Champions League: Injury-hit Tottenham Hotspur need to dig deep to halt free-flowing Ajax in semi-final first leg

There will be mixed emotions in the Tottenham Hotspur camp as they prepare for the biggest European match in the history of the football club. On one hand, there is a buzz of positivity around London with the team set to play the semi-finals of the Champions League for the first time. But on the other hand, there is a sense of fear clouding White Hart Lane after a poor run of form – Spurs have lost twice and won just once (through a last-ditch goal) in the three games that followed their semi-final qualification. Add to that the injury woes, with captain Harry Kane and midfielder Harry Winks certainly out of the game, while Moussa Sissoko and Jan Vertonghen aren’t 100 percent fit for the match.

Ajax are on an opposite trajectory though. The Dutch team earned themselves the tag of the giant-killers in this year’s Champions League after beating Juventus and Real Madrid in the run into the semi-finals, and will be quietly confident of beating an injury-hit Spurs in the two legs

Total football 2

The key to Ajax’s scintillating 2018-19 season has been the fearless, possession-based football they have played under coach Erik ten Hag. Having worked with Pep Guardiola at Bayern Munich, the manager shares the same ideologies of Johan Cruyff as a coach, his generation’s role model while growing up, and has reinstituted them at Ajax. But unlike so many other managers who have tried imitate Cruyff’s policies as it is, Ten Hag has altered the style a little to best suit the batch of brilliant footballers at his disposal.

The focus, just like in the Cruyff era, has remained on footballers from the academy with good ball-playing abilities. Barring Dusan Tadic and Lasse Schone, every other player who featured in Ajax’s 2-1 win in Turin against Juventus was at some point part of the club’s reserve team Jong Ajax, while the team’s average age was less than 25.

The reliance on marauding full-backs, who often become auxiliary wingers, and an attacking front three who can all play in each other’s positions in what seems like a 4-3-3 formation is also very similar to what the Dutch legend implement during his time at the club. There is also a deep focus on controlled possession, with Frenkie de Jong setting up the tempo from the midfield and Donny van de Beek pulling the strings in the attack.

The midfield is where it slightly varies for Ten Hag. Cruyff had two box-to-box midfielders in his system but in the Ten Hag’s team, Van de Beek occupies a very attacking role, more like a classic number 10, and isn’t required to track back while both De Jong and Schone occupy a more central role in what looks more like a 4-2-3-1 formation. The only difference from a class 4-2-3-1 is that role of Schone and de Jong aren’t that of a double-pivot. Schone has been given the freedom to hover around the defensive half while de Jong is encouraged to move forward with the ball if he can’t pick a pass.

Super Frenkie de Jong

The Ajax coach encourages star midfielder De Jong to drop into the defence when Ajax are under pressure, with some noting that it is often hard to tell whether De Jong is a defensive midfielder, a deep-lying playmaker or a box-to-box runner – an embodiment of the Cruyffian principles. Barcelona have pledged to spend €75m to bring the talented Dutch player to Nou Camp in the summer and the decision has already been justified with his performances in the tournament this season.

What makes him really stand out from his peer group is his ability to not feel any pressure at any points of the game. He epitomises the fearlessness of the squad and always have a solution when cornered or pressed back, instantly converting the situation into an attack. His line-breaking passes are key to Ajax’s attack but so his ability to soak in pressure thereby freeing his teammates to make important runs in spaces.

Frenkie de Jong putting in the tackle of the weekend. What a player! https://t.co/dEBZF5jFds

— 888sport (@888sport) April 23, 2019

Can Spurs overload the midfield?

So how do you stop these fearless footballers? You wait for it. Ajax’s youngsters are masters at first press, so it would be unwise for Spurs to build-up play from the back. If Spurs can avoid the high first press, they have a shot at unlocking the Dutch team. An option to do that would be for Spurs’ goalkeeper to play the ball to a central defender, thereby initiating an opposition press, and for the defender to then play a long ball to a midfielder or a striker who can run into free space. Fernando Llorente might lack the pace but can win a fair share of headers along with Dele Alli, which can then be used to release the likes of Christian Eriksen and Lucas Moura.

For this to be successful, Spurs will also need a compact, tight midfield and one shouldn’t be surprised if Mauricio Pochettino opts a 3-4-3 or a 3-5-2 formation with Danny Rose and Kieran Trippier kissing the flanks while the likes of Alli, Eriksen, Sissoko and Eric Dier crowd the central region.

A match of epic proportions

Ajax go into the semi-final as the favourite – a first since they entered the knockout stages of the Champions League this year. And the tag has nothing to do with the rich history of the team. This is a side that travels to London after having lit up Turin and Madrid in the same competition with some scintillating football. In fact, they play a bit like the Netherlands sides in the 1980s – the bigger the team, the better they play.

That is not to say the Spurs match will be a walk in the park. Pochettino has time and again shown his ability to squeeze out results against the odds with a thin squad so expect him to come well prepared for the battle. Former Ajax favourites Christian Eriksen, Davinson Sanchez, Toby Alderweireld and Jan Vertonghen will also be keen to justify their decision to move to England by winning against their former team.

It’s been a long journey for Spurs to reach the semi-finals of Europe’s top competition and they wouldn’t want to give up without a fight. For Ten Hag it is the question of applying the final touches to a perfect season. The romance and the beauty of Cruyffian football have already been achieved. Can he now instill the pragmatism similar to that of Luis van Gaal’s side who went on to conquer Europe?