The five-goal win against Fortuna Sittard was nice, but everyone felt that the match in Deventer would be a serious test. Ajax often has a hard time against Go Ahead Eagles, especially in De Adelaarshorst. And what we secretly feared a little bit, happened. Kowet-away turned out to be an annoying banana peel once again.
“It was a difficult game for us. We didn’t really get to play and ran into counters. Unconsciously, it becomes a bit cautious. It wasn’t our best game,” Klaassen says with a sense of understatement in front of the camera of ESPN.
With those counters, the midfielder points out an important point. When Go Ahead Eagles came out, everything was wide open. “If that happens a few times, a feeling of uncertainty comes into the team. Then we become too cautious and make different choices. As a result, you get less time to play football.”
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That Ajax still left the field with a meager point, was thanks to Klaassen. He was in the right place to head in a cross. “We train for this. It doesn’t always come easy or naturally. Then it’s nice to score from something you train for. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough for the three points.”
With Ajax’s mixed results, it is difficult to estimate where this team stands. What can we expect? Klaassen has a clear opinion about that. “A gap year is not possible. That is not possible at any club, but certainly not at Ajax.”
“I think there is a lot of potential in the team. You can see that there is an upward trend,” he continues. “I believe that we can do more than third place. It is up to us to show that every time. We can say it, but in the end it is about the points.”
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