Ajax Only Beats Smaller Teams
11/07/2015
There are different ways to look at Ajax' results this season You could look at it from the positive side and only focus on the Eredivisie and concluse Ajax is doing well because they are leading with a gap of 3 points to the number 2, but you can also focus on the negatives so far, not being able to qualify for the Champions League group stage, elimination from the Dutch Cup, likely elimination in the Europa League group stage. We try to look at things less subjectively. In this article we try to judge Ajax performance based on an objective way of quantifying the opponents strength and determine whether Ajax performed above or below expectations.
How Strong is a Team
There is not a good method really to quantify the strength of a team. The closest way to a good method is the UEFA ranking. We have used the website of Bert Kassies which has as benefit that it also provide a ranking for teams that have not played any European matches.We have categorized the 21 opponents Ajax played against so far in this season in three groupps. The third group consists of teams with less than 10 points, the second group teams with points between 10 and 30 and the first group teams with more than 30 points. Interesting to see is that none of the opponents have more points in the UEFA ranking than Ajax.
The Results
Ajax got the following results against teams from each group so far this season:| Group | Won | Draw | Lost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Group 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 |
| Group 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| Group 3 | 9 | 1 | 0 |
Conclusion
On basis of the difference in strength we could have expected that Ajax would have had a positive balance against the opponents in each of the groups, but this is clearly not the case: Ajax was even only able to win twice from opposition not in the weakest group. The opponents Ajax beat in those groups were AZ in Group 1 (a team that due to many changes is performing significantly weaker than could have been expected based on their UEFA ranking) and Vitesse in Group 2. Ajax is only able to beat the weaker opponents so far this season. Do not expect Ajax to suddenly beat Feyenoord, Celtic and Molde the coming month. When Frank de Boer or Joël Veltman are talking about reaching the semi final of the Europa League I can only think about Albert Einstein who once said about insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.Our Latest News
- What is a gap year? (4/24/2023)
- Hato and Alvarez in record lists (4/16/2023)
- NOS Studio Voerbal: Ajax intended to use lighter incident to reach Cup final (4/12/2023)
- Jorrel Hato Writes History (1/13/2023)
- Dear Edwin, don't spend too much this transfer window (1/7/2023)
- When I played at SC Heerenveen Ajax regulary got such penalties in Amsterdam (9/11/2022)
- Edson Alvarez should have been sent off (9/11/2022)
- Time for Evaluation part I - Ajax 1 Experience of the Current Squad (9/1/2022)
- Ajax Transfer Update 2022-23 (6/23/2022)
- Why Are Ajax Fans Turning Against Daley Blind? (4/5/2022)