Seeking to improve on their below-par efforts from last season, Ajax welcome newly-promoted Heracles to the Johan Cruijff ArenA for their opening Eredivisie match of the 2023-24 campaign on Saturday evening.
The two teams are facing each other for the first time since March 2022 when Ajax secured a comfortable 3-0 home victory.
Match preview
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Ajax's four-year dominance at the Eredivisie summit came to an end last season in their first year without manager Erik ten Hag as they had to settle for third place – their worst top-flight finish for 14 years.
In a campaign which saw Alfred Schreuder sacked midway through the season and replaced by caretaker boss Johnny Heitinga, the Amsterdam giants dropped points in 14 of their 34 league matches and eventually finished 13 points adrift of champions Feyenoord.
Ajax have since moved to appoint Maurice Steijn as their new permanent manager – the 49-year-old making the next step in his coaching career after narrowly missing out on European qualification with Sparta Rotterdam last season.
Steijn is yet to make a notable impact with Ajax, though, who ended pre-season in disappointing fashion, losing three of their final four friendly fixtures against Anderlecht (3-0), Augsburg (3-1) and Borussia Dortmund (3-1), losing to the latter last Sunday.
Nevertheless, Ajax should be confident of kick-starting the new season with a positive result on Saturday as they are unbeaten in their last four meetings with Heracles, keeping four clean sheets and scoring nine goals in the process.
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Competing in the second tier of Dutch football for the first time in nearly two decades, Heracles bounced back to the top flight at the first time of asking after winning the Eerste Divisie title last season.
The Almelo-based outfit were crowned champions on the final day of the season after beating Ajax Jong 2-0 to secure top spot by the finest of margins, finishing above second-placed PEC Zwolle on goal difference.
Manager John Lammers has since guided his side to two victories out of three in pre-season, with wins without reply against Emmen and Helmond Sport taking place either side of a 3-1 loss to Volendam.
Teenage duo Diego van Oorschot and Antionio Satriano were on the scoresheet in the 2-0 win over Helmond last weekend, and Heracles are now gearing up for one of their toughest fixtures of the season away against Ajax, where they have failed to pick up a single Eredivisie point since March 2009 when they drew 2-2.
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Team News
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Having already bid farewell to Dusan Tadic, Jurrien Timber, Calvin Bassey and Edson Alvarez this summer, last season's top scorer Mohammed Kudus is not expected to be involved this weekend amid interest from Brighton & Hove Albion.
Remko Pasveer (hand fracture), Ahmetcan Kaplan (knee), Kian Fitz-Jim (ankle) and Amourricho van Axel Dongen (knock) all remain in the treatment room, while Steven Berghuis, who recovered from a knock to feature as a substitute in last weekend's friendly loss to Dortmund, is suspended for the opening game of the new season.
Steven Bergwijn and Brian Brobbey scored 30 goals between them in all tournaments last season and both attackers are expected to be involved on Saturday, as will summer signing Carlos Borges.
As for Heracles, captain Justin Hoogma is set to miss out with a calf injury, so Sven Sonnenberg and Sava-Arangel Cestic are the most likely duo to start in central defence.
Jetro Willems joined Heracles on a free transfer last month and the former PSV left-back is poised to make his debut this weekend, with fellow new addition Jannes Wieckhoff in contention to start at right-back.
After parting ways with midfielder Lucas Schoofs and forward Samuel Armenteros, who scored 27 goals between them last season, Lammers will turn to wingers Nikolai Laursen and Emil Hansson, who netted 33 times between them in 2022-23, to provide a goal threat along with new signings Jizz Hornkamp and Mario Engels.
Ajax possible starting lineup:
Rulli; Rensch, Aertssen, Hato, Wijndal; Taylor, Van den Boomen, Klaassen; Bergwijn, Brobbey, Borges
Heracles possible starting lineup:
Brouwer; Wieckhoff, Sonnenberg, Cestic, Willems; Bruns, De Keersmaecker, Ouahim; Laursen, Hornkamp, Hansson
We say: Ajax 2-0 Heracles
Heracles enter Saturday's clash in buoyant mood and will be hoping to take advantage of Ajax's poor end to pre-season by frustrating the host in Amsterdam on Saturday.
Despite the departure of a few key players from last season, we believe that Steijn's side still have enough quality to claim maximum points and begin the new campaign on a positive note.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
