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We’ve hardly processed the absolute madness that was Chelsea – Ajax of last Tuesday, but it’s time to look forward again. Tomorrow Ajax faces a historically difficult opponent in FC Utrecht. Will the Amsterdammers bounce back against ten Hag’s old club?

Erik ten Hag was the manager in Utrecht for over two years, so he knows the animosity that most FC Utrecht fans feel for Ajax like no other. “I know how the rivalry versus Ajax is. We have to arm ourselves against that.” he told the press on Friday. If we look back on previous meetings between the two clubs in Amsterdam, we can see that his cautiousness isn’t without a good reason. Of the last 8 home games versus Utrecht Ajax has only won 4 times; 2 times the match ended in a draw and 2 times Utrecht came out victorious. The last time Utrecht won was especially spicy since at that time Erik ten Hag was still their manager and the two Utrecht goals were scored by none other than Zakaria Labyad, nowadays an Ajacied. This was also the last home match Ajax lost in the Eredivisie.

Past performance is not a guarantee of future performance, so we mustn’t look too much at previous results. FC Utrecht is in the midst of a very strong Eredivisie campaign, they hold the 4th place and are closing in on PSV rapidly – only one point behind them now. John van den Brom’s team utilises a conservative style of play, which Ajax usually has a hard time playing against. Ten Hag has analysed Utrecht and noticed how well they play together: “they have an extraordinarily good team. There are a number of surprise elements in it. Besides that, it’s also a good collective.” The Utrecht coach John van den Brom, who played for Ajax for two seasons, already told the Algemeen Dagblad that he won’t commit to an attacking playstyle against Ajax “If you’re going to play a very open game, have fun. I don’t think you’ll get a good result that way.” This means we can probably expect Ajax to be the attacking team and FC Utrecht will be waiting for those moments of transition to strike. If Ajax can score an early goal it will help a lot, forcing Utrecht to push forward more which will lead to more open spaces for Ajax to attack in. An early goal for Utrecht could be disastrous, giving Utrecht all the more reason to park the bus.

Ajax will miss David Neres, who sustained a meniscus injury versus Chelsea and will be out until at least the start of 2020. That leaves ten Hag with quite a puzzle to solve – especially with an eye on the crucial Champions League game versus Lille in two weeks, where he’ll also miss Daley Blind and Joël Veltman who’re both suspended that game. Will ten Hag already try out a different centre-back duo, like Álvarez and Schuurs or an all Latin-American duo of Álvarez and Martínez, versus Utrecht to help them get used to each other or will he stick to the proven successful XI? FC Utrecht doesn’t have such a hard puzzle to solve, van den Brom utilizes the same XI almost every game. He cannot count on Dalmau (injured) and Abass (interlands with Ghana u23’s), Bahebeck is still a case of doubt because he had to leave training on Friday slightly injured.

One last thing to note for Sunday’s game: the supporters of FC Utrecht will boycott the game out of protest. The municipality of Amsterdam refused to sell extra tickets, which were promised, to the Utrecht fans because of a lack of police capacity. ‘Unimaginable and unacceptable’ according to the supporters association. “The municipality of Amsterdam appeared to be an unreliable discussion partner”, they said in their statement.

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