During the Labour Day holiday, the Dutch Cup final came to an end.
Ten Hag's old club, Ajax, was dragged into a penalty shoot-out by old rivals PSV Eindhoven and eventually lost, and this season they may be sure of a four-way record:
League titles, cup winners, European results, Champions League places are all not guaranteed.
Obviously, after suffering severe blood loss last summer, Ajax's strength has been greatly affected, but this summer, they are expected to face the departure of core players.
For example, Kudus, who was absent due to injury.
For Ajax's current manager, Heitinga, Kudus is indispensable.
In his system, Kudus can do well in the front and right wings, and more importantly, as an attacking player who appears and should appear in the second line, he is actually the top scorer in Ajax.
17 goals, more than Berwin, Brobey and Tadic all scored.
So, Kudus' absence due to injury naturally affected Ajax's performance, especially when he appeared on the right wing, which is a more reasonable use for him and for his team.
Interestingly, Manchester United also seem to be moving in this direction.
Kudus is only 22 years old (born August 2, 2000) and in the summer of 2020, when he turned 20, he moved from Northern Zealand in the Danish league to Ajax for a transfer fee of only 9 million euros.
For the top giants, this price is standard scratch lottery, but for Ajax, this is the potential star that the club is optimistic about, and those who are bullish on him naturally include Ten Hag.
So in his first season, Ten Hach gave him 21 appearances, and he returned the figure of four goals and three assists, and at the World Cup in Qatar last winter, he scored two goals for the Ghana national team, becoming the second youngest African player to score two goals in the World Cup.
This match against the South Korean team can also be said to be a battle of fame.
In this game, Kudus's ability at this stage has been more fully displayed.
In this match, he played as the team's right midfielder and scored twice by outflanking twice on the weak side:
In addition to scoring goals, it is short, flexible, has a low center of gravity and is very flexible, so it can be done effortlessly:
But on this basis, as an African player, his confrontation and speed are also excellent, which belongs to God's reward:
As long as he is allowed to bring the ball up, it is difficult for the opponent to stop him without breaking a rule:
At the tactical level, as a player with a smooth left foot, his presence on the right can also enrich the team's forward line more smoothly:
In addition to this match against South Korea, against Portugal and Uruguay, a series of his personal characteristics were fully reflected:
And the left-footed shot is full of power, and the accurate head is also good, so the long-range shot is also in his arsenal at this stage:
The performance in the World Cup can be seen that this is an excellent embryo with good ability at this stage, considering the age advantage, and full of potential in the future.
Strength and speed, this alone is enough to jump the door in today's football world, not to mention that he has enough technique and good awareness in front of goal. After staying at Ajax as a starting regular this season, he directly played 17 goals and 5 assists, and the stepping stone to the giants is already in hand.
However, the player's shortcomings at this stage are also more obvious.
Of course, this season's Ajax itself has not been consistent enough.
In the first half, then-manager Schroeder often put Kudus directly in the centre with no one in his hands, and he played most of the games during the Champions League group stage.
His confrontation is indeed an advantage in this body, but directly used against the opponent's central defender, take a little, then use it in the wrong place:
In the second-line position, he can move directly at the moment of holding the ball, and his characteristics can really be brought into play:
So in the Champions League group stage against Liverpool and Napoli, although he was closer to goal in the attacking front line, he also scored personally.
But the team's overall performance is not good, and while he cannot play as a center by himself, he will also burden Tadic with excessive defensive duties, which is obviously the responsibility of head coach Schroder.
Later, Kudus himself said in an interview that he did not want to play in the No. 9 position, but wanted to return to the midfield position, which is a very correct personal judgment.
So in the winter window this year, after the change of coach at Ajax, Heitinga put it back in the position of attacking second line, sometimes playing in the front and sometimes on the right, and the overall arrangement of the team was much more reasonable.
However, from the first line of attack to the second line, the responsibilities of the players will change a lot, to put it bluntly, it is more testing the player's passing and defensive ability, after all, as a striker, as long as you get the ball in, it is a success, but the midfield is not, you need to play the ball well.
However, in the second-line position, Kudus's receiving and passing stability is not good, and there are many such mistakes:
But to say that he is not good at technique and poor basic skills, this is not like this, after all, he is still able to pass in the World Cup with higher intensity, and he is still one of the main set-piece penalties in the Ghana national team, and the landing point is also good:
So the technical level should be no problem, after all, there is no problem in handling the ball in a more difficult narrow space this time:
His fault is more like awareness to be improved, especially these two times he dribble forward to fight back:
Obviously, there is still room to advance in front of him, two more steps are fine, and there are simpler lines to pass, but he chooses to pass to the most difficult teammates on the line when it is not necessary.
In the World Cup, in the Ghana national team, in the environment of defensive counterattack, these problems of Kudus are not serious, because there is enough space, the forward task is relatively pure, the sudden is over, the sudden is the killing of the opponent.
But in the league, in Ajax, the opponent will not give so much space, so it is a test of the player's timing and awareness in the pass, when to receive, to bring, when to go out, to pass, this needs to be paid attention to.
Especially for a player like him who is very confident when dribbling and breaking through, the timing of the ball is indeed an important threshold for such players to upgrade the grade.
If you step over, you will be terrible; If you can't step over, it's very regrettable.
Given that Kudus is 22 years old and the next two years are important stages for his progression, a manager who has developed patience with him is a must at this stage of his career if he chooses to transfer.
With him slowly trial and error, slowly crossing this threshold, from a player with strong ability at the individual level to a player who is also strong at the team level, this is the most important leap.
However, even with the leap in ability, Kudus is still a player who should be used in attack, not in the midfield or further down, even if he is a panacea in all positions at this stage.
Not only because during the World Cup, he was repeatedly cut off by opponents in the position of central midfielder, which directly led to the pressure of his own backfield:
More importantly, his solid shooting ability and sense of outflanking in front of goal should not be hidden too deeply, and his physical skills should be used more to kill and injure opponents than to protect his own side.
So from this point of view, the front waist, winger, full-back is the limit, and then the back position is not suitable, considering his current passing stability, the position of the right winger or right midfielder protected by the sideline can allow him to use the reverse foot to reduce the difficulty, and to the offensive link can also outflank the goal from the weak side, which is the best position and usage.
In this way, an interesting road ahead has appeared in front of Manchester United.
Over the past period, credible individuals and media such as Romano and Manchester Wan, have said that United may try to sign Kudus this summer.
Although in their writing, Kudus is always placed with Osmayne, Muani, Kane and others, and seems to be a candidate for the center position, but with Ten Hach's requirements for the center and knowledge of Kudus, this is definitely not an option for the center position, but is likely to be an operation independent of the center position.
Because for Manchester United, the only player who can play on the right wing with a reverse foot is still Anthony, once he does not perform well or is absent, Manchester United will lack a right-to-in line, and in this season, Ten Hach has also tried many times to put Bruno on the right wing to form the basic configuration of four midfielders, and in the front position, Ten Hach sometimes attaches considerable importance to confrontation and impact ability, with Westhorst in front and Sabitzer in the back.
So in terms of demand, Kudus is indeed a player who tastes Ten Hach and Manchester United.
If Kudus is really one of Manchester United's goals this summer, and can really win it smoothly, it will not only be an opportunity for the players to reunite with their mentor on a higher platform, but also a key reinforcement for Manchester United.
Manchester United's 9 away games against the top 10 in the league after the defeat to Brighton were released, with 1 win, 1 draw and 7 defeats. The only victory came in the round of 16 against Fulham 2-1, with Garnercio coming to the stake, and the draw came in a recent 2-2 draw with Tottenham Hotspur under the centre-back combination of Lindelof and Luke Shaw.
So, in the more intense and more stressful away games are not good, of course, there are reasons for the depth of the squad, such as the recent absence of Ghana Jo, the lack of a good substitute, but in these 9 games, Manchester United have only kept four clean sheets by their opponents, excluding the loss to Brentford at the beginning of the season, and only three clean sheets after the system is normal.
The bigger problem is on the defensive end, as this result means that United cannot withstand the opponent's attack even with the main centre-back in place.
The reason why Ten Hach has repeatedly let Bruno play on the right wing this season to form the basic configuration of the four midfielders is to increase the protection of the backfield through better control of the field.
This doesn't work substantially, partly because Bruno is smooth on the wing, unable to control the field without speed and confrontation, and partly because the pressure falls on the two-striker after cutting the right winger, but for most of the season, Rashford has not had a good enough partner.
If you have Kudus, Manchester United will have one more good player in the depth of the squad, one more left-footed player, especially when Manchester United are playing in the middle of the four, he can appear on the right wing in place of Anthony, so defending, so pushing, so killing opponents, so outflanking on the weak side, until such a goal:
So that Manchester United can form the basic configuration of left attack and right defense, double striker + 8-man defense in some games, which is the more prudent way Manchester United need to come up with next season away from home in the Premier League against stronger European opponents.
Although Ten Hach is from the Netherlands and heavily influenced by Pep Guardiola, his heart may not be asymmetrical, but just one more option on the right wing, one more option outside Anthony and one more left-footed player at midfield level will be a clear improvement for Manchester United now.
Under Tenhag, Kudus will also have a good chance of crossing the passing moment.