Does Ajax Need to Win the UEFA Cup?

If the victory over Feyenoord proved to us that all is not lost (didn’t it?), then what will we learn from the UEFA Cup match against Fiorentina today? Do we have bigger fish to fry at home in the eredivisie? Or is this the tournament that we focus on since we won’t likely catch AZ? I dunno, but as you can tell, I am not watching the match today (for reasons that have more to do with me than any answer to the questions above.) Are you?

There appear to be several schools of thought on the UEFA Cup. Some see it as a respectable competition that has included teams like Bayern Munich (last year), Sevilla (several times recently), and currently AC Milan (which I find amusing). It ain’t the gold mine of the CL, but it ain’t chopped liver either.

Others see it as an embarrassing venue to be seen visiting, like the celebrity after-party that the papparazzi do not surround. Just going there reveals to the world (that is not watching) that you are way off your A-game and may never be “it” again. It would be better to stay home, presumably to focus on some domestic competition (in football or in Hollywood, the metaphor works).

Winning the UEFA Cup is a stretch right now looking at our form, but making a run at it would not be too bad. Actually, I think it might be the best thing for us in the long and short term. Marco obviously has not figured out who his best 11 are, and he could certainly use more matches with some intensity to start to figure it out. Maybe we could answer questions like “Are Kennedy and Leonardo really rubbish?” or “What might happen if I give Urby 90 full minutes?” or even “Is Wielart an improvement over the pairing of Vermaelen and Oleguer?” And, with Aissati due back in about a week or two, we are going to need to evaluate how the midfield needs to operate. Mixing in the injury plagued ones (Aissati, Enoh, de Jong) with the recently injured ones (Gabri) as well as the young ones (Anita) is going to take time. I still have not seen three guys who look like they are on the same page, and more matches to sort it out would be nice for Marco.

Category: Team News

Tags: Team News

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