On the Rise: Erik ten Hag
Ajax’s Erik ten Hag is one of Europe’s most exciting and most sought-after coaches. Like many of today’s tacticians, ten Hag played the beautiful game professionally. He was a center-back and spent his entire playing career in the Netherlands, spending most of his time with FC Twente, where he won the Dutch Cup in 2001 before retiring in 2002. Ten Hag went straight into coaching, starting with the Twente youth teams before joining the senior team as an assistant to Fred Rutten in 2006.
Ten Hag got his first taste of senior management as the manager of Go Ahead Eagles in the Eerste Divisie in 2012 and did superbly by leading them back into the Eredivisie after 17 years away. This achievement was famous in Europe and got him a job at Bayern Munich’s second team during Pep Guardiola’s time. He returned to the Netherlands 2 years later with FC Utrecht and continued wonderfully by taking them into European competition in 2017.
Ajax appointed ten Hag in December 2017, and it’s been a remarkable story so far. After 178 games in charge at Ajax, he boasts a win rate of 73.18% and five trophies, including two Eredivisie titles. However, his most impressive achievement was leading his young Ajax team to the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League in 2019 by defeating both Real Madrid and Juventus on the way.
PLAYING STYLE
Johan Cruyff heavily influenced his philosophy, and his time working with Pep Guardiola shaped him into the man he is today. Ten Hag has combined Cruyff’s style with elements of German-influenced Gegen-pressing gained during his time at Bayern Munich to create a unique style of vertical tiki-taka. His Ajax side plays with a strong focus on possession, pressing, and movement between the lines, all of which are hallmarks of Guardiola’s style.
Preferably, ten Hag sets his side up in a 4–2–3–1 formation with a number 10 acting more as a box-to-box midfielder. His teams tend to control the ball and recycle possession, which allows them to exploit openings in the opposition’s shape and exploit overloads. When his team reaches the final third, they play with more purpose, preferring to try a dangerous pass or take a shot rather than recycle the ball.
In possession, his renowned Ajax squad of the 2018/2019 season set out as a 4–2–3–1 but switched to a 3–3–3–1 in possession, with one midfielder dropping back to aid in the build-up from deep. This is pretty much Cruyff’s total football 3–4–3 diamond, and Ajax had very well-rounded footballers, just like Cruyff’s Barcelona team.
Ajax used two different approaches when building out from the back, depending on how hard the opponent pressed them. When pressed high, de Jong moved to the left side of the back three, joining Daley Blind in the middle and de Ligt on the right. Typically, the team’s central midfielder would drop back to provide a moving rhombus of passing options. Ten Hag instructed his fullbacks to push high up the pitch while his wingers dropped into the half-spaces on each side of Donny van de Beek. They tried to push up from the back unless the midfield could find space vertically, or de Jong could drive forward from the left center-back position and break the press with his ball carrying.
De Jong dropped centrally to form a triangle with the two center-backs when Ajax was not pressed high, passing the ball between them. The movement at the other half of the pitch was identical, and de Jong’s dribbling and ball-carrying ability always allowed them to break forward.
One of the clear ways Guardiola has influenced ten Hag is through the concept of establishing passing triangles and gaining superiority through a spare man, which is emphasized heavily in his style. This showed a lot in the type of goals Ajax scored in that campaign. Ten Hag’s team destroyed many of Europe’s finest by controlling possession and cutting through the opposition’s lines with fast vertical passes, underlapping movements, and the third man runs.
Dusan Tadic played as a false nine, which helped Ajax add an additional man in midfield during their build-up, building fast and vertically through the opposition lines. This is combined with Ajax’s mastery of spatial occupation. The wide players and fullbacks shuffle to ensure that one maintains width while the other covers the half-space channel. This allowed Ajax to create a pass and move opportunity out wide while still maintaining a good shape if the play fell apart.
Many of those players in that fantastic Ajax side of 2019 have been snatched away by different European clubs. Still, as usual, ten Hag’s Ajax has been a nightmare to opponents in the Netherlands and their Champions League group. It’s just been a display of champagne football on our screens so far, as the team from Amsterdam has put in 32 goals and conceded 2 in just nine games so far in the Eredivisie, as they lead the standings. All of this is thanks to Erik ten Hag’s tactical knowledge and ability to move with the times.
Due to the great variety of low blocks and counter-attacking techniques in post-pandemic football, the 3–1 base is barely used. Ten Hag has developed a hybrid rather than forsaking his style. Instead of a 3–1 base consisting of two center backs and two central midfielders, ten Hag uses one inverted fullback to form a 3–2 base. The wingers remain wide, while box-to-box midfielder Ryan Gravenberch joins the number 10 in the hole. Individual players construct multiple versions of their attacking structure; therefore, this isn’t the case in every instance.
Ten Hag also has a well-defined attack strategy. He develops specific patterns and practices pre-determined passing movements to aid his players in moving the ball down the field. Ten Hag also urges his players to switch positions to draw markers and create space, whether they are wide or central.
Another difference to the current Ajax team is ten Hag’s use of Dusan Tadic. Unlike before, Tadic was used mainly as a false nine to create space for Donny van de Beek to move into, but currently, Sebastien Haller is used as a target man and Tadic just behind him. In no way has this tactical tweak affected Ajax’s success. Ajax still plays to create chances building fast and vertically through the opposition lines, and they still press heavily without the ball.
CONCLUSION
Manchester United and Barcelona are both rumored to be looking for a new manager, and ten Hag, in my opinion, would be an excellent candidate for both, particularly for Barcelona. With Frenkie de Jong, Van van Beek, and Matthijs de Ligt, he has demonstrated his ability to develop young players.
He’ll be able to bring out the best in lesser-known players while still allowing the stars to flourish. Ten Hag’s vertical tiki-taka may be just what Barcelona needs in terms of a tactical overhaul. However, Erik ten Hag would be ideal for a number of the top clubs globally, not just Barcelona. He’s demonstrated he doesn’t need significant transfers to compete in the Champions League; he makes excellent use of youth academies and plays attractive, offensive football.
