What started as a promising season for Ajax under Alfred Schreuder ended very disappointing under interim coach John Heitinga.
While initial form picked up under the former Ajax and Everton defender, they eventually fell off the pace once again, with the Dutch side finishing with no trophies and a disappointing third-placed finish.
As a result, Heitinga was not given the job permanently.
Aiming to recreate the glory days, the record Eredivisie champions ultimately opted for Sparta Rotterdam boss Maurice Steijn to lead them next season.
In 2022/23, the 49-year-old Dutchman worked wonders at Rotterdam.
The Kastelheeren finished in sixth place and just missed out on European football after losing the Eredivisie playoff to FC Twente over two legs.
This was not a position that many expected Sparta to be in come the end of the season, with their 14th-placed finish in the 2021/22 season leaving many fans wondering if they would instead be fighting relegation this season.
Now, Steijn gets his chance with the Amsterdam side.
This head coach analysis examines some of Maurice Steijn´s tactics and offers a glimpse at what Ajax fans should expect from their new coach.
Maurice Steijn Style Of Play & Preferred Formation
The graphic above shows the two formations that Steijn primarily used with Sparta Rotterdam last season.
As we can see, he preferred to use a 4-3-3 formation, the most common in Dutch football.
However, Maurice Steijn also used a 4-2-3-1 a lot, which allowed his side to control the midfield more, especially against tougher Eredivisie opposition.
Under the 49-year-old coach, the Kastelheeren did not look to hold the majority of possession and boss the play.
The Rotterdam side averaged 47.2% possession last season, ranking them in the Eredivisie's bottom half.
However, this low possession rate could be primarily due to Steijn's lack of talented players.
This number is likely to increase significantly at Ajax next season.
Last season, Sparta was around the middle of the table or lower in most attacking stats, but they really shined on the defensive side of the ball.
Sparta conceded 41 goals last season, only three more than Ajax, which gave them the 6th fewest goals conceded in the Eredivisie.
This relatively low total of goals conceded does not take into consideration that Sparta’s defence faced the most shots this season, with 568.
Steijn’s side also blocked the most shots, had the highest number of defensive and aerial duels and the most interceptions in the Dutch 1st League.
While the 49-year-old coach is expected to play free-flowing attacking football at Amsterdam, this is not something he has done at his recent managerial stops in the Eredivisie, as he opted for more pragmatic tactics.
The bosses at Ajax will hope Maurice can fix a defence that leaked too many goals for the Dutch giant’s standards last season.
Maurice Steijn Attacking Principles
Steijn will be able to play more possession-based, attack-minded football with Ajax.
During his time with Sparta Rotterdam, the Dutchman had to opt for a more direct attacking style of play.
Most attacking moves started with the goalkeeper sending the ball long towards midfield, with the Sparta attackers looking to win the first and second balls to retain possession.
Sparta Rotterdam Progressive Passes Under Maurice Steijn
The data viz graphic above shows the total number of progressive passes from Sparta Rotterdam this past season across all competitions.
We can see the heavy concentration of progressive passes originating centrally from Nick Olij, Sparta’s starting goalkeeper, sent into the central areas of the pitch around midfield.
Further into the attacking third, we can see the relatively empty white space in the central area just outside the penalty area, with Steijn’s side looking to shift the attacking player to the wide channels once in the attacking third.
Sparta Rotterdam looked to create overloads in these areas, usually from the overlapping fullbacks supporting the wingers or wide midfielders tucking inside.
It was also common to see the Sparta striker, usually Tobias Lauritsen, making a diagonal run into the wide channel behind the opposition’s fullback to help create the overload.
Shifting The Play Wide & Creating Overloads
As the graphic shows in pink, the majority of Sparta’s progressive passes into the penalty area came from the wide spaces, highlighting how often they looked to shift the play wide during attacking phases of play.
In the phase of play above, the ball is in Sparta´s right-back, Dirk Abels, possession.
Xavi Simons of PSV pressures the Dutchman, looking to regain possession.
With the former PSG player stepping out to engage, PSV fullback Patrick van Aanholt is isolated against the two Sparta players, Arno Verschueren and Vito van Crooij, who are making diagonal runs wide to create an overload.
Unfortunately, due to Xavi´s close proximity, Abels is forced to play the ball backwards, unable to take advantage of the overloadcreated by the runs into the wide channel.
The image above shows another example of Sparta shifting the play wide to create an overload and send a dangerous ball into the box from this wide space.
In this attacking phase of play against Groningen, Vito van Crooij is in possession and able to drive at the Groningen fullback, with Dirk Abels making an overlapping run beyond the winger and into the space.
Abels's getting forward and joining the attack creates an overload against the opposition fullback, with the defender forced to decide whether or not to step out and engage van Crooij or prevent the ball from being played to Abels.
In this instance, the fullback steps.
As a result, the Dutch winger shifts the ball into Abels's feet.
Sparta Rotterdam right-back drives past the Groningen fullback and into the penalty area before sending a dangerous ball across goal for the onrushing Sparta attackers to attempt to latch onto.
Dragging Centre-backs Out To Create Space Inside
Under Maurice Steijn, Sparta Rotterdam exploited the wide areas to create chances by creating overloads due to their off-the-ball overlapping and underlapping runs.
However, these runs sometimes would drag opposition defenders out of position as they tried to defend against a potential overload.
This would allow runners from deep to make central runs and be options to receive the ball inside the penalty box.
In this phase of play above against Groningen, roles are slightly reversed, with van Crooij keeping the width, and fullback Dirk Abels making an underlapping diagonal run from a central position.
Sparta is looking to isolate the fullback and create an overload, with Abels looking to receive the ball behind the Groningen defence and scan for options inside the box.
However, the Groningen centre-back decides to slide over and track Abels's run, negating the overload but also vacating his defensive position.
This allows Arno Verschueren to make a run from deep into the vacated space, with the winger looking to find him.
While Maurice Steijn’s attacking tactics and principles mainly focus on utilising wide play to create chances and positional superiority, these runs can also create space centrally, which Steijn looks for his side to exploit when the opportunities arise, as this example showed.
Maurice Steijn Counter-pressing
When it comes to putting pressure on the opposition immediately after possession is turned over, Sparta Rotterdam was one of the more effective sides at counter-pressing in the Eredivisie last season.
Sparta Rotterdam High Regains Under Maurice Steijn
As the data visualization graphic above shows, Sparta Rotterdam had 584 counter-pressing recoveries in all competitions last season, putting them in the top half of the rankings in this category across the Eredivisie.
However, as the graphic shows, most of Sparta Rotterdam's counter-pressing recoveries occurred around the middle third of the pitch.
The Kastelheeren did not want to commit too many numbers further forward and risk being exposed defensively.
This effective counter-pressing method essentially allowed Steijn to keep a solid defence at the back and still be dangerous in winning the ball back quickly in moments when they turned over possession.
Creating Numerical Superiority Around The Ball
Similar to how Maurice Steijn’s Sparta Rotterdam side liked to attack, they counter-press using similar tactics.
As the image above shows, Sparta looks to create a numerical superiority around the ball when they counter-press, which allows them a greater chance of quickly regaining possession after turning it over.
In this phase of play above from a match against Utrecht, Sparta is currently in a counter-pressing moment.
After turning the ball over, Arno Verschueren and Koki Saito look to pressure the ball instantly, with defensive midfielder Jonathan de Guzmán also joining the pressing moment to create numerical superiority.
In this specific moment, however, Sparta's press fails, with de Guzmán taking a bad angle and the furthest advanced player able to dribble past him after gaining possession.
This is when not committing many numbers forward in counter-pressing moments helped Steijn’s side to also have one of the best defensive records in the Eredivisie last season.
As the Utrecht player drives into the Sparta half, the Rotterdam-based side still has numerical superiority, allowing them to defend against this attack successfully.
Sparta Rotterdam Counter-Pressing In The Final-third
This final image shows another example of the Sparta Rotterdam counter-press, this time with them pushing up into more advanced positions to attempt to regain possession.
After turning over possession in an advanced area, the counter-press activates for Sparta, with the Dutch side going man-to-man on the PSV players, looking to force a turnover and regain possession in the attacking third.
In this phase of play, PSV decided to attempt to play over the top of the counter-press, with the ball being sent into the middle third area.
As a result, the Sparta defenders step up and are able to win the first ball in the air before then regaining possession on the second ball phase.
As we mentioned earlier in this tactical analysis, The Kastelheeren finished last season with the highest number of defensive duels and aerial duels won in the Eredivisie.
What is similar about both of Sparta's counter-pressing phases is that they regain possession indirectly from the press, winning the ball off a defensive duel and then an aerial duel.
This highlights how Maurice Steijn looks for his counter-pressing tactics to play into his defensive strength.
Conclusion
As this Maurice Steijn's tactical analysis has shown, the Dutch coach was considered by many to be a surprise choice for Ajax as well as the pick for new director of football, Sven Mislintat.
Ajax will hope that Steijn repays their faith in him and brings the Dutch giants back to where they belong next season.
As this Maurice Steijn head coach analysis has shown, the 49-year-old can do just that.
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