In Ajax’s greatest season under Erik ten Hag there was a degree of consistency that comes from knowing your best team and having a squad small enough to keep everyone contented.
Ajax played 58 games in 2018/19, winning the Eredivisie and the KNVB Cup and missing out on a Champions League final in the most agonising, heartbreaking circumstances. But through all of that workload and drama, only 20 players played 10 or more games in that season. Eleven players featured in at least 46 of those matches.
Ten Hag certainly knew his best team in that season and he had built a team suited to his needs. It wasn’t needlessly big, but was slimmed down to incorporate the players he could rely on and keep motivated and it worked brilliantly.
