Ajax won on Sunday when they visited RKC Waalwijk, but it was not easy for the Amsterdam team. Former player Marciano Vink also saw this. The ESPN analyst is critical of the team of coach Francesco Farioli and the role of the Italian coach, who made four changes compared to the European match against Besiktas.
“It almost seems like rotation because it is possible,” Vink said on the Dit Was Het Weekend program. ‘This was not okay for Brian Brobbey either. You know you will have a difficult match against a team that will do everything they can to keep it as compact as possible. As a result, Brobbey was put on an island. The wingers were not involved and that does not help Brobbey. NAC punished that rotation. Go Ahead Eagles is a good team that is not yet punishing.’
Vink also looked at Farioli. Under his leadership, Nice only managed forty goals in Ligue 1 last season. ‘He focuses very much on the defensive game, which you also see at Ajax. Everyone knows their job and not a mouse gets through. The forty goals at Nice worry me when you look at creativity. It depends on the rotation, but it all seems a bit premeditated at Ajax. There are always the same patterns. If an opponent is compact, you can see that things are going smoothly at Ajax. Ajax will encounter this much more often in the competition.’
Colleague Kenneth Perez, meanwhile, grew tired of the stories about playing two games in one week. ‘In the Netherlands we place so much emphasis on European football, as if that were so difficult. The end of the world… Then don’t play European if you find it that difficult. The clubs are all fighting for it, but once they start playing it, it suddenly becomes very difficult and they cannot play two matches in a week.’
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