The chance that Quincy Promes will be able to play in Sunday’s game at AZ is slim, according to Erik ten Hag. “I can’t confirm 100 per cent that he won’t be there, but I’m not very hopeful”, said the coach about the injured forward.
Nico Tagliafico and Hakim Ziyech are also injured, but the chance is good that they will both be fit enough to play on Sunday. “I’m expecting them to train tomorrow”, said Ten Hag. “I’m almost certain that Quincy won’t be able tot play, but I’m assuming that Ziyech and Tagliafico will.”
Looking ahead
Elimination from the Champions League this week was hard, but it’s time to move on. “We were very disappointed, but you can’t focus on that for too long. What went wrong against Valencia? We didn’t score and we allowed an unnecessary mistake.”
Of course, injuries played a role at Ajax. On offense, Ajax missed not only Promes, but David Neres and Zakaria Labyad as well. “During the period when we played against Chelsea, we had found our formation. After that, we’ve had to make adjustments. We first did that with Labyad, but after that, we needed to make some more concessions. So we know that our performance is taking a hit. We’re missing depth, but we should still be able to score with the players we have.”
'AZ is an outstanding team, working well together’
Sunday’s game in Alkmaar will be hotly contested. A North Holland derby, number 1 against number 2 in the rankings. Ten Hag: “AZ is an outstanding team, they’re working well together.” The Ajax coach saw the Alkmaar team lost 4-0 to Manchester United on Thursday. “There were two different halves. You could clearly see AZ’s strength, but you also saw weakness after the break. You need to keep pushing.”