Recreating Ten Hag's 18/19 Ajax Team

[GCVS00]

As a fan of progressive, fun football, there are many teams that I have found myself drawn to over the years. Pep’s Barcelona, Sarri’s Napoli, and Poch’s Spurs (I’m a Spurs fan so that helps as well obviously). One other team I’ve found myself drawn to is Ten Hag’s 18/19 Ajax team. Not only was the football amazing to watch, but what they accomplished in making it to the UCL semi-final was incredibly impressive. I’ve wanted to recreate this system in FM for a while, so today I’ll try to recreate Ten Hag’s Ajax into FM23.

Tactical Shape:

The tactical shape of Ten Hag’s Ajax can be best described as a hybrid between a 4-3-3 and 4-2-3-1. For this tactic, I have opted for a 4-2-3-1 with two defensive midfielders because I believe it best represents the shape Ten Hag used. For the in possession shape, I want the team to build-up in a 3-3-1-3, as highlighted in this video I used for inspiration (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Orn9r3c7kgM). 

 

Keeper: SK-A
For this role, I have opted for a Sweeper Keeper on Attack. I believe this role best represents Andre Onana’s play style. He is an aggressive keeper who looked to involve himself in buildup and take risks, as well as get himself on the ball frequently, availing himself to the backline as a passing option and positioning himself to aggressively claim crosses.

Both Fullbacks: FB-A with the PI of Sit Narrower
For both fullbacks roles, I opted for the role of FB-A. I chose this role to achieve the aforementioned 3-3-1-3 build-up shape, as the fullbacks will position themselves narrower in the midfield, while also not starting too high up the pitch. In attack, the fullbacks will becoming part of the attack, looking to naturally over or underlap depending on the positioning of the wingers in front of them. 

Both Centerbacks: BPD-D
This role, performed by de Ligt and Blind, aims to move the ball forward aggressively, breaking lines with their passing and dribbling into midfield to collapse the defense and open up more space.

Left DM: HB-D with the PI of Take More Risks
This was the role I had the most difficulty deciding on. To emulate Frenkie de Jong’s play in Football Manager is impossible. He was all over the pitch, vital to Ten Hag’s vision for how Ajax built up play. He was able to receive the ball deep and progress it forward with both a dribble or a pass. His positioning and intelligence were second to none and unfortunately cannot accurately be recreated, like for like. In my opinion, the role most similar to de Jong is the Libero, as the Libero will look to progress the ball out from the backline and progress play. The problem is, using this role will shift the tactic into a back three in defense, which is not how Ajax played. As a result, I settled on using a Half-Back for this role, with Take More Risks added. This way, we still get the back three in possession, while keeping the back four in defense. The only issue is that this role has “Dribble Less” hard-coded, but it’s a sacrifice I’m ok in making.

Right DM: DM with the PIs of Hold Position, Dribble Less, and Take More Risks
The Schöne role, I wanted this position to sit in front of the back three, acting as an easy passing outlet and looking to be the bridge from defense to attack. I chose Hold Position and Dribble Less to force this role into one that passes more than dribbles, and chose Take More Risks to get those line breaking passes into the front four.

LW: IF-S with Stay Wider
This role is meant to emulate David Neres as the more direct and aggressive of the two wingers. I chose to add stay wider so that he stays high and wide during the build-up, after which he’ll naturally drift infield and look to pick out pockets of space.

AM: SS-A
This role, performed expertly by Donny van de Beek, looks to attack the box from deep, picking out pockets of space and moving intelligently off-ball

RW: IW-S with Stay Wider
I chose this role to emulate the behavior of Hakim Ziyech. I opted against using the AP-S on the wing because it has Cross Less hard-coded. I think that this role is a more creative, passing role, while also looking to chip in goals from outside the box, which is a perfect description of Hakim Ziyech’s playstyle.

ST: F9-S with Roam From Position and Move into Channels
Dušan Tadic was absolutely lethal in this False 9/free striker role. Racking up 40 G+A in 34 games, he was unplayable. I’ve opted for the False 9 role as a result, as it takes advantage of his intelligence and playmaking. This role will roam around the final third, looking to exploit space and create overloads.

Instructions:
The instructions aim to facilitate a high-pressing, possession based style of play. By using the Attacking Mentality, paired with slightly higher tempo and much shorter passing, I look to move the ball aggressively forward, while also emphasizing keeping possession. I also selected Be More Expressive to encourage my team to take risks and play with flair. The rest of the instructions are pretty self explanatory. Thank you all for reading!

 

Edited July 23, 2023 by GCVS00

[GCVS00]

 

Here is how the team looked, played, etc.

[The3points]

Did specific traits come into your thinking? I wonder if playing a converted-CB with the brings ball out of defence trait help replicate the de Jong role

[Drake]

Just for the sake of historical accuracy, since it's a recreation, I would argue that:

Passing style IMO wasn't much shorter, but just a regular shorter. Don't take my word for it, I'll link some statistics. In Eredivisie Ajax was of course just completely outclassing everyone so most teams have simply tried to park the bus, skewing passing stats massively. In CL though, Ajax quite often ended up with less passes then opponents and numbers usually were in 400-500 per game. The way "much shorter passing" works in FM it looks like futsal with players often really refusing any possibility for any kind of a pass longer than 10 meters. That's something Barcelona is fond of since Cruijff's times, but normally not so much Ajax, also not under ETH. 

https://www.whoscored.com/Regions/250/Tournaments/12/Seasons/7352/Stages/16651/TeamStatistics/Europe-Champions-League-2018-2019 Here you can see that while clearly favouring short passing, Ajax weren't fanatical about it with 451 short passes on average (while Borussia Dortmund and Barcelona had 600+). I think in Eredivisie it was about 100 more, 550 or so on average. I think FM's "much shorter passing" will typically yield you much more than 550 on average, especially when you are just so much stronger than the rest of the division, but I might be wrong, I seldom used it.

 

Another thing is that Ajax mostly played narrowly. You can also see that in average positions in many games, like https://www.whoscored.com/Matches/1370009/MatchReport/Europe-Champions-League-2018-2019-Tottenham-Ajax or https://www.whoscored.com/Matches/1368026/MatchReport/Europe-Champions-League-2018-2019-Juventus-Ajax or https://www.whoscored.com/Matches/1370010/MatchReport/Europe-Champions-League-2018-2019-Ajax-Tottenham or https://www.whoscored.com/Matches/1343400/MatchReport/Europe-Champions-League-2018-2019-Ajax-Real-Madrid

I would say that to my memory ten Hag made changes to that sometimes in Eredivisie, but for the most part the team preferred to keep short distance between the players both horizontally and vertically. 

Keeping possession was also arguably not a massive priority. In the now legendary destruction of Real Madrid at Santiago Bernabeu, we had just about 42% of the ball, which is uncharacteristically low for Ajax, especially considering the result. Yeah, it wasn't always this low of course and Ajax definitely didn't like giving the ball away pointlessly or on purpose to play counter, but there was also far less emphasis on just keeping it without advancing (something a lot of previous Ajax coaches in this millenium were guilty of, most notably Frank de Boer).

Other than that - yeah, looks more or less accurate. I'm not completely sure about Shadow Striker for Donny, he's typically not the player to run with the ball a lot and beat his man 1on1 (and SS has hardcoded dribble more). But the role definitely had very heavy emphasis on getting forward and into the box, into channels, e.t.c.

Frenkie's role of course is impossible to recreate accurately, mostly because Frenkie's role was heavily influenced by his abilities. You just can't ask anyone else to do that, I think not only in FM but in real football, too :-). it was a problem in the following seasons after Frenkie left for Barca - Ryan Gravenberch is talented but he couldn't fill in the shoes and ended up playing further up the pitch and more to the left in a soft of carrilero/sometimes even mezzala role, but while good at keeping the ball he still wasn't capable of those slaloms Frenkie so frequently pulled off and was generally less effective in defence, too - thus prompting alteration of the role by ETH.

HB-d seems rather far away though to be honest. Indeed due to hardcoded "dribble less" - running forward with the ball was trademark Frenkie.

Maybe if one can find or train a player with "drops deep to get the ball" "brings the ball out of defence", "runs with ball often" and something like "plays one-twos" you can just put him on DM/s role and he'll do Frenkie things naturally. But yeah, there's no role in ME that would do all of that regularly with any player.

Edited July 22, 2023 by Drake

[GCVS00]

35 minutes ago, Drake said:

Just for the sake of historical accuracy, since it's a recreation, I would argue that:

Passing style IMO wasn't much shorter, but just a regular shorter. Don't take my word for it, I'll link some statistics. In Eredivisie Ajax was of course just completely outclassing everyone so most teams have simply tried to park the bus, skewing passing stats massively. In CL though, Ajax quite often ended up with less passes then opponents and numbers usually were in 400-500 per game. The way "much shorter passing" works in FM it looks like futsal with players often really refusing any possibility for any kind of a pass longer than 10 meters. That's something Barcelona is fond of since Cruijff's times, but normally not so much Ajax, also not under ETH. 

https://www.whoscored.com/Regions/250/Tournaments/12/Seasons/7352/Stages/16651/TeamStatistics/Europe-Champions-League-2018-2019 Here you can see that while clearly favouring short passing, Ajax weren't fanatical about it with 451 short passes on average (while Borussia Dortmund and Barcelona had 600+). I think in Eredivisie it was about 100 more, 550 or so on average. I think FM's "much shorter passing" will typically yield you much more than 550 on average, especially when you are just so much stronger than the rest of the division, but I might be wrong, I seldom used it.

 

Another thing is that Ajax mostly played narrowly. You can also see that in average positions in many games, like https://www.whoscored.com/Matches/1370009/MatchReport/Europe-Champions-League-2018-2019-Tottenham-Ajax or https://www.whoscored.com/Matches/1368026/MatchReport/Europe-Champions-League-2018-2019-Juventus-Ajax or https://www.whoscored.com/Matches/1370010/MatchReport/Europe-Champions-League-2018-2019-Ajax-Tottenham or https://www.whoscored.com/Matches/1343400/MatchReport/Europe-Champions-League-2018-2019-Ajax-Real-Madrid

I would say that to my memory ten Hag made changes to that sometimes in Eredivisie, but for the most part the team preferred to keep short distance between the players both horizontally and vertically. 

Keeping possession was also arguably not a massive priority. In the now legendary destruction of Real Madrid at Santiago Bernabeu, we had just about 42% of the ball, which is uncharacteristically low for Ajax, especially considering the result. Yeah, it wasn't always this low of course and Ajax definitely didn't like giving the ball away pointlessly or on purpose to play counter, but there was also far less emphasis on just keeping it without advancing (something a lot of previous Ajax coaches in this millenium were guilty of, most notably Frank de Boer).

Other than that - yeah, looks more or less accurate. I'm not completely sure about Shadow Striker for Donny, he's typically not the player to run with the ball a lot and beat his man 1on1 (and SS has hardcoded dribble more). But the role definitely had very heavy emphasis on getting forward and into the box, into channels, e.t.c.

Frenkie's role of course is impossible to recreate accurately, mostly because Frenkie's role was heavily influenced by his abilities. You just can't ask anyone else to do that, I think not only in FM but in real football, too :-). it was a problem in the following seasons after Frenkie left for Barca - Ryan Gravenberch is talented but he couldn't fill in the shoes and ended up playing further up the pitch and more to the left in a soft of carrilero/sometimes even mezzala role, but while good at keeping the ball he still wasn't capable of those slaloms Frenkie so frequently pulled off and was generally less effective in defence, too - thus prompting alteration of the role by ETH.

HB-d seems rather far away though to be honest. Indeed due to hardcoded "dribble less" - running forward with the ball was trademark Frenkie.

Maybe if one can find or train a player with "drops deep to get the ball" "brings the ball out of defence", "runs with ball often" and something like "plays one-twos" you can just put him on DM/s role and he'll do Frenkie things naturally. But yeah, there's no role in ME that would do all of that regularly with any player.

Thank you for the reply! I've always been fascinated by this 18/19 team and unfortunately wasn't able to watch any games, this tactic was just stuff I gleaned from online posts. I was stuck between much shorter and shorter passing because it seemed like possession (as you stated) wasn't necessarily the goal, especially in big games. As for the width, that actually surprises me. Would you say that the wingers still stay wide, or are they narrow as well? As for van de Beek, would moving him down to CM-A or AM-A with Move into Channels be a better fit? And yeah, finding a role for de Jong was almost impossible to figure out , might make more sense to use a DM-S or other customizable role and try to get the player traits right.

Edited July 23, 2023 by GCVS00

[GCVS00]

47 minutes ago, The3points said:

Did specific traits come into your thinking? I wonder if playing a converted-CB with the brings ball out of defence trait help replicate the de Jong role

I was thinking brings ball out of defense and comes deep to get ball

[GCVS00]

Given the information in @Drake's comment, I've decided to tweak the tactic a little. I've changed the van de Beek role to an AM-A with move into channels selected. The de Jong role is now a RPM-S with Dribble More selected. I recommend putting comes deep to get ball and brings ball out of defense on this role. I've also changed Schöne's role to a HB-D, as per this article, Schöne would often form a back three by dropping between the CBs, whereas De Jong tended to come deep on the left side (https://totalfootballanalysis.com/head-coach-analysis/tactical-analysis-ajax-ten-hag-analysis-statistics). Additionally, I've removed stay wider from the wingers. The instructions have also been tweaked to make the tactic slightly more direct, as well as narrower.

 

[Mutumba]

Yeah, de Jong is ar from a HB-d.

Im not sure if the right role is RPM, at least "in game". Wont that make him a ball magnet and the play will go via him more often than not? How abou staying clear of playmaking roles to get that extra bit of fluidity? I was maybe thinking that he was more of a Segundo Volante? 

This is what ten Hag says about de Jong:

Quote

His quality is that he makes the forwards perform better. He is a wanderer, an adventurer, he’s always on the move, like a shark. With the ball, often, but also without the ball. So if you put him on 6 [defensive midfield], he’s away too often. But you need to give him freedom, otherwise you can’t the best out of him.

 

[Drake]

14 hours ago, GCVS00 said:

Thank you for the reply! I've always been fascinated by this 18/19 team and unfortunately wasn't able to watch any games, this tactic was just stuff I gleaned from online posts. I was stuck between much shorter and shorter passing because it seemed like possession (as you stated) wasn't necessarily the goal, especially in big games. As for the width, that actually surprises me. Would you say that the wingers still stay wide, or are they narrow as well? As for van de Beek, would moving him down to CM-A or AM-A with Move into Channels be a better fit? And yeah, finding a role for de Jong was almost impossible to figure out , might make more sense to use a DM-S or other customizable role and try to get the player traits right.

I think "n10" position should be defined by the type of player that you have. Donny wasn't a dribbler, so probably wouldn't be very succesful as SS, but Kudus, for example, would fit that role perfectly. I think the tactical effect is pretty much the same with AM/a and SS, it's the personal approach that's different. The point is that the player must make a lot of runs from the deep into the box and be an active participant in the attacks as a finisher, he's not expected to sit "in the hole" - although in some games I think ETH did ask of Donny to sit a bit deeper depending on the opponent.

Regarding width - yeah I think on both flanks there was at least one person holding the width while the rest of the team was packed in the middle, most often width was offered by the fullbacks. Nico Tagliafico more of a runner and great defender with crossing ability, while Mazraoui is more of a technically gifted type with great passing and ball keeping. In the latter seasons with Tadic on the left he definitely hugged the line a lot as a left winger and was the width outlet for the team with Blind behind him almost as a "left defender playmaker" role usually sitting more narrowly, but not in 18/19. That specific team in 18/19 mostly put 4 attacking players in a close bunch up front in the middle.

That's also one of the things about EtH's Ajax - it wasn't the same every year. How the team played, also the roles e.t.c were dependent on the players that the club had. Indeed, the team that has annihilated everyone in the CL group in 2020/2021 (only to flop against Benfica in 1/8) - didn't actually play by the same system as 18/19 team. There were similarities, but also differences - 20/21 played much wider, using high crosses more to reach tall Haller e.t.c. Post 18/19 teams were also quite interesting in the sense that it's really difficult to put down the formation. It was indeed a mix between 4-3-3 and 4-2-3-1, but which exactly is difficult to clarify and difficult to reproduce in FM. But 18/19 was really a "classical" 4-2-3-1 if you look at the heatmaps for most games. Two central defenders, then a line of 4 people - two full backs and defensive midfielders very often on one line, and then everyone else up front in attack in the middle - much narrower than the previous line. 

Whatever attempts I had at recreating that team in FM23 faithfully weren't very successful, as you just have to make changes to accomodate for the players that you have... 

 

[Karlo]

@GCVS00

 

I've tried it here

 

 

Had a lot of fun experimenting with it, not great success 

[GCVS00]

4 hours ago, Drake said:

I think "n10" position should be defined by the type of player that you have. Donny wasn't a dribbler, so probably wouldn't be very succesful as SS, but Kudus, for example, would fit that role perfectly. I think the tactical effect is pretty much the same with AM/a and SS, it's the personal approach that's different. The point is that the player must make a lot of runs from the deep into the box and be an active participant in the attacks as a finisher, he's not expected to sit "in the hole" - although in some games I think ETH did ask of Donny to sit a bit deeper depending on the opponent.

Regarding width - yeah I think on both flanks there was at least one person holding the width while the rest of the team was packed in the middle, most often width was offered by the fullbacks. Nico Tagliafico more of a runner and great defender with crossing ability, while Mazraoui is more of a technically gifted type with great passing and ball keeping. In the latter seasons with Tadic on the left he definitely hugged the line a lot as a left winger and was the width outlet for the team with Blind behind him almost as a "left defender playmaker" role usually sitting more narrowly, but not in 18/19. That specific team in 18/19 mostly put 4 attacking players in a close bunch up front in the middle.

That's also one of the things about EtH's Ajax - it wasn't the same every year. How the team played, also the roles e.t.c were dependent on the players that the club had. Indeed, the team that has annihilated everyone in the CL group in 2020/2021 (only to flop against Benfica in 1/8) - didn't actually play by the same system as 18/19 team. There were similarities, but also differences - 20/21 played much wider, using high crosses more to reach tall Haller e.t.c. Post 18/19 teams were also quite interesting in the sense that it's really difficult to put down the formation. It was indeed a mix between 4-3-3 and 4-2-3-1, but which exactly is difficult to clarify and difficult to reproduce in FM. But 18/19 was really a "classical" 4-2-3-1 if you look at the heatmaps for most games. Two central defenders, then a line of 4 people - two full backs and defensive midfielders very often on one line, and then everyone else up front in attack in the middle - much narrower than the previous line. 

Whatever attempts I had at recreating that team in FM23 faithfully weren't very successful, as you just have to make changes to accomodate for the players that you have... 

 

That's one of the main reasons I find Ten Hag's Ajax so fascinating. He changed his system multiple times and still produced gorgeous football

[ivanbox]

This i close 4-3-3/4-2-3-1 hybrid! But this season i thing they will play with more possession,more pressing, more like Ajax! Especially with Onana, Mount and with striker!

Look, match against Arsenal and he try Sancho with False Nine role similar to Tadic!