 clear cut chances
• Player of the game: Chris van der Weide (Vitesse Arnhem) - not really sure why their left-back was named as the player of the game. Probably because he worked his socks off to stop Philippe Barriere on our right flank and made 5 key tackles in the process, but honestly it should have gone to one of our players

 

29.09.2027 - KRC Genk - AFC Ajax 2:2 (Champions League Group D) - 13. Luis Fernando, 90.+2 Nicolas Ibba - 11. Jay Enem, 36. Sontje Hansen

We finished September with a trip to Belgium. KRC Genk is the smallest team in our group - their stadium (Luminus Arena) has just a little over 20,000 capacity which is smaller than several stadiums in Eredivisie and their league season hasn’t started too well - at the moment they’re 7th in Jupiler Pro League - that doesn’t look too impressive. I knew that we need to leave our disappointment over the Napoli defeat behind us and get three points from here. We were slight favourites, but I chose to start with a balanced 4-2-3-1 formation and see how this game goes on.

Squad: Gürcan Dere, van der Sloot, Taylor, Hillen, Salah-Eddine (78. Drommel), Regeer, Sangare-Aka, Hansen, Karahasanovic (74. Andrew), Fitz-Jim, Enem (71. Tjon-A-Loi)

We started well and the first good attack in 11’ ended with a good attempt from Sontje Hansen. The opposition goalkeeper struggled to save it and Jay Enem finished from rebound - 1:0 and that looked promising. Unfortunately we allowed Genk back into this game way too quickly and Luis Fernando equalized with an accurate header just two minutes later.  Despite that mishap we went to half-time break with a 2:1 lead. The second goal was another combination between Enem and Hansen - this time it was Enem who saw his shot being saved by the goalkeeper and Hansen tucked it in from rebound.

We controlled the game generally well in the second half, but it was mostly uneventful until the final ten minutes. We had a couple of good chances to decide the result then - Tochero Tjon-A-Loi had a clear cut chance that was blocked and in the last minute Kik Taylor was completely open in a free kick situation, but his shot was what you’d expect from a centre-back and it was easily held by the goalkeeper Manu Thys. It was then when the disaster struck. Thys was quick to react and open the play with a long ball forward, their striker Nicolas Ibba had too much space to run into and the quick attack was finished with a great strike to equalize it very late in the game. I seriously had my head in my hands - another win that looked almost certain was blown away in the manner that we just can’t afford. I wasn’t sure if I was furious, disappointed or just let down, but I slowly realized that perhaps we won’t recover from two games like that - we should have collected at least 4 points from those games, but we now had one and needed to stun Manchester City to just have a chance of qualifying. 

• we had 60% possession - good for away game
• we created 3 clear cut chances - that should have been enough, but we failed to win
• Player of the game: Luis Fernando (KRC Genk)

 

Summary

I can’t be happy with our form in September. We had some quite poor games where we somehow got the result (like the win over Heerenveen or the point against FC Utrecht that we really didn’t deserve) and then some good games where we failed to deliver the result. I think that the one match I’m fairly happy with was the away win over Vitesse - a good solid away win against a strong team. We need more games like that.

Match performances rated with C+ the highest (against Vitesse), but in hindsight we rarely played to our full capabilities and inconsistencies were clearly evident.

My player of the month is Kik Taylor - always solid in defense, dangerous in set pieces and his goal saved us a point against Utrecht.

 

Eredivisie

All the strong teams are high in the table, but AZ Alkmaar have had just an incredible start to their season and they’re now four points away from us after winning their first eight games. Their goal difference looks equally impressive and they’re the team to beat this season - I hope that they slip up sooner rather than later or the pressure might increase too much.

At the bottom of the table there are newly promoted teams FC Emmen and Telstar fighting against relegation, with FC Twente also struggling (as usual in recent seasons).

[Draakon]

October 2027

 

Six games in October and the schedule balances easy with tough - some home games in the league, but most attention goes to the Topper Derby with PSV Eindhoven, trip to Etihad and at the end of the month we have a title six pointer against AZ Alkmaar (a must win game).

 

03.10.2027 - AFC Ajax - VVV Venlo 4:0 (ED) - 40., 53. and 55. Kian Fitz-Jim, 90. Rio Hillen

We are clear favourites for the game - VVV Venlo has played in recent seasons, but they’re a decent mid-table side and nothing more. So we should be fine.

We miss Dani van den Heuvel for the game, because the backup goalkeeper pulled his ankle ligaments a couple of days ago in training, but the rest of the team is ready to start.

Squad: Gürcan Dere, van der Sloot, Taylor, Hillen, Drommel, Regeer (61. Brown), Sangare-Aka, Barriere, Karahasanovic, Fitz-Jim (61. Grim), Enem (71. Claes)

We had two great chances inside the first fifteen minutes and both were created by Ismael Sangare-Aka. He has innate ability to spot the pass from midfield and showed it twice - first releasing Jay Enem with a good ball behind defense and then delivering a beautiful through ball to Alen Karahasanovic. Too bad that finishing was not up to the task and both shots were saved by the VVV goalkeeper Michael Verrips. Then VVV had their best opportunity in 34’ when ex-Ajax forward Jaymillio Pinas was left with a space, but Gürcan Dere was alert and tipped it wide. I was prepared for a difficult half-time team talk, but we managed to take the lead before the whistle - Kian Fitz-Jim headed in from a corner after Verrips made a mistake and came off from his line to catch the ball. Deserved lead at half-time despite terrible finishing.

I asked the team to concentrate better and avoid complacency in the second half and it worked - Fitz-Jim took things over soon after the second half kick-off. His wonderful header doubled our lead and just a few minutes later he completed his hat-trick with a volley (both crosses came from Philippe Barriere). That secured the result, but the game wasn’t over - centre-back Rio Hillen completed the rout with a wonderful free kick (didn’t expect it from him!) to score one of the highlight goals of this season so far. Excellent result in the end and I was happy with the second half performance.

• our shooting was 22/14 in this game
• we created 3 clear cut chances
• Player of the game: Kian Fitz-Jim - outstanding game and hat-trick from the left winger

 

15.10.2027 - AFC Ajax - PSV Eindhoven 3:1 (ED) - 2. Kian Fitz-Jim, 7. Jay Enem, 81. Philippe Barriere - 69. Jordi van der Linden

The international window happened. In a way I welcomed it, because it gave us a whole two weeks to prepare for a derby game against PSV Eindhoven, but the problem it caused concerns fitness of our international players - many of them returned exhausted and in need of a rest, especially the ones who travelled more. Ismael Sangare-Aka (Burkina Faso), Tochero Tjon-A-Loi (Suriname) and Steven van der Sloot (Cameroon) looked exhausted and needed to skip this game, Alen Karahasanovic also struggles with fatigue, but will start. That’s one thing I wouldn’t want to see while preparing for a derby game. I solved the problem by starting with Cor Drommel in the right-back position and shuffling the midfield (Tim Brown will start next to Youri Regeer). PSV had their own problems with fitness - their best striker Robert Bozenik struggled with injury and should be close to returning, but I’m not sure if Ernest Faber is willing to take a risk with him in the starting line-up.

The second thing that changed in those two weeks was weather. Autumn has arrived and for the first time in this season we’ll play in rain and below 10C weather.

Squad: Gürcan Dere, Drommel, Taylor, Hillen, Salah-Eddine, Brown (69. Smit), Regeer, Barriere (81. Hansen), Karahasanovic (63. Andrew), Fitz-Jim, Enem

PSV wasn’t ready for the game. Not ready at all. They couldn’t handle our high pressure and panicked with the ball. Jorrit Hendrix gave a risky pass across his own box that was intercepted by Jay Enem. The striker laid it left to Kian Fitz-Jim who had an easy finish - 1:0 with less than two minutes played and it didn’t stop there. It was 2:0 soon enough - Enem finished with a good strike after an excellent pass from Alen Karahasanovic. PSV sorted their defense out after that first 10-15 minutes, but the damage was done. 

Our main focus for the second half was to avoid complacency and not to make anything stupid. Complacency was  well under control, but an avoidable mistake happened around 62’ - Anass Salah-Eddine missed his tackle inside the box and fouled Kevin van den Broek. Joey Veerman stepped up to take the penalty, but Gürcan Dere leaped to the right side and tipped it wide! Great moment for the goalkeeper to keep our two-goal lead. PSV found the goal, though - in 69’ our defense was carved open and Jordi van der Linden broke the offside trap. This time he scored and even Gürcan Dere couldn’t save that one-on-one situation. PSV had scored one goal back and for a while it looked like they’re really back in this game. We hadn’t played well for the most part of this second half, they had a penalty and then another clear cut chance, so it looked like they could score the equalizer, too, but in 81’ Philippe Barriere headed in our third and that was it. Game over. Kik Taylor could have added our fourth goal with a free header from a corner, but that one went over and it didn’t matter too much. It was a good win for us - excellent start, difficult 10-15 minutes in the first half, but a solid 3:1 win in the derby game and I was happy with the performance.

• we created 3 clear cut chances in this game
• Player of the game: Jay Enem - a goal and assist - good contribution from the striker

 

20.10.2027 - Manchester City - AFC Ajax 1:0 (Champions League Group D) - 71. Leroy Sane

The trip to Etihad could be the toughest game of our season and I knew that we had a little chance to get something out of this game. Even a draw would have been a great success. I listened to my assistant who recommended a cautious mentality and we went to the game with a cautious 4-2-3-1 formation without our usual gegenpress.

Squad: Gürcan Dere, van der Sloot, Taylor, Hillen, Salah-Eddine, Regeer, Sangare-Aka (68. Brown), Hansen, Karahasanovic (79. Andrew), Fitz-Jim, Enem (57. Tjon-A-Loi)

Well, the game went quite how I expected it to play out. Manchester City had initiative from start to finish, but it has to be said that we defended well and looked really organized - they got shots on target and tested Gürcan Dere several times (and our goalkeeper made some good saves), but couldn’t carve us open and create clear cut chances in the first half. We had just two shots on target and while we weren’t really threatening, in a close game like this everything can happen and one mistake or a moment of brilliance can be enough to decide the result, so at half-time I was pretty happy with the team. At times we were pushed too deep and allowed City to play the possession football that they like and surround our area with numbers, so for the second half I switched for a balanced mentality.

It looked fairly even in the second half as well - we had good attempts (some of them on target) and City weren’t too convincing, but in the end they still got the goal they needed - Steven van der Sloot gave just a little bit space to Leroy Sane and the winger headed in what proved to be the winner. I was disappointed, but not disheartened - it was a good tactical battle for 90 minutes and I feel that we made the right choices, but it’s difficult against quality. In attack it was evident that our players struggled to beat their defenders in one-on-one situations and we didn’t win as many duels that we usually do in Eredivisie. That’s the difference in class and it’s difficult to do anything about it.

• we didn’t get any real chances in this game, but 9/6 shows it wasn’t completely hopeless
• we made only 3 key passes in this game
• our average rating was just 6.77 - Gürcan Dere and Kik Taylor stood out defensively, but attacking players were below par and creativity was limited
• Player of the game: Sandro Tonali (Manchester City)

 

23.10.2027 - AFC Ajax - NEC Nijmegen 3:0 (ED) - 10. pen. Youri Regeer, 20. Tochero Tjon-A-Loi, 79. Kian Fitz-Jim

Back to Eredivisie and it’s time to focus on our next games. We host NEC Nijmegen - a decent mid-table side that got promoted last Summer and then established their place in the top tier. They started their season well, but then saw a dip in form, so they’ve won just one game of their last seven fixtures. That doesn’t give them a lot of confidence coming to Johan Cruijff Arena and we’re heavy favourites for the game.

We have a little fatigue from the midweek game and several backup/rotation players are injured - Dani van den Heuvel is recovering from pulled ankle ligaments, Jochem de Vries suffered a groin strain in training, Denso Grim is out with a twisted knee and Renato Molnar is sidelined until January with hip problems. Selection is somewhat limited because of all that and we have only eight substitutions for the game.

I made three changes to our line-up. Cor Drommel and Tochero Tjon-A-Loi trained well this week and deserve a chance (also, I hope that Tjon-A-Loi can end his goal scoring drought) and Philippe Barriere replaces Sontje Hansen on our right wing (Hansen has looked good on the pitch, but has been ineffective with wasted chances and lower crossing success).

Squad: Gürcan Dere, van der Sloot, Taylor (68. Douglas) Hillen, Drommel, Regeer (68. Smit), Sangare-Aka, Barriere, Karahasanovic (64. Andrew), Fitz-Jim, Tjon-A-Loi

NEC started with a defensive 4-2-3-1 formation and it didn’t take us long to score our first goal. Tjon-A-Loi was brought down in the box and Youri Regeer scored from the spot. It was already a good contribution from the striker to earn a penalty, but i didn’t stop there - Regeer found Tjon-A-Loi with a long direct ball and the striker fired it in from 18 meters with a fierce shot. Absolutely fabulous goal that should leave all doubts about him behind. Tjon-A-Loi had a couple more chances in the first half, especially the one-on-one situation late in the first period, but not all shots could go in and it remained 2:0 at half-time. Despite that we’d looked very comfortable in the first half and had a solid lead.

We continued well after the break, too - a couple of decent opportunities, like Regeer’s half-chance from an IFK and lovely combination in midfield that played Steven van der Sloot open in the box, but we couldn’t add another goal after Kian Fitz-Jim found the target from just outside of the box - a lovely effort, accurately placed next to the post. The NEC goalkeeper was helpless and that wrapped things up - final score 3:0, calm and confident performance from start to finish and two goals to the end of the season highlight reel.

• our shooting was 22/12 in this game
• we didn’t allow NEC Nijmegen to create any real chances
• Tochero Tjon-A-Loi scored his first league goal for Ajax
• Player of the game: Ismael Sangare-Aka - played well, gave 5 key passes and an assist to Fitz-Jim’s goal

 

26.10.2027 - SV Spakenburg - AFC Ajax 1:5 (TOTO KNVB Beker 1st round) - 84. Jesper Beekhuis - 14. Tiago Chaves, 62., 77. and 88. pen. Daan Smit

It’s time for our first cup game and it’s an away match with the semi-professional team of Spakenburg. I had to take a quick look on the map to find them - can’t remember if we’ve ever played with them or not, but it should be an easy training match, as most of those early cup rounds tend to be. Despite their semi-professional status, SV Spakenburg boasts a decent 8,000 capacity stadium, so a good crowd can be expected to show up to the game.

We have Denso Grim and Dani van den Heuvel back in full training and, as usual, I rotate heavily to give backup players and youngsters some minutes for the first team.

Squad: van den Heuvel, van der Sloot (46. Salah-Eddine), Hillen, Douglas, Drommel, Brown, Smit, Hansen, Andrew, Chaves, Claes

It was easy as expected. Tiago Chaves hasn’t earned much playing time, but he did use his chance well here, opening things up with a good volley from a cross by Sontje Hansen. Dino Andrew doubled our lead with a free kick (showing his set piece skills there!) and we led 2:0 at half-time, although our attacking creativity left much to desire. We should have been much more attacking and our midfield didn’t offer enough good passes to create chances.

While we couldn’t crack the SV Spakenburg defense open, we could hammer them down with sheer number of shots and we didn just that. Daan Smit was the hero in the second half - his brilliant volley from just outside of the area made it 3:0. Then Dino Andrew almost scored his second free kick, but unfortunately hit the post, before Smit hit the target with another scorcher from distance - a goal from 23 meters out. Brilliant goals from the midfielder - it looked like Spakenburg were ready to mark our attackers, tackle hard and track back, but were leaving space in front of their box and Smit used it ruthlessly to bomb their goal from distance. We couldn’t keep our clean sheet, though - Spakenburg had a corner in 84’, and they had a couple of shots blocked before the ball fell to Jesper Beekhuis, who took advantage of the open goal in front of him. That was a mere consolation for Spakenburg. When Anass Salah-Eddine was fouled in the box, Daan Smit completed his hat-trick from the spot and that was it - 5:1 was a decent final score. I was delighted with Smit, but a little bit disappointed with our lack of clear cut chances.

• we had 60% possession in this game
• we had 25/14 shooting
• we didn’t give SV Spakenburg any real chances
• Player of the game: Daan Smit - fantastic hat-trick from the midfielder

 

30.10.2027 - AZ Alkmaar - AFC Ajax 1:1 (ED) - 4. Darryl Hose - 23. pen. Youri Regeer

October ends with the Noord-Hollandse derby and it looks like a title six-pointer this season. AZ Alkmaar had a fantastic start to their season, but after winning their first eight games, their form dipped in October - one loss and two draws have dropped them to second place, three points behind us. Win here could take them to the title race again, but losing could be devastating to their ambitions.

Both teams had their best eleven available, so no excuses. Their manager Jordy Reneerkens tried to play down the importance of the result, but we were excited and ready to prove a point.

Squad: Gürcan Dere, van der Sloot, Taylor, Hillen, Salah-Eddine, Regeer, Sangare-Aka, Barriere (64. Hansen), Karahasanovic, Fitz-Jim (86. Chaves), Enem (64. Tjon-A-Loi)

The game started with a cold shower for us. AZ Alkmaar had a free kick and Darryl Hose rose higher than anyone else in our box to head it in with less than five minutes played. Not the best start and perhaps a sign that Hose is indeed an incredible talent - attacking midfielder with exceptional technical ability, decent size and strength to win duels both on the ground and in the air and we should have paid more attention to him before the game. We had a huge task to turn this game around, because AZ could relax and start to wait for our next mistake. Finding chances against AZ wasn’t an easy task, but they helped us in that - their left-back Fedde Leysen tripped Philippe Barriere in the box and Youri Regeer equalised from the spot - just 23’ in and we were back in level terms. That was encouraging. The rest of the first half looked fairly even - both teams had a few half-chances, but defence looked well organised at both ends of the pitch and it remained 1:1 at half-time.

In the second half we had two great chances to win the game. Jay Enem led our attacks and Steven van der Sloot found him with a great ball early in the second half, but Enem’s attempt was somehow scrambled away from the goal line. In 57’ Alen Karahasanovic fed a lovely through ball to Enem and this time it was a clear cut chance - the AZ goalkeeper managed to save it and the moment was wasted. That could have been the winner, but it wasn’t, and we returned from Alkmaar with just one point. A draw from an away game wasn’t too bad, because it was more important not to lose, but I’m still disappointed because we had chances in the second half and just failed to take them.

• Player of the game: Alen Karahasanovic - created good chances in the second half and led the attacks well

 

Summary

Another month that left me with mixed feelings - we played well in Eredivisie, especially good with the win over PSV Eindhoven, but failed to deliver in the Champions League even though the performances were good. It’s really difficult to name the player of the month - perhaps Kian Fitz-Jim who scored great goals and played part in all of our wins? Most of our players were somewhat inconsistent and excellent games were followed by mediocre performances. At the same time it’s useful to have different goalscorers in different games, not to rely on one player to make a difference in every match.

 

Eredivisie

 

AZ Alkmaar had a dip in form in October - they failed to win in four games and gave away their lead. We’re now leading the title race and confidence is high because of that. At the bottom of the table there’s NAC Breda still looking for their first win and FC Emmen still looking for their first point. Eleven games lost in a row to start their season must be some kind of record.

[Draakon]

November 2027

 

02.11.2027 - AFC Ajax - Manchester City 2:1 (Champions League Group D) - 21. Kian Fitz-Jim, 37. Sontje Hansen - 81. Stan Nieskens

Nothing to lose, but extremely difficult to win - to sum up this game. At least we had all of the players fit, although fatigue started to show - Steven van der Sloot and Kik Taylor have had more than average match load in Autumn and I should probably start to rotate more in defence. Tactically we went with a balanced 4-2-3-1 formation - no point to be cautious if we needed a win and a balanced mentality has worked in the past when we’re at home and against European giants.

Squad: Gürcan Dere, van der Sloot, Taylor, Hillen, Salah-Eddine, Regeer (78. Brown), Sangare-Aka, Hansen (75. Barriere), Karahasanovic, Fitz-Jim, Enem (68. Tjon-A-Loi)

I expected City to start with a little bit more caution and their balanced mentality suited us well, because it gave us some freedom with the ball and the first 20 minutes were fairly even football. Then we had a corner and from the follow-up the cross found Kian Fitz-Jim at the far post, who volleyed in to give us the lead. Sontje Hansen was preferred over Philippe Barriere as our right winger, mainly because of his dribbling skills. He couldn’t deliver his crosses from the wing, but showed his technique in 37’, skipping past a defender and playing himself open into the box - a well-placed shot made it 2:0 and at half time we had a solid, but perhaps unexpected lead over the City! I was especially happy with our clinical finishing - two moments and two goals - we couldn’t afford to miss our chances and for once, we didn’t.

City started to attack more and increase pressure. To counter their positive 4-2-3-1 I switched to a cautious mentality when around 60 minutes were played. Ex-Ajax player Antony tested Gürcan Dere with a good attempt in 62’ and the ball deflected back from the crossbar - that was the most dangerous moment so far. City finally scored in 81’ - their Dutch striker Sam Nieskens won the aerial duel against Anass Salah-Eddine and headed in from close range. Time started to run out for City to equalise and I watched nervously from the sideline as Sebastiano Esposito attempt hit the bottom of the post in injury time, but we held on and took a massive win! Fantastic result. It looked easier than expected in the first half, but we had to fight harder after the break and fully deserved to win. It’s difficult to see us winning all remaining games and get through this group, but at least we have a chance.

• we didn’t give Manchester City any real chances in this game and this itself is a massive achievement
• Player of the game: Sontje Hansen - active on the right wing and scored a good goal

 

07.11.2027 - AFC Ajax - Heracles Almelo 3:0 (ED) - 32. and 33. Tochero Tjon-A-Loi, 75. Daan Smit

We are clear favourites for this game, but this could be a tricky one. Heracles are clearly overachieving and occupy the 5th place in the table. That success is all due to their defence - they’ve conceded just 6 goals in 12 games so far and I suspect that they’ll be difficult to break down, even at Johan Cruijff Arena. We don’t have many injuries, but some of the players look tired match load is seriously getting too much for Steven van der Sloot and Kik Taylor, so I need to rotate a lot (a little bit more than I’d like to) - Cor Drommel starts as the right wing-back and Terrence Douglas will make up the centre-back partnership with Rio Hillen.

Squad: Gürcan Dere, Drommel, Douglas, Hillen, Salah-Eddine, Brown, Regeer (56. Smit), Barriere, Karahasanovic (56. Andrew), Fitz-Jim (70. Grim), Tjon-A-Loi

Heracles came against us with a 4-4-1-1 2 DM formation and with clear intention to park the bus and avoid conceding at all costs. It seemed to work pretty well in the first 30 minutes - it was a drab match and we couldn’t crack their defence open, but then their midfielder Mees Hoedemakers gave a terrible back pass across their area and Tochero Tjon-A-Loi intercepted it - easy finish from point blank range and we had the lead. Just a minute later we had a corner and in the follow-up situation Karahasanovic found Tjon-A-Loi at the near post with a cross. The striker headed it in from point blank range to give us a two-goal lead before half-time.

The second half was more relaxed - we didn’t have to pressure them too much, but at the same time Heracles didn’t create anything dangerous either. Our third goal came in 75’ after an excellent combination between Barriere, Andrew, Tjon-A-Loi and Smit, who finished it with a lovely strike. That wrapped things up for us - three points looked mandatory, but three goals and a clean sheet made me happy.

• we had 63% possession in this game, but made only 8 key passes
• we didn’t give Heracles any real chances in this game
• Daan Smit scored his first ever league goal for Ajax
• Player of the game: Tochero Tjon-A-Loi - two goals and assist from the wonderkid

 

19.11.2027 - AFC Ajax - ADO Den Haag 1:0 (ED) - 30. pen. Youri Regeer

Another international window passed and the players who remained in Amsterdam, trained hard. Fortunately we didn’t have any injuries and players returned from their national teams healthy, but the ones who played more matches and travelled long distances looked rather tired. Ismael Sangare-Aka was outright exhausted, Tochero Tjon-A-Loi and Cor Drommel also weren’t ready to start this game. The only good thing is it’s Friday evening and we have five full days until our midweek Champions League fixture.

Our opponents ADO Den Haag is a decent mid-table team. They had an extremely active transfer window this Summer, but despite the amount of new players in the squad they’ve maintained some sort of consistency and keep their place in the middle of the pack - not too good, but not too bad either. Their attacking players look better than defenders, on paper at least, but on the pitch they’ve failed to score goals (just 11 goals out of 14 games in Eredivisie). We’re favourites at Johan Cruijff Arena, though, and home advantage should work to our benefit.

Squad: Gürcan Dere, van der Sloot, Taylor, Hillen, Salah-Eddine, Brown, Regeer (78. Smit), Barriere (67. Hansen), Karahasanovic (67. Andrew), Fitz-Jim, Enem

It was a drab first half from us. We didn’t show our usual creativity and didn’t get the game under control. ADO started with a defensive 4-2-3-1 and didn’t pose too much threat to Gürcan Dere’s goal, but we were equally poor. Alen Karahasanovic was tripped in the box and Youri Regeer scored from the spot and that was the goal that gave us the lead at half time. We didn’t create much from open play, but in injury time Rio Hillen took a good free kick that was saved off the line and Kik Taylor had a great chance to score from the rebound, but the centre-back somehow missed it and the ball came back from the post. That miss summed up our first half - I had no reason to be happy with our overall game despite our lead.

The second half was pretty similar. Philippe Barriere had a good chance in 61’ when Kian Fitz-Jim found him at the far post with a good cross, but his attempt was saved. The rest of the match was pretty uneventful - most of the attempts we had went off target and left me frustrated. In the end the penalty gave us all three points, but we should have been much better.

• we had only 46% possession - for some reason we couldn’t get midfield fully under our control
• our shooting was 21/6 - poor
• we made only 7 key passes
• our average rating was just 6.74 - no player had 7.0 or higher
• Player of the game: Pascal Struijk (ADO Den Haag) - their centre-back had a decent game

 

24.11.2027 - SSC Napoli - AFC Ajax 1:1 (Champions League Group D) - 43. Lucas Lucchetta - 37. Jay Enem

After a rather poor performance on Friday, I had to motivate the team properly for our midweek test against Napoli. We had enough time to prepare for this match and the players looked fit and ready for the challenge. I’m afraid that draw was not enough at this point - we needed to win in Italy and so we started with a balanced 4-2-3-1 formation. My team selection was based on our usual first eleven, but Philippe Barriere’s poor display against ADO Den Haag didn’t do him any favours and so Sontje Hansen was again preferred in the AMR role for a Champions League game.

Squad: Gürcan Dere, van der Sloot, Taylor, Hillen, Salah-Eddine, Regeer, Sangare-Aka, Hansen (62. Barriere), Karahasanovic (84. Andrew), Fitz-Jim, Enem (62. Tjon-A-Loi)

It was a quiet 30 minutes or so in the first half - the teams looked fairly equal and cancelled each other out on the pitch, but then we managed to take the lead and it was a beautiful goal, too. Kik Taylor found Jay Enem with a direct ball forward, our striker took it down with the first touch that could have made Lionel Messi proud and fired it into the net. A fabulous goal and it struck Napoli a little. Three minutes later Sontje Hansen played himself free in the box and had a great look to make it 2:0, but the shot was saved and opportunity wasted. We looked like we had taken control of the game in the end of the first half, but then allowed Napoli to equalise - Luca Lucchetta rose above Rio Hillen to head it in late in the first half and at the half-time it was 1:1 - unfortunate, as I felt that we had edged the first half and deserved to lead.

We had a good period in the beginning of the second half, for the first 15 minutes we were clearly the more attacking team. Jay Enem headed just over from the near post. Sontje Hansen had a few attempts on target and Alen Karahasanovic sent his effort inches wide of the post. However, Lucchetta’s close range attempt in 60’ demanded a great reflex save from Gürcan Dere, so we had to be aware not to get too carried away and turn careless in defence. We made substitutions in 62’ and unfortunately it didn’t make the impact that I had hoped - we lost our sharpness in attack and the game evened up. In the end it remained 1:1 - not the worst result, but I thought that we needed a win from here and a draw is not good enough. However, I soon learned that KRC Genk had stunned Manchester City 1:0 at home and that means our group is wide open - all four teams have between 5-8 points and in the final round everything is possible, so in the end 1:1 from Napoli keeps our hopes of knockout stages alive for a little more.

• Player of the game: Jay Enem - scored the best goal of the game

 

27.11.2027 - SC Telstar - AFC Ajax 0:0 (ED)

SC Telstar is probably the weakest team in Eredivisie, but they’ve managed to keep 16th position and their hopes for survival are not entirely gone yet. Away game means we’re travelling to Rabobank Ijmond Stadion which is the smallest stadium in the league - and probably packed to its full 5,374 capacity. I used this game to rotate players (few of them suffer under too heavy match load) and give opportunities to youngsters. Kian Fitz-Jim was a disappointment against Napoli and Denso Grim will get his chance on the left wing.

Squad: van den Heuvel, Drommel, Douglas, Hillen, Salah-Eddine, Brown, Sangare-Aka (81. Smit), Barriere (81. Hansen), Andrew, Grim (60. Chaves), Tjon-A-Loi

The game itself was an utter disappointment. We controlled midfield and had possession, but most of the time couldn’t create anything really dangerous with it. We had a couple of promising moments in the first half - Denso Grim was unlucky to head it against the post in 25’. Philippe Barriere had a half-chance and Cor Drommel took a fierce shot that was parried away well by the Telstar goalkeeper. Our attacking performance was mediocre at best, so at half time the players heard mostly criticism. That didn’t help much, as the second period was pretty much the copy of the first - Denso Grim hit the woodwork again. As the time was running out, we switched to an attacking 4-2-3-1 in 69’ and Telstar defenders were under considerable pressure. They made over 20 fouls in the game and that resulted in cards, so in 74’ Jochem van Dijk received his second yellow and was sent off. Ten minutes later it was Tarik Uzunsabal who was booked for the second time in this game and for the final minutes Telstar were left with 9 men. We had all of the chances to create something in the end of the game and score the winner, but we couldn’t turn our numerical advantage into goals. It remained goalless and I was extremely disappointed with the performance - it should have been an easy win, but the team let me down. For some of the players it’s proof why they’re not in the starting line-up for Champions League games (Dino Andrew, Philippe Barriere, Tim Brown and Tochero Tjon-A-Loi should reflect hard on that game). I took some time after the game to make my thoughts and feelings abundantly clear to the players and the press were probably wondering what’s going on behind our dressing room door, but it needed to be done. No excuses for dropping two points like that.

• our shooting was 22/15, but we didn’t pose a real threat most of the times
• we didn’t allow SC Telstar to create any real chances, so defensively we had things under control
• we got 16 corners in this game, but couldn’t make them count either
• Player of the game: Ismael Sangare-Aka - decent game from the midfielder, the only player to create something up front

 

Summary

The last result was a bitter pill to take, but in retrospect it was a good month for us - we mostly delivered the results in Eredivisie. Unexpected win over Manchester City and a well fought draw in away game at Napoli gave us four points in our Champions League group and if I checked the standings it looks like anything is still possible in this group - if we’ll win our last game against KRC Genk, we might qualify to the knockout stages. That looks like a miracle, because after we’d failed to win our first three games I had already accepted that our European season was over. Now we have plenty to play for in December.

Our attacking players haven’t been consistent enough in November, so the player of the month award goes to Kik Taylor - we’ve been impressive defensively in games where he’s played, especially in the Champions League and the young centre-back is starting to attract attention from other European clubs.

 

Eredivisie

Dropping two points against SC Telstar cut our lead a bit, but we’re still three points clear in the table. Feyenoord and AZ Alkmaar look like contenders, while PSV Eindhoven is way off from the lead. FC Emmen finally got their first point (but look rubbish nonetheless) and NAC Breda haven’t improved in November, so they’re likely to be relegated as well.

[Draakon]

December 2027

 

Another six games in December - we start with tough games against Vitesse and KRC Genk, but we have the home advantage for the first four fixtures of this month. The next two games should be easier league fixtures, but we’ll finish our year with two away derbies against PSV Eindhoven and Feyenoord - we have to be at our best to win both of these games.

 

03.12.2027 - AFC Ajax - Vitesse Arnhem 2:0 (ED) - 34. Jay Enem, 74. Kian Fitz-Jim

I have a feeling that Vitesse are not living up to their full potential this season, or perhaps the quality of loanees that they got from Chelsea is not exactly what it has been in the recent past, but the team that once looked like serious challengers for the top three place, is now down to 5-7th position and could be satisfied if they qualify for the Europa League. We have struggled against them, but we did beat them 0:2 in September (pretty confidently, I might add), so I believe we’re favourites for the home game and I expect us to do well. After a disastrous display against SC Telstar I switched back to our usual first eleven.

Squad: Gürcan Dere, van der Sloot, Taylor, Hillen, Salah-Eddine (80. Drommel), Regeer, Sangare-Aka (71. Smit), Hansen, Karahasanovic (74. Andrew), Fitz-Jim, Enem

We were clearly the better team in the first half and from the kick-off our high pressing caused problems for Vitesse. Good interception from Alen Karahsanovic in 4’ gave him a free road to the goal, but the midfielder sent his fierce shot straight at the goalkeeper. In 11’ Kian Fitz-Jim’s attempt was tipped wide and for the rest of the first half we were keeping Vitesse under pressure, getting shots on target and it looked like the first goal was just a matter of time. It was indeed - Sontje Hansen’s cross found Jay Enem at the near post and the striker scored with a simple finish from close range.

The same continued in the second half, although for a while it looked like Vitesse got their defence organised better than in the first period. It took us some time, but in 74’ Kian Fitz-Jim’s header found its way in via the post and then our win looked pretty certain. We had two more chances in the final minutes - Jay Enem saw his open chance being tipped over by the goalkeeper in 87’ and in injury time Kian Fitz-Jim delivered a wonderful through ball in the way of Dino Andrew who failed with his finish. It could have been 3:0 or 4:0 easily, but I was still pleased with our good performance and the final score looked solid enough. Well done.

• our shooting was 21/13 in this game
• we created 4 clear cut chances in this game
• we didn’t give Vitesse any real chances
• Kian Fitz-Jim scored his 10th goal of the season
• Cor Drommel made his 100th appearance for Ajax
• Player of the game: Kian Fitz-Jim - scored a goal and created a clear cut chance - good game

This match day was the last one for Jurgen Dirkx - the FC Emmen manager lost his job after failing to win a single game in this season. It had been coming and I doubt if the new manager could improve their form significantly. It looks like relegation for FC Emmen and they have to start over from the Eerste Divisie.

 

07.12.2027 - AFC Ajax - KRC Genk 3:0 (Champions League Group D) - 8. Pierluigi Marchini (og), 47. Sontje Hansen, 81. Steven van der Sloot

Probably the most important game in December. The table is pretty simple: we have 5 points, KRC Genk have 8, and Manchester City and Napoli are between us. Because our away game finished 2:2 it means that we need to win this one and then we’re level with Genk, but games between us would give us an advantage. At the same time both City and Napoli can’t get to 8 points - one of them will be below that line and out of the competition, so that’s the game plan for that last round - we need a win, KRC Genk will be happy with draw and in the other game both Napoli and City fight to win this. In a sense, that’s awesome for fans but nervous for managers.

However, I believe we can make it - beating KRC Genk at home? Sure, we’re favourites and we come to this game after beating Vitesse, so confidence is high and we’re ready to fight. We miss our team captain Youri Regeer because of suspension - that’s a bummer - so Tim Brown starts in midfield and that’s the only change in our line-up.

Squad: Gürcan Dere, van der Sloot, Taylor, Hillen, Salah-Eddine, Brown, Sangare-Aka (69. Smit), Hansen, Karahasanovic (82. Andrew), Fitz-Jim, Enem (74. Tjon-A-Loi)

We had the first good chance in 7’ when Alen Karahasanovic moved to a counter attack, but his attempt to finish was way too soft and easily held by the Genk goalkeeper. I didn’t have enough time to rue that missed opportunity because just a minute later we had the lead and this time we were a little bit lucky to score - Steven van der Sloot had space on the right wing and his cross took a deflection from Pierluigi Marchesi and went into the goal - without doing much we scored and now had control over the game. Despite that early goal we couldn’t get complacent - that was proved by Genk three minutes later when their right-back Yukinari Sugawara had enough space in our box to take not one, but two good attempts on target in a row and Gürcan Dere was tested for the first time. At half-time we had a 1:0 lead and based on the first half we deserved it - we created better chances, had overall control over midfield and looked like a better team. It wasn’t the time to let up and I reminded the team at half-time - it worked well, as Sontje Hansen drilled his shot into the far post soon after the second half kick-off and then we could start to relax a little. Jay Enem wasted his clear cut chance in 69’ before Steven van der Sloot scored a beautiful goal after a well-timed run into the box - his first goal of the season and that wrapped things up. Kian Fitz-Jim wasted another good opportunity in injury time, but that didn’t make any difference - a solid 3:0 win to secure our qualification from the group and I have to say that we didn’t really give KRC Genk any opportunities to fight back at Johan Cruijff Arena - convincing performance from the whole team.

• we had 62% possession
• our shooting was 20/10 in this game
• we created 3 clear cut chances
• we made just 6 dribbles - unusually low number for us
• Player of the game: Sontje Hansen - outstanding performance from the right winger - scored a great goal and created chances for teammates

 

Champions League Group D

1. SSC Napoli 9
2. AFC Ajax 8
3. KRC Genk 8
4. Manchester City 7

 

12.12.2027 - AFC Ajax - FC Emmen 8:2 (ED) - 1. pen. Kian Fitz-Jim, 16. Cor Drommel, 18. and 27. Tochero Tjon-A-Loi, 36. and 84. Dino Andrew, 73. Vincent Claes, 79. Terrence Douglas - 70. Nikolai Laursen, 76. Gianni Giove

FC Emmen is in a miserable state at the moment. They dropped to lower division two years ago, finished 2nd and bounced right back up to Eredivisie, but they weren’t ready for that promotion and this season is showing it clearly - just one point (draw against SC Telstar) from their first 16 games. I took a look at their squad and it’s clear why that happened - they haven’t added any decent players in Summer. Basically what they tried to do is get through Eredivisie with the same squad that helped them to the 2nd place in Eerste Divisie last season - that’s ambitious, to say the least. No wonder that Jurgen Dirkx got sacked. Pundits give them little hope against us at Johan Cruijff Arena and I take it as another game to spread playing time and rest our key players after the midweek match in the Champions League.

Squad: van den Heuvel, Drommel, Taylor, Douglas, Salah-Eddine, Brown, Smit (46. de Vries), Barriere, Andrew, Fitz-Jim (46. Chaves), Tjon-A-Loi (70. Claes)

That game didn’t turn out well for FC Emmen right from the start. Philippe Barriere was fouled in the box and an early penalty gave us the lead. Barriere almost scored himself with a header that hit the post and then Cor Drommel fired in a lovely strike to double our lead. Then Tochero Tjon-A-Loi took over - his expertly finished strike in 18’ was followed by a header nine minutes later and his assist set up Dino Andrew for our fifth goal. We had ripped FC Emmen defence apart in the first half and if it were a boxing match, their manager had probably thrown in a white towel already, but we had another 45 minutes to go.

Despite being 0:5 down, FC Emmen tried to attack and I have to give them credit for that. Complacency started to appear to our game and so a few chances fell to our opponents. Nikolai Laursen headed in from a free kick, but substitute Vincent Claes had an excellent answer to that - his thunderous strike from 22 metres silenced the FC Emmen fans. Our defensive problems were evident just three minutes later when Terrence Douglas missed his interception and gave Gianni Giove a chance to score, but Douglas made amends three minutes later - he scored from the far post when Philippe Barriere’s corner got to him without anyone intercepting it. Funny story - it was his first ever goal for Ajax in 239 matches! Fantastic moment for the defender. Dino Andrew wrapped things up for us with a weak effort from close range and that was it - not the best game defensively, but an impressive goalscoring display from the whole team. FC Emmen’s tactical approach was perhaps naive, or was it just a difference in class between two teams that was converted to the final score. I was delighted with several players who performed extremely well.

• we had just 45% possession in this game - interesting stats
• our shooting was 24/14
• our average rating was 8.34
• Terrence Douglas and Dino Andrew scored their first ever league goals for Ajax
• Player of the game: Dino Andrew - 2 goals and 2 assists - outstanding game from the attacking midfielder
• that 8:2 win is our highest scoring game in Eredivisie - the new club record
• we have now collected 43 points from 17 games - pretty good, but Feyenoord (38) and AZ Alkmaar (37) have had a solid first half of the season as well

15.12.2027 - AFC Ajax - RKC Waalwijk 2:0 (TOTO KNVB Beker 2nd round) - 1. pen. Anass Salah-Eddine, 26. Jochem de Vries

Just three days later we hosted another small team - RKC Waalwijk came to town. A small club somewhere in the bottom half of the Eerste Divisie and after our confident win over FC Emmen there’s no reason to believe that we couldn’t repeat that performance against RKC.

Squad: van den Heuvel, Drommel, Taylor, Douglas, Salah-Eddine, Brown, de Vries (55. Smit), Barriere, Andrew, Chaves, Tjon-A-Loi (66. Claes)

The start of the game was a carbon copy of the FC Emmen match - Philippe Barriere was tripped in the box in the very first minute and we had an early penalty. Kian Fitz-Jim was on the bench, so Anass Salah-Eddine stepped up to take it and finished calmly from the spot. The rest of the first half was fairly quiet - I had expected more chances, but RKC Waalwijk had chosen more defensive tactics and our creativity was lacking. The second goal was a scorcher from distance and the youngster Jochem de Vries was the unlikely goal scorer - he got the place in the starting line-up for this game and showed that he can be a danger from outside of the box as well. Tochero Tjon-A-Loi missed a couple of half-chances, but the first half finished 2:0 and that was followed by a drab second half - we dominated the game, controlled midfield, but failed to create clear cut chances and score more goals. Win is a win and a clean sheet as well, but I expected more goals and the final score wasn’t particularly impressive.

• we had 64% possession
• our shooting was 22/8 - many shots were blocked, as the box was filled with defenders
• we didn’t allow RKC Waalwijk to create any real chances
• Jochem de Vries scored his first ever goal for Ajax
• Player of the game: Jochem de Vries - scored a great goal

 

19.12.2027 - PSV Eindhoven - AFC Ajax 0:3 (ED) - 27. and 59. Jay Enem, 47. pen. Youri Regeer

Two derbies before Christmas. Home games are over for a moment and we travel to Eindhoven for the Topper Derby. PSV Eindhoven have… well, you might say that they’ve failed, at least compared to AZ Alkmaar and Feyenoord who look like contenders. PSV haven’t really challenged for the title despite them spending £22m for new players in Summer. However, they’re formidable opponents, especially at Philips Stadion and things are not made easier for us by the fact that Kik Taylor is suspended for this match. I switched back for our usual first eleven (with an exception of Terrence Douglas filling in for Taylor), but retained our positive mentality despite it being a difficult away game.

Squad: Gürcan Dere, van der Sloot, Douglas, Hillen, Salah-Eddine (67. Drommel), Regeer, Sangare-Aka (80. Smit), Hansen, Karahasanovic (67. Andrew), Fitz-Jim, Enem

Both teams defended well in the first half and it was difficult to create something. We looked to have initiative, but PSV started with a defensive 4-1-4-1 formation and that made it difficult to create something in their box. The only opportunity in the first period came in 27’ - Anass Salah-Eddine crossed and found Jay Enem at the far post and the striker finished his first good look of the game. That goal was the difference at half-time and we had a narrow lead. Referee caused some problems for us and although we didn’t make many fouls we collected three bookings in the first half while PSV had none - a little biassed?

PSV were determined to turn things around in the second half, but their motivation was cut short when Alen Karahasanovic was fouled by Bongolwelhu Boyasi and Youri Regeer scored his 7th penalty to make it 2:0. PSV needed to get more attacking and that opened up some space behind their lines. Ismael Sangare-Aka spotted it well and his long ball found Jay Enem on the run who doubled his tally with a calm finish from a one-on-one situation. Enem had an opportunity to complete his hat-trick in 66’, but that close range shot was blocked. PSV never seriously threatened our goal and three goals were more than enough to secure our win - an excellent result and more one-sided game than I expected.

• we had 61% possession in this game
• we created 4 clear cut chances and offered none to PSV
• Player of the game: Jay Enem - used his chances well and his brace helped us to the win

 

22.12.2027 - AFC Ajax - Feyenoord Rotterdam 0:1 (ED) - 80. Halil Dervisoglu

After the impressive win over PSV we were confident ahead of the Klassieker Derby with Feyenoord. We have beaten them twice in this season and that adds to the pressure on our opponents. Feyenoord is currently 2nd in the table and if they want to keep their title hopes alive, they definitely need a win from here.

Feyenoord also struggles with injuries and they have men missing from midfield and defence. We lost Tim Brown to a training injury, but Kik Taylor returns to the starting line-up.

The weather for this game is probably the worst I’ve seen this Winter - only one degree above zero and hail raining down on the pitch. That’s not the most comfortable environment for playing football.

Squad: Gürcan Dere, van der Sloot, Taylor, Hillen, Salah-Eddine, Regeer, Sangare-Aka, Hansen (72. Barriere), Karahasanovic (80. Andrew), Fitz-Jim, Enem (60. Tjon-A-Loi)

We were sharp right from the kick-off and in the first minute we had the first great chance to score - Jay Enem had a shot from close range, but it was blocked by the arriving defender. Feyenoord’s attack looked dangerous enough at first, so that we needed to be concentrated in defence - their winger Cheick Toure made a clever run (van der Sloot missed it completely) and had a good look, but Gürcan Dere held the ball comfortably. It was a back and forth game for the first 10-15 minutes but then we started to get more control over the game and chances started to come our way - Jay Enem had a good attempt on target that was parried by a great save, before he saw his next shot in 17’ hit the crossbar. Enem remained to be our most active player in attack and at times he was a little bit unlucky not to score. It was still goalless at half-time, but I felt that we deserved at least one goal from this first half and had a good control over the game.

Feyenoord looked more organised in defence in the second half. We remained in control of the possession, but chances were rare. In 76’ Philippe Barriere had a free header from free kick that was held by the goalkeeper and then Feyenoord used their set piece well to take the lead - both Kian Fitz-Jim and Rio Hillen failed to win the header, the ball was directed across the goal and Halil Dervisoglu scored from a narrow angle. It was especially frustrating to concede a goal like that, because so far we had been the better team on the pitch and Feyenoord didn’t look to deserve that goal, but they were patient enough in defence and waited for their moment. I threw the dice and made our last substitution - Alen Karahasanovic came off and Dino Andrew came on. Andrew soon tested the goalkeeper with a fierce shot, but Mees Bakker was ready and made a fine stop to tip it wide. Tochero Tjon-A-Loi had a late chance to rescue a point in injury time, but he couldn’t beat Mees Bakker as well and that was it - we had lost our first league game of the season and that one really hurt for several reasons. We lost the derby game in front of our home fans, but also the way that we failed to deliver at least a draw from a game that we controlled most of the time - unlucky? undeserved? failure to deliver? Extremely frustrating either way. Personally for me the hardest thing was to see Filippo Inzaghi gloating in the post-match press conference - he finally got his first win over us and brought his team back into the title race, so he was obviously delighted.

• we had 61% possession in this game
• our shooting was 26/12, but we failed to score
• Player of the game: Mees Bakker (Feyenoord Rotterdam) - the goalkeeper made several good saves to keep a clean sheet

 

Summary

It was smooth sailing for us right until the Klassieker Derby. That left the bitterness to our December and the players were itching to come back and return to the action with a win, but instead we had to keep brooding over this defeat during the holidays. But despite that loss I can’t complain too much - the Champions League was priority for us and we delivered exceptionally against KRC Genk and once again turned our poor start in the group stage over with the second round of games.

Again it was difficult to choose our player of the month - I didn’t want to exaggerate performances against FC Emmen and RKC Waalwijk, as those were the easy games, so Jay Enem gets the award - he scored some good goals against Vitesse and PSV Eindhoven and led our attacks, showing that Tjon-A-Loi still has some work to do if he wants to take the first team place for himself.

 

Eredivisie

The win in the Klassieker derby allowed Feyenoord to get level on points, although we have one game in hand. AZ Alkmaar has lost even more ground and it would be a surprise to see them contending seriously for the title. FC Emmen finally won a game, but they need a lot more points to turn their situation around.

Clubs continued to make decisions about their staff. Peter Bosz was unveiled as the new manager for FC Emmen. NAC Breda (another underachieving team in 17th place) sacked Michele Santoni and FC Groningen (who had high hopes for this season) fired Peter Hyballa after finishing their first half of the season in 11th place.

[Draakon]

January 2028

 

Manager movements that started with sackings in December, continued in January. PSV’s Ernest Faber accepted an offer from Sheffield United and moved to England. PSV didn’t waste any time and appointed Vitesse’s Erik ten Hag as their new manager - wonderful choice, if you ask me. I’m convinced that PSV will return as the title challenger next season under ten Hag. Vitesse in turn unveiled Peter Hyballa as their new manager despite his failure at FC Groningen earlier this season.

 

We played a couple of friendlies in the first week of the year - lost 2:3 to Club Brugge (a little bit unlucky as we didn’t deserve to lose), but 2:1 away win over Bayer 04 Leverkusen gave some confidence back and proved that we’re moving in right direction.

 

Contracts

Sadly the club couldn’t agree terms with the captain Youri Regeer - his contract is about to end in Summer and his wage demands (his agent started negotiations from £185,000 p/w) are way higher than I’m willing to pay. In January he was free to talk with other clubs and signed a deal with Bayern Munich. We will only have him for another six months and that’s it.

I did better with other players - the wonderkid Tochero Tjon-A-Loi signed a new deal until 2032 and young goalkeeper Daniel Reckers was offered a one-year contract extension.

 

Loans

I’ve made a promise to Terrence Douglas that I’d loan him out in January. I actually started to regret that - he’s perhaps a surplus for the left-back position, but he’s filled in in central defence and has done really well in that role. With bookings mounting up I’m sure that Kik Taylor and Rio Hillen will be suspended for some games in the second half of the season and Douglas could get enough playing time in Ajax, but promise is a promise. He moved to KRC Genk for six months.

With Douglas gone, I needed somebody to cover for the DC position. Julius Dirksen was happy at Genoa and got enough game time in Serie B, but Adil Hadji has not settled well for KV Kortrijk. The Kortrijk manager failed to offer him playing time that we agreed upon and I recalled Hadji - let’s see him in action at Johan Cruijff Arena. I also sent the young attacking midfielder Jimmy Kamphuis to SC Telstar until the end of the season.

 

Eredivisie Transfers

Plenty of action for Eredivisie clubs in this January transfer window. Feyenoord and AZ Alkmaar made a lot of deals, trying to improve their squad. 

• Darryl Hose from AZ Alkmaar to Sevilla for £25,5m
• Olivier Tilahum from Feyenoord Rotterdam to Borussia Dortmund for £24m
• Maxim Gullit from Osasuna to Feyenoord Rotterdam for £10,25m (£13,25m)
• Jeroen Louwers from FC Utrecht to Feyenoord Rotterdam for £9,25m (£11,75m)
• Cody Gakpo from Leeds United to AZ Alkmaar for £8,25m
• Philippe Sandler from PSV Eindhoven to FC Groningen for £5,5m (£6,5m)
• Mukhlis Lestahulu from AZ Alkmaar to Feyenoord Rotterdam for £5,5m
• Wes Bottenburg from FC Utrecht to AZ Alkmaar for £5,5m
• Nathan Grigorie from AZ Alkmaar to Werder Bremen for £5,25m

 

18.01.2028 - AFC Ajax - Heracles Almelo 1:0 (TOTO KNVB Beker 3rd round) - 117. Tochero Tjon-A-Loi

We start our year with two back-to-back games against Heracles - first we host them in the cup and then we’ll travel to Almelo for a league game. We’re clear favourites for the home game, but I struggled with team selection a little - I’d like to give rotation players and youngsters more options in the cup, but it’s the third round and it’s the first Eredivisie team that we face, so it’s getting a little bit more serious and we have less room for mistakes.

We have all players fit and ready. Anass Salah-Eddine had a minor training injury and he’ll not start because of that, but otherwise we have all players available.

Squad: Gürcan Dere, van der Sloot, Taylor, Hillen, Drommel (95. Salah-Eddine), Regeer, Sangare-Aka (116. Smit), Barriere (71. Hansen), Karahasanovic (80. Andrew), Fitz-Jim, Tjon-A-Loi

Heracles started the game with a 4-4-1-1 2DM formation and I reacted by asking the players to stretch our formation wider in attack. As Heracles sat deep with their lines, we dominated possession, but lacked good chances in the first half and our best opportunity came in 19’ when Tochero Tjon-A-Loi had a half-chance in transition, but sent his attempt wide of the post. I used my half-time team talk to express my disappointment to the players and we improved somewhat in the second half. Creating chances was still difficult, but at least some shots went on target and the Heracles goalkeeper Kjell Scherpen had some work to do. Heracles couldn’t pose much threat to our goal - they had just a few quite ambitious attempts, although their midfielder Milan Gajic sent his long shot just wide and Aime Omgba’s header wasn’t too much off the target. 

The game went to extra time, but to my frustration we couldn’t improve our attack and my substitutions made little (or no) difference. Sontje Hansen tried his luck from distance and his shot just touched the post on its way wide. We looked out of ideas and then so nearly the thunder struck - Kjell Scherpen showed his good eye and kicking ability by delivering a long ball towards the Heracles striker Jari Dekkers. For a moment both Rio Hillen and Kik Taylor watched the ball and forgot to go for it and Dekkers found himself in a one-on-one situation against Gürcan Dere but at this moment our goalkeeper showed why we need him in games like this. He had barely anything to do for almost two hours, but came out of his line quickly and made a crucial save to stop Dekkers’ shot. And in 114’ we finally found the target - Sontje Hansen crossed into the six yard box and Tjon-A-Loi slid into it to put it over the line and deliver us a narrow win before the full time whistle was called. Just scrapped it in extra time and I have no reason to be particularly happy with the performance, but at least it’s a win.

• we had 64% possession in this game
• our shooting was 22/10, but we had just one half-chance
• we made just 9 key passes in this game (and keep in mind that it was 120 minutes of football)
• Player of the game: Kik Taylor - solid in defence

 

23.01.2028 - Heracles Almelo - AFC Ajax 0:1 (ED) - 90.+2 Tochero Tjon-A-Loi

The second match against Heracles and in several ways it was a lot different. For start, we played away, at Erve Asito Stadion and I expected Heracles to be tougher to beat, but also perhaps a bit more attacking tactically, so it could work to our favour if we can use the space in attack right. But we also had some forced changes in the line-up - Gürcan Dere and Rio Hillen had a small muscle problems, so Adil Hadji got to make his debut for Ajax (perhaps sooner than expected), Alen Karahasanovic fell ill with a virus and Dino Andrew got his chance to impress. Anass Salah-Eddine also returned to the starting line-up.

Squad: van den Heuvel, van der Sloot, Taylor, Hadji, Salah-Eddine, Regeer (70. Brown), Sangare-Aka, Barriere (70. Hansen), Andrew, Fitz-Jim, Enem (46. Tjon-A-Loi)

It was a drab first half - we had one half-chance in 32’, but despite controlling the midfield we couldn’t create anything really dangerous in the Heracles box. Heracles, in turn, didn’t take a single shot before the break, but they were happy to sit back and wait for their moment.

I needed to make changes at half-time and so we changed our formation to wider and I asked Anass Salah-Eddine to support the attack a bit more than he did in the first half. Heracles were obviously pleased with their clean sheet and they switched to even more defensive 4-4-1-1 2DM formation With that setup they’re probably the best at bus parking in Eredivisie and that’s the tactics that helped them to keep 4th place in the table so far into December. We had some half-chances, though - Tochero Tjon-A-Loi was denied a great goal when his free kick was tipped away by the top corner by Kjell Scherpen. Scherpen is one of the tallest goalkeepers in Eredivisie and I’m not sure that anybody else could have saved it. A couple of half-chances for us were wasted, before Heracles’ patience was almost rewarded in 74’ - our debutant Adil Hadji lost a challenge in our half and Bart Nieuwkoop went one-on-one against Dani van den Heuvel, but the goalkeeper got across to make a great save and keep us in the game. With that moment behind us we had another 15 minutes to find the winner, but we didn’t look like we could create another decent chance. I had already given up hope and accepted a disappointing goalless draw, but the players didn’t think so. Late in injury time Salah-Eddine delivered a cross and Tochero Tjon-A-Loi jumped in the box to head it in. Heartbreak for Heracles, joyful celebration to us. It doesn’t matter that we were rather lucky to win this, but this is what having quality players up front can give you - the winner out of nowhere.

• we had 62% possession in this game
• we made just 9 key passes
• Adil Hadji played his first ever league game for Ajax (and had a big learning experience)
• Player of the game: Tochero Tjon-A-Loi - his injury time header won the game for us

 

26.01.2028 - Sparta Rotterdam - AFC Ajax 2:2 (ED) - 28. Joshua Pynadath, 62. Helgi Viktorsson - 55. Anass salah-Eddine, 70. Tochero Tjon-A-Loi

We continue with away games (in fact, all of our league games in January are away games) and now we travel to Sparta Rotterdam stadium. We haven’t played with Sparta this season, so it’s been a while, but they’re a strong team and look solid both defensively and in attack. They’ve established themselves as a top six team in Eredivisie in the past two seasons, so we have to be ready for a tough battle. They’re also a team that plays with two defensive midfielders (although 4-2-3-1 2DM formation that is different from Heracels’ bus parking).

We have Gürcan Dere and Rio Hillen back in the line-up and defence looks better because of that, but Alen Karahasanovic is still out with a virus and Dino Andrew will get another chance in AMC.

Squad: Gürcan Dere, van der Sloot, Taylor, Hillen, Salah-Eddine, Regeer, Sangare-Aka (67. Smit), Hansen (62. Barriere), Andrew, Fitz-Jim (79. Grim), Tjon-A-Loi

We had control of the possession in the first half and looked dangerous from set pieces, but failed to create decent chances from open play and in 28’ it was Sparta who took the lead. Their right winger Joshua Pynadath didn’t have too much space in our box, but he turned around quickly and fired a strong attempt towards our goal that went in off the post. I didn’t have anyone to blame and Gürcan Dere couldn’t do much about that goal, so at half-time we were trailing 0:1 and obviously disappointed with how things were going.

I did the same changes at half-time - Anass Salah-Eddine was moved more forward to support our attacks and the formation was wider. Tochero Tjon-A-Loi didn’t find much space to run into behind Sparta’s defence and I switched his role from AFa to CFa.

The changes helped - Salah-Eddine was lurking more around the box and in 55’ he equalised with the shot that was fired in from the edge of the area. When Pynadath scored with a great goal, Salah-Eddine’s strike was its equal. Outstanding goal. Sadly, that didn’t last long - we lost our concentration in defence and allowed Sparta to score again - a cross came in from our left and Helgi Viktorsson headed it in from the far post. Steven van der Sloot should have marked him there, but was way off from the Sparta winger and that was a cheap goal to concede. We had to find another goal and fortunately we did - Tjon-A-Loi poked it in from the six yard box. Substitute Daan Smit played an important role with his assist. Philippe Barriere had a chance to win this game for us when he was unmarked at the far post, but his header was held comfortably by the Sparta goalkeeper and so we had to settle for a disappointing draw. The result was probably a fair reflection of the game, but I wasn’t happy with our defence - to concede two goals was a bit too much and we need to improve in the next game.

• our shooting was 27/16 - impressive numbers, but most of them weren’t too dangerous
• Player of the game: Joshua  Pynadath (Sparta Rotterdam) - a goal and assist from the former Ajax winger

 

30.01.2028 - FC Twente Enschede - AFC Ajax 2:2 (ED) - 15. Ondrej Mihalik, 41. Shaquille Pinas - 16. and 39. Kian Fitz-Jim

We have another away game before the end of January and we travel to Enschede. The Sparta result motivated us to do better against FC Twente and Grolsch Veste was packed with over 30,000 fans to see this game. What really shocked us was the weather, because it was -6C and heavy snow. Apparently Winter finally got to the Netherlands. It’s not very usual to play in such conditions and I was afraid that our technical possession football is more affected by it.

I made a couple of changes to our line-up. We don’t have any problems with injuries, but illness and viruses affect the players. Tochero Tjon-A-Loi caught a cold and has to miss this game, but Alen Karahasanovic is back in the starting line-up.

Squad: Gürcan Dere, van der Sloot, Taylor, Hillen, Salah-Eddine, Regeer, Sangare-Aka (69. Smit), Barriere (82. Hansen), Karahasanovic (58. Andrew), Fitz-Jim, Enem

FC Twente started with their usual 4-1-2-3 DM Wide formation, but quickly showed that they’re looking for chances of counter-attacks. Just two minutes were gone and their striker Ondrej Mihalik moved quickly to a counter-attack. Kik Taylor appeared to be too slow to keep up with him in the snow and Mihalik got into our box to score, but Gürcan Dere made a good save to keep our clean sheet. The first danger was averted, but we couldn’t keep Mihalik from scoring for too long - his attempt from 19 metres landed in the top corner and that was an excellent strike. We had no shots in the first 15 minutes and that was a worrying sign, considering that it could have been 2:0 for FC Twente easily. However, we picked ourselves up quickly and scored an equaliser in the very next attack - van der Sloot crossed and Kian Fitz-Jim headed in to make it 1:1. We were back in the game, but continued to struggle in defence. FC Twente’s Fode Fofana had another clear cut chance in 25’ (again parried by Gürcan Dere). Jay Enem’s volley was held comfortably by Yanick van Osch and then in 39’ it was Kian Fitz-Jim again who scored the goal. This time it was our gegenpress that worked out well - we put FC Twente under pressure in their own box, Fitz-Jim won the ball back and fired it in quickly. Our happiness was short-lived, though, as FC Twente quickly scored from a corner and so the first half finished with 2:2. I was pretty upset with our defence - poor conditions or not, but we conceded two goals in the first half and FC Twente missed two clear cut chances in the process, so we were THAT poor. I blamed conditions (at least partly) for our struggles and tried to change things for the second half - switching passing to more direct for some players.

It has to be said that at least defensively we improved after the break, but couldn’t score the winner. Ismael Sangare-Aka took a fierce shot from the edge of the area that was tipped over by van Osch. Jay Enem found the best chance of the game for us in 74’ - he took advantage of the poor touch by Twente’s Jan Postma, intercepted the ball and had an excellent chance to make it 3:2, but he couldn’t beat the goalkeeper. Sontje Hansen had another good attempt on target in injury time, but that was saved as well and we had to accept another disappointing draw in January - another two goals conceded and I can’t be happy with that. Jay Enem should have won it for us and he knows that too.

• our shooting was 22/11 in this game
• we made only 9 key passes
• Player of the game: Kian Fitz-Jim - had a great game with two goals; we missed that kind of performance from him

 

Summary

We haven’t been at our best after the Winter break - attacking creativity has disappeared. The players like Alen Karahasanovic who were superb in Autumn have dropped their form. I switch between Barriere and Hansen on the right wing, but both are below par and at the same time we’ve been poor in defence - in the first half of the season we had the best defence in Eredivisie, but the same defence now conceded two goals from FC Twente and Sparta… We need to improve quickly before we allow Feyenoord to take over the top spot in the table.

Our player of the month in January was Tochero Tjon-A-Loi - he carried the team in all those games he played in, scored two crucial late goals against Heracles and an equaliser against Sparta. It looks like he’s finally starting to take over the first team place from Jay Enem.

 

Eredivisie

After those two draws it’s just two points between us and Feyenoord. AZ Alkmaar in third place and the top three are quite far from the others. It’s interesting to see if Giovanni van Bronckhorst can turn NAC Breda season around and get them out of the relegation zone. Helmond Sport is definitely not safe yet.

[Draakon]

February 2028

 

February offers a strange mix of different games - we play with strong teams like AZ Alkmaar and FC Utrecht at home and against some teams that we should win, but those are mostly away games that can be tricky because of that.

The toughest match is obviously the Champions League game against the Spanish giants FC Barcelona.

 

06.02.2028 - AFC Ajax - AZ Alkmaar 3:2 (ED) - 18. Tochero Tjon-A-Loi, 73. Alen Karahasanovic, 81. Philippe Barriere - 36. and 65. Romano Postema

February begins with a Noord-Hollandse derby. The first game between us and AZ finished 1:1 at AFAS Stadium, but AZ is a completely different team after the January transfer window - they sold players worth over £40m and brought in several new faces. One of the best attacking midfielders in Eredivisie Darryl Hose is gone to Spain, Mukhlis Lestahulu and Isak Zulic are in Feyenoord and talented centre-back Nathan Grigorie went to Germany. 

The players they brought in are… well… questionable at best. Wes Bottenburg from FC Utrecht is a solid centre-back, but to play over £11m for Cody Gakpo - a winger from PSV Eindhoven academy who have had a rather mediocre career in Italy and Championship level? Or signing Romano Postema - a former FC Groningen striker who went to RSC Anderlecht for £8m and now the Belgium club was happy to get rid of him for half of that money? I expected the AZ scouting department to find better players. Either way, a lot of new players could disrupt their teamwork and make things easier for us. Also, they miss two attacking players in Brian Petersen (injured) and Reyer Abbas (suspended), so that limits their options a little.

We made three changes in the line-up compared to our previous match. Tochero Tjon-A-Loi has recovered from illness and is back (Jay Enem didn’t do himself any favours with that missed chance against FC Twente), Dino Andrew replaces Alen Karahasanovic (who didn’t offer anything in attack) and Sontje Hansen replaces Philippe Barriere on the right wing.

Johan Cruijff Arena was packed with 65,000 people (it’s a derby, after all) and at least the weather was way better than last week in Enschede.

Squad: Gürcan Dere, van der Sloot, Taylor, Hillen, Salah-Eddine (85. Drommel), Regeer, Sangare-Aka, Hansen (61. Barriere), Andrew (66. Karahasanovic), Fitz-Jim, Tjon-A-Loi

Both teams were carefully searching opportunities in attack for the first 15 minutes, but then Dino Andrew gave a wonderful direct ball to Tochero Tjon-A-Loi who finished with his first touch into the near post to score his 10th goal of the season. Sontje Hansen had a half-chance three minutes later and for a while things looked under our control - we had more attempts, some of them on target and AZ Alkmaar game plan didn’t seem to work. However, things changed in 36’ when they had a free kick from some distance out - the ball was delivered into our box and then Gürcan Dere made a terrible mistake: he came out of his line, but missed his interception and Postema could place the shot from narrow angle into our empty goal. Very uncharacteristic to our goalkeeper who doesn’t make mistakes often. We reacted well and in 41’ van der Sloot delivered a good cross to Tochero Tjon-A-Loi who had a great chance, but this time his shot went too close to the AZ goalkeeper Maxime Delanghe and was saved. Sontje Hansen was unlucky to see his header hit the post in 43’ and so the teams went to half-time with 1:1. Our performance was encouraging and I believed that despite that one bad mistake we could still take the win in this game.

The second half kick-off welcomed us with rain - that was a little unexpected. Dino Andrew tested Delanghe with a good header on target and the goalkeeper had to stretch high to tip it over the bar. I’m not sure if it was the weather or the fact that AZ chose more cautious tactics in the second half (they played a 4-2-3-1 formation like us), but the next 20 minutes were rather quiet. Tochero Tjon-A-Loi saw his shot clip the crossbar on its way over, before the disaster struck again. AZ’s full-back Roy van Gastel delivered a cross into our box that took two deflections and surprised everybody - Gürcan Dere again failed to reach it and it ended up in front of Romano Postema who scored with another simple finish into the empty goal. Now we needed to hurry, before time was about to run out for us. I made substitutions and Alen Karahasanovic made a difference for us by scoring a fabulous goal from the edge of the area - sublime finish to level things up. We continued to attack and put AZ defence under pressure and it finally brought results. Anass Salah-Eddine delivered a beautiful diagonal ball to set up Philippe Barriere for our third goal and that was it! What a game! We turned things around to win the derby and I feel that we fully deserved it after our performance in the final 20 minutes. Substitutions made the difference for us today. I’m not happy with our defence - for the third game in a row we conceded two goals - but at least we got our attack going again and won that important game.

• our shooting was 27/12 - pretty impressive, actually
• Tochero Tjon-A-Loi scored his 10th goal of the season
• Ismael Sangare-Aka made his 200th appearance for Ajax
• Player of the game: Romano Postema (AZ Alkmaar)

09.02.2028 - sc Heerenveen - AFC Ajax 0:1  (TOTO KNVB Beker Quarter Final) - 79. Cor Drommel

It’s Wednesday and we travel to Heerenveen for our cup quarter final. Our opponents are in a difficult position at the moment. Their league campaign has not met the expectations so far and so their manager Michael van Zijtveld was sacked at the end of January, so they’re without a boss at the moment and it could work to our favour.

Choosing our starting line-up is a difficult job - we have a fairly tough schedule and we don’t have a comfortable lead in Eredivisie, so every game is important, but we need to rotate because of fatigue and I want to keep players fit. Tochero Tjon-A-Loi has some problems with immune system, I guess, because he’s down with the flu and it’s the second time in a couple of weeks. Our club doctor got his back to his feet in a short time and he’s available from the bench, but Jay Enem will start today.

Squad: Gürcan Dere, van der Sloot, Hadji, Hillen, Drommel, Brown, Sangare-Aka (68. Smit), Barriere (68. Hansen), Karahasanovic, Fitz-Jim (79. Chaves), Enem

Once again, the weather wasn’t ideal and Abe Lenstra stadion welcomed us with strong winds and downpours. At least it wasn’t snowing and the temperature was warmer than usual, but still far from the best conditions. Not sure if it was because of that, but the first half was just drab from both teams. sc Heerenveen started with a cautious 4-1-4-1 DM formation and that was good enough to defend well. We lacked good chances in the first half and the best opportunity was in 16’ when Youri Regeer won a header from a set piece, but sent it over the crossbar. Again we needed to change something in the second half and I tried my usual trick - switched Cor Drommel from WBs to WBa to add an extra player to our attacking moves and finally led to the winning goal in 79’. Steven van der Sloot switched the ball to the left, Drommel picked it up, went into the box and drove it low under the hand of the sc Heerenveen goalkeeper. That goal was enough to win it. It wasn’t our best performance, but I was pleased with it mainly because we looked very good in defence and that was a much needed improvement after conceding so many goals in our last three games. Well done.

• we didn’t allow sc Heerenveen to create any chances in this game
• Player of the game: Cor Drommel - scored the winner

 

12.02.2028 - ADO Den Haag - AFC Ajax 1:2 (ED) - 84. Jayden Braaf - 34. Sontje Hansen, 39. Tochero Tjon-A-Loi

Another three days and it’s the weekend again and we will play against ADO Den Haag. It’s another tricky away game against another mid-table side, so I don’t expect anything easy. We struggled against them at Johan Cruijff Arena and in the end we needed a penalty to score, so in an away game it’s surely an even more difficult battle.

The schedule is difficult enough so I have to make some changes - Cor Drommel will start at right back (Steven van der Sloot looks tired after the cup game), Kik Taylor and Anass Salah-Eddine return to defence. Ismael Sangare-Aka is suspended for collecting five yellow cards, so Daan Smit will start in midfield. Philippe Barriere is benched after his poor display against sc Heerenveen and Tochero Tjon-A-Loi returns after recovering from flu.

Squad: Gürcan Dere, Drommel, Taylor, Hillen, Salah-Eddine, Brown, Smit (76. de Vries), Hansen, Karahasanovic (66. Andrew), Fitz-Jim (66. Chaves), Tjon-A-Loi

For once it looked that we had our usual swagger and attacking creativity back and it really showed in the first half. We had small initiative in midfield, but clearly better creativity in attack and we put ADO defence under pressure. In 6’ Kian Fitz-Jim won the ball back and created the first chance for Tochero Tjon-A-Loi, but his attempt hit the post and went wide. Alen Karahasanovic looked active and participated in attacking moves and his half-chance was parried in 16’. We couldn’t score at first, but after 30’ began what I could describe only as Tim Brown’s show. Young playmaker replaced Youri Regeer in the starting line-up and showed that he has an incredible ability to spot the pass and create chances for others. He picked out Sontje Hansen with a wonderful ball to create our first goal and then delivered a direct ball on the run to Tjon-A-Loi who didn’t miss this time - an excellent finish from the striker made it 2:0 at half-time.

In the second half we had a couple of half-chances, but then I started to make substitutions and was perhaps a little bit too bold with our replacements. ADO switched from their cautious 4-2-3-1 to a balanced formation and slowly started to get back into this game, until Jayden Braaf cut in swiftly from our right and scored. Cor Drommel left him a little bit too much space, but it was enough to find the goal. With 2:1 on the scoreboard the final minutes were more nervous than I would have liked, but we held onto our lead and took all three points from the away game. I was pleased with our first half, but unhappy with our game after the break, so mixed emotions from this game.

• our shooting was 18/10
• we didn’t concede any real chances to ADO Den Haag
• Player of the game: Tochero Tjon-A-Loi - scored a great goal in the first half

 

16.02.2028 - AFC Ajax - FC Barcelona 2:3 (Champions League 1st knockout round 1st leg) - 8. Sontje Hansen, 23. Tochero Tjon-A-Loi - 57. and 90.+1 Kylian Mbappe, 88. Armin Alles

We had nothing to lose in this stage of the tournament - we exceeded all expectations by getting through the group stage, so everything on top of that is a clear bonus. FC Barcelona are a formidable opponents (in fact, there weren’t any easy ones in this draw) but the main question ahead of the home game was still what sort of tactics we should choose - being too defensive at home could be counter-productive, so in the end I opted for a balanced 4-2-3-1 and hoped for the best. Barca came with the same approach - they didn’t dare to be too attacking, but didn’t want to give up possession and initiative either. Kian Fitz-Jim was suspended for this game and I had to start with young Denso Grim on the left flank. Hopefully he won’t get too nervous in front of the full stadium at Johan Cruijff Arena for this game.

Squad: Gürcan Dere, van der Sloot, Taylor, Hillen, Salah-Eddine, Regeer, Sangare-Aka, Hansen (80. Barriere), Karahasanovic (66. Andrew), Grim, Tjon-A-Loi (79. Enem)

Against all odds we took the lead and it happened already on 8’ - Ismael Sangare-Aka found Sontje Hansen with a wonderful pass and the right winger finished with an excellent strike to make it 1:0. FC Barcelona reacted quickly and should have equalised in 12’ when their centre-back Alessandro Bastoni was left unmarked at the far post in a free kick situation, but Batoni had a usual defender’s finish and Gürcan Dere was able to save this one. Youngster Denso Grim almost got himself a headline on 17’, but was unfortunate to see his header clip the crossbar on its way over. Grim didn’t score, but Tochero Tjon-A-Loi doubled our lead after Bastoni’s missed header gave him a great chance. Despite our two-goal lead our defence showed vulnerability and Barcelona strikers continued to demonstrate their individual skills with the ball. Rio Hillen was careless to lose the ball and Troy Parrott got a clear cut chance on 27’ - Gürcan Dere made a wonderful save to deny him and maintain our advantage until the half-time whistle. I was really happy with our first half - yes, we conceded chances, but were clinical with our own opportunities and put Barcelona under pressure. I hoped to maintain this momentum after the break, but our opponents reacted by switching to a positive mentality and tried to fight back. We found opportunities early in the second half - Sontje Hansen had a clear cut chance from a counter-attack, but the shot was blasted wide. Tochero Tjon-A-Loi had a good attempt that was blocked and then Barcelona got one back - Kylian Mbappe made a smart run behind defence in a free kick situation and used his chance well. Slowly, but surely Barcelona started to take over and put us under pressure. Bastoni’s header thundered against the crossbar on 68’ and a minute later he had a clear cut chance from corner - blocked on the line by Anass Salah-Eddine. For the last ten minutes they switched to a narrow 4-3-3 formation and with that we couldn’t cope. Attacking midfielder Armin Alles equalised with a header from IFK with just a couple of minutes to go (a bad mistake by Gürcan Dere who came for the ball, but missed it - the goalkeeper made a great game so far). and Mbappe used his following clear cut chance to score the winner. Heartbreak in the end, but we just couldn’t withstand the pressure and Barcelona players were too good. You could say that we should have decided the game with our chances at the beginning of the second half, but we gave Barcelona just way too many opportunities and they had to score some goals eventually. Difference in class, clearly.

• FC Barcelona shots were 25/11 in this game
• we created 3 clear cut chances, but conceded 6 (!) ccc-s to FC Barcelona
• we made 24 individual mistakes
• Player of the game: Sontje Hansen - scored a great goal and was difficult to stop for FC Barcelona defenders in the first half

20.02.2028 - AFC Ajax - FC Utrecht 3:0 (ED) - 28. Tochero Tjon-A-Loi, 30. Alen Karahasanovic, 42. Kian Fitz-Jim

Getting over the FC Barcelona result was difficult enough, but we needed to prepare for our next league game. The rivals FC Utrecht came to visit; they’re 4th in the table and are in excellent form since December. They sold Wes Bottenburg and Jeroen Louwers in January and I half-expected them to drop some pace, because Louwers was an integral part of their attack, but it wasn’t the case and that’s why I expect it to be a really difficult match for us.

We have Kian Fitz-Jim back in the line-up, but Anass Salah-Eddine needs to serve his suspension in this game, so Cor Drommel will start in the left defence. Otherwise it’s the same line-up that started against FC Barcelona.

Squad: Gürcan Dere, van der Sloot, Taylor (65. Hadji), Hillen, Drommel, Regeer (71. Brown), Sangare-Aka, Hansen (65. Barriere), Karahasanovic, Fitz-Jim, Tjon-A-Loi

It was a quiet first period. FC Utrecht started with a cautious 4-2-3-1 DM AM formation and two defensive midfielders made it difficult to find space in attack. In the first twenty minutes we didn’t have any clear chances, but the breakthrough came ten minutes later. Sontje Hansen crossed from the right wing and Tjon-A-Loi header was initially blocked by the defender, but the rebound fell to our striker and the FC Utrecht goalkeeper Robin Roefs was already on the ground, so it was a simple finish from close range to make it 1:0. FC Utrecht didn’t have time to recover from that first goal when we already scored the second. Alen Karahasanovic won the ball back from Jenno Campagne, skipped past defender and finished with an excellent strike - a magnificent solo goal and I was delighted with that - he was in good goalscoring form in August and September and this part of his game has disappeared for a while, so it’s great to see him scoring again. We added another goal late in the first half when van der Sloot’s cross was pushed over the line by Kian Fitz-Jim at the far post. It was his 12th Eredivisie goal in this season and that gives him the top spot in goal scoring table. FC Utrecht looked in trouble at half-time, because conceding three goals in the first half is… well… almost impossible to make up in the second half, and they couldn’t put up a proper fight after the break.

We had an excellent chance to score another goal in 48’ when Ismael Sangare-Aka delivered a great ball to Tochero Tjon-A-Loi, but the wonderkid couldn’t finish that one off. The rest of the match was more relaxed - we had full control over the game and even though FC Utrecht tried to change tactics and players, it didn’t look to make any difference on the pitch. A convincing win over the rivals and I was very happy with the performance.

• our shooting was 20/11 in this game
• Player of the game: Alen Karahasanovic - scored a great goal and made 6 dribbles, was difficult to stop for FC Utrecht defence

 

27.02.2028 - VVV Venlo - AFC Ajax 2:2 (ED) - 32. and 38. Justin Lonwijk - 31. Tochero Tjon-A-Loi, 75. Philippe Barriere

We finished our month at Venlo. Our league form has been impressive in February, but Feyenoord have done equally well and the gap is still just four points, so we can’t let up now and have to take every single game seriously. The players are fit, suspensions are served and we don’t have any problems fielding our strongest line-up for this game.

Squad: Gürcan Dere, van der Sloot, Taylor, Hillen, Salah-Eddine, Regeer, Sangare-Aka (66. Smit), Hansen (52. Barriere), Karahasanovic (81. Andrew), Fitz-Jim, Tjon-A-Loi

We started well, had possession and created chances. Tochero Tjon-A-Loi was active in attack and his clear cut chance on 9’ was our first great opportunity, but the attempt was blocked. Sontje Hansen missed an absolute sitter just three minutes later and I cursed at the sideline - we were creative and moved well in attack, just needed to finish better. VVV Venlo showed that they were no pushovers and after 21 minutes of football their quick winger Tim Havenaar was too fast for Steven van der Sloot and found himself with only goalkeeper to beat, but Gürcan Dere looked calm and the ball landed safely in his hands. Tjon-A-Loi finally scored on 31’ after a cross from Sonthe Hansen, but we allowed VVV to get back immediately, because Justin Lonwijk headed in from a corner to make it 1:1. That made me furious, but even more so when Lonwjik headed in another goal on 38’ - two extremely cheap goals to concede after playing so well for the first 30 minutes. We trailed 1:2 at half-time and I was furious with the players.

My harsh words didn’t seem to have much effect on our performance, because for  most of the second half we had to fight and struggle in search of the equaliser, but it finally came when substitute Philippe Barriere scored on 75’. We still had 15 minutes to score the winner, but we couldn’t do that and at the end of the game we suffered another loss when Kian Fitz-Jim had to come off with injury. Very frustrating game and hard to accept. The performance was lacklustre and finishing in the first half was wasteful. That cost us two points in the table.

• our shooting was 22/8 in this game
• Kian Fitz-Jim will be out for at least 6-7 weeks with sprained knee ligaments - very disappointed to lose him for so long
• Player of the game: Justin Lonwijk (VVV Venlo) - scored two goals and easily the best player on the pitch

 

Summary

Some good results in February, even though some rather mediocre performances. The FC Barcelona match was a thriller and the final result was hard to take, but at least we played well and put up a real fight for the Catalan giants. The only really disappointing result was the last one - we’re too good to drop cheap points against teams like VVV Venlo and the players know that we should do better. We’re still leading the title race in Eredivisie, but our chances to beat FC Barcelona in the second leg are … slim, to say it modestly, so our European campaign probably stops there.

My player of the month is Tochero Tjon-A-Loi - he has been scoring consistently in February and finally took over the first team place from Jay Enem. I expect him to improve even faster now.

 

I organised some player contracts in February - Kian Fitz-Jim signed a new £41,000 p/w deal until 2032 and Adil Hadji also extended his contract for the next four years. 

 

sc Heerenveen made a decision and appointed Jürgen Klisnmann as their new manager - another famous name to join the list of Eredivisie managers.

 

Eredivisie

No big changes in February - we still have a small gap between us and Feyenoord.

[Draakon]

March 2028

 

Only four games in March before the long international break that covers the second half of the month. We are looking for the youth intake, but have to take care of the results before the next batch of youngsters arrive.

 

02.03.2028 - AFC Ajax - Feyenoord Rotterdam 1:2 (TOTO KNVB Beker Semi Final) - 90.+3 pen. Youri Regeer - 9. and 22. Naim Matoug

I was confident that we don’t have to meet Feyenoord again this season, but here we are again in the cup final. This time it’s completely different Feyenoord, bolstered by no less than five new first team players that arrived in the January transfer window. Most of them are familiar to us from AZ Alkmaar and FC Utrecht, but they added defender Maxim Gullit from FC Sevilla to improve the defence. Our main problem was the left wing - Kian Fitz-Jim was injured and so Denso Grim, who adequately passed his first test against FC Barcelona, had to step up again to fill in. Steven van der Sloot looked tired before the game and Cor Drommel started at right-back, but the rest of the first eleven remained the same.

Thursday evening at Johan Cruijff Arena welcomed us with 17 degrees celsius - Spring has arrived to Amsterdam and that’s welcome after the long Winter. 65,000 supporters filled the stadium and enjoyed the weather and good football, but for players there was everything at stake.

Squad: Gürcan Dere, Drommel, Taylor, Hillen, Salah-Eddine, Regeer, Sangare-Aka, Hansen (72. Barriere), Karahasanovic (65. Andrew), Grim, Tjon-A-Loi (72. Enem)

Because it was a home game for us, we remained true to our positive 4-2-3-1 wide formation and at the beginning it worked pretty well for us - we had possession and tried to create something in attack,but in 9’ Feyenoord scored an unexpected goal. Naim Matoug had some space near the edge of the area and he tried his luck from distance. The shot took a deflection from Kik Taylor and landed in the goal - not much that our goalkeeper could do about it and the goal was probably lucky for Feyenoord. The goal calmed our opponents down and the rest of the first half suited them better - we needed to look for the equaliser, but Feyenoord could play their cautious 4-2-3-1 formation and use every opportunity to counter-attacks. At first it looked like we could start to increase pressure and Ismael Sangare-Aka tested their goalkeeper with a fierce shot, but then Naim Matoug ran to a counter-attack and scored the second goal for Feyenoord. Kik Taylor was a little bit too slow to stop him and he hesitated to make a tackle, so Matoug ended up in a one-on-one situation against Gürcan Dere and used it well. Our defence seemed to fall apart after the second goal and we gifted another clear cut chance in 29’ to Jeroen Louwers. This time the attempt was tipped wide by Gürcan Dere, but there were clear warning signs that if we fail to change something, it could turn really embarrassing for us. I switched between different mentalities from balanced to attacking for the better part of the first and second half, but it didn’t make any difference - Feyenoord stood well in defence and we were closer to conceding our third goal than scoring our first.

Substitutes made a little difference in the second half - Jay Enem had a couple of half-chances in the last ten minutes and those were the first promising moments since the second half kick-off. Philippe Barriere was tripped in the box in injury time and we scored a late penalty, but it was way too late and not enough to get level with Feyenoord. The final score was rather flattering, because in truth Feyenoord did beat us fair and square and Filippo Inzaghi masterminded a great win for them. It was extremely difficult to accept, especially because we were beaten by them at home in consecutive games and I’m now desperate to get this record straight.

• our shooting was 17/10, but reality there wasn’t a lot of threat to Feyenoord goal
• our average rating was just 6.72 in this game
• we made only 8 key passes
• we won only 63% (12/19) of tackles
• Player of the game: Naim Matoug (Feyenoord Rotterdam) - the midfielder scored a brace and lead Feyenoord to the win

 

07.03.2028 - FC Barcelona - AFC Ajax 2:1 (Champions League 1st knockout round 2nd leg) - 5. Kylian Mbappe, 25. Marcus Rashford - 36. Sontje Hansen

We had enough time to lick our wounds and travel to Barcelona. There wasn’t anything pretty waiting for us there, either. If we wanted to turn our 2:3 deficit around we needed to win by two goals, or at least score two goals to begin with, and I knew that it would be mission impossible at Camp Nou.

I was upset with Alen Karahasanovic for his poor performance against Feyenoord, so Dino Andrew started in his place. Because of Fitz-Jim’s injury Denso Grim got to start his second game against FC Barcelona - those matches could give his development a huge boost if he manages to learn from these.

It’s Camp Nou, so we started with a cautious 4-2-3-1 formation and our first aim was not to concede too many goals.

Squad: Gürcan Dere, van der Sloot, Taylor, Hillen, Salah-Eddine, Regeer, Sangare-Aka, Hansen, Andrew (70. Karahasanovic), Grim (59. Barriere), Tjon-A-Loi (65. Enem)

Well, I expected a tough game and it was. We were under pressure in the first minutes and Kylian Mbappe made it 1:0 when less than five minutes were played. Troy Parrett had another clear cut chance in 12’ and it was clear that we were too defensive. I reacted by switching to a balanced mentality, because we had nothing to lose any way and being hammered like we were at this point was getting us nowhere. Marcus Rashford added the second goal for Barca with a fine header and that was it - there was no way we could overcome this deficit. It was clear that Barcelona players were just too good and on the pitch we were always too slow, always late to situations and unable to build up a decent attack. I tried different tactical changes, switched our passing to more direct and something of that must have helped, because in 32’ we had our first good chance when a counter-attack ended in the Barcelona box and Marc Andre ter Stegen had to make a good save to parry Tjon-A-Loi’s attempt. Another counter in 36’ gave us an unexpected goal - Sontje Hansen took the ball all the way into the box and fired in with a great strike that surprised ter Stegen in the near post. It was a great moment for us and I was delighted. We went to half-time with a 1:2 score despite the fact that Troy Parrett had another two clear cut chances late in the first half, but missed the target both times. Our defence struggled to contain Barcelona attacks, but Hansen’s goal kept the score respectable enough after the first period and I still hoped that we could somehow improve in the second half.

Well… we couldn’t. Anass Salah-Eddine was caught ball-watching in 58’ and ter Stegen found Mbappe with a long kick. Another great save from Gürcan Dere diverted the ball from going in. Tochero Tjon-A-Loi needed to come off injured in 65’ and after that Barcelona finally settled down and the pressure eased. The final score looked flattering, because on the pitch we were clearly hammered and were lucky not to concede four or five goals. It was clear that we weren’t good enough to challenge Barcelona seriously, but at least 2:3 and 1:2 defeats weren’t too bad on paper.

• FC Barcelona shots were 31/18 - heavy pressure to our goal most of the time - while our shots were just 3/2
• FC Barcelona created 5 clear cut chances in this game
• Tochero Tjon-A-Loi will be out for 5-7 weeks with sprained knee ligaments
• Player of the game: Marcus Rashford (FC Barcelona)

 

10.03.2028 - NEC Nijmegen - AFC Ajax 0:4 (ED) - 35. Sontje Hansen, 72. Philippe Barriere, 75. Nigel Loenen (og), 81. Alen Karahasanovic

Only the Eredivisie title to play for now and we are fully determined to get at least this trophy for ourselves. Just three days to prepare for our trip to De Goffert - not a lot of time and I know how tricky those away games against smaller teams could be. We are decimated by injuries to Kian Fitz-Jim and Tochero Tjon-A-Loi. Steven van der Sloot is suspended for the game and youngster Jochem de Vries is also sidelined, but the biggest challenge is to retain our confidence and composure after two defeats. You need to be confident in attack to create chances and finish them and I’m not quite sure where we’re at in this regard - we’ve scored goals, but conceded a lot of chances and we need to get back that feeling that we control games and dictate tempo in midfield.

Team selection is a tricky one for this match. Cor Drommel starts in right defence, Kik Taylor needs a rest and Adil Hadji gets his start in this game. Denso Grim retains his place on the left flank and Jay Enem has to carry our attack for the next two months.

Squad: Gürcan Dere, Drommel, Hadji, Hillen, Salah-Eddine, Regeer (72. Brown), Sangare-Aka (73. Smit), Hansen (72. Barriere), Karahasanovic, Grim, Enem

It was a drab first half. We started with a positive 4-2-3-1 and I made it even more attacking by giving Anass Salah-Eddine attacking instructions and stretching our attack wider, but we had to wait over 20 minutes for our first decent attempt. Rio Hillen looked nervous in defence and it made Adil Hadji anxious as well and that didn’t look good at all. Fortunately, the first goal changed things. We had a corner that was cleared initially by NEC players, but the ball remained in their box and while NEC defenders were all over the place, we moved the ball quickly to Sontje Hansen, who had a good look on target and plenty of space around him - good finish from between the legs of Nigel Loenen and that took us to half-time with 1:0.

Our attack didn’t improve a lot in the second half, but substitutes made the difference after 70 minutes of football. Philippe Barriere scored from his first touch of the ball and the 2:0 lead looked already secure enough. Daan Smit had an attempt three minutes later - it hit the post initially, but took a deflection from the goalkeeper’s back and went over the line. Quick counter-attack between Barriere and Karahasanovic ended up with another chance and the Bosnian midfielder finished it calmly to score his 10th goal of the season. The final score looked pretty impressive, even though we struggled with creativity for the first 70 minutes. I hope that those four goals give us some confidence for the next games.

• we had 66% possession
• we didn’t give NEC Nijmegen any real chances in this game
• Alen Karahasanovic scored his 10th goal of the season
• Player of the game: Alen Karahasanovic - good twenty minutes from him, gave assist to Barriere’s goal and scored one himself

 

17.03.2028 - Helmond Sport - AFC Ajax 0:3 (ED) - 17. and 73. Jay Enem, 29. Sontje Hansen

Another league game where we’re clear favourites on paper. Helmond Sport are currently just above relegation zone and struggling to collect points, but they can’t be underestimated at home. Their home is one of the smallest stadiums in Eredivisie with just 4,200 seats, so it’s a big difference compared to Johan Cruijff Arena or… say, Camp Nou. You’d expect the team in their position to sign some new players in January to improve the team and avoid relegation, but it wasn’t the case for Helmond - they’re exactly the same as they started in August and the first eleven looks quite fixed for now. 

Our approach to the game is very similar to the last match - a positive 4-2-3-1 with wider formation. We have Steven van der Sloot and Kik Taylor back in the line-up, but this time it’s Rio Hillen’s turn to be suspended after collecting enough yellow cards, so Adil Hadji continues in central defence (he had a very good game against NEC Nijmegen, so that supports his claim to further starts).

Squad: Gürcan Dere, van der Sloot, Taylor, Hadji, Salah-Eddine, Regeer (60. Brown), Sangare-Aka (69. Smit), Hansen (66. Barriere), Karahasanovic, Grim, Enem

We took control of the midfield and even though we didn’t create too many chances in the first half, we scored two goals. Jay Enem opened things up with a header (Denso Grim got himself to protocol with an assist). Ismael Sangare-Aka tried his luck from distance in 21’ but the ball clipped the post and went wide. Our second goal was a beauty - Alen Karahasanovic split the defence with a wonderful through ball and Sontje Hansen made a smart run to get to the end of it and finish from close range. A great team goal! We went to half-time with a 2:0 lead and looked fairly comfortable.

The second half was more quiet - Alen Karahasanovic tested the Helmond goalkeeper with a good attempt in 48’, but after that it was a quiet game until our second goal in 73’. Steven van der Sloot flicked the ball on and a missed header by Helmond’s Teun van der Ven allowed it to get to Enem who volleyed it in. Sontje Hansen had been hacked and fouled relentlessly by Helmond players and in 79’ Vito van Crooy received his second yellow for another foul and our opponents were left with ten men. In the end it was a comfortable win for us and we never looked in trouble.

• our shooting was 20/8 in this game
• we didn’t give Helmond any real chances
• Alen Karahasanovic’s assist was his 10th in this season
• Player of the game: Jay Enem - scored two goals and had a good game

 

Summary

Strong wins over NEC and Helmond offer a small consolation after a disappointing derby defeat, but we can’t be happy with our March after losing to Feyenoord and failing to reach the cup final. FC Barcelona games in February and March pointed out that we have no useful tactics against big teams, especially in away games. We’re so used to dominating possession in Eredivisie and playing for wins, so getting a scrappy draw in European games is often luck rather than good tactical choices. That’s an area for improvement in the future.

Second half of the month was the international window and Rio Hillen earned his first cap for Holland in a friendly. Great to see him breaking into the team.

The player of the month is Sontje Hansen - he showed his skills by scoring a great goal against FC Barcelona and continued his goal scoring form in the next games. 

 

Eredivisie

We still hold initiative in the title race and the rest of the leading group remains the same. NAC Breda continues to struggle in the relegation zone (their squad is too good to go down); SC Telstar and Helmond Sport are battling to get out of the danger. 

[Draakon]

Youth Intake 2028

 

The youth intake in March was a decent batch of young players, although nobody really stood out above the rest of the youngsters. When I think about it, I’d rather prefer one or two really talented (PA 4*-5*) young stars who could get into the top team in their career than 4-5 just decent first team footballers. Because I bring them up slowly into the first team I don’t need more than 2-3 players each year and they better be good. Position is also important - at the moment we could use a great goalkeeper for the future, but that wasn’t in the mix.

 

 

Several good players who have all 3* potential (which is a good rating for the senior team, I remind you), but some of them have more undesirable characteristics than others. Estonian winger Andre Sarapuu tops the list, but my coaches warned me that he has low self belief. German midfielder Jürgen Schikora is probably the most talented player from this year’s intake that could get far in his career.

 

 

Driven character, outstanding teamwork. Good free kick taker and decent passer. His natural position (DMC) doesn’t fit  my tactics, but I see future DLPd in him - dictating tempo is a nice player trait as well.

[Draakon]

April 2028

 

We’re in an unfamiliar situation in April - we’ve played in the cup final for so many years that it’s unusual to be able to concentrate solely on our league campaign. That gives us a solid week to prepare for every single game and that’s another luxury we haven’t had in a while. We have mostly home games in the fixture list, too, so we’re staying at home and focusing on training instead of travelling.

 

02.04.2028 - AFC Ajax - Sparta Rotterdam 4:0 (ED) - 18. Sontje Hansen, 21. Jay Enem, 29. Denso Grim, 41. Daan Smit

International break is behind us and we’re back in action. It’s Sunday afternoon in Amsterdam and we host Sparta Rotterdam. Our opponents are probably a little disappointed with their situation - they’re currently 11th in the table after finishing 6th in two previous seasons. 

Most of our players had a chance to get match fit during their time with international teams, but we had one casualty as well - Ismael Sangre-Aka pulled his ankle ligaments in training and will miss for at least two weeks of action. Daan Smit will take his place in the starting line-up. Kian Fitz-Jim and Tochero Tjon-A-Loi are back in light training, but they need another week before returning.

Squad: Gürcan Dere, van der Sloot, Taylor, Hillen, Salah-Eddine, Regeer (71. Brown), Smit, Hansen (58. Barriere), Karahasanovic (64. Andrew), Grim, Enem

The first 20 minutes of the game were fairly quiet - Sparta started with a 4-2-2-2 DM formation with two defensive midfielders - they were giving up midfield, tried to defend deep and look for counter-attacks, so we were trying to find gaps in their defence and they were waiting for quick options forward. In 8’ their striker Mohammed Tahiri had a decent look, but the attempt was tipped wide by Gürcan Dere and after that they didn’t threaten our goal. We found a breakthrough in 18 when Anass Salah-Eddine delivered a cross from our left and found Sontje Hansen at the far post. Hansen finished calmly to extend his goal scoring run to four consecutive games. Jay Enem doubled our lead with a header three minutes later and Sparta players looked close to giving up after that. We kept the pressure on the ball and counter-press. One of those moments led to the third goal - Jay Enem nicked the ball from a defender in the box and Denso Grim finished to score his first ever league goal. Another youngster Daan Smit impressed in midfield and capped his performance with a wonderful goal in 41’ - a low drive that was unstoppable for the Sparta goalkeeper and even though Enem wasted one more clear cut chance in 44’ we went to the half-time with a commanding 4:0 lead.

We didn’t change anything at half-time and continued to control the game after the break. Jay Enem saw another great chance being blocked by defender and substitute Philippe Barriere tested the goalkeeper with a good attempt in 90’ (a brilliant save denied that goal), but we couldn’t add to our four goals. We didn’t need to, though, because it was an impressive win and I was delighted with the performance. Great game.

• we had 61% possession in this game
• our shooting was 34/18
• we created 3 clear cut chances and gave Sparta no opportunities
• Denso Grim scored his first ever league goal for Ajax
• Jay Enem scored his 10th goal of the season
• Player of the game: Daan Smit - outstanding game from the young midfielder, a great goal, 3 key passes, some good tackles - commanded the midfield through the game

 

09.04.2028 - sc Heerenveen - AFC Ajax 0:0 (ED)

It’s our only away game in April and it could be a tricky one - sc Heerenveen are in the bottom half of the table, but they have shown improvement in recent weeks and come to this game after several consecutive wins. It’s my first game against the new Heerenveen manager Jürgen Klinsmann - on paper (attributes-wise) he’s nothing special, but I have to admit that he has delivered the results for them so far. In truth, Heerenveen could be a much bigger team because their youth system is excellent - they have a good HoYD and they have brought up some really talented players into their first team that have caught my eye. Unfortunately they have chosen to cash them quite early. Two youngsters from this season’s intake have already agreed to sign with Arsenal and ManU. Even though Heerenveen will make around £10m from these deals, they have failed to use that money wisely in the past, so they certainly have potential to become a better club, but need to improve their scouting and transfer choices.

We start with the same team that did well against Sparta - Kian Fitz-Jim has returned to full training after his injury, but he’s not yet ready to start, the rest of the injured players still need some time to recover from traumas.

Squad: Gürcan Dere, van der Sloot, Taylor, Hillen, Salah-Eddine, Regeer, Smit, Hansen (62. Barriere), Karahasanovic (72. Andrew), Grim (74. Chaves), Enem

It was a drab first half. Both teams tried to play possession football. We did it a little better, but chances and shots on target were extremely rare. Both teams had one great goalscoring opportunity, but both Teun Wilke Braams and Jay Enem were blocked by arriving defenders and failed to get the shot on target. 

We switched to attacking 4-2-3-1 formation in the second half and sc Heerenveen reacted by playing even more cautious football. It seemed to help, because we had more opportunities in the second half - Jay Enem had a great chance in 49’, but that shot was saved and opportunity was wasted. Denso Grim had a half-chance in 51’ and Enem couldn’t find his scoring touch until the end of the game. Steven van der Sloot had to come off with injury right before the final whistle, but the result was a disappointment. We were not sharp enough in attack despite trying everything and I know that we have to improve if we want to secure the title.

• we made only 9 key passes in this game
• we allowed sc Heerenveen to make 26 dribbles - way too much
• we made 23 individual mistakes in this game - too many
• Steven van der Sloot will be out for 4-5 weeks with sprained ankle ligaments
• Player of the game: Steven van der Sloot - looked good in defence, made important interceptions and chose his positions well

 

16.04.2028 - AFC Ajax - FC Groningen 1:0 (ED) - 86. Jay Enem

We were full of desire to win this game. Failure at Heerenveen spurred the team on and it was a home game, too, so fans were behind us this time. FC Groningen is a high quality team (although underperforming). They have a lot of high quality players, their team is young and in Summer they were predicted to finish 4th this season. Reality is somewhat different and they find themselves in 10th position. Their team played in the Europa League game on Thursday and fatigue is still evident in our Sunday afternoon match, so that’s an additional advantage to us. 

I had difficult choices to make about our starting line-up, because both Kian Fitz-Jim and Tochero Tjon-A-Loi were back in full training. Both players started, although they lacked match fitness. Ismael Sangare-Aka was also on the bench, while Cor Drommel started as right-back because of van der Sloot’s injury.

Squad: Gürcan Dere, Drommel, Taylor, Hillen, Salah-Eddine, Regeer, Smit (65. Sangare-Aka), Barriere (65. Hansen), Karahasanovic, Fitz-Jim, Tjon-A-Loi (84. Enem)

The first half was drab football. I noticed that Groningen played with a very deep defensive line and their players had enough ability to play defence well, so again we lacked penetration and space in attack. The closest we got to the goal before half-time was Daan Smit’s attempt in 18’ that landed against the post.

I tried to change our tactics to more attacking in the second half, switched roles and instructions for some players and finally switched to a higher line of engagement to kill FC Groningen with pressure. That seemed to work somewhat and in the final 15 minutes we started to look more dangerous in attack. Sonthe Hansen had our first half-chance in 82’ and then substitute Jay Enem changed the game - Anass Salah-Eddine drilled a cross in from our left and Enem headed it on target. The header was saved at first, but Enem went for the rebound and finished from a narrow angle to win the game with a late goal. I was delighted, because we had to grind so far for that goal, but got there in the end. Vital three points in the title race!

• our shooting was 25/9 in this game
• we didn’t give FC Groningen any real chances
• we’re now five games without conceding - defensively outstanding
• Player of the game: Cor Drommel - did well in defence, gave 3 key passes and won all duels

 

21.04.2028 - AFC Ajax - NAC Breda 3:1 (ED) - 71. Tochero Tjon-A-Loi, 78. pen. Youri Regeer, 82. Philippe Barriere - 41. Gabriel Gudmundsson

Our next opponents should be easier than FC Groningen, but NAC Breda is fighting against relegation so we need to be prepared for a tough fight.

We have a few problems with line-up - Steven van der Sloot is still injured and Kik Taylor looks tired, so Adil Hadji will start in defence.

Squad: Gürcan Dere, Drommel, Hadji, Hillen, Salah-Eddine, Regeer, Sangare-Aka, Barriere (82. Hansen), Karahasanovic (54. Andrew), Fitz-Jim (64. Grim), Tjon-A-Loi

NAC Breda started with a cautious 4-1-4-1 DM formation and their deep defensive line looked very similar to FC Groningen’s idea to take away all space from our attacking players. Despite that we started pretty well - Tochero Tjon-A-Loi had a couple of half-chances in the first fifteen minutes and in the first half he was unlucky to hit the framework twice. Our initiative lasted until 36’ when NAC had their first great chance to open the scoring and it came from a free kick - Jamie Jacobs was open in our box, but the shot hit the crossbar before Cor Drommel cleared it away. Set pieces were our Achilles heel in this match and it proved costly in 41’ when the flick-on came into our six yard box and Gabriel Gudmundsson pushed it over the line. NAC Breda went into the half-time with a 1:0 lead and I was furious with the team - sloppy defending late in the first half might have cost us points in this game.

We switched to attacking 4-2-3-1 formation and a higher line of engagement for the second half. At first it didn’t help and the closest we got to equaliser was in 66’ when Philippe Barriere headed against the crossbar from a narrow angle. I made substitutions and our attack started to pick up the pace. Denso Grim cut in from left to test the goalkeeper with a good attempt in 69’ and a few minutes later we finally scored - a long ball caused some miscommunication between defender and goalkeeper and the ball fell to Tochero Tjon-A-Loi who scored it into the empty goal. Our pressure increased and we started to get more set pieces. Denso Grim was pushed in one of those situations and Youri Regeer gave us the lead with a penalty and then Philippe Barriere scored a beautiful goal that was driven low from 19 metres - a great strike. That third goal wrapped things up for us. Gabriel Gudmundsson was sent off in injury time with the second yellow card, but that had a little effect. I was unhappy with our performance over the first 70 minutes, but we dug deep and came back when we needed to be at our best - great job in the end.

• we allowed NAC Breda to make 22 dribbles in this game
• Player of the game: Philippe Barriere - scored a great goal in the second half

 

30.04.2028 - AFC Ajax - SC Telstar 2:0 (ED) - 33. Dino Andrew, 45. Kian Fitz-Jim

We now need just three points to secure the title and we’re hosting the small SC Telstar team. Our opponents are fighting against relegation - they’re now 17th and just one point below NAC Breda, so they’ desperately need any point they can get, but there’s definitely easier places to get points than Johan Cruijff Arena. We should be able to win the game easily, but we miss several players - Alen Karahasanovic is out with a training injury (pulled hamstring), Anass Salah-Eddine suffered pulled tight in the NAC Breda game and has not entirely recovered. Steven van der Sloot is close to returning to full training, but full-backs are our biggest problem. Renato Molnar hasn’t been able to prove himself in the first team and he’s leaving in Summer. I decided to call up 17 years old Yevghenny Cijntje from the youth team to start in this game - let’s see how he’ll do in his debut.

Squad: van den Heuvel, Cijntje, Taylor, Hadji, Drommel, Regeer (63. Brown), Sangare-Aka, Hansen, Andrew, Fitz-Jim (73. Grim), Enem (68. Tjon-A-Loi)

We controlled the game fairly easily in the first half. Kian Fitz-Jim had our first chance in 8’ - that attempt was blocked, but we patiently waited for our moments and controlled the midfield. Sontje Hansen tested the Telstar goalkeeper with a fierce shot in 25’, but it took some more time before we finally scored. Hansen was fouled near the area, Dino Andrew stepped up and curled the free kick around the wall and into the goal. A wonderful finish from the midfielder. Kian Fitz-Jim made up for his earlier mistake with a volley right before the half-time whistle and that sent us to half-time with a solid 2:0 lead. SC Telstar hadn’t been a threat so far and for a team fighting against relegation with two games to go I expected them to take more risks, but they continued with their cautious approach and just let us control the game.

The second half was more quiet - we continued to control the game, I made substitutions and there were less chances, but our position was never under question. The best goal scoring opportunity came in 68’ when Tim Brown delivered a wonderful ball to Jay Enem on the run. Enem, who had been a little nervous in this game had a one-on-one opportunity against the goalkeeper, but missed the target with his shot. Solid 2:0 win in the end - nothing special, but good defensively and well controlled game.

• our shooting was 20/12 
• we didn’t give SC Telstar any chances in this game
• SC Telstar made 30 fouls - I’m not sure how they finished the game with 11 men, but referee Joey Kooyi was surprisingly lenient with them
• Yevghenny Cijntje made his debut for Ajax
• Player of the game: Dino Andrew - scored a great goal and created chances for others

 

Summary

Our goal was to secure our Eredivisie title in April and although we had to struggle and fight in some games we managed to do that. We’ve won the title for the 10th consecutive year. We were pushed harder than usual by Feyenoord, but in the end we didn’t allow them to get too close to us in the table.

Player of the game is Jay Enem - most of the players were more or less inconsistent this month, but Enem scored two goals in those five games and his late winner against FC Groningen was one of the key moments in our title race.

 

Eredivisie

Top of the table looks clear. NAC Breda and FC Emmen play against each other in the final round to decide which club will be relegated and which will play for survival in the play-offs. What a game that will be!

[Draakon]

May 2028

 

07.05.2028 - FC Emmen - AFC Ajax 0:2 (ED) - 41. Tochero Tjon-A-Loi, 57. Ismael Sangare-Aka

That was the last game of the season, but neither of the teams had anything to play for. We had our title and FC Emmen were relegated. I used the opportunity to test my youngsters against the weakest team in Eredivisie. Most of our injured players (Steven van der Sloot, Anass Salah-Eddine, Alen Karahasanovic) had returned to full training, but I didn’t need to use them here - it has been a long season. Yevghenny Cijntje impressed me in his first game, so he retained his place in the line-up. Young centre-back Theo Padding was set for debut.

Squad: van den Heuvel, Cijntje, Hadji, Padding, Drommel, Brown, Sangare-Aka (69. Smit), Barriere, Andrew (71. Sercan Numanoglu), Fitz-Jim (69. Grim), Tjon-A-Loi

We controlled the midfield and patiently waited for our chances. The first one came in 11’ when Dino Andrew delivered a long ball to Tochero Tjon-A-Loi, but the striker’s attempt was parried by the goalkeeper. Tjon-A-Loi knew he should have done better, but he corrected his mistake late in the first half - this time the assist came from Sangare-Aka and the finish was excellent - driven low to the bottom corner. We looked solid defensively and Martin Polman’s strike in 25’ was the only time when FC Emmen managed to test Dani van den Heuvel in the first half.

The second half continued in the same fashion - Ismael Sangare-Aka doubled our lead from a corner (his first goal of the season!). FC Emmen didn’t change their approach and looked fairly settled with 0:2 defeat, so the game concluded with that. It was a solid win for a very young team and I was pleased with the performance.

• we didn’t give FC Emmen any real chances in this game
• we made only 5 key passes in this game - needed more creativity
• Theo Padding and Sercan Numanoglu made their debuts for Ajax
• Player of the game: Ismael Sangare-Aka - was the captain today, scored a great goal and gave an assist

 

Eredivisie

FC Emmen and SC Telstar were relegated. NAC Breda survived in the relegation play-offs.