Early European Elimination

Early European Elimination

08/28/2017

Of course it's not nice that Ajax has been eliminated so early in Europe, but let's not make it more dramatic than it is.
Some news sources want to believe that this is something that has never happened before, but 9 years ago, Ajax also lost the first two rounds and had already been eliminated before the UEFA Cup group stage began, against Slavia Prague and Dinamo Zagreb. It has happened more often that Ajax was eliminated early, that is what you get with knockout.
Also, the difference between finishing the final last season and being eliminated in the preliminary rounds this season is too much emphasized in my eyes. Last season the results and the game play were also volatile, just look at the home and away matches against Schalke and Lyon. In addition, this season the team is quite different, with Klaassen, Traore and Sanchez missing, three players of the basis left. Defensively Ajax was already volatile last season, and now that Ajax missed Sanchez and Sinkgraven, and also missed all the previous season stand-ins, it's no wonder results are less. Additionally, the draw was not in Ajax favour, twice Ajax drew the strongest possible opponent. Nice is just a good opponent that you can lose from. Ajax would probably have won from Rosenborg the second half of last season, but do not forget that Rosenborg was already in the middle of their domestic season, while Ajax had to deal with players being pulled away and new players that needed to be fit in the team.
All in all, there is absolutely no reason for panic, so I was also very pleased to read Van der Sar's sober response, which indicated that, of course, the elimination would be evaluated, but no drastic changes should be expected.
Despite the fact that I do not want to associate the early European team with the performance of technical staff or players, Ajax has a problem. For the development of the team and the individual players, the annual European matches are very useful, and it is now becoming more difficult for Ajax to determine exactly where they stand and for the players, the lack of the challenge of more European games is bad for the development. Perhaps it's a great time to brainstorm with PSV what can be done to create the additional challenge this season, but especially to prevent this from occurring in the future. In my opinion, the plan for a European league with the top teams of the smaller competitions may be reviewed again. Personally, I enjoyed the European season when Ajax played in the Europa League a lot more and I would not mind Ajax distancing themselves from the Champions League.

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