Draakon

Squad Update 2030 Goalkeepers Mert Alegoz starts the season as our first-choice goalkeeper, but his departure to Barcelona leaves a huge challenge to young Riswan Sinaga who has to fill the boots and I’m not sure how well he could handle the pressure. 18 years old talented keeper Calvin Francis moved to Almere City for the season, so we have a fairly young and deep goalkeeping department. Defenders Most of the names remain the same. Ognjen Rajkovic has pushed Can Tas out of the first eleven. Jasper Vogels offers versatility and can cover both full-back positions. Giorgio Jongebloet is the new addition from U-18 - 17 years old right-back is looking for his first team debut. A very intelligent player for his age, but technical skills should improve and I’d prefer him to be a bit quicker as well, but his intelligence could help him as WBs. Central defence might look a bit thin, but three good players is usually enough there and from Jong Ajax we have young Rik Vos looking forward to the call to first team training. Midfielders Kenneth Taylor and Bart Smits are our first eleven players. Taylor is also the oldest player in the squad with 28 years. Smits has to cope with BBMs role, but young Claidel Muringen has a great chance to earn more minutes than before. Overall we look a little thin in deep midfield, but in case of injury crisis we could drop Kristian Nökkvi Hlynsson to midfield. Sadly we don’t have any emerging talents coming up from youth ranks. There are some 15-18 years old players with decent potential, but none above 1,5* CA that is nowhere near the level that is needed in the first team, so we have to be patient for at least a couple of seasons and try to keep hold of our current players. Attacking Midfielders Attacking midfield has largely remained the same, partly because none of the players had a very shining season in 2029-2030 and didn’t attract enough interest from big clubs. My first choice is still the van Axel Dongen-Hlynsson-Tamm trio, but we have capable substitutions to all positions and even four different options in AMCa. Strikers Our best player in the attack (or perhaps in the whole squad) is Dramane Guehi. John Meeuwis is a really promising talent and Koen Verlijsdonk continues this season in Ajax and hopes to earn some playing time here.

Summer 2030 Transfer Window We had a few players leaving this Summer and we knew that beforehand. Right-back Pawel Wachowicz will return to native Poland and Bedirhan Celikel (who has spent a couple of seasons on loan at FC Groningen) will join Arminia Bielefeld. I also chose to release the young goalkeeper Jonathan Koppers who doesn’t seem to be good enough for the first team. What was unknown was Davy Klaassen’s decision to retire this Summer. The legendary midfielder is 37 years old now and although he has one more year left of his contract, he chose to hang up his boots. That leaves a big gap to our midfield and I look for younger players to fill it in the coming seasons. Klaassen has been taking coaching courses in the last couple of seasons and he was quickly appointed as our U-18 coach, so the club legend will join our backroom staff. We had some high-profile interest in some of our players (Kenneth Taylor, Dramane Guehi and Prince Aning) but no real bids from big clubs and so they stayed put. However, on the transfer deadline day FC Barcelona came in and offered £10m for Mert Alegoz and I had to accept, because I couldn’t deny any player a move to Barcelona. Marc-Andre ter Stegen had retired this Summer and that left Barcelona in need of a goalkeeper. I’m not sure if Mert Alegoz will be their number one choice for the upcoming season or just a backup, but the move will leave us without a solid goalkeeper at the end of August and it could significantly worsen our chances to get decent results this season. Young Riswan Sinaga has to show what kind of talent he has and step into the first team goalkeeper role, although I know he won’t be ready for that at least for two more seasons. Eredivisie Transfers PSV Eindhoven and Feyenoord Rotterdam were selling and buying. My general estimation is that the league and clubs in top third (PSV, Feyenoord, AZ Alkmaar, FC Utrecht, FC Groningen, Vitesse) have become stronger, partly because good additions to their squad that increase depth and selection availability, but also because they have some good youngsters coming through to the first team to increase competition making them better without the need to spend too much money. Player Contracts We have most of the key players tied down for longer periods, but some youngsters will enter the last year of their contracts, so Jasper Vogels, Koen Verlijsdonk and Quenten Hose signed new deals until 2034 and Mohamed Tahiri extended his contract until 2035. That should also deter interest from other clubs. Finances Just a picture here that says more than a thousand words. After nine years at charge, selling star players and bringing up young talent we’ve amassed more than £1b in the bank. The board has given me a transfer budget that exceeds £460m and a wage budget around £6m p/w (we’re actually spending less than 10% of it, between £500k-600k p/w).

Competitions We won our ninth Eredivisie title in a row, but it wasn’t as good a campaign as we’ve used to. Unbeaten in the first half of the season, we collected five defeats after Winter break and in the end it went all to the final match day between us and Feyenoord. Mid-season slump in January was followed by a terrible March and at times we didn’t look like Ajax at all. Much to improve in next year. On the other hand it’s difficult to criticise the title win. It was a good Champions League campaign. Our regular “minimum program”, I guess. We played really well in the group stage, qualified without a doubt, but ran against FC Bayern in the first knockout round. It gets really tough in later stages, because there are some 10-11 clubs in Europe that can be called “giants” and it’s almost impossible to avoid them after reaching quarter finals, so from February every win is a really good achievement. We did our best against Bayern and went out with our heads held high. Liverpool won the Champions League, defeating Chelsea in the final. It was a different story with domestic cups. Defeat from rivals PSV Eindhoven in the KNVB Beker semi-final was below our season expectations and we also lost to Vitesse in the Johan Cruijff Schaal final back in August, so the Eredivisie title remains our only silverware from this season. FC Utrecht went on to win the KNVB Beker and that was a highlight of their otherwise below-par season. Jong Ajax had a mediocre season with mid-table finish in Keuken Kampioen Divisie, but at least our academy proved out to be the best in Holland and won the title by some margin. Players The main question before the season was our goalkeeper and how Mert Alegoz will do between the sticks. In truth it was an up-and-down season for him, impacted by transfer row and his desire to join KRC Genk in January. His low morale certainly contributed to our poor results in Winter before he finally settled down and was content to stay in Ajax. At the same time he was able to keep 23 clean sheets in the league and that’s a new Eredivisie record (and it also helped him to secure the Goalkeeper of the Year award) Our defence looked solid enough, but started to crack in Winter, too. During the season Can Tas was dropped to the bench and I started to favour Ognjen Rajkovic as the left centre-back. Can Tas is a good defender, but his short height limits his ability to win headers against taller strikers, so I need to adjust my line-up according to what sort or strikers we’re facing. 20 years old Rajkovic developed really well this year, also making his debut for Serbia and probably has a pole position to the starting eleven ahead of the next season. Diyae-Eddine Jermoumi and Prince Aning fought their way into the Holland national team and it has to be said that especially Jermoumi was one of our most creative players - his crosses and passes from the right wing led to 20 chances in Eredivisie games alone (and it’s not his fault that his teammates tend to waste a lot of those opportunities) Midfield duo Taylor-Klaassen were quite consistent, but third man Bart Smits covered both DLPd and BBMs roles, depending on where he was needed. And did it well enough. Davy Klaassen had a curious season - he scored 11 goals (but almost all of them came from penalties) and ended up as one of the top goalscorers in the club. Attacking midfield remained the same - Nikita Tamm struggled to perform well consistently, but his attributes developed nicely and in May he was really good, so I hope he improves further. Stanis Idumbo Muzambo switched between AMCa and AMR IWa roles and offered versatility both when some of the players were injured or needed to change the game. Dramane Guehi was our best goalscorer this season and although his 22 goals weren’t too impressive, his attributes and training performances were. He’s now valued between £70-90m ahead of the Summer transfer window and it’s just a matter of time when some of the Premier League clubs will make a bid for him I can’t refuse. Eredivisie Awards We had a good award season (although I was just third in the manager’s manager of the year vote). Olivier Aertssen recorded 32 games in Eredivisie and won the Golden Boot again (ahead of FC Groningen’s Emanuel Emegha who scored 27 goals in the league). Dramane Guehi’s 15 goals were enough to be a runner-up in the top goalscorer table. Mert Alegoz won the Goalkeeper of the Year award and Ognjen Rajkovic was named as the Young Player of the Year. Two of the players received plaudits after the Keuken Kampioen Divisie season ended. Koen Verlijsdonk was named as the top goalscorer of the season (most of his goals came for Jong Ajax, but he featured for Almere City after January and continued to find the net there. Jong Ajax’s defender Rik Vos put in consistent performances for Jong Ajax and was named into the top three for Young Player of the Year award.

May 2030 Fixtures and Results Three games remaining this season and we have to win them all. We’re favourites for the first two matches, but the last game against Vitesse could be a potentially tricky one. We really raised our performances in those games and started with an emphatic 5:0 win over NAC Breda. First 20 minutes were quiet, but Nikita Tamm then scored two goals in a row and after Dramane Guehi made it 3:0 with a placed shot it was game over before half-time. Tamm completed his hat-trick with a header from a corner and van Axel Dongen completed the rout with the fifth goal of the afternoon. FC Emmen failed to put up a serious fight as well - we started quickly and took the lead in 2’, created three clear cut chances in the first half and went to the break with a 4:0 lead. FC Emmen had one good chance in the second half, but Filip Bilbija sent his shot wide from a point blank range and that was it. Very convincing win in front of the home crowd. We made another great start to the match against Vitesse and Dramane Guehi had a perfect opportunity already in 2’ that he used well, but we then allowed Edimar to equalise just two minutes later. Nikita Tamm came for the rescue - his accurate shot found the far post to restore our lead and when a penalty was awarded after handball in the box Klaassen made it 3:1. The second half was much more relaxed and we controlled the game, even though we couldn’t add more goals. Good results and performances all the way to secure our title win. Players and Tactics We didn’t change anything tactically, but the team looked reborn. Goals were flowing freely and defence remained solid. The NAC Breda result gave us a lot of confidence that led us through games. Player of the Month: Nikita Tamm - the Estonian winger scored a wonderful hat-trick against NAC Breda and the crucial goal in the last match. Goal of the Month: Nikita Tamm vs. Vitesse Arnhem - didn’t have a lot of space, but found the far post with an accurate shot to give us the lead in an important match. Eredivisie The title race went all the way - Feyenoord managed to win all of their games in May as well, so we finished level in points, but our better goal difference gave us the title. It has never been so close, but at the same time I’ve always said that around 80 points are needed to win the title in Eredivisie and we fell short of that in this season, so it’s clear it will be closer than usual. PSV Eindhoven dropped points in the final games, but finished third. FC Utrecht got the last Europa League place because of their cup win. At the bottom of the table RKC Waalwijk did very well to finish 16th, but were beaten by Sparta Rotterdam in the relegation play-offs. NEC Nijmegen and Excelsior were promoted to Eredivisie along with Sparta.

April 2030 Fixtures and Results We’re out of the Champions League, we’re out of the cup, so only three games in April, but three really important games, because with Feyenoord’s lead in the table we need to win all of our remaining six to have a shot at the title. The first one was an away game against Go Ahead Eagles - a potentially tricky match that was over in the first four minutes. Dramane Guehi had two good chances early in the game and he executed both to perfection and gave us a 2:0 lead. That was a massive relief to everyone and boosted confidence, so even though Can Tas made a terrible blunder and gave the Eagles a clear cut chance in 36’ they couldn’t take it. Kristian Nökkvi Hlynsson had two good opportunities to score early in the second half, but he failed to finish them off and the remaining second half was a bit more boring - we didn’t need to take too many risks and Eagles couldn’t properly threaten our goal either. A solid 2:0 win from away game and that’s exactly the sort of performance we needed - huge confidence boost with it, ahead of the next one. The next one was obviously the Topper derby. We had a home advantage, but we lost against PSV at home in the cup semi-final, so nothing was guaranteed, but the home crowd support obviously helped us. Despite that support it was a drab match - both teams defended really well and limited each other’s attacks and through the game we had just one half-chance. PSV had crawled to third place and were just five points behind us, so they probably thought they had a decent shot to the title if they won this one, but at the same time didn’t want to take too many risks either. I can be pleased with defence (and player ratings emphasised that our defenders did an amazing job), but lack of creativity was again evident. I’m not entirely happy with the result, but in the other match Feyenoord were beaten 1:3 by none other than PEC Zwolle, so no real harm was done to our title challenge. While PSV is a formidable opponent and so a goalless draw somewhat acceptable result, our next match against ADO Den Haag was downright awful - we couldn’t get it going in attack through the whole match and in the end we had just one half-chance in the game - Peter Misidjan hit the post in 80’. The stat sheet proved that we didn’t deserve to win, because we created almost nothing in attack and finished with 11/3 shooting. ADO were in the game most of the time and although our defence did well enough to keep them at bay they had a number of corners in the first half that were potentially dangerous. Very poor display from us, especially van Axel Dongen and Dramane Guehi who were nowhere to be seen on the pitch. So, a good start to the month, but a poor ending. We gained a few points on Feyenoord, but allowed them to catch us after two draws. Players and Tactics Not sure what has gone wrong here, because the formation that worked so well in the first half of the season suddenly doesn’t give a lot of chances and goals. I’m a bit confused and out of ideas. We have players fit and ready to play (except young Mohamed Tahiri who is still healing from a broken foot), but whatever selection choices I make doesn’t seem to make much difference anyway. Hopefully we’ll improve in May. Player of the Month: Mert Alegoz - the field players have been very inconsistent and below par in some games, but keeping three clean sheets in April gives our goalkeeper the award. Goal of the Month: Dramane Guehi vs. Go Ahead Eagles - not much to choose from, is it? Eredivisie We gave up our small lead and are level with Feyenoord before the last three match days, but Feyenoord’s manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst offered the biggest surprise by leaving the club and joining Brentford just three weeks before the end of the season and a good possibility to win the title. I wonder how it will affect Feyenoord. PSV Eindhoven is just three points behind us and still nurturing hopes of the title as well. It’s still very close and the title race goes right to the wire.

March 2030 Fixtures and Results Our schedule in March was rather difficult - KNVB Beker semi final against PSV Eindhoven Noord-Hollandse derby (away) and the second leg match against Bayern (away) coming up in short time, so I had to rotate the team against SC Cambuur in order to keep our key players as fresh as possible. The game went as anticipated - we weren’t very good in attack, lacked coordination and understanding in the final third, but Jasper Vogels made a smart run into the box and scored his first ever goal for the club. The left-back was clearly delighted with his effort (and I had to explain to stupid journalists after the game that no, I don’t expect our left-back to start banging them in on a regular basis). SC Cambuur played to their strengths, which were height and aerial power and they cracked our defence open once in the first half, but Mert Alegoz made a great save to prevent the goal. The second half was much more comfortable - Peter Misidjan doubled our lead with a towering header and young winger Quenten Hose made it 3:0. Good result and decent display - rotation players and youngsters made it through and I didn’t have to send any additional firepower on the pitch. However, the Topper Derby in the KNVB Beker semi-final was an utter disappointment. We had some half-chances and had a slight initiative in the first half, but should have been a little bit more clinical. I wasn’t too worried, though, until PSV scored from a free kick in 64’ and the time started to run out and my options to change things with it. We failed to find an equaliser and dropped out of the cup in the semi-final. The performance wasn’t poor and we didn’t deserve to lose this game, but we just weren’t clinical enough - 16/5 shooting, nothing dangerous from 12 corners and lack of effort from the attacking players was the main source of my disappointment. I thought we were over the slump after the recent wins we had, but apparently not. When I thought that the defeat from PSV was bad, the next game was much worse. We travelled to Alkmaar for a Noord-Hollandse derby and although it was a tricky match on paper, I thought we should be able to win this one, especially because AZ had three defeats in the last four games and came against us from the 0:4 thrashing by Fortuna Sittard. However, we failed miserably. The drab first half was followed by an even worse second period. AZ took the lead in 54’ when their centre-back Nigel Gooijer headed in from a corner and the same player doubled their lead in 81’ from another set piece goal. That was it - we couldn’t create anything in attack in the second half and AZ controlled things fairly comfortably in defence. Our average rating was just 6.65 in this match - clearly beaten by our rivals. The 1:0 away defeat from Bayern was something I could accept, because we actually played well - I tried to find a good Champions League away tactics and balance out defence and attack and it almost worked, although Bayern took the early lead after their full-back Tino Livramento curled a shot in from the edge of the area after just two minutes of football. Bayern had initiative in the game, but didn’t get too many good chances and we had a decent chance to equalise in 34, but Stanis Idumbo Muzambo skewed his shot wide from a good position. Didn’t deserve to get much from this game, but at the same time we weren’t embarrassed either. Three defeats in a row and, what’s worse, three games without a goal, so we desperately needed a win and the home game against Heracles provided a much-needed confidence boost. The first half penalty gave us the lead and we restarted the game with two quick goals in succession - Heracles’ defence looked to crumble and they fell apart completely. Substitute John Meeuwis completed the rout with a simple tap in and made it 4:0. Great result! But just when I hoped that our form was about to pick up again we lost the easiest match of the month - RKC Waalwijk was 18th in the table, but they embarrassed us 1:0 in front of their home fans. We conceded a clumsy goal in 15’ - Mert Alegoz allowed the strike (that wasn’t even a very good chance) to sneak in from his near post and we couldn’t find an equaliser against RKC! Just two half-chances in the game, both missed, and Olivier Aertssen saw his header clip the crossbar, but we dropped vital three points in a game we should have won easily with almost our first eleven! I couldn’t believe it - just unbelievable how we could be such crap against a small side. I let my frustration loose in the dressing room and gave the team a real hairdryer treatment, but it didn’t help us - Feyenoord took advantage and grabbed the first place from us after two league defeats in March. Needless to say, a pretty terrible month and probably one of the worst of my career as a manager. Players and Tactics Not sure what has gone wrong in those weeks. It’s probably confidence thing because tactically we haven’t changed much and I feel that I actually made good choices in the setup against Bayern, but the team is clearly underperforming, it shows on the pitch and more than one player has received poor ratings for their performances (and official warnings and/or fines with it). Injuries have played their part, but Davy Klaassen, Amourricho van Axel Dongen and Nikita Tamm returned to full fitness and we should have been stronger at the end of the month, not worse. Young midfielder Mohamed Tahiri suffered a broken ankle in training and his season is over, but the rest of the team are fit. The only good news came in the international break: Stanis Idumbo Muzambo made his debut for Belgium while Diyae-Eddine Jermoumi and Prince Aning earned their first cap for Holland in this international window. Not sure why they were selected right now when their form for the club is so terrible, but that’s football. Player of the Month: Olivier Aertssen - the month was laden with poor performances from most of the players, but Aertssen was at least decent in all the games he played in (he didn’t feature the AZ defeat) Goal of the Month: Peter Misidjan vs. SC Cambuur - not much to choose from, but a towering header from Misidjan gets the award. Youth Intake Here’s the second good news of the month - our youth intake. For once it looks really promising and includes at least four really talented players. Personalities are not the worst either and I really like that bunch of kids. Richard Svec is the best prospect of the bunch - a 15 years old Slovak left-back, determined kid with an excellent work rate, aggression and teamwork. He could go really far. Jaap Prinsen is a talented midfielder, but he’s the only one with a poor personality and low determination. Stephen Abbey is a right-winger with Ghanaian roots, very agile, but generally evenly distributed attributes and a fairly ambitious personality. Joel Comvalius is a decent right-back who is very gifted physically Eredivisie We’ve lost our first place in the table and are two points behind Feyenoord with just six games to go. PEC Zwolle have won four of their last five games and leaped from 18th to 15th position, leaving the relegation battle to SC Cambuur, RKC Waalwijk and FC Emmen.

February 2030 Fixtures and Results The month began with the Klassieker derby at De Kuip and the honest assessment is that we were not ready for that match, especially mentally. Feyenoord acquired three good players in the January window and we were not quite familiar with how their setup changes because of that. Our own transfer window distractions and somewhat lower morale led to a situation where few players were nervous at the kick-off and we conceded the first goal in just 21 seconds after the game started - their new signing Carlos Eduardo got away from Prince Aning and scored from the early chance. We got our foot into the game and equalised fairly soon and held a small initiative in the first half, but conceded two set piece goals after the break - Feyenoord took the lead from a corner in 66’ and then their midfielder Josip Brekalo scored from a wonderful free kick to make it 1:3 and that was game over right there. I was frustrated with the result, because it was statistically an even game, but Feyenoord had the edge in the second half. There were lessons to be learned in both man management and tactical side of things - some of our players were anxious and not really up to the challenge and we missed Davy Klaassen’s determination and experience in midfield. After trailing in the second half I switched to a positive mentality, but that swung momentum entirely to Feyenoord’s side and we failed to change the game, so it was counterproductive at best. Defeat in the derby leaves just two points between us and Feyenoord in the table, so we’ve squandered most of the lead we had at Christmas. We had now back to back games with sc Heerenveen - both in league and in the cup, and both at home. To follow up our poor match against Feyenoord we lost the next league game as well. We should have won the match easily, but Heerenveen played it smart - they came against us with a defensive 4-1-4-1 DM formation and for the first 30 minutes in the first half virtually nothing happened on the pitch, so they were excellent in killing the game. We did have our number of chances, though - Dramane Guehi missed a few good opportunities and Nikita Tamm definitely should have scored in 42’, but he failed to find the empty net with his header and hit the crossbar instead. And, of course, sc Heerenveen had just one goal scoring chance in the game and they used it to the maximum effect - in 48’ their goalkeeper sent a long kick forward, a header won in midfield, a flick on to the runner and Amin Sarr made it 1:0. I switched to attacking mentality in the second half and we tried to find an equaliser, but failed to score and had to accept the defeat. Poor display from the team - I’m especially furious with our finishing - our xG was above 2.00 so we definitely should have got something from the game. You might say that we were FM-d here, but in truth we should have been a lot better ourselves. It seems that some of the players have low morale and that starts to affect their form and our results, so I need to find the winning line-up soon. The following cup match quarter final was much better. Perhaps it was due to the fact that sc Heerenveen switched to a 4-3-3 DM formation and were a bit more attacking, but they left more space behind their lines and we used it better this time. Momentum swung back and forth in the first 15 minutes, but Dramane Guehi took his chances well and scored two goals to set us up in the game and completed his hat-trick in the first half. The Ivorian striker added his fourth goal in the second half and the 4:0 result was a comprehensive win for us. The only downside was another injury to Davy Klaassen - our veteran midfielder just returned from his recent trauma, played 1,5 games and came off in 61’ with sprained ankle ligaments that will make him skip the next month of action. That’s a shame. On the other hand - plenty of youngsters had a shot in this game - 18 years old goalkeeper Riswan Sinaga played the full 90 minutes, made some great saves and finished with a clean sheet and 8.2 rating. Claidel Muringen came on for Klaassen and Mohamed Tahiri made his debut in the second half, capping his entrance with an assist to Guehi’s fourth goal. Excellent result in my books. Hopefully this win will improve our morale and turn our form around, because we’ve had enough poor results this Winter. We continued with good results in our next match against Fortuna Sittard - good first half was capped with a goal (a simple tap-in from Dramane Guehi), but then we allowed Fortuna to equalise when Diyae-Eddine Jermoumi lost possession on the right and the following cross found Jesurun Rak-Sakyi unmarked at the far post. Disappointed to concede in the end of the first half after we’ve been a clearly better team, but the players reacted well to my half-time team talk and we scored right after the kick-off. John Meeuwis completed the match with a good strike in 83’ and it was all over after that. We looked a bit fragile in defence, especially in the second half after substitutions, but generally a good game and I’m happy with all three points. The big test now was FC Bayern in the Champions League. At least we had a couple of wins under our belt and morale was a lot better, so I was cautiously optimistic before the first home game and retained our positive mentality. Bayern had initiative in the first half and their individual quality was evident in certain situations, but in the second half we took the lead after a good header from Dramane Guehi. We couldn’t keep Bayern at bay for the full ninety minutes, though, and their Portuguese striker Jose Ricardo scored in 60’. Bayern was left with 10 men in 85 after Alphonso Davies came off with an injury, but we couldn’t capitalise on the situation in the last minutes and it remained 1:1. I rate it as a good result - let’s see how we’ll do in Munich. The last win over FC Twente was in fact very comfortable - we took the lead in 2’ - Dramane Guehi scored with a low drive - and controlled the match from start to finish. Olivier Aertssen doubled our lead from a corner and even though Kenneth Taylor missed the penalty in the second half our win was never in doubt, because FC Twente made their first attempt only in the last minute of the match. Easy win there. So, a terrible start to February, but we slowly improved in the next games and at the end of the month our team spirit looked much better. Players and Tactics I didn’t change our tactics much in those games, but poor results obviously led to some scrutiny about some player’s performances. Amourricho van Axel Dongen has been in poor form, Mert Alegoz was still sulking about his transfer and got even more unhappy when I pointed out his poor form and 6.66 average rating after the sc Heerenveen defeat, so young goalkeeper Riswan Sinaga played in the wins against Heerenveen and Fortuna Sittard and did really well. My squad selection was also affected by injuries - Davy Klaassen missed most of the month because of a sprained ankle (second month in a row he was affected by a knock), van Axel Dongen came off with a twisted ankle against Fortuna Sittard and Nikita Tamm finished the Bayern match with a hamstring strain. Not sure if those injuries were good or bad for the team, because while we miss Klaassen, both van Axel Dongen and Tamm were clearly underperforming anyway and it gave chances to other players to impress. Ja-Ryong Kim got more game time on the left flank and Stanis Idumbo Muzambo started on the right. One news item about player contracts - John Meeuwis signed a new deal until 2034. Player of the Month: Dramane Guehi - the striker has found his goal scoring form after the Winter break. Eight goals in six games from him in February! Goal of the Month: Dramane Guehi vs. FC Twente - first time attempt to fire it into the bottom corner. Eredivisie Just one point lead in the table after our defeats in February. Relegation battle remains fierce and four teams are still in the mix at the bottom of the table.

January 2030 Fixtures and Results After the Winter break we restarted our season with back to back games against FC Groningen - the first one at Euroborg was our first defeat in the league this season - we took the lead in 9’, but Groningen showed that they were no pushovers and created a couple of good chances in the first half, so it was clear that they intend to attack (at least in the home game) and their fourth place in the Eredivisie table is well merited. Groningen’s striker Emanuel Emegha is currently the top goalscorer in the league and he showed his quality in the second half - creating a little bit of space for himself and equalising in 58’. FC Groningen took the lead in 74 after a free kick was poorly cleared by our defenders and then Emegha won a header in our six yard box against Olivier Aertssen and made it 1:3. Kristian Nökkvi Hlynsson scored in the very next attack for us and we were still in the game with ten minutes to go, but both Dramane Guehi and Nikita Tamm missed their late chances and we had to accept the defeat. Very disappointing, but I have to admit that Groningen played to their strengths in this game, the home crowd was also behind them and they probably felt that they deserved that result. The defeat means we have now played half of the games in the league and collected 44 points from 17 match days - a fairly good amount that makes us strong title favourites despite that loss. The home game three days later was much better in terms of performance, but ended with an equally disappointing result. We played much better and created chances in the first half, taking the lead after a corner, but then allowed FC Groningen to equalise in 44’ after an indirect free kick - their midfielder Daleho Irandust saw his free kick hit the post, but Benjamin Holmgaard was there to finish it off while both our defenders and Mert Alegoz were just too slow to react. We had initiative in the second half - created a lot of chances and should have scored at least one more goal, but our finishing was extremely poor and to watch that was pure frustration. The attacking players failed to find the winning goal and we dropped another two points, despite having 24 shots and 3.59 xG. With two poor results in January already in the books, we needed to improve and did much better against FC Utrecht - a penalty gave us the lead and Nikita Tamm scored our second goal to take us to the break with a 2:0 score line. I would have liked to see more threat from us in attack, but at least we took our chances much better and managed to score goals. Kristian Nökkvy Hlynsson scored a great goal in the second half to make it 3:0 and Wilfried Gnonto’s goal in 77’ was just a consolation for FC Utrecht - we got a bit of complacent and careless in defence in the last 20 minutes, so for FC Utrecht to score seemed inevitable, but that didn’t matter too much. I rotated the squad a lot for the cup game against Excelsior. Excelsior leads the Keuken Kampioen Divisie by some margin, so they’re fairly strong, but we had the home advantage and I was confident that we’ll get the results, so I made eight changes in the line-up. John Meeuwis scored a fairly early goal in the first half, but that remained the only goal. We lacked fluidity in attack and Excelsior defended in numbers, so we struggled to create chances and finished the game with just 0.99 xG - not very convincing, but on the other hand we controlled the midfield comfortably and didn’t look under pressure at all. We recorded another 1:0 win over PEC Zwolle and that was very similar to our second encounter with F CGroningen - we scored an early penalty and then created a number of chances in the game, but the finishing was just awful. We hit the woodwork four times (!) and had 3.14 xG, but failed to score the second goal to finish this game off and in the end Zwolle’s Marvin Cuni had a great opportunity to equalise from a free kick in 86’, but fortunately missed the target with his shot from close range. We were a bit lucky to escape from that with all three points and I was quite upset with our attacking players - we can’t continue to be that terrible in front of goal or it will cost us dearly in the coming matches. Players and Tactics We haven’t changed our formation and it seems to work generally well, but we’ve struggled with our finishing. Not sure if it’s a confidence thing or skills, but we can’t beat goalkeepers from open positions. No wonder that we don’t have a single player with more than 10 goals this season although we’re past the halfway mark. One of the reasons for our poor performance may be morale. Some of the players are upset about transfer decisions and I had a pretty big row with Mert Alegoz who was frustrated that I didn’t allow him to leave to KRC Genk. Genk came with a modest £3-5m bid for him and obviously I couldn’t let our first choice goalkeeper leave for that sort of fee. At first I didn’t even understand why he wants to leave to Belgium so badly, but I then checked to see that the Belgian Jupiler Pro League is just one place above us in the league reputation rankings and that made some sens, although KRC Genk have already dropped out of the Champions League and are just second in the league, so I’d reckon that Ajax should be more desirable destination for footballers than Genk. Either way, my poor conversation skills made things worse, not better as I couldn’t convince the player to change his heart and his disappointment in me (and the club) has probably reflected in his performances. On the other hand, the 18 years old goalkeeper Riswan Sinaga made his debut for the club against Excelsior (and kept a clean sheet), so if things turn sour I need to look for the future. We’ve had one injury problem and that’s Davy Klaassen - the veteran midfielder came off from the pitch in the first FC Groningen match with a twisted ankle and was sidelined for the remaining of the month. Bart Smits filled the role of BBMs in midfield with various results and it proved that we’re a bit too thin in midfield - playing continuously with just two players without proper substitutions led to fatigue. Player of the Month: Kristian Nökkvi Hlynsson - the month had ups and downs and some players were very inconsistent, but Hlynsson could be depended on attack and in all of his four games he provided above 7.0 rating, scoring two goals in the process. Goal of the Month: Kristian Nökkvi Hlynsson vs. FC Utrecht - a great finish from just outside of the area. Eredivisie We dropped some points in January, but still have a good five points lead in the table. AZ Alkmaar and FC Groningen hold the other European places.

December 2029 Fixtures and Results Six games in December. At first glance, the most challenging ones are Arsenal (obviously) and an away game with Vitesse, but we’re clear favourites for the rest of the fixtures. The KNVB Beker draw has been rather tough for us in the last few seasons - for some unexplained reason we’ve had an Eredivisie club in the second round while a lot of other clubs in the league will get an amateur club or some small team from lower divisions. This time we’re against ADO Den Haag. To begin our month we destroyed Fortuna Sittard at home. We dominated the first half, created chances and scored goals. Ja-Ryong Kim scored a beautiful free kick and added another one with a simple tap-in. We slowed down a little in the second half, but substitute Quenten Hose found the target late in the game to make it 5:0. Fortuna were so clearly beaten that they left the pitch, heads down. Our shooting was 29/16 with 4.58 xG and we created no less than 10 goal scoring chances in the match, also hit the woodwork three times. It could have been much worse for them. After that show of strength we put on a surprisingly lacklustre display against FC Twente, or was it that Twente just played really well and restricted us from playing our game, but we couldn’t create any real chances in the full 90 minutes and returned from Enschede with a narrow 1:0 win. The winning goal came in the first half, when Diyae-Eddine Jermoumi delivered a cross from the right wing and FC Twente’s goalkeeper Fedde Leysen got his hand to it, but the ball fell to Ja-Ryong Kim who nodded it into the empty goal. At least we were solid defensively and didn’t concede any chances ourselves, although FC Twente tested Mert Alegoz on several occasions. Narrow win with a disappointing performance - just 0.50 xG is not exactly what fans have been used to this season. Then it was time to prove our quality against Arsenal - to make a difference in the group standings we needed to win at least 3:0 and that always seemed unlikely, but I hoped for a good performance and a win nevertheless. The first ten minutes were crazy and hectic. Chances came on both ends - Bukayo Saka missed the target for Arsenal and we had a few good opportunities to take the lead, but both teams failed to score an early goal and the game settled down after that. Arsenal’s Jarrod Bowen scored in the second half after Prince Aning lost the ball in midfield, but we reacted well and Stanis Idumbo Muzambo equalised two minutes later. Arsenal were left to 10 men in 81’ after Kieran Tierney was sent off with his second yellow card, but we couldn’t take advantage and it remained 1:1. I wasn’t disappointed with the result, but we could have won it if our finishing were a bit more clinical and there’s a lesson in this. Schedule was difficult and ahead of the Vitesse match Dramane Guehi suffered a small injury in training that forced him out for a couple of games. It’s possible that we missed his finishing in the match against Vitas - we dominated the game from start to finish, creating no less than eight (!) half-chances already in the first half, but failed to find the target despite finishing with 2.72 xG. Unlucky? Perhaps, but finishing should have been better and for that reason it was a disappointing result. John Meeuwis played in the ST position, but his performance was below par in that particular game. On the other hand - at the same time Feyenoord were 0:2 beaten by FC Twente, so we still gained one point in the table. I rotated a lot for the KNVB Beker match against ADO Den Haag and made six changes in our starting line-up. We still controlled the game in the first half, but Ja-Ryong Kim was forced to come off with an injury and our attack lacked a bit of understanding and cooperation. Despite that we took the lead in the first half and in the second half Peter Misidjan scored two good goals - the first of those was a fabulous strike from 26 metres that was worth the ticket fee alone. Great goal. We continued to be defensively very solid and didn’t give ADO any chances, so 3:0 was a very good result, considering that we played with almost our second eleven. The home game against NAC Breda was another solid win - we had an early penalty that Davy Klaassen converted (taking his goal tally to 9 goals already) and Dramane Guehi made it sure with a header from point blank range in the second half. Again, a good win and we were clearly the better team, so I was pleased enough with our performance. Players and Tactics Tactically not much to note. I tried Diyae-Eddine Jermoumi as a CWBs in the second half against NAC Breda, but he failed to impress (in other words, he wasn’t very visible in attack). Most of the time our usual positive 4-2-3-1 has done the job well. It’s incredible that we’ve still conceded just two goals in 16 league games and both of them came from set pieces - a free kick from AZ Alkmaar and a corner from sc Heerenveen. Our defence looks really impregnable and we can be really proud of that. It’s also the main reason why we have a good lead in the table while Feyenoord has also put together a strong first round of games. We have had some smaller problems with injuries - Ja-Ryong Kim and Olivier Aertssen suffered traumas in the last couple of games, but it’s not too serious and they should be fine in a couple of weeks. They’re certainly fit after the Winter break. Player of the Month: Prince Aning - played in four games, had 7.88 average rating, was really good against strong opponents like Arsenal and Vitesse. Goal of the Month: Peter Misidjan vs. ADO Den Haag - what a goal, sent into the top corner from 26 metres. Player Contracts Peter Misidjan has filled in for Kristian Nökkvi Hlynsson in November and December. He’s been great at times and earned a new contract until 2034. He’s still just 21 years old, training well and developing further, so let’s keep him here until a big club comes for him with a huge bid. It was not so good news for some of the other players. Bedirhan Celikel has had a decent loan spell in FC Groningen for the past two seasons, but I’m unsure about his low determination and he didn’t get the new contract, so he decided to join Arminia Bielefeld. Jonathan Koppers and Pawel Wachowicz won’t remain the Ajax players either - they will be released in Summer and start to look for new clubs in January. Youth Intake Preview Finally, an excellent intake is coming up, if you believe this preview. Let’s see if the promise holds until March. Eredivisie We have a five point lead with a game in hand and we’re still unbeaten in the league. Wonderful first half to the season. Lots of changes in the relegation fight, as different clubs pick up points on different match days. Interesting to see how it plays out. Champions League Very happy with our group stage results. Arsenal was tough to beat, but to get 13 points is excellent and we’re through to the knockout stages. Feyenoord finished in second place in group F and got through to the knockout stages, but Vitesse didn’t impress in the tough group with Manchester City, Atletico Madrid and Atalanta. They made three draws, but failed to win a single game and that resulted in no better than fourth place. Our opponent in the first knockout round is FC Bayern. Group winners were all European giants, so in fact there wasn’t a single ‘easy’ team for us. It is what it is.

November 2029 Fixtures and Results Only one home game in November - the small Go Ahead Eagles team looked like an easy opponent and I used this chance to rotate the squad and send out almost our second eleven against them. We controlled the game against them, but expected a little more chances than we actually got in the first half, but despite that took a 2:0 lead before half-time. Jasper Vogels and Peter Misidjan combined both goals between them - Vogels crossed from our left flank and Misidjan was at the right place to finish them off. Eagles had a few opportunities of their own in the second half and the best chance was in 71’ when Guy Mbenza was free in front of the goal, but Mert Alegoz made a great save with his feet to parry the attempt. Not an impressive 2:0 win in the end, but good enough. It was our 30th consecutive game in Eredivisie without a defeat - let’s keep that run going. I opted for a more conservative balanced mentality for the next away matches in the Champions League. We were slight favourites against Red Bull Salzburg, but our careful tactics meant that the game itself wasn’t as entertaining as I’ve used to see (certainly less entertaining than the board expects from us). Neither of the teams were particularly good at creating chances and set pieces were looking to be more decisive than usual and one of those set pieces led to our first goal - Kenneth Taylor delivered a free kick to the box where the Salzburg goalkeeper went for it, but dropped the ball and John Meeuwis was alert enough to head it right into the goal. We managed to create a few half chances in the second half, so you could say that we controlled the game more, but the 1:0 lead was always unsure and our opponents managed to send a header against the crossbar once. However, we scored our second goal in injury time to put this game to bed. Not the most entertaining match, but a solid win and in the end the result mattered the most - a third win in the group stage gave us nine points in the table and made our qualification almost certain. PSV Eindhoven tried to surprise us with a little unorthodox 5-2-2-1 WB narrow formation, but they, too, couldn’t break our defence down. We had an early penalty after Nikita Tamm was brought down in the box - it didn’t look like a foul at first, but surprisingly, VAR upheld that decision. However, even more surprisingly, Davy Klaassen missed the penalty. We couldn’t create too many chances in the game (as could be expected for a balanced mentality), so the missed penalty and one good attempt from John Meeuwis that curled towards the goal but hit the post instead were key moments from the first half. We switched to positive in the second half, but set pieces proved to be the key factor in this game - Olivier Aertssen headed in from a corner and late in the game we had a second chance from the spot after van Axel Dongen was fouled in the box. This time, Klaassen made no mistakes. 2:0 away win in a derby with a formidable defensive performance - I’m happy with that. We had some difficulties against sc Heerenveen at first - it seemed that they had the momentum for the first 15 minutes and when Nicolas Madsen headed against the crossbar I made one tactical tweak to press them a little less and keep our lines a bit more organised. That was a good spot and excellent decision - we closed more space with our defensive structure that way and weren’t lured to move away from the formation. As a result, we scored the first goal in 34’, but allowed Heerenveen to equalise in 45’ from a corner. A bit disappointing result at half-time, because we looked like a better team in the last 30 minutes or so. In the second half, however, we destroyed them completely. It all started with a penalty in 62’ and when Kenneth Taylor curled in an excellent free kick in 72’ then Heerenveen’s defence collapsed completely - they conceded two more goals in two minutes and the final result was 5:1 - comprehensive win for us. Koen Verlijsdonk scored his first ever goal for Ajax in this match. Our trip to Istanbul produced another good win in the Champions League - the first half goal from Stanis Idumbo Muzambo put us in the lead, Taylor scored from another free kick in the second half and after that the result was never in doubt. Dramane Guehi completed the game with a late injury time goal. Besiktas had one half-chance in the match, but they were never really threatening and with 3.16 xG the game was always under our control. So, a perfect winning streak for a second month in a row, just one goal conceded (and that too from a corner) with more than two goals scored in every single game. Things are working out perfectly for us. Players and Tactics I didn’t change much in tactics. We played some away games with a balanced mentality, but used our standard 4-2-3-1 formation with the same roles and instructions. It worked out perfectly, so no reason for changes either. Kristian Nökkvi Hlynsson’s injury was a big deal on paper, but actually we coped well - Peter Misidjan started most of the games in AMCa and Stanis Idumbo Muzambo filled in as well (although he played more often in AMR as IWa, rotating with van Axel Dongen). Dramane Guehi suffered a small injury and was absent for a couple of games, but John Meeuwis played well, scoring an important goal against Salzburg. When Guehi returned, he finally found his goal scoring form and found the target three times in the last two games of the month. Goals have been distributed well in the squad - Stanis Idumbo Muzambo has scored 7 goals in all competitions. Davy Klaassen also has 7 goals (6 of which have come from penalties - we’ve got a lot of penalties this season) and John Meeuwis has 6 to his name. Set pieces have been the case for Kenneth Taylor as well - he’s scored 4 at the moment. The November international break was eventful for Ognjen Rajkovic and Aron Darri van Kasteren who made their debut for Serbia and Iceland national teams respectively. Finally, a news item about Ajax being the most prolific club in European top league player development and by a considerable margin. Player of the Month: Kenneth Taylor - was in fantastic form, scored three goals and gave two assists in those four games he played in, with an average rating of 8.05 Goal of the Month: Kenneth Taylor vs. sc Heerenveen - a beautiful free kick from 20 metres Eredivisie Managerial casualties start to mount after one third of the season has been played. Marinus Dijkhuizen was sacked by PEC Zwolle - no surprises there, because they’ve struggled since August and are in relegation threat. Mark van Bommel was also sacked by FC Utrecht (the board had been patient with him, but Utrecht failed to improve their form). Peter Bosz was fired from PSV Eindhoven after the derby defeat at home to us and failing with Utrecht didn’t stop van Bommel from taking charge of PSV. Champions League All seems to be clear here, Arsenal at the top of the table and we’re comfortably second with 12 points.

October 2029 Fixtures and Results In our second Champions League group stage fixture we hosted Besiktas, and as expected, our opponents came to Amsterdam with a little too defensive mentality. We took control of the game early on, scored one goal in the first half and quickly followed it up with a penalty after the break. Nikita Tamm wasted a lot of good moments in the second half, but in the end John Meeuwis completed the rout from the rebound of one of Tamm’s attempts. Very convincing win in the end - our xG was 3.63 while we didn’t concede any chances ourselves. Good performance from start to finish. We tried to carry this momentum to the weekend. AZ Alkmaar came to town for the Noord-Hollandse derby. Kenneth Taylor scored from a free kick when just four minutes were played, but Junior Sambia equalised in 47’ for AZ and that, too, came from a direct free kick. It was 1:1 for a while, but the second half belonged to us - Stanis Idumbo Izambo restored our lead with a placed shot and Ja-Ryong Kim made it 3:1. Good win for us - AZ didn’t exactly roll over and made us work for that, but home advantage was enough to secure all three points. SC Cambuur is back in Eredivisie, but they haven’t been too good so far and are on the losing streak and it continued against us at Sandor van der Heide Park. We controlled the game from start to finish, Cambuur concentrated on defending and were quite good at that in some periods, but eventually conceded one goal in the first half, one in the second and then we had a penalty as well to make it 3:0. Cambuur had only one decent chance to score - a second half free kick from a promising position, but Mert Alegoz managed to save it and keep his clean sheet. Another good win - three goals scored, none conceded and made it look fairly comfortable in the process. We had two home games in the Champions League in October and Red Bull Salzburg was our next victim. We needed some time to really control the game - while we created chances in the first half, our opponents had some good moments as well and their danger man Saša Kalajdžic had a clear cut chance already in 3’ and hit the crossbar later in the first half. We lost Kristian Nökkvi Hlynsson to an injury early in the game and it took us until 42’ to finally take the lead. The second half was more convincing - although Peter Misidjan’s fluke goal gave us a 2:0 lead (he was standing in front of the goal and the ball bounced in from his deflection, but I’m not sure he knew much about it himself). Idumbo Muzambo and John Meeuwis added to Salzburg’s misery to make it 4:0. Really good result for us and a great game while Salzburg could rue their missed chances in the first half. We lost Hlynsson for a long time, though - tests after the game indicated he has a fracture in his leg and he’ll be out for around three months. That’s the first serious injury of the season. We finished October with a trip to Utrecht and returned with another convincing result. To be fair, FC Utrecht have struggled so far this season and find themselves in 16th position of the table. We didn’t really get too good chances, but Klaassen headed in from a corner, Nikita Tamm scored our second goal and in 26’ Klaassen converted a penalty to make it 3:0 and that was it - we didn’t need to push too hard in the second half and FC Utrecht didn’t have enough quality to cut that three goal deficit down. So, an excellent string of results in October - morale is sky high and confidence as well. Players and Tactics I managed to upset Amourricho van Axel Dongen by continuing to play him on the right wing, therefore breaking the promise I gave when we extended his contract and obviously the player was angry about it. My dismissive attitude didn’t help at all and in the end he handed in a transfer request. I was a little worried at first (but only little), then Stanis Idumbo Muzambo played a few games as right winger (in IWa role) and did very well and I started to worry much less So if any club wants to come and take van Axel Dongen away from us for his £42m price tag they’re welcome to do so. He’s not being benched as a punishment and I still plan to use him in games, just have to keep an eye on his morale and how it could affect his performances. Kristian Nökkvi Hlynsson’s fractured foot is our first serious injury, but Peter Misidjan have replaced him well enough and Idumbo Mizambo’s versatility means that he can play in both AMR and AMC positions, so I hope we’ll be fine without Hlynsson in this time. In the attacking side of the game we still miss Dramane Guehi’s goal scoring form - no goals from him this month, while John Meeuwis somehow manages to score regularly when coming on from substitutions and Davy Klaassen found the target four times in October. In fact, Klaassen’s first goal against FC Utrecht was his 100th for Ajax! One tactical note to share here - I switched Aning’s instructions to dribble more in FBa role and the instruction suits him well - he’s more attacking, his good pace and decent technique give him ability to open up more space for himself when dribbling and he caused some havoc with that against Salzburg. That’s something to exploit further in the coming games. Player of the Month: Davy Klaassen - veteran midfielder has been brilliant in those games, scored four goals, gave an assist and had an average rating of 7.74 Goal of the Month: Kenneth Taylor vs. AZ Alkmaar - a beautiful free kick, curled over the wall Eredivisie Nice gap already behind us, PSV and Vitesse have dropped pace, but Feyenoord look like contenders so far. FC Twente is surprisingly in the top three (although all of their wins have come against smaller teams and they’ve yet to beat stronger opponents). Oliver Neuville was sacked after SC Cambuur dropped into the relegation zone. Champions League Three games played and Arsenal have the lead, we’re second and Besiktas third. No surprises in the table after the first round of games.

September 2029 Fixtures and Results We had a newly-promoted RKC Waalwijk before the international break. The Champions League begins with an away game in London (glad to get it out of the way early), but the Eredivisie schedule is a bit easier to balance it out. Smart selection choices and team rotation starts here, as the schedule gets more demanding. RKC Waalwijk is a newly-promoted team this season and they’re predicted to struggle against relegation. Their trip to Johan Cruijff Arena was certainly an afternoon they’d like to forget - they sort of stayed in the game for the first 15 minutes, but then we took the lead and when RKC’s Artur Sakarias (that’s right, the same Estonian left-back who came through our youth ranks a few years back) received his second yellow card in the first half, they ended up in big trouble and were hammered in the second half - we had 10 good chances (4 ccc-s among them) with 4.81 xG and hit the woodwork four times, so it could have been much worse for them. A convincing win and a great situation from where to go for the international break. I kind of felt bad for RKC - there are those kinds of nights: on travel, a big team against you, a big stadium, conceding the first goal and then a red card, so you know the game is gone and you just try to survive until the final whistle. After the international break we rotated the team a little - partly because a few players (some of them youngsters) got international games and returned fatigued, but partly because my stupid promise to play van Axel Dongen on the left as IWs. So he moved to left, Stanis Idumbo Muzambo featured as a right winger and John Meeuwis started (preventing Dramane Guehi starting too many games and getting jaded as a result). Despite that we had a good game - van Axel Dongen scored in the first half with a nice half-volley and in the second half we already played with more confidence. It was evident that our attacking players lacked familiarity with each other and we wasted some good chances, but the fluidity improved over the game and in the end we returned with a solid 3:0 win. FC Emmen managed to hit the woodwork twice, but in truth they didn’t create proper chances, so for the fourth game in a row I could be extremely happy with our defensive record - another clean sheet for Mert Alegoz. It was about to change at Emirates Stadium against Arsenal - a tough game to start our campaign with. I switched to our Champions League tactics, trying to counter Arsenal’s positive, very fluid 4-4-2 setup. We got clearly beaten - we didn’t have enough quality to stand up to Arsenal, but at the same time it was a tactical defeat as well. We tried to force them wide in defence, but they were happy to pump crosses into the box and their tall striker Tammy Abraham headed in two goals. Can Tas particularly struggled in aerial duels and two of his lost headers were converted to goals by Abraham. In attack we couldn’t get anything going - 4/2 shooting with 0.34 xG was never going to be good enough to score or create any decent chances. Our average rating was just 6.39, so while 0:3 isn’t a disastrous result (we started to fall apart in the last ten minutes, conceding on 80’ and 82’ and until that point it was just 0:1), there were no signs that this game could have ended any differently. Disappointment, to say the least. We didn’t let ourselves be disheartened by that and won our next match against ADO Den Haag easily. Kenneth Taylor had three chances to take a free kick in the first half and he converted one of them into a beautiful goal. The second half was a bit better in terms of chances - Nikita Tamm got himself to the score sheet and van Axel Dongen completed the rout. Excellent response from the team after the Arsenal result. Heracles were a bit more difficult to break at Erve Asito. They came against us with a defensive 5-3-2 DM WB formation, defending really deep and with numbers. It was extremely difficult to find space in their box despite our 70% possession. We got a penalty in the second half that Klaassen converted and after that managed to find a few more chances, but our finishing was a bit frustrating. In the end it was a 1:0 win thanks to that penalty and not the most entertaining match. In defence we were pretty comfortable and Heracles couldn’t get a single shot on target. Players and Tactics I can be really proud of our defensive record - we haven’t conceded a single goal in six league games and haven’t given too many chances away for our opponents. I’m not trying to play defensively, but it has just worked out well. On the other hand, we haven’t faced too many stronger teams lately, so that’s part of the reason why. Anyway, Mert Alegoz has had a pretty comfortable time settling in as our new first choice goalkeeper - six clean sheets with 7.45 average rating, despite rarely making any saves. Attacking part of things - most goals have come from our wingers (even Nikita Tamm has had a decent goal scoring form this season), but Dramane Guehi only has one to his name and that’s a bit low for his standards. Hopefully he’ll improve soon. Player of the Month: Amourricho van Axel Dongen - superb in league games this month - three goals and two assists for him and he also earned a penalty that gave us the win over Heracles. Goal of the Month: Kenneth Taylor vs. ADO Den Haag - a beautiful free kick, curled over the wall I’ll wrap up this month’s player’s overview with a news item that confirms we’ve produced 33 players to the top leagues in Europe. Not bad. Eredivisie Three big teams leading the title race - no surprises here so far.

Squad Update 2029 Goalkeepers Mert Alegoz is the new first choice between the sticks. Riswan Sinaga is an up and coming youngster. Defenders Unchanged from the last season. Prince Aning was looking for a way to a better club and bigger division and at one point in Spring it looked like Juventus and Tottenham were interested, but he remained as an Ajax player. Defensive line is still fairly young and players are developing, so that’s a good thing. Midfield Davy Klaassen is our own James Milner - a 36 years old, but still one of the best BBMs/BWMs. Kenneth Taylor is on the verge of joining the Holland national team. Bart Smits provides backup and Claidel Muringen will be looking for minutes to aid his development. Attacking Midfield Plenty of choices here - the main three (van Axel Dongen - Hlynsson - Tamm) are the same, but we have plenty of choices for rotation and substitutions. Strikers We rely heavily on Dramane Guehi (still surprised that nobody came to steal him away this Summer). John Meeuwis scored 10 goals last season and is one of the most exciting prospects in the team. Aron Darri van Kastelen and Koen Verlijsdonk are youngsters who will probably get some minutes here or there, but mainly feature for Jong Ajax.

August 2029 Transfer Window I’m always willing to let my best players go when a really big club comes with a reasonable bid and this Summer Juventus came for Jay Gorter. They offered around £50m that I negotiated up to £53m and the international goalkeeper went to Italy. I’m happy for him - bigger club, bigger league and bigger wages. We lost a key member of the squad, but I have a feeling that Mert Alegoz is ready to make the next step in his development and we also have two talented youngsters in Riswan Sinaga and Calvin Francis, so Gorter’s departure makes sense. We had five players on loan and they all returned. Youri Boerhout left to Arminia Bielefeld after his loan finished and contract ran out. Decent striker, but not really in the Champions League level and in Ajax he always would have been a backup. Bedirhan Celikel had a decent season in FC Groningen and we extended his loan there for another season. He’s a solid first team choice for Groningen and gets more playing time than he’d get in Ajax at the moment. Jonathan Koppers, Pawel Wacwhowicz and Claidel Muringen will remain in Ajax for the next season - I believe that Muringen could get some minutes in easier games and I really like to test him out in midfield (also, our midfield is rather thin with just three players and we could use a backup full-back). The Eredivisie transfer window was fairly busy. Feyenoord was playing the key role on this - they cashed in for their French striker Georginio Rutter (he went to Everton for £41,5m) and they used this money to completely rebuild their squad. Fixtures and Results We opened with the Johan Cruijff Schaal final - interesting to play against Vitesse, as I’m used to seeing either Feyenoord or PSV in this match. Our opponents’ squad hasn’t changed much since May, but they had a few capable loanees from Chelsea to bolster their ranks ahead of their Champions League season and one of them - Edimar - scored a beautiful free kick to give Vitesse a lead in the first half. It was a fairly even game and both teams tried to attack, but we couldn’t find a goal until Peter Misidjan finally equalised on 87’. Momentum was shifting to our side and I believe that we would have won in extra time, but there’s no extra time in the Johan Cruijff Schaal final and teams continue with penalties after the score is level. The first five takers from both teams scored, but Olivier Aertssen missed his penalty and Vitesse took the cup. I’m not too concerned with performance - we did well and several players are still getting their match sharpness back, just unlucky I guess. Our Eredivisie campaign started with a Klassieker derby at Johan Cruijff Arena. I felt that home advantage should have given us an edge and it did - we had a small initiative through the match and had some half-chances to score, but it remained goalless until the end. We were extremely solid defensively and didn’t give Feyenoord any opportunities either, but their formation was probably a bit more defensive and they could be more happy with a point from away match while we were left to rue our missed chances. Slight disappointment, but on the other hand a draw with Feyenoord is not a bad result - it’s much worse to drop points against smaller teams. We had a much better game against PEC Zwolle on road - we took the lead in the first half after Klaassen found Nikita Tamm with a cross and the left winger scored with a simple tap-in. The first half finished 1:0, but goals started to pour in after the break - van Axel Dongen doubled our lead, Olivier Aertssen nodded in from a point blank range after a free kick and Stanis Idumbo Muzambo completed the rout from a counter-attack after Zwolle’s corner. We finished the game with 3.39 xG while giving Zwolle no real chances in the game, so I was very happy with our display - a convincing win. Players I’m happy that all of the players are fit and injury-free at the beginning of the season. Performances have been a little bit inconsistent (partly because match fitness has been an issue for some of the players), but it will improve. I feel that at least in some games I have been able to make Nikita Tamm perform well in a certain wide IFs role and that’s a relief. At the same time Diyae-Eddine Jermoumi could improve as a right wing-back. Mert Alegoz has done really well in the first matches - two clean sheets in August, although our defence collectively has been really strong and the goalkeeper hasn’t been under pressure a lot. Either way, confidence early in the season should be good for him. Player of the Month: Olivier Aertssen - very good in two games, scored against PEC Zwolle and was selected to the Eredivisie team of the week twice in August Goal of the Month: Stanis Idumbo Muzambo vs. PEC Zwolle - a lovely chip over the goalkeeper. Eredivisie Still early to say anything. Vitesse and Feyenoord have both started well, while AZ Alkmaar and PSV Eindhoven already dropped points. Champions League Groups were drawn and we landed in group D with Arsenal, Besiktas and RB Salzburg. Not the worst draw - Arsenal is tough, but the other two should be playable. Vitesse in their maiden Champions League season landed in group C with Manchester City, Atletico Madrid and Atalanta - I would be really really surprised if they finish higher than 4th place. Feyenoord did very well to climb through the play-offs and ended up in group F with Juventus, Shakhtar and KRC Genk - their draw is actually very favourable and I believe that they could beat both Shakhtar and Genk and may reach the knockout stages again

If it helps, then Inter is ridiculously strong in my current save, too. They hired Jurgen Klopp as manager in my save and won Serie A in 2028/2029 season by 16 points + won the Champions League as well (Klopp left in the following Summer to Manchester City - sic!). Now Xavi took over the team and it's possible they get worse as a result.

It's basically a backup/rotation player who gets more minutes when somebody is injured. Usually he's not U-21 player any more, so you could say that if he hasn't made it into the first eleven yet, then he's not likely to make it in a year or two. And if there's a talented younger player coming up from youth team he's gonna get the minutes instead, so if the player in question wants to get more game time, he should probably move.

Competitions It was a great season, the most successful we’ve had under my time in Ajax. We won all domestic trophies and reached the Champions League semi finals (our best campaigns so far have stopped in the quarter final). In Eredivisie we had perhaps slightly surprising contenders. In the first half of the season newly-promoted sc Heerenveen showed their teeth, but Vitesse pushed us all the way and because we secured the title only on match day 32 this Spring turned out to be exhausting and stressful for the players. In KNVB Beker our toughest match was probably the quarter final against Fortuna Sittard - we played poorly, finished 2:2 and almost blundered it, but young players secured us the win in penalty shoot-out. In the Champions League I’m happy that we’ve finally found some way to secure results against big teams in away games. Beating FC Barcelona in the quarter final was the biggest achievement. Feyenoord also reached the knockout stages and secured valuable coefficient points for Eredivisie clubs. Hopefully Vitesse can do well in the next season, too. Players We have a solid core to the team (although there are a few positions where we look thin) and several youngsters have proved themselves this season and earned more game time. Defensively we look fairly good - we concede just a few goals and we’re now able to use tactics that will shut down opposition in games when we need to. Our defensive line has remained the same for a couple of seasons and that has obviously helped, too. At the start of the season I was a little bit afraid of our thin midfield - only three players are true midfielders in that sense, but we avoided injuries and actually did well. Davy Klaassen is 36 years old now, but still up and running well. In creative midfield I was afraid that letting several players go in Winter would be a problem, but it wasn’t - Ja Ryong Kim came back from loan and contributed well on the left flank, Quenten Hose came through the youth rank and so departures have given us a chance to rebuild our attack. One player who has been crucial for us is Dramane Guehi - he’s our best goalscorer with 23 goals (despite missing some games due to the African Cup of Nations), but he’s actually the only good striker in the team. John Meeuwis is really young, just turned 18 this May, but has featured a lot in the first team and has more than 10 goals to his name this year. Excellent debut season from the youngster, but he’s not yet ready to carry us against big teams and/or Champions League, so Guehi is one player we can’t afford to lose in the Summer transfer window. In fact, if I checked who have played the most games this season it’s Guehi and Olivier Aertssen, so this is the pair we’ve been relying heavily on. Eredivisie Very interesting campaign. Vitesse were the main contenders for us and I’m not used to seeing them in the top three. They were excellent in the second half of the season, had a good squad and tremendous attack. The second surprise package were sc Heerenveen and FC Groningen. Both teams dropped to the Keuken Kampioen Divisie two years ago, but bounced back and finished in the top half right away. Heerenveen was even in European places around Christmas, but their form dropped a little in Spring after their manager Siem de Jong left in Winter. Either way, a good return to the top division from two clubs. PSV was nowhere near the title this season and Feyenoord probably feels that third place is not good enough for them either. However, Feyenoord had to compete in multiple fronts, reaching the KNVB Beker Final and qualifying from their Champions League group, so their season wasn’t a failure in that regard. AZ Alkmaar is another club who hoped to see themselves in the top three, but it didn’t happen this time around. At the bottom of the table Excelsior were relegated (no surprises there) and in the end the bottom three were quite predictable. It’s a little surprising that FC Twente continue to struggle in the league - they’re way too good to go down, but for some reason or another they’re lingering right above relegation zone for a few seasons now. Willem II and Helmond Sport were also relegated - not very surprised with that outcome. Eredivisie Awards The award season brought our players a lot of silverware. I had been selected as the manager’s manager of the season for several past seasons now, but this year I ended up in third place. Vitesse’s John van den Brom won that award. Champions League Besides our successful campaign, Feyenoord reached the first knockout round (where they were stopped by Chelsea). Jürgen Klopp and Inter went on to beat FC Bayern in the final and celebrated a wonderful season for them with both the Serie A and Champions League titles.

May 2029 Fixtures and Results Three games until the end of the season and our focus is solely on the Champions League. The first team players have had such a heavy match load this Spring that I need just one more push from them against Inter, but rotation players/youngsters will play the remaining two Eredivisie fixtures. We played a good home game against Inter at Johan Cruijff Arena. Started with a positive 4-2-3-1 and turned it more attacking through the match, but it ended 0:0. Both teams had one great chance in the first half, but failed to score (Dramane Guehi’s attempt was blocked in front of the goal). Inter didn’t need to attack and they defended really well (again) - our shooting was just 7/1 and while we weren’t under pressure ourselves, it was difficult to create anything in attack and most of our attempts went off target. No shame in that 0:0, but Inter were the better team and won 2:0 on aggregate. In the next two games we played with our rotation players and youngsters. We did beat Willem II away - a solid result, but less than exciting football on display. I tried out Davy Klaassen as BWMs instead of BBMs and it limited our creativity. Quenten Hose scored in the first half (his first ever league goal for Ajax) and Ja-Ryong Kim added the second goal with a beautiful free kick, but overall we had just 9 attempts in the whole match. On the other hand, our defence looked impenetrable and Willem II failed to create any threat in our box, so tactically the setup could be considered extremely good, but just not what the board (and myself) expect from Ajax. The last match against PEC Zwolle was a very similar one - a drab match, lack of creativity, key passes and chances up front, but very good defensively. John Meeuwis scored the winner in the first half, but nothing else to report from this game. Players No news, just here to give out the awards. Player of the Month: Davy Klaassen - very good in all three games, took a man of the match award in the Willem II match. Goal of the Month: Ja-Ryong Kim vs. Willem II Tilburg - a beautiful free kick Eredivisie Final standings. Helmond Sport lost in the play-offs and they will go down with Excelsior and Willem II.

April 2029 Fixtures and Results Because of our success in all competitions, we have a pretty tough fixture list in April - two games against FC Barcelona and then back to back derbies with Feyenoord. Can’t even say which one is more important - cup final or league game, because Vitesse is still pretty close in the table and are waiting for us to slip up. We pulled off a massive upset against FC Barcelona. The home crowd (full stadium, 55,500) were behind us. Dramane Guehi gave us the lead and in the first half we were just superb defensively and didn’t give Barca any real chances to score. They improved in the second half, but needed a wonderful strike from Rodri (24 metres out) to beat Jay Gorter. However, Nikita Tamm made it 2:1 and we held on to that lead despite giving away two easy chances to their regen German striker who probably rued his missed opportunities. I believe that a fair result would have been 2:2, but it was a massive win for us and leaves us hopeful before our trip to Camp Nou. Because of that win I really had to take some risks with our team selection against Excelsior. Dramane Guehi looked jaded again and could use a day off and I needed our first team players to be fresh during the next stint of games (FC Barcelona away and back-to-back Feyenoord), so I rotated a lot for that away match. I’m happy to say it didn’t backfire at all - instead we scored a quick goal and controlled the game from there. The first half finished 2:0 and after John Meeuwis made it 3:0 early in the second half I could make substitutions and turn down pressing intensity. The 17 years old striker capped his hat-trick in the second half, Peter Misidjan added two goals and only a late consolation goal from Excelsior ruined our clean sheet, but we weren’t downhearted because of that. Great result, a boost for the players who haven’t started too many games so far and our first eleven was rested and ready for our trip to Spain. I tried a bit of a different tactic for our away game at Camp Nou. It didn’t seem to work out too well because Barcelona seized initiative and on 12’ Ansu Fati scored for them, so we switched to a balanced mentality and slightly higher tempo and that gave our midfield a much better structure and support. We didn’t create too much in this game, but one moment was enough when Davy Klaassen found van Axel Dongen with a pass and the winger equalised. Barcelona tried hard to find the second goal - Cristian Canales hit the post on 73’ and their German striker Ludwig Diroll wasted a late chance, but we survived and held onto that draw to win 3:2 on aggregate. Magnificent success against mighty Barcelona! It wasn’t as good as it sounds, because Barca had 3.05 xG and probably felt that they should have won this, but we took our only good chance and killed the giant to reach the semi final. Feyenoord had the home advantage for the KNVB Beker final at De Kuip, but the game itself was very even in ninety minutes - we took the lead, but Feyenoord equalised ten minutes later and both teams defended extremely well throughout the match until two goals by Stanis Idumbo Muzambo and John Meeuwis made the difference at half time. First domestic trophy won and at the expense of Feyenoord which makes it even sweeter. The following league match back in Amsterdam was even better - again we were excellent in defence and managed to crack them open once in both halves. Not the most exciting football to offer, but deadly effective and 2:0 over arch rivals is just what we needed at this stage of the Eredivisie season. The big test came at Giuseppe Meazza. Our opponents in the semi final were Inter Milan, who had already secured their Serie A title under Jürgen Klopp (that’s right). The match was also a reunion with some ex-Ajax players - Mohamed Daramy, Bas van Lopik and Gabriel Misehouy turn up for Inter’s first team. We tried to play similarly as we did against FC Barcelona. Olivier Aertssen’s mistake gave Itner the first goal, but the first half and game as a whole wasn’t too bad. In the last minute of the match we had a glorious chance to equalise when young John Meeuwis sprinted to a counter-attack, rounded the keeper, but sent his shot wide of the post… and of course, in the next minute Inter found another goal to make it 0:2. That was harsh - we were so close to returning from Italy with a 1:1 result, but two goals deficit makes it more difficult than I’d like. It turned out that we could secure our Eredivisie title with a win against Fortuna Sittard, because Vitesse lost their match against AZ Alkmaar two hours earlier and we used that chance well. I chose to prioritise our Champions League fixture and rotated a lot, but the team did well - not a flashy performance, but two goals were enough. We were superb defensively in that game and Fortuna couldn’t even get a shot on target. Well deserved win and the players could celebrate the title with a home crowd. Players The match load in April has been enormous and the fixture list is so difficult that I couldn’t afford to rest my best players, so they had way more minutes than healthy and often got 2-3 rest days between games, just to recover enough for the next effort. Winning the Eredivisie title and KNVB Beker is a massive relief for them and the fact that I could rest them against Fortuna Sittard helped a lot. At least the players have been healthy and we’re not in trouble for bookings either, so we had all key players available for important games. To my surprise I discovered that when we extended the contracts of Davy Klaassen and Amourricho van Axel Dongen I’ve promised to play them in positions and roles I didn’t plan to - Klaassen as BWM and van Axel Dongen on AML as IWs. That is a major blunder from my part as manager - how could I click through contract negotiations so that I didn’t notice those clauses? Klaassen played as BWMs against Fortuna Sittard and I might even say that in certain games it’s not a bad option, solidifying our midfield and with “take more risks” instruction active, he collected five key passes in this game, contributing in both defence and attack. However, we need van Axel Dongen on the right wing and can’t afford to switch him to the left where we already have Nikita Tamm and Ja-Ryong Kim. That might cause troubles in the future. With Summer nearing and the season about to end, our next campaign outlook doesn’t look so bad at all. We have several younger players who have trained really well, played a lot of games and developed enormously this season - Dramane Guehi, Can Tas and Jasper Vogels, to name a few. Some of the youngsters have emerged into the brink of the first team (Quenten Hose, Aron Darri van Kasteren, John Meeuwis) and few have had a good loan season. Summer departures may change things a bit, but I’m optimistic about our future. Player of the Month: Amourricho van Axel Dongen - scored crucial goals in the most important games this month Goal of the Month: Stanis Idumbo Muzambo vs. Feyenoord Rotterdam - extra time goal, the midfielder really banged it into the roof of the goal Eredivisie Vitesse gave us the fight so far and finished up in the Champions League places. Disappointing season for PSV and AZ Alkmaar. Excelsior are going down, but the second team to be relegated is still to be determined.

At least we all agree that if we had to pick a theoretical physicist to our team, he would be goalkeeper.

Some feedback. Went to camp now with Option A. - cautious mentality, slightly lower tempo - standard DL and LOE - right-back IWBs, left-back FBs - unticked WBIB to get more attacks finishing with an attempt At first it didn't look good, we couldn't build up much and on 12' we were 0:1 behind (2:2 on aggregate). Needed to change something. Tweak 1: - balanced mentality with slightly higher tempo - AMCa -> AMCs Midfield was much better, Barca had less space in midfield (because AMCs dropped deeper). On the other hand, they found space on our right (inevitable with IWa up front and IWBs staying in the middle), but then in the second half we had one good chance - BBMs found IWa in the box with a pass and 1:1. Barca geared up their attack and had chances to score and then: Tweak 2: - add pass into space to find counter-attacks Almost managed to build up a couple of good counters, but player's poor decisions not to shoot at the right moment meant we couldn't get a good attempt on target. However, final score 1:1 and 2:1 on aggregate. Great success. Statistically, though, still heavily beaten. Barcelona had 20+ shots, 8 half-chances and 3.05 xG. On the other hand, I could take away good tactical insights from this match. One obvious flaw was our left finger (IWs). Without a support of our left-back (usually FBa, now FBs) he was too isolated, couldn't create anything, didn't have too many players to cross to. Need to change his role, perhaps IFs.

Some interesting ideas. Thanks! As I said my left-back is actually FBa in recent tactics, but I've found that FBa moves sometimes wider, sometimes narrower (overlapping/underlapping) and is almost always moving forward when we have the ball, so depending his position we could be caught napping if we lose possession. RB IWBs makes a lot of sense, because I currently have a left-footed full-back (left-back) who is also accomplished in DR position and could fill that role. I wish I had more time to test this option B (perhaps I'll try in the next season). I'm a bit reluctant about "counter" instruction, because generally I'd like to at least keep a bit of possession and and there's a lot of changes to my current system so I should probably find a balance between instructions.

In my Ajax save I use mostly positive 4-2-3-1 formation which works well in almost every Eredivisie match. Some roles have changed compared to the picture (I use FBa in left-back and IWa on right wing), but generally the system is as picture describes it. What has been the most difficult for me is transition from Eredivisie to Champions League, because level of opponents is much better. I frequently use the same formation with balanced mentality in away games (group stage and/or against similar opponents - clubs from Ligue 1 or Serie A 3rd place, for example). Perhaps make a minor tweak here or there (lower LOE and DL by one notch or something like that). One thing that I've learned is that AI comes to away games with too defensive mentality and is beatable because of that. I recently defeated FC Barcelona at Johan Cruiff Arena with the same positive 4-2-3-1. The recipe seems easy - just go on positive against big opponent who is cautious and it works out well. However, where I really struggle is away games, because teams like Barcelona, Arsenal, ManU, Manchester City play with a positive/attacking mentality and attacking formation and their quality just rips my team apart. I stand almost no chances in those games and more often or not I'm relieved to lose by only two goals. I've tried to change things - lower mentality, change roles (one is to switch BBMs to BWMs/BWMd, but it really hampers my attack). I don't want to change my formation completely, because these games are quite rare and we probably won't have tactical familiarity to play completely different, but if you can give any ideas based on short-passing 4-2-3-1 it might be very helpful. Thanks in advance. * - don't pay attention to players in formation. The tactic is basically the same, but my game has advanced several seasons so most of the players are new and half if them are regens, so there's no point in suggesting PI-s based on player attributes.

March 2029 Fixtures and Results Just four games in March, but it includes a long international break, so we don’t get too much time to prepare for the games. And there are some difficult matches as well - the away game against AZ Alkmaar will be a big test in Eredivisie, and then we host Leicester City in the second leg of our Champions League tie. I started against AZ Alkmaar with a balanced mentality - one notch down from our usual positive, but it paid off in the away game. We had good control over the game in the first half - Dramane Guehi wasted our first chance, but on 28’ he took advantage of poor communication between AZ defender and goalkeeper, snatched up the ball and passed it into the empty net. He doubled his tally with a well executed chip six minutes later. I was very happy with our first half up until 40’ when we allowed AZ to score from the very first attempt they had in the game - their towering winger Lev Lenssen was just too tall and Jermoumi lost an aerial duel against him at the far post. So AZ was still in the game. We had less chances in the second half, but on the other hand we contained AZ very well and maintained our lead until the end. Just 8/4 shooting in the game and 7 key passes, but that’s what balanced mentality means - you need to execute on those moments that you create and if you have the lead you don’t need to push that hard, so that’s exactly what we did. Crucial win for us against one of the top teams in an away game. We managed to win the second leg match against Leicester City 1:0. It wasn’t very exciting football on display, because both teams looked very careful and we switched between positive and balanced mentality, but chances remained rare and finally Hlynsson’s header gave us a narrow win. He had two more chances in the game that were way better, but missed both of them, so despite reaching the quarter finals I heard criticism about our style of play. That’s true - our shooting was just 5/1 and xG no more than 0.86, but on the other hand we didn’t give Leicester any real opportunities in front of our goal and that’s something to be proud of. That’s no Eredivisie here - we’re against big teams with a lot of quality and it demands a different approach. That led us to a title showdown against Vitesse. Our previous encounter this season had finished 1:1, but I hoped our home advantage was enough to secure all three points and put a dent to Vitesse’s title ambitions. We had possession in the first half, but often overplayed our attack and made things too complicated for ourselves, so Vitesse actually had better chances in the first period. Eren Dinkci headed against the crossbar from close range and Kenneth Taylor arrived late to block Kelvin Ofori’s one-on-one situation. I made tactical changes at half-time, unticked WBIB instruction and our attacks started to finish with more logical decisions. We finally played their defence apart on 59’ and Tamm finished a good attacking move. Dramane Guehi scored a late goal to make it 2:0 - a massive win for us in the title race. We looked much better in the second half and I was happy with the result. Compared to our previous opponents, Go Ahead Eagles were much easier to beat. They came to Johan Cruijff Arena to park the bus, but failed in that attempt. We had full control of the game and Peter Misidjan’s goal in the first half (helped by strong deflection from a defender) and van Axel Dongen’s in the second half gave us all three points. The Eagles didn’t get any real chances in this game and didn’t pose a threat to our goal. Players First, the good news is that most of the players have been fit this month. It hasn’t affected our squad selection. Secondly, I dare to say that we haven’t missed three players who left in January - David Kalokoh, Moha and Rico Speksnijder. Our midfield has been fine, Ja-Ryong Kim has featured on our left flank and young right winger Quenten Hose has made his debut for the club, so we’ll be fine. On the other hand - there are some positions where we’re thin, especially in attack where we rely overly on Dramane Guehi - the striker reached 20 goals in March, but he’s frequently showing signs of becoming jaded and it’s difficult to rest him when we’re still in three competitions and league standings are so close. Statistics say that we’re prolific in front of goal and very good in defence - we’ve held a clean sheet in most of the February and March games. That’s good. Player of the Month: Dramane Guehi - scored four goals this month and led our attack Goal of the Month: Ja-Ryong Kim vs. ADO Den Haag - a beautiful free kick Youth Intake In short words - pretty rubbish. Not much of a talent, some players are average/adequate and might make it into the first team if everything works out well for them. Finnish left winger. The most talented one from this year’s intake, but has a dreaded unambitious personality and no determination whatsoever. I’ll start mentoring him right away to amend things, but it’s uncertain how he’ll develop. Decent winger option, able to play on both wings. Some flaws, like poor finishing and creativity, but some strengths as well. Let’s see how he’ll develop. Promising midfielder, but another unambitious personality. Unlikely to make it in Ajax. Pretty decent center-back. Fairly professional as well, but on the short side of players and not very good in the air. Eredivisie Champions League We’re in the quarter finals and go against FC Barcelona in April. That’s much more difficult than Leicester City.. Feyenoord were knocked out by Chelsea (1:4 on aggregate), but I think they can be proud of their Champions League campaign.

February 2029 Fixtures and Results Short month and six games in February (after we won the quarter final of the KNVB Beker our semi final was scheduled to the end of the month) - looks like a lot, but because there aren’t any international windows, it’s not as difficult a schedule as it looks at first sight. The Eredivisie schedule balances tricky games with easier fixtures - Helmond Sport and FC Emmen shouldn’t pose much threat, but we want to take revenge for our defeat in Heerenveen and FC Groningen could also be a tricky one. I believe I’ve forgotten to mention our Champions League draw - we’ve got Leicester City in the knockout round. While the quality of their first eleven is still head and shoulders above ours, it’s a much more favourable draw than Manchester City, Arsenal or Barcelona that we’ve had in the past. A mid-table Premier League side should be playable, at least at home, and our hope is to return from England with a decent result so that we have something to play for. The game against Helmond Sport should have been an easy win for us and we scored a quick goal in the first half, but failed to add our second, despite having numerous chances. Helmond looked much more dangerous in the second half and I had to admit that we gave away momentum for some periods there, but in the end Ja-Ryong Kim found the target on 78’ and Guehi quickly added our third, so at the final whistle we could pretend that it was easy sailing from start to finish. It wasn’t. The cup quarter final against Fortuna Sittard was another tricky away fixture, but I rotated boldly. Mert Alegoz, Ognjen Rajkovic, Jasper Vogels started in defence for us and Kristian Nökkvi Hlynsson in midfield as a BBMs. Fortuna tried to use long throws and it worked like a treat for them, because Dawid Bugaj received one of those at our near post on 9’, turned around and scored before anyone could react. We responded well and Guehi equalised five minutes later. The first half finished 1:1 and it was a back-and-forth game in the first period. We struggled with headers and our vulnerabilities in defence were exploited by Fortuna attacking players. The second half had a good start and Guehi gave us the lead with a fine strike, but I made substitutions too early, Fortuna started to attack more and an unfortunate own goal from Olivier Aertssen gifted them their second goal. The extra time was goalless, but we kept our nerves calm in the penalty shoot-out. Mert Alegoz made one save out of five and it was enough to win this. Youngsters Peter Misidjan, John Meeuwis and Jasper Vogels converted their penalties calmly and I was really proud of them after that. Difficult match, but win in the end is the one that matters and put us through into the semi final. sc Heerenveen are true title contenders at the moment, but it has to be said that the foundation of their success was laid in Autumn under Siem de Jong who played an attractive fluid counter-attack with them and got the results and confidence was up. For the disappointment of sc Heerenveen fans, de Jong left the club in December and Jurgen Streppel took charge - his catenaccio mentality is completely different on, but so far it hasn’t backfired, because confidence is still high in the squad and results have come under new manager as well. We had the best possible start to the game - Nikita Tamm found Dramane Guehi with a pass in our very first attack and the forward scored when there was just 15 seconds on the clock! Heerenveen’s catenaccio generally worked out well and they did their best to limit our chances in the game, but the second half penalty secured our lead and Peter Misidjan wrapped things up with a belter from 23 metres (a wonderful goal!). You can’t win games by just sitting deep and defending and Heerenveen got painfully aware of that. We celebrated a good win - I was happy with three goals and defensively we were very strong. For sc Heerenveen, however, it was a reality check - if they could have got a win from Johan Cruijff Arena they had proved themselves as real contenders for the title, but with that dull performance they’ve fallen eight points behind us and should probably shift their focus to securing European football for the next season. And it was time to return to the Champions League action. Our trip to King Power stadium wasn’t an easy one and after studying the Leicester team I realised they’re actually a lot better than us, so I made a lot of tactical changes and we started with a cautious mentality. Despite that we struggled from early on and our defenders seemed to constantly lose their false nine Martin Satriano, who scored an early goal to give Leicester the lead. Dramane Guehi headed in from Jermoumi’s cross to make it 1:1, but we conceded another goal from a corner on 23’. Again, the response was swift - van Axel Dongen broke the offside trap and equalised just five minutes later and we went to half-time with 2:2 - a much better score than I expected. Leicester City were clearly the better team, but we showed that we were no pushovers and the fairytale continued in the second half when van Axel Dongen’s attempt (although a little bit ambitious) found its way in from underneath their keeper. I was hoping for a win, but Leicester equalised on 65’ and we started to concentrate on defending and gave initiative to Leicester. We almost let it slip away in injury time when Aertssen fouled an opponent in our box and gave away a penalty, but Jay Gorter made a crucial save to deny Youri Tielemans and we held on to that point. Final score of 3:3 marked a very entertaining match for the fans. In reality Leicester should have won it - they had 3 clear cut chances with 3.62xG, but Jay Gorter was tremendous at goal and finished with a 9.5 rating, so you could say that our goalkeeper rescued us, especially with that penalty save in injury time. A draw from away game keeps all hopes up for the second leg at Johan Cruijff Arena. A goalless draw against FC Emmen was absolute rubbish. Our opponents were difficult to beat at Johan Cruijff Arena a few months ago, but in their own home they killed the game effectively with their catenaccio and even had more of the momentum in the first half. We couldn’t get anything going and even though we had better control over the game in the second half, our attack lacked the edge until the end. We had just one half chance in the whole game and the only positive news was Kenneth Taylor’s return from injury. Few players were a complete disappointment, especially Dramane Guehi who was completely isolated up front and finished the match with 5.9 rating. I couldn’t find the key to unlock FC Emmen’s defence, but the players were poor as well and the sooner we forget this game the better. FC Groningen could be a difficult opponent and we left with a 1:1 draw from Euroborg earlier this season, but they were way too defensively minded in this one at Johan Cruijff Arena. Their 4-1-4-1 DM setup indicated that they’re not a real threat in attack and I was fairly confident we’d get the result. Prince Aning came off with an injury soon after the kick-off and that was a bummer. In the first half their plan to defend deep almost worked out, but Peter Misidjan found our first goal in injury time and after I inspired the team in dressing room Guehi quickly scored our second after restart (one of the best assists from Jermoumi I’ve seen - a long searching pass perfectly on the run, so Guehi could finish with his first touch). Nikita Tamm got to the scoreboard as well and Can Tas completed the rout with a header from a free kick. Great result, very solid defensively - we gave FC Groningen no chances and there were no poor performers in the squad. I’m really happy with that game. The cup semi final against Heracles was a pretty similar game. The first half was slow and Heracles did their best to defend well. I rotated our starting line-up a little - Dramane Guehi was given a rest day and 17 years old John Meeuwis started up front. He wasted his first chance of the game, but on 40’ he opened things up with a goal and in the second successive game we scored late in the first half. And similarly to Groningen, Heracles fairly quickly fell apart after the second half-kick-off. Hlynsson found van Axel Dongen with a through ball for our second and Klaassen scored from the spot to make it 3:0. Heracles showed more attacking intent in the final five minutes - partly because our defenders started to show complacency - but Jay Gorter was there to make some key saves and we kept a clean sheet. In conclusion - very disappointed with our lacklustre display against FC Emmen, but otherwise a good month with some excellent results. Players I’m really happy with our goal scoring form in February. The FC Emmen game apart, we’re scoring a lot of goals and Dramane Guehi’s return from the African Cup of Nations clearly helped us - he’s now scored 17 goals in all competitions this season. Amourricho van Axel Dongen has added 11 and they are running our attack in most games. Nikita Tamm is finally performing better on the left flank, too. He’s still a little inconsistent, but has found the net a couple of times and created moments for others, so things are improving for him. At the same time our defence has been a bit shaky, especially in the first games in February. I suggest it’s because we missed Kenneth Taylor due to injury and our midfield wasn’t as strong. We’re also looking nervous or complacent and I’m expecting more focus from the team. On the other hand - young players showed good nerves in the cup quarter final penalty shoot-out, so perhaps I’m a bit harsh there. I made two loan decisions about younger players. Polish right-back Pawel Wachowicz struggled to find game time in Ajax after Jermoumi returned from injury and he moved to Wisla Krakow until the end of the season in February. At the same time young winger Quenten Hose didn’t get enough game time in FC Twente and I recalled him from loan. He made his debut for the first team against Heracles in the cup semi final and actually did well - a foul against him earned us a penalty in the second half. Solid debut. Player of the Month: Dramane Guehi - was really poor against FC Emmen, but scored 7 goals in 6 games and helped the team enormously in February. Goal of the Month: Peter Misidjan vs. sc Heerenveen - a screamer from 23 metres Contracts With the January transfer window behind us we have one eye on 2030 already and few of the contracts are expiring then. The most important player of that list is Nikita Tamm - after letting Kalokoh and Moha go, I really need him for the next couple of seasons, but his agent is a trouble, demanding ridiculously low minimum release fee clause (not higher than £37m) which is not acceptable, so negotiations were at halt for two weeks, but we finally settled for £60m release clause and Tamm signed a new deal until 2033. Eredivisie Just one point between us and Vitesse. AZ Alkmaar and Heerenveen have dropped behind in the title race. The biggest news came early in the month - PSV Eindhoven sacked Alfred Schreuder and our rivals started to look for the new manager. I would say that their season wasn’t a disaster and they were only eight points behind us in the table, so you could say that everything was still possible for them with more than 10 games to go, but with so many teams in excellent form the title seems already a long shot for them. Their Champions League campaign was another disappointment and when it is all summed up you could probably understand why the change was made. They later appointed Peter Bosz as their new manager.