Aad de Mos sees that Francesco Farioli has his Ajax playing football in an ‘international way’ in the Eredivisie. The Amsterdam team defeated Feyenoord by giving the majority of the ball possession to the opponent and the former coach appreciates that.
‘I found it exciting,’ says De Mos Soccernews. ‘Everyone assumed that Feyenoord would easily win that match. Ajax had played a very bad match against Willem II with substitutes and Feyenoord had won against FC Utrecht, Go Ahead and had played a wonderful match in Lisbon. That would be a piece of cake in De Kuip. Well, De Kuip has not been so quiet in the last ten Classics.’
‘I also found the interaction with each other positive,’ says De Mos. ‘I thought the players were respectful of each other. It was an example to show the public how things can work together. Even afterwards, Ajax did not do anything strange. They acted normal on the field. Of course, things were a little different in the catacombs, but that is normally behind closed doors.’
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De Mos then calls the tactic that Farioli chose for De Klassieker Italian. ‘Starting from the opponent and that has been worked on meticulously. He has chosen the right players for that. He has all kinds of construction workers, guys who want to work, on his team. No beautiful football players who have the real DNA of Ajax. When they lose the ball, they give away very few opportunities. This increases your chance of winning, because you can play on zero.’
Roles Ajax and Feyenoord
The roles between Ajax and Feyenoord have therefore been reversed a bit, De Mos notes. ‘Ajax has come a long way, with a selection that was almost entirely there last year. He is a good coach and plays a bit of international football in the Dutch league. He knows that the lines have to play close together and that you have to wait for opportunities. If you want to be at the top and play for second or first place, you have to get points.’
According to De Mos, the fact that Ajax’s play on the ball is not always spectacular does not detract from the steps that the Amsterdam team has managed to take this season. ‘They have only conceded seven goals and that shows that the balance is there. The boys feel safe in the camp at Ajax. They carry it out in great detail because it is probably well explained. Ajax is currently strongest when they don’t have the ball. That is not Ajax’s and there will have to be a change in order to really make progress as expected at Ajax and certainly among the fans.’
Ajax – PSV
What follows for Ajax is the match against PSV on Saturday. The analyst expects a copy of Feyenoord – Ajax. ‘So PSV gets the ball and Ajax will take the ball in the appropriate way and play on the counter. He will prepare himself meticulously for the qualities and strengths of PSV. He will eliminate them first, to surprise PSV with the ball itself. I can imagine that they want to play a lot through Dams. They will definitely give Tillmann a man to take him out of the game.’
