[WBA-Josh]

Hindsight is a wonderful thing but I think Erik ten Hag made a mistake last night with his first substitution. He brought Veltman, a centre half turned into a right back by Peter Bosz, on for Schöne and Veltman went to right back with Mazraoui going into Schöne’s position alongside Frenkie de Jong (Mazraoui is a natural central midfielder turned into a right back). In my opinion he should have brought off Dolberg who was ineffective with Veltman coming on at right back, Mazraoui moving forward to right midfield and Ziyech moving to a false 9 position where his natural defensive laziness wouldn’t cause an issue. I think that would have made them more secure down the right side against Son and Rose and that would have kept the Schöne, de Jong base in midfield. Veltman coming on at right back with Mazraoui moving into centre midfield worked in an offensive sense because Mazraoui likes to get forward and did so well but they were having to defend a lead, not score more goals and the change left them more open centrally because Mazraoui was pushing higher up leaving Frenkie de Jong to cover the back 4 on his own.

I think overall Ajax were naïve in the second half. They had to defend a lead yet de Ligt and Blind were still playing a dangerous game and the Spurs first goal came from de Ligt pressing Danny Rose (why?) and Blind stepping forward towards midfield leaving Mazraoui and de Jong having to cover them. It’s a young side so naïveté is to be expected but you expect better than that.

It’s going to be a shame when this squad gets ripped apart. Ziyech, de Jong, de Ligt maybe even van der Beek could all end up going.