Ajax retests Alkmaar's giant killers
A mostly Under23 squad has won the last seven League games against the Big Three of Dutch football
The match between AZ Alkmaar and Ajax, next Sunday (16h45, CET), will be the main talking point of the 20th Round of the Dutch Eredivisie. Partially because it will oppose the fourth and first placed teams, thus allowing everybody to understand if AZ is really up to the challenge and can keep on fighting for the title they already grabbed once this century, in 2009. But also as it once again tests Pascal Jansen’s young squad of giant killers. Recently knocked-out of the Dutch Cup by this same Ajax team, with a 0-1 home defeat in a match where the coach made several changes to his first-choice eleven, Alkmaar got all the points from the last seven League games against any of the Big Three, two of them on the current edition of the Eredivisie: they beat PSV in Eindhoven (3-1) and Feyenoord in Roterdam (3-2) in the last few weeks and are now going for the Grand Slam.
If they overcome Ajax at home, AZ will not only extend their winning streak to eight games, but also make sure they will be just the fourth team in the last decade to beat the Big Three in the same edition of the Eredivisie. Off course they were the last to accomplish it, during the unfinished 2019/20 League: even if the event interruption due to the Covid19 pandemic meant they only played Feyenoord and PSV once, they won both matches (3-0 and 4-0 away), beating Ajax twice (1-0 at home and 2-0 as visitors). Four wins and not a single goal conceded in four matches with the three teams that won all but three of the last 50 championships in the Netherlands. And that was a source of vivid debate, as when the competition was stopped AZ Alkmaar and Ajax were tied on top of the table, both with 56 points. Ajax flashed a better goal difference and AZ were the best team on head-to-head. There was no official champion, the title not being given by the KNVB, but one detail remained to be decided: who would get the automatic perch on the Champions League group phase and who would have to go through qualifying in order to be there?
No Champions League football for you!
The Dutch Federation decided in favor of Ajax, condemning Alkmaar to the qualifiers, where they defeated Czech team Viktoria Plzen but ended up losing to Ukranian side Dynamo Kiev, being relegated to the not so profitable and less prestigious Europa League. Even before that outcome, Alkmaar presented an official complaint to UEFA, but without results. The European body informed the KNVB and the decision was kept. “We decided next season’s places in European competitions based on three criteria: transparency, objectivity and sportsmanship. So, we will keep the rankings and Ajax is number one”, said KNVB spokesman Jaap Paulsen. Alkmaar had no option but to repeat the recent run of form, one that led to the then five wins in a row against the Big Three clubs and to the 2019/20 Grand Slam, if they were to have a chance of getting the title. Prior to that, the last team to accomplish a Grand Slam of wins against Ajax, PSV and Feyenoord had been Vitesse Arnhem, who won one game against each of the three big clubs in 2012/13. That only got them a fourth place in the League. But previously it had been done by FC Groningen, in 2011/12, a season they ended up in a modest 14th place. It makes you wonder.
“If we want to value the points we took against Feyenoord and PSV, we should have been able to add some more today”, team captain Teun Koopmeiners said after the home defeat against FC Utrecht (0-1), last Wednesday. That result left AZ ten points behind Ajax, six behind PSV and even trailing Vitesse by four. A freezing shower for those who led the hype about their championship winning possibilities. “A few boys have yelled something about that in their enthusiasm”, said coach Pascal Jansen. “We have put together a nice series of results until today, but we also have to realize where we are. We know how we started this season”, he added, referring to the four draws the team got from their first four matches, resulting in the loss of eight points against teams that sit in the bottom half of the table. That also sheds some light on recent words by Feyenoord coach Dick Advocaat, who led Alkmaar in 2013/14. Asked if Alkmaar had already passed the Roterdam giants in the hierarchy of Dutch football, he answered: “absolutely not”. “I agree they are doing well, but they must not claim they are above us, because they are not”, the former Netherlands national team coach underlined before the two teams played each other, last weekend.
Off goes Slot
The enormous elephant in the room was the Arne Slot affair. Slot, who took over Alkmaar from John Van den Brom in 2019, was the most recent phenomena in Dutch coaches, even attracting the attention of Ajax, who was said to be thinking on him to replace Erik Ten Hag in the future. But he was sacked by the club in the beginning of December, after it transpired that he was speaking to Feyenoord in order to replace the 73 years old Advocaat at the end of the season. Alkmaar’s board felt that was unsustainable and sacked him, giving the team to Jansen, one of his assistants. “If he had been honest and said what was going on, none of this would have happened”, said Van den Brom. “Two years ago, when I decided I was going to FC Utrecht, I told the management and I was allowed to stay until the end of the season”, he added. “Arne has given us a lot. It’s tough but it’s the way it is. I also understand the management’s position. As a club, we want to compete with teams such as Feyenoord and it’s simply not possible that our trainer were to go to a competitor”, midfielder Calvin Stengs considered. “It’s a hard blow to a season in which we are still competing in all fronts, both nationally as internationally”, Slot said. “AZ was aware that I was not going to renew my soon to expire contract and that there was concrete interest from several clubs”, he proceeded, not confirming what everybody already knew. One week later, Feyenoord confirmed him as their coach for next season.
Things at Alkmaar, anyway, continued as if nothing had ever happened. If Slot had taken over from his boss, one and a half years ago, now they gave the team to Jansen, who was one of Slot’s assistants. And Jansen didn’t change much, keeping the 4x3x3, most of the first-choice eleven and the firm youth policy that has Alkmaar playing regularly with five home-grown players in their team: Greek international central defender or right back Pantelis Hatzidiakos (24 years old), Dutch international left back Owen Wijndal (21 years old), Dutch international midfielder and team captain Teun Koopmeiners (22 years old), Dutch international midfielder or winger Calvin Stengs (22 years old) and Dutch international striker Myron Boadu (20 years old). According to the portal Transfermarkt, the five of them together are ranked as being worth 64 million euros. And they are not all the major assets Alkmaar counts on, as the club already recovered 28 years old Dutch international central defender Bruno Martins-Indi and is trying to do the same with 29 year old Dutch international Jordy Clasie, a former team-mate of Martins-Indi at Feyenoord when he was rated as the next big thing in Dutch midfielders but then failed when he moved to Southampton FC.
For the moment, Clasie is second choice to Norwegian international Fredrik Midtsjø, one of the Nordic players in Jansens’s eleven. The others are the wingers: Iceland international Albert Gudmundson, took in after being an alumni at both SC Heerenveen and PSV, and Swedish international Jesper Karlsson, signed last summer from Elfsborg IF, for 2,6 million euros and the only major transfer the club sponsored. Even after getting 12 million euros from Dutch-Moroccan winger Oussama Idrissi, whom they sold to Sevilla FC. Dutch Goalkeeper Marco Bizot and Japanese right back Yukinari Sugawara complete a first-choice eleven with a average age of 23,4 years old, with only four players being over-23 and where everybody has already played for their respective national teams. More than enough for Alkmaar to keep on challenging the Big Three, if they also succeed on getting good results from matches against lower table opposition. “We must be more stable. If we feel the inconsistency in a match, it must be back to basics, getting concentration on basic tasks”, Jansen said recently. The next test is on Sunday.