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One thing that becomes apparent during ten Hag’s press conference before Heracles is that he doesn’t underestimate the club from Almelo. “We’re playing Heracles. That’s what it’s all about now. Only after that game we look at Lille. Yes, of course Blind plays, of course. We have to become champions. Every match is important. We can’t take it easy and so that’s why we will field our strongest team.”
So Blind is playing but Veltman won’t be. The right centre-back of choice has a muscle injury ten Hag told the press. He will not be a part of the selection at all. Two players who will return to the squad are Mazraoui and Eiting! Mazraoui was substituted during his game for Morocco versus Burundi with what appeared to be an injury but he’s already back in training. “Mazraoui needs challenges, he has a lot of potential but he has to give everything every game to reach it.”
It’s been a lot longer since Eiting was a part of a match-day squad, the last time was during pre-season. He did make a good impression on the manager then but his injury meant other players stepped up. “He started the pre-season really well but when the first XI took shape be got injured.” ten Hag explains his absence at Ajax 1. “Now he’s fit again and ready to fight for his place.”
There’s also a small update about Neres. He has had his surgery and has started the route to recovery from his meniscus injury in November. He should be ready to play again after the winter break.
Racism
Ten Hag is also asked about his views on the last week in regards of racism and football. “It’s not an issue at Ajax. No-one is worth more or less than someone else here, so we don’t even need to talk about it among us. Those are the values we share.” also the supporters of Ajax don’t discriminate according to ten Hag “Like I said, it isn’t an issue in this club, sometimes we get confronted with it [by other clubs] and it’s really good that there’s been sent a clear signal now.”