Perhaps even more important than the appointment of coach John Heitinga will be the role of ‘heavy’ assistant Marcel Keizer at Ajax

More than eight years ago, Marcel Keizer and John Heitinga did what the Ajax top now also asks of them. Combining attractive football with good performance, developing talents and creating value on the field. With the relatively unknown emperor as head coach and the starting trainer Heitinga as an assistant, Young Ajax finished second in the first division in the 2016-2017 season. Perhaps even more important than that result: they got their players enthusiastically through the playing method.

The staff wanted to ‘bluff’ opponents, says current Sparta midfielder Pelle Clement, at the time captain of Young Ajax. They typically played « Ajax football, » he says, by dominating in possession of the ball and putting high pressure in the loss of ball. Of course, they also had the players for that, with promises such as Frenkie de Jong, Donny van de Beek, Abdelhak Nouri, Matthijs de Ligt and Noussair Mazraoui. But it was also the trainers who provided ‘high quality’ and ‘joy of the game’, says Clement. « That year was a pleasure for us to play. »

Keizer is tactically one of the best trainers that Clement has had. « He is obsessed with the way of playing, the whole team takes in it. » He provides ‘clarity’ but also gives players ‘freedom’. Van Heitinga remembers Clement that he was ‘good’ in the individual guidance of players. « He was very busy with defenders, but also with attackers, she gave a different perspective. » Clement noticed that there was a ‘click’ between Emperor and Heitinga – although the two would no longer work together in the following years.

Now they are being reunited for perhaps the most complex job in Dutch top football. Ajax announced on Saturday afternoon that John Heitinga (41) and Marcel Keizer (56) will lead the selection, after the departure of coach Francesco Fararoli in mid -May. Former international Heitinga becomes the head coach, the more experienced emperor (former coach of the Portuguese top club Sporting) his right hand. They sign for two years. They will lead their first training on June 29.

« John is a good trainer with a huge drive, » says technical director Alex Kroes in the press release. « He knows the club well and we are convinced that he will make our players better together with Marcel and will build on the progress that has been made since last summer, for example in the field of top sport culture and discipline. » Heitinga says that he is « ready » to continue as a head coach and calls it « honorable » that he gets that chance at Ajax.

Ajax profile

With the Heitinga emperor duo, the club opts for a pronounced Ajax profile. Both were (short -lived) trainer of the main force, led Young Ajax, played in the youth academy and achieved the first team – Keizer came to four duels, Heitinga to more than two hundred. Whereas last season under Farioli the emphasis was on defensive control, the Ajax leadership now goes for trainers who want to dominate through ball possession and attacking football.

That is what the top of the club demands, it turned out at the departure of Farioli. Kroes then hinted that he wants to see less conservative football next season. « If we are 1-0 against a mid-engine, don’t start changing a striker for a midfielder to pull the result over the line. »

What the assignment makes for Heitinga and Keizer diffuse is whether they get the suitable players for an offensive spelfilosophy. What the selection will look like soon is unclear; There is a good chance that determining players will be sold this summer, including captain Jordan Henderson, Kenneth Taylor and Jorrel Hato. By means of cutbacks Relatively little can be issued – only 40 percent of the transfer income may be reinvested.

The Ajax management wants to fit more talents from the youth training in the first season. This was one of the reasons that Faroli resigned, he had doubts about the quality of youth players and feared a step back in level. This while expectations increase due to second place in the Eredivisie and placement for the Champions League. It becomes interesting how Heitinga and Keizer deal with that challenge.

Resit

It is a second chance for both of their beloved club – where both Heitinga and Keizer left in a painful way. Heitinga, then trainer of Young Ajax, entered into January 2023 as an interim at the first After the resignation of Alfred Schreuder. Heitinga won the first seven league matches but ended in the third in top duels in top duels. In the Europa League, Ajax received a sensitive tap from Union Berlin. After that season, he had his contract dissolved because director Football Affairs Sven failed did not want to go through with him as head coach.

Heitinga left for the English Premier League, gained experience at the top. He became an assistant at West Ham United under David Moyes, his old trainer at Everton. And last season he was part of one of the most controversial teams in Europe, as an assistant under Arne Slot with national champion Liverpool FC. « In addition to Moyes and Slot, I was able to develop further and at the same time watching in the kitchen of two major clubs, » says Heitinga in the press release.

As a ‘mentor’, Heitinga was important for Ryan Gravenberch, this season the discovery in midfield at Liverpool. « Together with him I looked at clips and spoke about my position, » said Gravenberch against The Athletic. After training, Heitinga also did ‘a lot of finishing exercises’ with top scorer Mo Salah, Slot recently said in a interview with NRC. « They apparently did not realize in Amsterdam that they had an excellent trainer in the house, » Slot said earlier Ad.

As a trainer he is of modern school, Ajax said the then head of sports science and data analysis Vosse de Boode in 2023 in Het Financieele Dagblad. « He is trained with everything we can offer him as sports scientists and data analysts. You notice that he is a generation that easily adds technology to his working method. Moreover, he does fact checks himself. That works very well. »

Opposite those compliments is the less beautiful reality of his period as Ajax coach. The underlying dates under Heitinga were even less than with his predecessor Schreuder, ASSIGNMENTED A sobering tactical analysis of Football International. Due to a slow, little creative structure, Ajax came under Heitinga less often in the enemy penalty area, scored fewer goals and created less good opportunities.

The tactical shortcomings in that period – Heitinga has undoubtedly learned in the meantime – ensure that the role of ‘heavy’ assistant emperor becomes crucial. He is expected to be explicitly asserted in field training, in tactical analyzes and competition discussions.

Keizer is relatively unknown to the general public, partly because he rarely comes into the publicity – he usually does not even respond to interview requests. Yet Keizer, for years midfielder at Cambuur, is one of the most progressive Dutch trainers.

Good relationship with Bergkamp

As a Technical Manager at Cambuur, with the then starting trainer Slot, he created a database with images of dozens of specific football promotions. They used those clips to convince players of the usefulness of certain sprints or passes. Now almost every trainer has such a media library, but at the time (around 2014) that was very innovative.

Although Keizer relegated as a trainer with Cambuur in 2016, a good performance against Ajax made sure that he came to the radar at that club, says someone from his environment. What also helped was his good relationship with peer Dennis Bergkamp, ​​at the time a member of the ‘Technical Heart’. They played together in the youth of Ajax. For example, in the summer of 2016, Keizer became a coach of Young Ajax, to A year later promoted To be to Ajax 1 after the sudden departure of Peter Bosz.

In one of his first weeks, Keizer was confronted with the tragedy around Abdelhak Nouri – he was hit by a cardiac arrest on 8 July 2017 during a practice game in Austria. The impact on the players’ group and Keizer was huge. « I drove back and forth crying for three months, » said Keizer in the book Nouri, the promise from Henk Spaan. « Not that I couldn’t function, but I come out of Wilnis, drive past the AMC and then I think of that boy and how beautiful things could have become. It’s all that big. »

More than four months later, Emperor was fired. Officially because of the poor results – which were indeed changeable due to the grief around Nouri. In reality, a internal power struggle Based on the decision: then director of players policy Marc Overmars wanted to get rid of him and assistant Bergkamp.

Keizer told Spaan that he had never spoken with Overmars or general director Edwin van der Sar about the suffering of Nouri. « Typical, » Keizer called that. Overmars and Van der Sar are now away from Ajax – Keizer is now getting his chance of honor recovery in the shadow of Heitinga.

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