It is difficult to see the potential of Ajax, which is bluffed physically, tactically and mentally against FC Twente

On the sidelines in the Grolsch Veste, Ajax coach Maurice Steijn briefly signals to his two central midfielders, Benjamin Tahirovic and Sivert Mannsverk. Football has been played for five minutes, when the game is stopped for injury treatment. Steijn sees that adjustments are already needed.

The vulnerability is immediately visible, at the back of Ajax. After two minutes, FC Twente striker Manfred Ugalde cuts through the defense after a through ball from playmaker Michel Vlap. Ugalde’s shot is barely blocked by goalkeeper Jay Gorter.

They have to pick up a man, Steijn says to his two midfielders on the sidelines, he explains later. Slang for: helping to defend. Many people running, a lot of movement, fast depth play – these are the qualities of FC Twente, Steijn knows. He says he has prepared his team for that. Using images, in training.

But in the opening phase there is no evidence of this. Vlap gets all the space from the two Ajax midfielders. “I can hardly call them to me every thirty seconds,” says Steijn. “If you don’t pick up a man, if there is no coaching, no leadership… where do you start?”

Within eleven minutes it is 2-0. Vlap easily finds the space between the lines and gets some time to shoot. Goalkeeper Gorter lets go, and Daan Rots scores on the rebound. Like Vlap, he emphatically shows himself, the self-trained Rots, a boy from the region, from Groenlo, half an hour’s drive from Enschede.

Lack of coordination

Steijn has eleven different nationalities in his selection. In the preparation, the working language at Ajax was still Dutch, but given the many international purchases, this was changed this week to improve mutual communication. Dutch and English are now spoken. But not everyone speaks English well, such as top signing and central defender Josip Sutalo.

“You hope that leadership will be provided, especially from the back, but even in that it is still a very young team,” says Steijn. Sutalo is 23, his colleague Jorrel Hato is 17. “That is still an area for improvement.”

It is reflected in the lack of coordination and mutual coaching at Ajax. No one takes the lead, puts teammates in their place, corrects.

“You cannot buy leadership,” said director of football affairs Sven Mislintat in a press interview two weeks ago. “Leadership grows within the team.” Last season the team was sometimes “incapable” of dealing with difficult situations, he said. “This is the part that will take the most time in the development of a new team.”

Ajax meekly endures it, so limited is the pressure on FC Twente. It opens again on Vlap, now in the front left. He passes to the emerging Michael Sadilek, who appears completely free in a risky zone. Gorter first saves on his long shot, but via Manfred Ugalde the ball reaches Sem Steijn, who easily runs into the ball: 2-0.

Precisely him, the 21-year-old son of the Ajax coach. On holiday in Ibiza said he told his father last week that he intended to score, the young Steijn said in the AD. “Is that necessary now? Save that for another match,” his father had said.

In the Ajax dugout, Steijn rubs his face thoughtfully. Mislintat has sunk deeply into a chair in the stands, next to temporary general manager Jan van Halst. “We won’t see the best of this team in the next three, six or nine weeks,” Mislintat had said two weeks ago. “We have planted something, now we have to give it water and sun.”

In a match in which Ajax is bluffed physically, tactically and mentally by FC Twente (3-1), it is difficult to see that potential. FC Twente is close in every match, with two or sometimes three men. “Welcome to the hell of Enschede,” is heard in the first half. It is at a stage that FC Twente sometimes plays champagne football. Such as a beautiful combination between Rots, Vlap and Steijn, who ends the interplay with a hard shot on the crossbar.

50 million in the bank

Where the patterns are ingrained at FC Twente, you always see the players at Ajax thinking when they have the ball: what should I do? Players do not defend, do not pay attention to the spaces at their back. There is more than 50 million worth of summer purchases in the bank, but on the field new midfielder Sivert Mannsverk is unable to receive a ball. His subsequent pass leads to a loss of ball.

If attacker Steven Berghuis wants to give a cross from the side towards the goal mouth, it ends up on the other side, over the sideline. He shakes, hands to his head. Shortly afterwards he is replaced. Left winger Steven Bergwijn plays against himself, is frustrated a lot, cannot direct as captain. Shadow striker Chuba Akpom is invisible and easy to put away.

After half time there is a phase when Ajax pushes and can easily equalize, after striker Brian Brobbey has scored the tying goal shortly before half time. But in the final phase, substitute Branco van den Boomen loses the ball around the halfway line, after which Naci Ünüvar, hired out by Ajax, delivers the decisive blow to his employer: 3-1.

“I understand that it is still difficult,” Steijn says at half-time and afterwards to his team, he says later. After a transfer summer in which many players came in at the last minute and the recent international break, he only now had his team together for two days for the first time, he says. “We have a lot of new players. Then I can live with things going wrong, passes not arriving, and coordination not being clear. I do have difficulty with the fact that we let ourselves be outdone in the duels, that we are not sharp, that all the second balls were for Twente. I’m ashamed of that when I see that.”

High in the stadium, where the names on the back are not easy to read, the search is on for the newcomers. Who is midfielder Mannsverk, who is left back Borna Sosa? There are no fewer than five changes compared to the last match, two weeks ago against Fortuna Sittard. “I think we can certainly make music out of it,” says Steijn. Although there is little time. Olympique Marseille awaits in the Europa League on Thursday, Feyenoord on Sunday.

Ajax is now twelfth, with five points from four matches and a catch-up match on the program. There was dead silence in the dressing room for several minutes, says goalkeeper Jay Gorter. “Then you try to look for words to cheer each other up, to help each other.”

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