Mickey
Player Valuation: £35m
Here's a bunch of quotes I found. From both fans and media, all the last two years and mostly before they lost this year's title:
"There's De Boer's general resentment towards pressing, attacking football. Worst of all is the complete rejection of Jonk, and by extension Cruijff's whole vision. De Boer has gone from being the man who freed us from Jol's horrible football by playing youngsters in attacking, nice football, to the man who plays mediocre players in a system that's scared of passing or dribbling forward, and claims we need more physicality and mentality, rather than the things that actually made Ajax football great."
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"Our inability to create anything isn't due to the quality of our players. A lot of our players proved in the Eredivisie that they were capable of doing far better than they play at Ajax, and most of our players are still of a higher quality than 90% of the players in the Eredivisie. Yet we get dominated by teams like Dordrecht, Cambuur. The reason is our constant passing from centrebacks to our backs. Watch old clips of Ajax, and you'll see the centrebacks always looking forward, always dribbling in to the midfield to create a man more situation. Veltman did this in his first season in the team a lot as well. Nowadays the only way our attacks start is with the ball in Boilesen's or Van Rhijn's feet, having to start an attack from their own backline. Because of our centreback's fear of dribbling/passing in to the midfield, our DM is required to drop back too much (think Poulsen last season), essentially removing the link between defense and midfield, meaning that the only option left is a pass to the backs, or a long ball forward."
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"I could tolerate the football we've been playing more if it actually produced results in the big games or in Europe."
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(in response to the 4 league titles) "If you are an Ajax fan you expect quality entertaining football and the last two years it has been dreary slow, a lot of passing with no end product. Ajax is winning but not in style and only against weaker teams and not the big important matches." "But it's not just about our position, which we have gained this season against (will all due respect) small teams. The championships were only part of the main goal to be more competitive internationally. And on that front we failed year after year."
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(in response to him being linked to us) "Prepare to be bored everton fans. He's like LVG in that he loves to pass around without any real threat." "He absolutely isn't a good manager." "He's a poor man's Wenger. Stale possession, very prone to counterattacks. He'll get found out in the Premier league."
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"However, last season, with his team slow, lacking creativity and any effectiveness whatsoever, his solution was to simply thrust the underperforming Lasse Schone into that role, leaving summer signing Richairo Zivkovic out of the squad despite impressing for Groningen the previous year. It was a decision which never looked like working and it never did. He soon went back to throwing on central defender Mike van der Hoorn to play up front towards the end of matches as Ajax scrambled for points."
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"Against Celtic in the Europa League, he started with Klaassen up front, even though the 22-year-old is the absolute star of the midfield. Lining up against a very defensive Scottish side in the Amsterdam Arena, they were severely lacking direction in the middle of the park and relied heavily on crosses, making 33 of them in 90 minutes. Ajax trailed 2-0 to Celtic and, although they came back to earn a point after Emilio Izaguirre's red card, there was luck in their equaliser as goalkeeper Craig Gordon misjudged a Schone free-kick.
When it was put to him after the game, De Boer would not acknowledge that his team failed to create any intricacy in central areas during that game and insisted that their wing-heavy gameplan was fine.
'We were waiting for the equaliser,' he said. 'It's not the cross that you have to finish but sometimes the ball drops well for you. I'm satisfied with how things went.'
When Ajax are 2-1 down in their stadium against 10 men, having completely dominated possession, it is hard to believe that they should feel happy about "waiting" on a lucky goal, especially when they have relied upon one futile attacking style throughout the game."
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"Truly, if De Boer genuinely believes Sunday’s opponents were ultra-defensive and that Ajax deserved to win, he is delusional. Hopefully he is just lying for the cameras.
This is typical of the coach this season – he is completely unwilling to acknowledge the failings of his strategy and his team. Excuses such as the age of his squad, defensive nature of opponents and bad luck have been used this term. De Boer has the luxury this time around of being able to improve on his team. No first team regulars left during the summer, while Nemanja Gudelj was signed from AZ and Mitchell Dijks returned when he was bought back from Willem II."
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"The visitors’ strategy on Sunday seemed to hinge on right winger Anwar El Ghazi beating defenders in one-on-ones, but with him completely isolated, he found himself faced with a line of three defenders at times. The same went for Amin Younes on the left. Arek Milik’s movement was non-existent, while Davy Klaassen failed to make many connections with team-mates in advanced areas. For a team centred around a passing philosophy, the only way they were going to get through the back line was by individual quality."
Damning stuff. More than a whiff of The Martinez about him. Mega swerve.
