"If you win the first three games of the league, that's fine. We played well at times. We could have been faster at times. We could also have decided the match earlier. Sparta looked started to look dangerous in the end, but I thought we defended well. Ultimately we won in a controlled way and deservedly so."
The coach still saw room for improvement. "We were good on the ball in the early stages, certainly until two thirds through the game. In the final stages, we were sloppy at times. But we hardly ran into any counter attacks. We defended that well."
Against FC Groningen (6-1) Ajax played joyously last week. It was not so good at Het Kasteel. "The attacking play was smoother last week. That's not just down to Antony, even though he's good in the one-on-one," the coach said.
"Steven Bergwijn is more of a combination player. When you play with such a striker, you need more depth without the ball. There was just too little of that."
Antony was absent against Sparta. Nevertheless, Schreuder hopes that he will still be an Ajax player after 1 September. "I want Antony to stay. We have already sold five, six key players. They were not the worst. I do not think it is right for us to sell another player. We are financially very strong."
