Topic: Eredivisie 23/24 - discussion thread - page 9. (Read 16180 times)

Probably most of you already know that Dutch football federation took away 18 points from Vitesse:
https://nltimes.nl/2024/04/19/dutch-football-strips-vitesse-18-points-slowing-russia-sanctions-investigation
They had collected only 17 points during whole season, so, now they have -1 and already confirmed relegation from Eredivisie after 36 years. Not arguing about decision, but I hate when such decisions is made in the heat of season. Same like in EPL when pointsis taken away from clubs constantly and then returned. IMO, such decisions should be made before the season because now it's just doesn't makes sense - you play whole season and don't know where you will end because of sanctions.
No Eredivisie this weekend as it's dedicated for KNVB cup final between Feyenoord and NEC.

Well football they say isn’t always over till probably after the final whistle. This is one of the fun facts about football that keeps us glued to our screen each time we watch a game of football. In the match in the Eredivisie League, we saw some beautiful comebacks between Ajax and Twente.

 Twente took the lead quite early and the lead lasted a while and you’ll think that the game’s pretty over but surprisingly Ajax were able to turn things around and get maximum points. ⁠This competition makes a league get interesting and get fans want to know what’s happening in the league. The league is rounding up and we’re having about 5 matches to go and every team trying to make sure they secure their qualification spot.

 PSV are league winners already while Feynoord runners up and as such those 2 will be representing the league in the UCL. The likes of Twente will still need to be consistent to battle it out with AZ Alkmaar especially in the game between themselves and as such this gives Ajax and advantage that if they remain consistent then they can probably sneaky into  an European qualification spot.

Sorry but it seems looking at the current points and remaining games I don't think there will be any changes to the leaderboard until the end of the season. With 4 matches remaining I think it is almost impossible to change the standings, except for AZ Alkmaar and AJax. PSV and Feyenoord have secured tickets to the UCL next season because their points are no longer possible for other teams to catch up with. Twente is 5 points ahead of AZ Alkmaar. They will face AZ Alkmaar in May. Their other three matches will be against relatively weak teams. AZ Alkmaar is 7 points ahead of Ajax. This means that if Ajax is able to win all the remaining matches then they will collect 60 points. AZ Alkmaar only needs 2 wins to secure their position from Ajax. But they have tough games left as they have to play against NEC, Twente, Go Ahead Eagles and Fc Utrecht. And Ajax have an easier match than Alkmaar. I hope that at least Ajax can qualify for the UEL next season.

PSV and Ajax have normally always scored the big points in the Eredivisie's five-year ranking in recent years, but Feyenoord has been added as a third candidate and Twente and AZ are now also good for small surprises at European level.

The Eredivisie will be in fifth place for two more years, after which a very good season with 19200 points will be dropped, by which time at least all three teams will have to be in the final eight to four.

No doubt win against Twente is positive for them and Eredivisie, but now it's time for them to think about their future because they need to be done some good presence in Europa Conference League which will give good booster to Eredivisie and them as well with I am not having any positive point about AZ Alkmaar and Twente with their strength and quality which is not near big teams so we have again only three teams which can compete and bring better results.

Hopefully now they will do some better work and having better strategy which will bring improved quality and performance for the Eredivisie and Conference league as well because we have few big teams which already won this cup and jump into better for next season.

Ajax won against Twente, but they must now endeavour to maintain 5th place otherwise international participation could be in danger. Ajax are just lucky this season that they are currently safely in 6th place in the 5-year ranking and a rather weak year < 10,000 points falls out of their favour. But the Eredivisie should not afford another weak international season.

The season started quite badly for Ajax and at the start of the season with their form, you could easily predict that the club wont be able to make it to any European competition next season because they were not able to get maximum points to help them go up the log. At a point in the season, the team suddenly picked up form and started winning games and you can begin to imagine the club in the least Europa next season.

 ⁠A roller coaster season it’s been for Ajax because currently they’re performing below expectations and have gone back to the way they were performing before picking up and now with the season getting close to an end, it’s evidently clear that there’s zero hope for an European competition for them. PSV has been very consistent as they still try to remain unbeaten in the league which isn’t usually easy but with such feat, you can be so sure of them winning the league.

 ⁠I think Ajax will have big issues making the top 4 because of the wide gap and the low numver of matches remaining to reach such stage. Now the club’s board must try to prepare for next season and as such, try to build up the team and do some changes that’ll be effective in bringing the club back to winning ways.

 ⁠PSV have been the major surprise this season with their wonderful performances even though after Ajax low performance so many believed Feynoord to be able step up into the shoe and be the main club in the league. Well this shows healthy competition and we believe Ajax will sure be able to work on themselves and maybe get back to limelight next season.

Maybe I tend not to follow the Eredivisie because it wasn't very interesting last year. But nowadays I see some of my country's players playing there so I'm starting to pay attention. Haye, Nathan, and Oratmagoen, they play at Heereveen and Fortuna Sittard. There are so many players of my country's heritage playing in the Eredivisie, according to other reports there might be a few more ready to play for my country in June's World Cup Qualifiers against the Philippines and Iraq.

I think it's probably can be called as some kind upset. Before game Twente were considered as little favorite by bookmakers. And Ajax won after they conceded first, this shows that they're not completely useless.
Anyway, this win doesn't helps them much. It's almost impossible to reach AZ who is in 5th place, what would give them spot in in Europa league. 99% they will play in tournament between 5th-8th placed teams for spot in Conference league.

Ajax poor form this season in the Dutch league have surprising to many and for a club that's regarded as the most successful in the history of Dutch football, many are still struggling to rap their heads around the club's current poor form especially the club fans.  The club management must try and find out the main problem that's causing Ajax to underperform and find solution to the problem as quick as they can so that the club will come back to winning ways again. Right now, Ajax are 33 points league leaders PSV and 12 points behind third placed Twente after 30 league games so it's almost impossible for Ajax to win finish the season in a position that'll guarantee them European football next season. Despite Ajax poor campaign in the current season, I believe they have all it takes to bounce back to winning ways in the nearest future but that's if the club management can sort out the club's issue and profer a lasting solution to it
Feyenoord I thought will be the best team in the league this season that Ajax is underperforming but that's actually not what's happening in the league as PSV are currently leading the league 9 points.

The inconsistency around Ajax is actually not making sense again to me because i had taught after their recovery they were going to make sure they get to make up for all the times they were unable to get the best of results and be at the position they should be on the league table, this season as been such that Ajax has not really been able to achieve much with their form and i can't really tell what the problem has been.

At some point i felt ajax were going to make it to one of the elite leagues by next season but sadly they have continually declined and at some point risen again which isn't a good form for a team that wants to get to the top of the table and probably win the league or gat to qualify for an elite league by the end of the season. PSV has been the most consistent team this season, if not for a few losses it were actually looking possible for them to get to win the league this season unbeaten but them it's at the point now where they can't be able to stay unbeaten but they still comfortably top the table and have good chance at winning the league.

Ajax may not be able to make it to the top four because they are some good points away from the team at number fourth position but are not even performing well enough to be able to cover up for the gap reaming and aswell as the time they have got remaining to the end of the season, so i have to nurse some doubts if Ajax will be able to get to the top four if which isn't a guarantee to be in the champions league except they are at number three.

Yeah unexpected recovery seen yesterday in the Ajax Twente game, i was not expecting that at all, more after Twente take the lead of the match. Anyways is good not only for Ajax but also for Eredivisie to still has some fun fight to watch in the leaderboard plus the netherlands needs strong teams of them to represent the country in the europen competitions.

Ajax managed to defeat their opponent by winning 2-1 at home in the match against Twente.Ajax's chances of 4th place are a little lower but they still have a mathematical chance.Twente is fighting for 3rd place with AZ Alkmaar so this match was more important for them.Ajax did not quit the match despite being down at half time and managed to win with 2 goals in the 2nd half.
One of the most important matches of the day was undoubtedly the match between Utrecht and Go Ahead Eagles.Both teams have the goal of finishing in the top 8 and before this match the 2 teams had equal points.Utrecht had the advantage as they were the home side and in a match that ended 1-1 in the first half, Utrecht managed to take a step ahead of their opponent by winning the match with a last minute goal.

According to what I read on this site:

https://swissramble.substack.com/p/ajax-finances-202223

They are doing well financially, it's not a level compared to big teams in the big leagues, but as you said, the sale of players is what gave them the most profits. This is the same way Dortmund has operated, they don't focus on winning the league but on having a good young player to sell for a very high price, I don't know if this is Ajax's plan. But even for the plan to sell players to become the main objective to work, Ajax needs to be in the European Champions League to have greater exposure for the players and at this moment it is an impossible mission for Ajax to get a place in the European Champions League. . In my opinion, Ajax's problem is with the coach, they need to get a good coach, someone who has won many titles and who has achieved these titles by coaching teams with a low budget

That would indeed be a good move that the Ajax management would be making. Now if they keep hiring coaches who haven't had great achievements then they can't expect great things from Ajax. I don't want to belittle John van 't Schip's achievements as a coach here. but let's be honest, looking at John van 't Schip's history:

https://www.transfermarkt.pt/john-van-t-schip/profil/trainer/6210

He hasn't coached big teams and he doesn't have a history of winning the Eredivisie. He doesn't have a history of winning much of the European Champions League, so Ajax needs to be satisfied with the results they get, because the management chose someone who could have this limitation of not being able to make the team have very good results. at least ajax managed to win in today's game against twente, this will help the players have some hope


If Ajax's management doesn't focus on hiring a good coach, someone capable of showing that he managed to win many Eredivisie titles, someone capable of showing that he managed to win the Champions League and the European League before the transfer market opens, so that this coach If he could hire the good players to make up a winning 11, then Ajax won't win anything next season. I think that the current coach will not be able to lead Ajax to win the title. I know that coaches who have a lot of achievements are very expensive, but it would be nice if Ajax managed to get one for a good price

The season started very bad for Ajax as they weren’t able to get up to show their quality especially after the team has been destabilized by losing most of her key players. They were very close to relegation and one will think of them to be a  struggling team this season.

 ⁠Well the team suddenly rose above expectations and started performing quite on a good note and now you can see them being placed in 6th place on the log. Their rise in performance shows up the need for determination and key chages as those are what will help a team be able to grow and start playing better football.
 
 ⁠The team went bad again though and they stared losing matches again and now you can’t think of them being able to go close to 4th or 3rd and as such you can be confident that they won’t be participating in Europe next season. This will reduce the team’s finance amd as such they might probably not make the key recruitment for next season and this will be one big hurdle for the team coach to scale through.

 The coach should focus more on the defense and try to strengthen his attack because the team has conceded quite some goals and next season they’ll have majorly the league to focus on. Building up the defense line will be a big one for the coach to do and I think with that being done then we could see Ajax back to being league leaders or better still challenging in a better way for the league.

I think it will take another 2-3 years to see Ajax return to their true perfomance because from a financial perspective they cant do much in the next season.
The income from the ECL is not as big as UCL or EL, Ajax will not be able to buy good players in the upcoming transfer window.

Ajax must sell most of its players in the coming season, they are not good either and only buy a few players for important positions.
And Ajax must also stop selling their talented young players for a while.

Ajax could have really been in the 3rd position in the standings now with the number of goals they scored so far. However their horrible defending became a huge problem for them. 55 goals conceded in 29 matches, just terrible... That humiliating loss by 6-0 against Feyenoord must have also devastated the whole team. 

Ajax should work on how to make their defending stronger this summer. This is pulling them down too much in the league now. They lost important defenders like Jurrien Timber and Calvin Bassey last summer which weakened the defense line. They have brought some new players there but it looks like it isn't enough.

When at the beginning of the season Ajax was close to the relegation zone, if memory serves me right, I thought they would actually be relegated, but they slowly started to win again and move up in position at a very fast rate that I even started having high expectations that they would be able to finish at least in position number 4. but after they had a streak of many games without losing and just very close to positions 3 and 4 then they started to lose again in a strange way, and started to lose me made us lose hope of seeing them in position 4 at least, and this humiliating defeat came. A team that won the league in a situation like that is very humiliating. and to make matters worse now they are in position 6. as they have had many draws in the last 5 games it is possible that they will end this season in position 6

My concern now is about what to expect from Ajax next season, knowing that next season they will not be in European competitions, so little money will enter the team's coffers, as a consequence the investment they will make this season (if they make any investment) to Player contractions for the next season will only be able to recover in the coming seasons if they go far in European competitions and win the title. looking at the table:



see something scary, of these 6 top teams, ajax is the team with the highest number of goals conceded and the difference in goals conceded by ajax compared to the other 5 teams is scary. Ajax conceded 55 goals in 29 games while the maximum number of goals conceded by the remaining 5 teams was from NEC who conceded 42 goals. NEC is in position 5, in 29 games they conceded 42 games. I think Ajax's biggest problem is their fragile defense. Maybe if they manage to sign 2 good players for defense and 2 good players for attack they could be a decent team again next season

 PSV have gathered enough points and are going to be crowned champions of their league soon but they will need to gain maximum points in the next 3-4 games. When you check the fixture table, you’ll see that the first 2 games are going to be quite easy for PSV because these teams are still struggling to find their feet and as such PSV knows what they want which is to win the league early enough and as such I’m sure they’ll be able to get maximum points in these first 2 fixtures.

 ⁠PSV hard game will be Sparta Rotterda which are a better team and are looking more confident and they’ll sure be giving PSG some tough time in a run for their league victory. Well not withstanding the league is about to end with about 6 games to go and PSV are leading with a gap of 10 points.


 ⁠Feynoord I don’t think will be able to catch up with PSV, because a win in 2 games for PSV and a draw in 2 could be able to give PSV the league already so the chances of Feynoord catching up is really slim. AZ Alkmaar are also a good opponent but I don’t think theyll be able to be the hindrance on PSV getting maximum points as currently this PSV team has just lost one game.

 ⁠Ajax and AZ Alkmaar are in the battle for 4th place so as to get Europa League spot and Ajax are looking quite fierce as compared to Alkmaar who haven’t had a great performance this season. I just wish Ajax would be able to qualify because they’ll be a better representative than AZ Alkmaar in the UEL.

I totally agree with you that game and the whole season was an embarrassment, in the game against Feyenoord Ajax had absolutely no chance from the start.

The next match is against Twente and I assume that Ajax won't get more than a draw.


I'm from Austria, but I guess it's a sad moment for every Ajax fan around the world.