Summing Up the Season

At the start of the 2001-2002 season, not a single Dutch sports journalist predicted that Co Adriaanse's young Ajax team was going to play a role of any significance. Champions PSV and Feyenoord were going to battle it out, according to the press, whereas Ajax was going to finish 3rd again - maybe lower. Ten months later however, Ajax captain Cristian Chivu lifted both the Eredivisie championship shield and the Amstel Cup over his head.

In one of the craziest and most hilariously exciting Eredivisie seasons ever, Ajax showed significant improvement compared to recent seasons. This becomes obvious if we compare this year's final statistics to those of last season:

The goal difference shows that this was accomplished with more defensive football: +42 last year, +39 this year. A three goal decrease. Although Ajax won four games more than last season, the number of goals scored dropped from 85 to 73. The defense did a far better job to make up for that. After having conceded an average of 1.50 goal per game two years ago and 1.26 goal per game last season, an average of exactly one goal was scored against Ajax this season.

The fact that Ajax' productivity dropped from 85 to 73 (or: from 2.50 to 2.15 goals per game) is remarkable. Main reason: despite the purchase of Zlatan and Mido, Ajax lacked a scoring striker for over 75% of the season. It is telling that a 19 year-old midfielder, who was injured for over three months in total, became the topscorer: Rafaël van der Vaart, with 14 goals. It should be added, however, that Mido came close. Once he got to play as a central forward, the Egyptian struck a stunning ten times in nine league games, making for a total of 12 goals. Nikos Machlas scored 12 goals as well, but he needed signifcantly more minutes of play for it.

Last season, Ajax' topscorer (Shota Arveladze) finished with 18 goals. However, it should be noted that Arveladze scored 0.66 goal per game last season. Van der Vaart's average in the 20 league games he played was 0.70. Another interesting fact: despite the relatively low number of goals scored, there was only one game in which Ajax failed to score (0-0 at AZ).

Last year, Ajax' largest victory of the season was a 9-0 walk-over against Sparta. There were no such results this season. The largest home victory was a 5-0 over NEC, whereas the largest away victory was 0-4 at Sparta. The largest defeat was suffered in Heerenveen: 5-1. The largest home defeats were two 1-3 let-downs in a week's time, against PSV and NAC.

Those two defeats cost coach Co Adriaanse his job. Under his supervision, Ajax grabbed 29 points out of 14 games (average: 2.07), scored 31 goals (average: 2.21) and conceded 18 goals (average: 1.29). Under Adriaanse's successor Ronald Koeman, results were almost exactly the same for a long time, but Ajax' sovereign sprint to the finish line made the difference. Under Koeman, Ajax grabbed 44 points out of 20 games (average: 2.20; 0.13 higher than Adriaanse), scored 42 goals (average: 2.1; 0.11 lower than Adriaanse!), but only conceded 16 goals (average: 0.80; 0.49 lower than Adriaanse!).

It is highly remarkable that Ajax' defense improved by almost 50% under Koeman. In the mean time, productivity slightly decreased, which contradicts the common opinion that Adriaanse made Ajax play defensively and that Koeman reversed this.

Under both coaches, Ajax chose for defensive safety and did not necessarily choose for the most beautiful option. This is underscored by the number of yellow and red cards shown to Ajacieden. Last year, Ajax received 39 yellow cards, whereas only one Ajacied was sent off. This season, the number of yellow cards was 45. No less than four Ajax players were sent off: Mido and Wamberto were shown the red card at once, whereas Yakubu and Trabelsi received a 'double yellow'. Hatem Trabelsi is Ajax' 'yellow card king of the season': he was booked seven times, including his double yellow at Feyenoord. Cristian Chivu finishes second with four yellow cards.

The largest difference with last season was, without a doubt, the achievement in the Amstel Cup. After two first round defeats in a row, Ajax won the Dutch cup this year, making for the 7th 'double' in club history. Which means that there was only one true disappointment this season: once again, Ajax' European performances were embarrassing. After a third round and a second round UEFA Cup elimination in 1999 and 2000, respectively, the campaign once again ended in the second round. Last year it was Lausanne Sports (Switzerland), this year it was FC Copenhagen (Denmark). A disgrace. Doing better is probably the club's main goal for next season, as Ajax (for the first time since 1998) can give it a try in the Champions League.

Finally, despite the silverwork won, average attendance at Ajax home games decreased by 832: from 36,689 to 35,857 (Eredivisie only), making for the second highest attendance in The Netherlands. Feyenoord's average Eredivisie crowd was some 2,000 larger. (MP)