For example, Farioli Ajax got on the threshold of the national title: five numbers

Few metaphors used Francesco Farioli, the head coach of Ajax, last season as often as that of ‘The house under construction’. A striking comparison, he thought, to make it clear in one go how much work he still had to do. Because the reconstruction of Ajax took time, he repeated week after week. One of the worst seasons In the club history, in which Ajax was even briefly last, it was not simply brushed away.

According to the Italian coach, it was a matter of staying patient. Just to dream about a front door, balcony or roof as soon as the foundation was really finished. Because otherwise there was a danger that the structure would be unstable and would collapse with thunderous roaring at the first signs of storm. One good result was therefore no reason for euphoria, just as one defeat never led to gloomy.

At his appointment, in June last year, Fararoli (36) found a selection with deep scars. A group of players without self -confidence. He promised them a fresh start: whatever the previous season had happened, everyone started again. A message that he underlined by having all the walls in the players’ rooms paint again in his first week.

Initially, that led to frowns, just as his appointment by the outside world was particularly critical. Did this unknown Italian, a philosopher, lead the largest club in the Netherlands from the crisis? But he had worked undisturbed, with largely the same group of players as a season earlier, because there was no budget for reinforcements. And month after month, something of progress was always visible, self -confidence returned.

More than ten months after his appointment, Ajax plays for the 37th national title. With three matches to go, the lead on pursuer PSV is four points. If the club from Eindhoven loses at Feyenoord on Sunday, Ajax will have enough of a victory at home against NEC later that afternoon. If one of the two duels ended differently – Ajax already spilled the last two duels points – then the club can still cross the championship in the last two games.

It is a resurrection that took place unlikely quickly. But what shows that Ajax is so much better in a competition this season than last year? A metamorphosis in five numbers, on the basis of figures from data agency Statspleform.

0.87 counter goals per match

It had been a while since they saw so little action, the Ajax-Touschouwers behind the goal of the opponent. Only 74 times they were able to cheer during competition matches, in the dramatic last season. On average 2.18 times per round, the lowest number in almost ten years. Not surprising, because they also saw fewer shots than they had seen in years.

Yet the enormous difference with a year ago is not so much in the attack.

In fact, measured per match, Ajax even scores a little less often in the competition: 2.03 times. Simply because the team has created even fewer opportunities since the arrival of Farioli than before. Ajax shoots less than among its predecessors, less accurately, and comes relatively little in the opponent’s penalty area.

The win is precisely in defending, the part where the Italian coach immediately drawn all the attention to. As he had done a season before at Osg Nice. He built a team with an extremely tough defense, which, despite the fifth place in the ranking, received fewer goals than all other teams in the competition. In Amsterdam, the Italian met a team that had been extremely vulnerable defensively: no fewer than 61 goals received Ajax in a competition last season, the second highest number in club history. Farioli came up with a way to close that leak quickly. He let the midfielder, in many cases veteran Jordan Henderson, collapse under pressure between the central defenders. As a result, the Englishman can come to the rescue of others at the most dangerous moments.

But defending is not only something of the last line, Fararoli told his selection. His players must not only be able to play ‘in tailored suit’ – when everything goes smoothly – but also ‘with helmet’. From his wing defenders, he expects that they not only play their opponent, but also that they are haunting an emerging back to their own back line if necessary. A midfielder should not only want to give the decisive pass, but just as well want to sprint back to block a shot.

That approach sorts effect. Ajax received an average of 1.79 goals per competition match last season, under Farioli that number is halved, 27 goals so far, or 0.87 per match. Enough to probably become champions now, but again not exceptionally little. In the previous two national titles, three and four years ago under trainer Erik ten Hag, Ajax 19 and 23 received goals.

12.2 times an opponent can play for Ajax defends

They were almost unprecedented, Ryan Flamingo and Olivier Boscagli, the two central defenders of PSV. Almost like Ajax, at the beginning of November during The first meeting In -house, did not want the ball. Striker Brian Brobbey continued to watch from an appropriate distance, near PSV midfielder Malik Tillman. Often in the company of one of the wing players VAB Ajax.

But as soon as PSV’s central duo moved the game, that changed. Due to the intensive coverage of Tillman, PSV had to go to the flank, to one of the highly arranged wing defenders. As soon as they got the ball, the team of Ajax tilted aggressively in their direction, so that all the space suddenly disappeared. Often with the loss of ball as a result.

Where the previous two national champions, PSV and Feyenoord, opponents are already driving high on the field, the Ajax of Farioli defends more and more. The Italian head coach does not think it is necessary to put pressure on half of the opponent, with the risk that his team is not yet organized. An opponent can have the ball for a moment, as long as it is in a harmless place.

That can be seen in various statistics. For example, Ajax is relatively little in possession of the ball in competition duels. About 58 percent of the time, where PSV had the ball last year. Ajax also has little so -called High TurnoversBall conquests close to the goal of an opponent: 7.2 times per match. In the championships under Erik ten Hag, who also opted for high pressure, that number was around 11 to 12 times per match.

But the most visible is his defensive approach in what is also called ‘PPDA’ (passes by defensive action) The number of times an opponent can play for Ajax comes into action. This season that is an average of 12.2 passes, three to four more than in the years under Ten Hag. In short, opponents of Ajax get more room before they are put under pressure.

38 percent of the matches in which Ajax falls behind, the club still wins

Goalkeeper Remko Pasveer called it « funeral moments. » Situations in competitions that are wrong. A failed dribble, an intercepted pass, an early backlog. Last season he saw disappointment with teammates, depression, he said in August Against football magazine VI. Like: « Pfff, the ball lost, we have to go back again. Now it’s right: BAM, BAM, BAM! »

It could be seen in Almelo, where Ajax visited Heracles at the end of October. Twice Fararoli team fell behind, and once on the lead, Ajax had to take a tying run fifteen minutes before time. But after each of those three setbacks, Ajax returned to win 4-3. As PSV, Willem II and NAC, among others, were defeated after an early disadvantage.

That resilience signs the Ajax of Francesco Farioli. For example, Ajax knows matches in which it will be behind this season in more than 38 percent of the cases, a large doubling compared to a year ago. In competitions in which the club gets an equalizer, that difference is even greater. He wins Ajax this season in three quarters of the cases, a tripling.

22 Goals of Ajax were scored by a substitute, a record

Wout Weghorst or Brian Brobbey, who is the first striker? The selection policy of trainer Fararoli was certainly a regular subject of conversation in the first half of this season. Rarely did he come on two consecutive games with the same eleven players. Because Farioli believes firmly in rotating: that makes everyone in the selection the feeling that he has a chance and contributes to success, and all players remain relatively fresh.

An additional effect is that substitutes at Ajax put their mark on the match more than at any other club. Of the 63 goals that the club scored this season, 22 came from the foot or head of a player who started on the bench, the highest number ever in the Eredivisie. Wout Weghorst, Steven Berghuis, Kian Fitz-Jim and Oliver Edvardsen scored as a substitute.

At least as meaningful is the ranking that you have left after 31 rounds if you take away all the goals of substitutes. Ajax would then have sixteen points less and end up in fourth place. The leader in that imaginary list is PSV, with 75 points, five more than the club now has. The team of trainer Peter Bosz therefore lost points due to the goals of invaders of an opponent.

79 can still get pursuer PSV, more than three more than average

Is Ajax so good, or is the rest so bad? Only five months ago, nobody seemed to doubt: PSV would win the title again. After fifteen games, the club was seven points separate from FC Utrecht, the surprising number two, and nine points above Ajax. But that was all before the great dip of spring 2025, in which PSV lost fourteen points in the time frame of seven rounds.

PSV did not have such a slump last season: then the club became sovereign championwith seven points ahead of pursuer Feyenoord. The current season, the Bosz team started in almost the same dominant way, but since the winter break it is completely different: PSV scores more than a goal less than in the first half of the season, and it will almost have a goal against it.

For the entire season so far, PSV performs less than a year earlier on almost every front, and for number three Feyenoord that applies even stronger. But that is mainly because 2023/24 was an unusually good season for both clubs. With 93 league goals, for example, PSV now still scores above average: only in four seasons this century was the club more productive.

With three more rounds to go, PSV is now at 70 points. If the club would win the last three duels, then there are 79. If Ajax becomes champion in such a case, then that is not because of a lack of resistance. The number two of the past twenty years achieved an average of 75.4 points, the champion on average 81.4. In the most favorable case, Ajax ends more than one and a half point above that.

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