Jong Ajax – Venlo

Netherlands – Eerste divisie, day 9.

Friday 06/10/23, h20:00

The last-minute defeat in Telstar weighs heavily on Jong Ajax’s ambitions to climb the table. Once again, the Amsterdamsche team was condemned by a wrecked defense: 24 goals conceded in 8 games (3 per match, as many as in the last one) are definitely too much to not be last in the standings. Conversely, in attack they are behaving decently (13 scored), with Gabriel Misehouy (5) on fire also in their most recent loss. After all, some reckless football and high-scoring games – either way – are in Jong Ajax’s DNA since the very early stage of their prestigious academy. But they must find some tactical balance between the two phases, or the implications of this season can turn as bad as the ones that the first team is experiencing one category above.

Wake-up call for Venlo: the 0-4 defeat against Helmond in the last leg was as humiliating as unexpected. Prior to that day, the Yellow-and-black were coming from a positive streak of 6 games without losses – embellished with some major victories versus Breda and De Graafschap. This notwithstanding, such a result cannot be ignored. And Venlo are required to reset now: they could count on the second-best attack of the league (14 goals scored), before the last two matches where Allouch and pals did not find the back of the net. Altogether, the situation is still positive, with Venlo in the mid of the nine-teams group going from 15 to 13 points. But if they want to keep competing at the very top level this season, a prompt reaction on the field would be much welcome.

Apart from last season (0-1 and 1-1), Venlo-Jong Ajax is a traditionally high-scoring game for Eerste divisie standards. And there are all the signs that the records will be furtherly updated in this direction: the home team is expected to push hard to avenge their recent misstep, while the visitors play by nature with the aim of never give up scoring – with all the risks that this implies, as we have seen this year.