Erik ten Hag has been hit with a major injury blow ahead of Ajax’s title run-in with PSV as Ryan Gravenberch is set to miss the remainder of the season.
Ajax are currently four points clear of PSV at the top of the Eredivisie with three league games remaining.
But Ten Hag will be forced to navigate Ajax’s final fixtures against AZ Alkmaar, Heerenveen and Vitesse without Gravenberch, who is now sidelined with a knee injury.
According to De Telegraaf, Gravenberch is expected to be out for six weeks, meaning that he may have already played his final game for Ajax if his expected move to Bayern Munich goes through in the summer transfer window.
Ten Hag, meanwhile, is aiming to win his third league title with Ajax before he joins Manchester United this summer.
Meanwhile, former United defender Jaap Stam believes Ten Hag is fully aware of the scale of his task at Old Trafford.
‘Erik has been doing well in Holland and everybody knows that as well. That’s why he got the job at United of course,’ Stam said in an interview with PA news agency.
‘We also need to understand that in the league in Holland the quality of the majority of teams is a lot less than how Ajax is but still you need to produce, so that’s still a very good thing that he’s done.
‘Now he’s been given the chance to try to do the same at United and hopefully he can do.
‘But he understands, and he knows as well, that the Premier League is totally different – the people, the press, the expectations, the pressure – to how it was in Holland.
‘For him that’s going to be a learning curve but it’s very important that the club and the owners are backing him up in terms of personnel.
‘United have got good players. Yeah, some of them might need to go but they need to bring in several other players as well, so they can get unity within that squad, play in a certain way.
‘The philosophy in how he wants to play is of course very important. That’s why they chose Erik. Hopefully he can show that.’
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