Having played three games in this season’s Champions League, AFC Ajax are top of their group, having won all three matches. In the process, Erik ten Hag’s team have scored eleven goals and conceded just one. On Tuesday night, they destroyed Borussia Dortmund 4-0. This tactical analysis looks at the tactics used by ten Hag’s side as they ran riot against the German giants.
Flexible and connected build-up
Ajax’s base shape for this game was a 4-3-3 that had Daley Blind and Noussair Mazraoui as full-backs either side of the centre-back duo of Jurriën Timber and Lisandro Martínez. Edson Álvarez played as the holding midfielder behind Steven Berghuis and Ryan Gravenberch as eights. Antony started on the right wing, Dusan Tadić on the left and Sébastien Haller played as the centre-forward. As we’ll look at, Ajax rotated quite a bit at certain moments but the starting shape was the one highlighted below. The two wingers played outside Dortmund’s full-backs while the positioning of Blind and Mazraoui often changed as Mazraoui in particular often inverted to retain central balance when Berghuis and Gravenberch moved higher.
The connectedness of Ajax’s attacking structure.
It was very clear to see how structured Ajax are in possession. The situation below is a good indication of that. Álvarez has just played the ball back to Timber. The young centre-back (yellow) has taken the ball inwards and therefore vacated his initial space as the right-sided centre-back in Ajax’s build-up structure. Álvarez realises this and drops into that space.
As the ball is moved back by Timber, Álvarez’ movement has now created the balance Ajax want when starting attacks. As seen below, the base diamond with the goalkeeper Pasveer has been recreated, but this time with Timber in holding midfield.
Ajax then break the press and Timber dribbles out to continue the attack by breaking Dortmund’s midfield line too with a pass into the path of the inverting Mazraoui.
That is just one example of Ajax’s deep build-up, but even that highlights the understanding of space, and importance of structure, that ten Hag has instilled in his players. The emphasis seems to be on filling spaces; not on specifically which player who does.
Ajax also showcased an ability to be flexible in the way they progressed the ball. They could pass their way out with short passes as in the instance mentioned above, but they also used Haller as a target for longer passes at times as well as using long switches to isolate their devastating wide players. In the example below, Martínez starts a move with a diagonal switch out towards Antony. The Brazilian winger receives in space and then runs at Dortmund’s left-back.
Since the ball travelled across, Dortmund moved players towards Antony’s side. Mazraoui, as seen below, then underlapped to create space for Antony to turn into centrally. The positioning of Ajax, in this case by Gravenberch, created a lot of space for the young midfielder to receive in just outside Dortmund’s penalty area. This space was increased further due to Tadić pinning Dortmund’s right-back Thomas Meunier. As a result, a good shance to shoot was presented for Gravenberch.
As mentioned earlier, Mazraoui inverted time and time again when Ajax were in possession. In doing so, he also showcased excellent understanding of space. In the image below, Mazraoui didn’t just invert; instead, he moved into a higher position behind Dortmund’s midfiled. Presumably, he did this since Timber was already in the space he would normally have occupied. With Ajax not needing two players in that space, he identified space higher up as more dangerous. A potential play here could have seen Martínez switching the ball out to Antony since Mazraoui’s position also forced Dortmund’s left-back to remain a bit narrow. Then, Mazraoui could have underlapped to provide a penetrative option for Antony, but also to create a passing lane into Berghuis in front of the back-four. This didn’t happen, though, as Martínez looked for Mazraoui in behind instead.
The image below highlights another example of Ajax’s flexibility. Here, Mazraoui has again inverted. So has Antony, with Berghuis now the widest player on the right. As Gravenberch plays it into Antony, making use of the sort of central switches Ajax excelled at throughout the game, the Brazilian instantly received to face forward. He then played it into Berghuis.
As Berghuis received, Mazraoui now overlapped to create a great opportunity for a central cross as Ajax played through Dortmund centrally.
Finally, here’s another example of Mazraoui’s inverted movements which helped Ajax control the game and also play through Dortmund’s shape. Again, Tadić and Antony were outside Dortmund’s back-four. Ajax had just won possession here, so Gravenberch and Berghuis were on the same side. Mazraoui balanced this by moving into the space in front of Dortmund’s defence to facilitate another central switch from the home side as Haller played it across.
The sort of flexibility in structure and method that Ajax used to progress the ball highlighted how well-coached they are as they can make use of different tools to play through an opponent. Doing that to Dortmund is immensely impressive.
Counter-pressing and pressing
Ajax were very good in possession against Dortmund, and their work out of it was equally impressive. Their rest-defence structure was often spectacular, and they were very brave and bold with the way they dealt with Haaland. Equally, the counter-pressing was splendid. In the image below, Tadić had just conceded possession to Reus. He chased after the German, and Blind, as the first player there, went straight into pressure. Berghuis reacted immediately as well and sprinted towards the ball to make the playing area as little as possible for Dortmund.
Reus managed to play the ball into Brandt, who was swarmed by red-and-white shirts with Blind continuing his press while Berghuis had closed the distance between them. Álvarez was also activated at this point and looked to prevent Brandt breaking out with the ball. Martínez was close in support should the first press fail here and Mazraoui marked Malen in midfield.
Here we can see how brave Ajax were in their rest-defence. Martínez and Timber often made use of a structure in which they would play ‘one in front, one behind’ against Haaland. This meant taking the risk of playing 1v1 with lots of space behind against one of the best counter-attacking players in the world. Dortmund also managed to create two very good opportunities for Haaland from counters. However, it also meant Ajax could stop some of those counters early, rather than conceding space in front of them for Dortmund to counter into. In the situation below, Blind had now caught up with Reus and won the ball with a tackle. But look at how many Ajax players were in the playing area; from the loss of possession they created an 8 vs 4 overload to stop a potentially dangerous counter-attack. Having a connected shape in possession is a prerequisite for successful counter-pressing, and Ajax highlighted this emphatically against Dortmund.
Ajax in an 8 v 4 overload.
As described there, Ajax used a mix of man-orientation and ball-orientation when counter-pressing and it was similar to the way they pressed. When pressing high, Ajax were very man-orientated. This is exemplified below with every Ajax player, except Álvarez (who was free) and Haller (who split between two), having an obvious opponent to press. Keeping with the talk of bravery from above, we can see here that Ajax were brave when pressing too. For instance, Martínez followed Reus and left Timber 1v1 against Haaland again. Equally, Mazraoui stepped out of defence to follow Brandt here. This setup forced Dortmund to play many direct balls over the top, which led to one big chance for Haaland, but also saw Timber and Martínez sweep up many aimless balls to start new attacks.
Another example of Ajax’s man-orientated pressing can be seen below.
When deeper, though, Ajax were more orientated by the position of the ball, which we can see below when Haller closed down Akanji. Tadić and Gravenberch block passing lanes here to allow the straight pass into Brandt where Blind acted in a man-orientated fashion and won the ball to spring a counter-attack.
The perfect demonstration of this ball-orientation when deeper can be seen in the image below as Ajax blocked central passing lanes and allowed Dortmund to play wide instead.
Flexibility continues to be a key word here as Ajax also used flexible defensive styles based on where on the pitch they defended. They were man-orientated when high and more ball-orientated when deep. Crucially, they were always energetic and aggressive in their aim to regain possession of the ball.
Final third movements
Ajax’s tactics in the final third revolved around pinning opponents and then attacking spaces at pace. As such, they attacked spaces dynamically rather than having players stood there, which made them more dangerous since they always attacked at high intensity facing forward. In the image below, we can see how Ajax pinned Dortmund’s defensive line. Tadić was stood wide pinning Meunier with Haller dropping off. Akanji was prevented to step up with Haller by Gravenberch attacking the space behind the defence. Since Hummels is pinned by Berghuis, Akanji had to remain deep and concede space and time to Haller. In the first half, he had stepped up and Gravenberch had been played through on goal.
This threat of verticality is crucial for Ajax’s football. They don’t just move the ball with short passes and look to establish patient moves in the opponent’s half; far from it. They routinely mixed it up with longer passes towards Haller where he could use his hold-up play to bring others into the game and always looked to attack the space behind Dortmund’s defence with early passes. Added to that, they also opted to build from the back with patience, as highlighted previously.
I’ve mentioned Ajax’s rest-defence previously and it was often made up of Mazraoui and Blind inverting either side of Álvarez behind a front five of Antony, Berghuis, Haller, Gravenberch and Tadić. At the base, of course, they had their two centre-backs in what sometimes looked like a 2-3-5 but normally was so fluid that calling it a formation is missing the point. Anyway, the image below highlights how Ajax went about creating space in the final third. Here, Antony has attracted three opponents due to his incredible 1v1 ability. Berghuis and Gravenberch are disciplined behind Haller and Tadić is positioned between centre-back and full-back. As Antony plays the ball inside to Berghuis, Gravenberch makes a run into the box which Bellingham tries to pick up.
Berghuis then played the ball into Blind, who found himself in plenty of space (similar to his goal, actually). Gravenberch and Tadić pinned Bellingham and Meunier respectively, increasing the space for Blind to receive in.
Panicking slightly following Blind’s earlier strike, four Dortmund players are drawn towards Blind. At the same time, Ajax have a 4v2 advantage on the back post. Blind opted to shoot, but a better decision could have been chipped ball towards the back post or a pass outside to Tadić to then hit a low cross. Even if nothing came off this situation, the principle was clear. Attract the opponent to one side and then switch. In other words, overload to isolate.
To create the dynamical superiorities I alluded to earlier, Ajax used underlaps throughout the 90 minutes. With Antony and Tadić pinning the full-backs, and Ajax having a 3v2 against the centre-backs centrally, Dortmund struggled to keep up with the underlapping runs of Blind and Mazraoui. Below, Tadić plays the ball into depth for Blind’s underlapping run. Mazraoui and Álvarez moved into their rest-defence positions to prepare for a defensive transition.
On the opposite side, Mazraoui underlapped almost every time Antony had the ball. Here, Haller, Berghuis and Tadić pin three of Dortmund’s defenders while the left-back was attractde to Antony. Mazraoui duly underlapped in the large space that opened up between Hummels and Can. These types of underlaps are difficult to defend against, especially when those runs are supposed to be tracked by midfielders, and this difficulty led to the dynamical superiorities Ajax created.
All of Dortmund’s defenders pinned, opening up space for Mazraoui to run into.
Continuing the above scene, let’s look at Ajax’s movements in the box. As we see below, Haller would always move towards the back post or, if he didn’t have time to get there, push the centre-backs deep by running straight towards goal. The second player into the box, Berghuis in this case, then held his run slightly to open up the opportunity for a cutback. This is where the individual quality of Ajax’s attackers also come into it as they sometimes combined in the box at ridiculous speed to create excellent chances. Here, Berghuis would flick the ball into the path of Gravenberch. Also note how Antony had moved inside to prepare for a transition or second ball as part of the rest-defence.
Ajax were fantastic around the box and created enough chances to score more goals on the night. When pairing their individual quality with the tactical ideas ten Hag has implemented they have become a devastating attacking force capable of dismantling the best teams on the continent.
Conclusion
Ajax have started this season brilliantly and are top of the Eredivisie as well as their Champions League group. In the 4-0 hammering of Dortmund, they impressed with their spectacular counter-pressing and rest-defence, the flexibility in structure as well as method when attacking and demonstrated some intriguing tactical ideas in the final third.
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