Willem Weijs has expressed admiration for the results Óscar García is achieving with Jong Ajax, but questions the current playing style of the reserve team. While Weijs always favored the traditional Ajax approach, he notes that García doesn’t consistently employ it.
“That’s impressive, and he deserves credit for it,” Weijs told Voetbal International when discussing the performance of the current Jong Ajax squad. “But that upward trend was already visible after the winter break. And the situation has also changed. He said, ‘I want to be able to play eleven-versus-eleven in training every day.’ That was unthinkable under my leadership.”
“I also see the team sometimes dropping into a low block in matches now, which is one of the reasons why the other Jong teams in the KKD are performing better – because the difficulty of the game is lower than it is with us,” the former Jong Ajax coach added. “Not to mention the fact that we play with much younger talents.”
Weijs sought to have his Jong Ajax team play in the traditional Ajax style. He described that vision as, “Ajax wants to press high and build up possession from the back, even when put under pressure one-on-one. That was the vision we all agreed on, and I fully supported it, because we want to prepare our players for Ajax 1 in that way.”
“But what is Jong Ajax doing now? Dropping back, making the spaces small, and hitting on the counter. And that’s okay, that’s absolutely not a criticism. But are you preparing players for what they will ultimately face, like we saw recently against NEC? I don’t think so.”
Weijs also stated that he always prioritized player development and playing style over results at Jong Ajax. “That was the trade-off we always made: developing players for Ajax 1, with the side effect that it could come at the cost of results. And I fully supported that. But suddenly the rules changed with the arrival of Jordi, and I’ve been sidelined.”
The appointment of García followed the departure of Weijs, and sparked much discussion about a winning mentality at Jong Ajax. According to Weijs, that aspect was already being addressed. “Well, just look at how we celebrated on the bench when we scored a goal. Players even laughed at us for how much we cared. Also in training: all exercises involved winning and losing, with the losers having to clean up or something similar.”
Tekst gaat verder onder de foto.
“We also had a system where we categorized players based on their sportsmanship in four categories: amateur, KKD, Eredivisie, Champions League,” Weijs continued. “The amateurs then had to carry the drinks bottles to the field, that kind of task. We also did game management: what is required in certain scenarios? We would then also practice those: eleven against ten, eleven against nine, and then hold onto the lead, where everything was allowed.”
