How Van der Sar and Ten Hag made Ajax Europe’s funnest team… again

Plus 98. 

That’s AFC Ajax’s goal difference across all competitions this season. That’s also another way to spell ‘dominant’. Look it up.

Your first instinct would probably be to chalk it up to the paucity of Dutch domestic football. To some extent, you’d be right. In their three Dutch Cup games, Ajax have won 4–0, 9–0, and 5–0; not a lot of resistance there.

However, they also won six out of six in their UEFA Champions League group, beating Borussia Dortmund with a combined score of 7–1, and besting Sporting CP with a cumulative margin of 9–3. Those are the second-placed teams in Germany and Portugal respectively.

They’ve also beaten their closest title contenders, PSV Eindhoven, 5–0 and 1–2 this season.

Ajax don’t just win; they crush teams.

Any discussion of the contenders for this season’s Champions League trophy will produce the same set of names: Manchester City, Liverpool, Bayern Munich, Paris St Germain, Chelsea.

While most oddsmakers place Ajax sixth, you wouldn’t hear the random fan discuss them as a true contender. But don’t count them out just yet.

Football fans across Europe fondly remember the 2018-19 Ajax side that made the Champions League last four.

That was the side of Matthijs de Ligt, Frenkie de Jong, Donny van de Beek, David Neres, and Hakim Ziyech. It was the year we discovered ex-Southampton winger Dusan Tadic was really a false nine and Lasse Schone could take a mean free-kick.

Two years since Dušan Tadić joined Ajax. He went on to inspire the Dutch side to the semi-finals…#UCL | @AFCAjax | #OTD pic.twitter.com/XNIPxROgHl

— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) July 3, 2020

After that season, every football hipster’s answer to ‘Who should [insert name of superclub here] hire?’ became Erik ten