Total football lives
Ajax are a team with such a history, it’s where total football was born. They have had great spells through the eras, but now they need to rebuild.
- Ajax have had a colourful history winning at the top level and creating total football.
- Ajax are on a downward trajectory finishing 3rd then 5th in the last two seasons.
This instalment is the Ajax rebuild on FM24. Ajax have been a fantastic team over the generations providing fantastic football styles such as Total Football. Unfortunately, in the last couple of years they in a tailspin in the Eredivisie finishing 3rd and now 5th.
We need to reverse engineer their downfall by creating a winning culture and rebuilding the team from the bottom up. This is a start for new series where we follow the progress of Ajax and how we rebuild them.
Ajax Objectives
So this is where we start, the board and supporter objectives. This is where we understand the very fabric of the club, how we rebuild Ajax on FM24. There are plenty of options along the way and each one will dictate our culture at the club.
So to start off, let’s look at the board objectives for the club. I’m not really sure what to make of the lack of objectives, I hope they show more interest as time goes on. Currently they are looking so far into the future that they are missing the present. It’s all well and good signing 18 year olds as they are cheaper, but also there is a bigger risk on their potential.
The supporters on the other hand have a lot of pride in the club. They want the Eredivisie back before it is too late. They also want to play attacking football which is entertaining, which means that we need to play Gegenpress football as it is both attacking and high tempo entertainment.
The supporters also agree with the board that we need to use the youth facilities to develop players, and that is the long term aim for success. We need to bring in coaches that are good at working with youngsters and motivating. We will also need the very best head of youth development. The other avenue is to get the scouts which can judge player potential.
This is how we create a youth system and a conveyor of success.
Ajax first 11
So the next step is to identify who are our key players and squad players, this is a big part of our Ajax rebuild on FM24. The way in which we do this is using the assistant managers report to measure the players abilities.
We will push the standards here and set our measure at 3 stars which is above the league standard. Anyone above that we will call a key player, this is the best we can do with limited data.
Let’s look at the key players reports. So we can see that we have a very strong midfield, which also opens the door for 442 attack, 4231 and 433 DM. This means we have some options available, but it is good to see how strong our midfield is.
Let’s move on to the squad players. From looking at the defence options, we can see that 4 at the back is a viable option. We do not have a goal keeper at the moment due to bad injuries, so a youth keeper will have to be used instead. We do have to use a goal keeper after all.
The 442 attack is looking like a good option as we do not have any DM or AMC. This would mean that we would need some investment into the strikers unless there are a few youth prospects that could fill in.
Ajax Tactics
So what we do now is put together all of our findings above for the Ajax rebuild on FM24. Our tactic is going to be important, it is going to be the signal for the culture we are developing at the club. Let’s investigate further how our decisions will create our tactic!
To start off the supporters want attacking and entertaining football. This means we need to use one of the attacking styles, one with a high tempo for entertainment purposes. Gegenpress is the style that sits in both camps and creates a synergy with the fans objectives.
The way we will score goals is through our two forwards, our three quarter forwards. It will end up being 4 forwards, but none of them are complete forwards, meaning they will move around constantly. The winger stretches the play, the inside forward crashes the centre of the opposition defence. When this works it goes crazy, it just takes some time to train.
Defensively we may have some trouble, we technically have two centre backs and a screen being the ball winner. It’s better not to focus on this area at the moment, the wingbacks will be supporting the wingers that have vacated their space. While not Cruyff’s vision, I think he would be pleased with the attacking movement in this formation.
Get started and rebuild Ajax on FM24
Ajax will be a great rebuild on FM24, they are only a couple of seasons into their decline. This should be fairly easy to reverse and start the long term future of the club. Let’s get started today on rebuilding this Dutch giant!
The strength of this team is the midfield as we saw with the assistant reports. We are playing a four man midfield to cater for the ability they have. The weakness of the team is the defence, there isn’t much of it in quality or depth, it needs to have investment.
The opportunity is that we need to create a youth development culture and create the very best players in the future. The threat is the lack of success, if at any point the team fails in the objectives it puts the whole operation at risk.
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