After drawing Inter Milan with a 2-2 home game, Ajax still occupies the top spot, but has also been questioned a lot.

The most important thing is the rhythm control of this team and the defense of the Eredivisie team.

Milan Sports Daily pointed out bluntly that without Yang Yang, this Ajax would be very dangerous to face Inter Milan, and might not even have much chance of winning because they were wasting too many opportunities.

"More importantly, they exposed their own problems and flaws in this game."

The Champions League is actually a field of short-term competition. Ajax's first match against Bayern Munich can be said to have played his strengths. In this match against Inter Milan, he still retained his strengths, but exposed his weaknesses.

Young, lack of experience, and poor defense are all serious problems.

But overall, Milan Sports and other European media have affirmed Ajax's performance.

However, they still retained their opinions, believing that although Ajax is eye-catching, it is very difficult to advance to the group.

Currently, Ajax and Inter Milan both won one and tied four points. Bayern Munich defeated Tottenham Hotspur four-two away, scoring three points, ranking third in the group, and North London team ranked fourth in the group with two consecutive losses.

"The real test for Ajax is still in the next two group matches. They will face Tottenham Hotspur at home and away games. Pochettino's team is also good at pressing and oppressing. The match between these two teams against Maimang will be very exciting."

"More importantly, the North London team is currently suffering from two consecutive losses. They urgently need to grab enough points from Ajax to reverse their disadvantage in the group stage."

"It can be predicted that Ajax will face Tottenham Hotspur at home and away will become a key turning point in their group stage."

Other media have also recognized this judgment, believing that Ajax's performance in the first two rounds is surprising, but it also sounded the alarm for Tottenham Hotspur, forcing Pochettino to pay attention to this Eredivisie team.

Next, he will face Tottenham Hotspur at home and away, which will be Ajax's Champions League test this season.

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After a draw with Inter Milan, Ajax returned to the Dutch Eredivisie and ushered in the eighth round.

In the game against Alkmaar at home, just three minutes into the game, Van der Beck scored a goal with a kick and broke Alkmaar's goal and opened the first record for Ajax.

The player, who was refrigerated by Yang Yang when facing Inter Milan, breathed a hard sigh on Alkmaar.

The game was stuck, but in the second half, Mullen first scored a goal in the 48th minute, and then in the 52nd minute, Militon took advantage of a corner kick opportunity to win another goal for Ajax.

In the 61st minute, it was another corner kick opportunity, and De Rigt assisted Odegao to score a goal.

Then in the 84th minute, Odge assisted Stens and won another goal.

In the end, Ajax defeated Alkmaar five-0 at home, winning a hearty victory.

...

At the same time, Eindhoven defeated Venlo four-0 at home, continuing to maintain pressure on Ajax.

On the contrary, Feyenoord drew 1-1 against William II away, showing his decline early.

This also confirms the outside world's judgment again. In this season's Eredivisie championship battle, Ajax and Eindhoven are the most powerful contenders, and both teams are currently well-known in the competition.

Ajax led by Yang Yang had eight consecutive victories, which was unstoppable, while Van Bomel's Eindhoven had seven wins and one loss, only losing to Ajax in one game.

Both teams were very vigorous and were waiting for their opponents to make mistakes.

As for the other Eredivisie teams, they are not the opponents of these two strong teams at all.

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After the eighth round of the Eredivisie, the national team match day was ushered in two weeks.

With Ajax's success in recent times, several international players have been added to the team.

Jovic, Ashraf, Taliafiko and Odgao have all been selected for the national team, which has also increased the number of international players in Ajax, but most of the players still stay in DeTok Most.

Yang Yang and the coaching staff are also preparing carefully, wanting to make good use of these two weeks of precious time to adjust the team and train players to continue to improve in order to cope with the next two games against Tottenham Hotspur.

As the outside media analyzed, these two games will be the key to Ajax's Champions League group stage.

As long as you can get the right to qualify for the group, Ajax will be significantly higher than in previous years, regardless of its achievements, fiscal revenue, or club management this year. Yang Yang can naturally come up with an agreement and propose a proposal to acquire Ajax to the Supervisory Council.

The first and most important thing is to find solutions to the problems exposed by the team's efforts in the past month.

...

"Defense, it's not just a problem with defenders."

Harvey Alonso and Yang Yang sat in the office, discussing the various things that have appeared in Ajax in the past month, with gains and losses, and gains more than losses. This is why the team currently ranks first in the standings.

But this should not be a bargaining chip for Ajax's pride and complacency, because it can be replaced by others at any time, especially in the Champions League.

Only by constantly improving, constantly breaking through oneself, and constantly improving oneself can Ajax continue to move forward on the road to the Champions League and finally reach its own limits.

"From the data point of view, both Militon and De Rigt have made great progress, and the cooperation between the two is becoming more and more convenient. They have problems, such as the mistake Icardi took the opportunity, but I think, overall, the two central defenders are still very good, and the progress is obvious."

"I think the real troublesome thing is still with Frankie Dejong and Ndongbele."

Double midfielder, this is the most serious problem Ajax has exposed in the past month.

Inter Milan's problem is also in the midfield. For example, when defensively and offensively, Nayinggolan and Besino will quickly forward and widen the distance with Brozovic. This certainly makes them very threatening and frequently get the chance to kick, but once Ajax quickly steals and Inter Milan turns from offensively to defend, they don't have time to return to the position to protect Brozovic.

This was significantly improved after being replaced with Barrero.

Ajax's problem lies in the fact that both back midfielders failed to seize the opportunity of forward insertion.

If the timing is not well grasped, it often has a linked effect, which in turn causes Ajax to not provide enough protection to the defense line at the front of the penalty area. This is why Nayinggolan's goal and Lautaro Martinez assisted Icardi's goal.

The central defender does have a responsibility, but the most important thing is in the midfield, especially the double midfielder.

"We run very fiercely, and press and press at high positions are very fierce. This is our advantage, but not every team is afraid of these, such as teams like Inter Milan that don't want to control the ball at all, or Tottenham Hotspur."

Xavi Alonso frowned because he realized that Ajax was actually better at dealing with teams like Bayern Munich that likes to control the ball, because high-pressure and amazing running were most effective for them.

After all, this is not only a question of how much the players appreciate the head coach's tactical intentions, but also a question of whether the players can implement it themselves and whether the situation of the game is accurate.

For example, Ndongbele likes to drive the ball forward, and sometimes Frankie DeJong has to follow him forward, which will easily open up the situation with the defense line and then create gaps.

Frankie DeJong's sense of position also has certain problems. Although he is a defender and has played in the central defender, his sense of position is indeed not strong, which is also an aspect that Ajax must focus on strengthening next.

"Or what if they are fixed?" asked Harvey Alonso tentatively.

Yang Yang shook his head without hesitation, "This doesn't work, then I'm going to go back to Cooper's era more than ten or twenty years ago?"

In the years of the turn of the century, the most popular European football world was the double midfielder. Cooper led Valencia to the Champions League final twice. Not only Valencia, La Coruña, Vigo Celta, Real Sociedad and other teams were very popular with this style of play, and top midfielders such as Marklele and Flavio were born.

After Florentino took over Real Madrid, he immediately recruited Marklele and Flavio, and wanted to build Real Madrid's own double midfielder tactics to ensure the team's defense. However, as more and more stars later, this style of play did not bear fruit in Real Madrid, but it can be seen that the popularity of double midfielders at that time.

From Cooper to Benitez, their double midfielders advocate strict positioning and do not leave the position easily, and focus on protecting the defense line. The typical combination of double midfielders is Baraja and Alberda, Xavi Alonso and Mascherano.

But this is obviously no longer suitable for modern football tactics, because now it is liquidity.

"If we press and press at high levels without the front pressure of the double back and lower back to support it, it would be like rootless duckweed and would not be able to play with it at all." Yang Yang shook his head and said.

"But we are always using the forward insertion of two central defenders to make up for the gap in the loss of the position of the double midfielder. In the end, when we encounter strong teams, they will definitely use the loopholes in the central defenders like Inter Milan, which will eventually turn into this mistake of Militon and De Rigt, which is also a very serious problem." Xavi Alonso was very upset.

The double midfielder lost his position and failed to protect the defense line well. One of the two central defenders must be pushed up, and the result is that the person who pushed up has become a gap behind him.

To put it bluntly, the problem lies there, it’s just the difference between moving forward or backward.

If the problem of double-middle backwards is not solved, Ajax's problem will continue to be exposed.

Without a perfect team, any team will have loopholes and weaknesses. The most important thing is how to play to its own advantages, cover up its own loopholes and weaknesses, and avoid being exploited by its opponents.
Chapter completed!