PSV striker Danko Lazovic's frustrated tirade toward his own bench after setting up his side's only goal of the weekend said it all. After a very premature elimination from the Dutch cup, a hopelessly lost Champions League campaign and a 4-1 defeat to Ajax yesterday, PSV are well and truly in trouble. In trouble and troubled.
On Wednesday PSV failed to make it to the last 16 in the cup after going down to AZ 1-0 in extra-time despite a valiant effort. Yesterday a raucous second half saw Ajax score three goals in the last 16 minutes - which said more about PSV's defence than Ajax's injury-ravaged attack. "I still think we're on the right path," said PSV manager Huub Stevens, whose credibility is waning. "Not in terms of results but we're taking steps."
"The way back from the Amsterdam Arena to Eindhoven was a joyous ride for any PSV squad in previous years," De Volkskrant's Charles Bromet wrote, referring to Ajax's failure to win more than once at home to PSV in the previous 11 years. "This season … they have awoken in a new reality that is hardly conceivable. PSV have shrivelled to a predicatable collection."
The Ajax manager Marco van Basten rubbed salt in the wound by proclaiming that "when looking at the standings we need to focus on AZ and NAC", slighting his opponents by ommission.
PSV have now lost four games in a row, five times in the league and seven of 16 matches this season, after considerable success in Europe and seven Dutch championships in the past nine years. Tellingly, the last time the club struggled this badly was after Sir Bobby Robson's ill-advised re-appointment as manager in 1998.
So PSV are quite rightfully doing what any club in their situation would do: panicking. But they're going about it in the wrong way. There is a right and a wrong way to panic in football. Ask me not what the right way is - if I knew how to salvage a sinking football club I wouldn't be writing this; I'd be the Dutch Harry Redknapp, going from club to club, putting out fires.
But I can tell you what the wrong way is. It is trying to recreate the past. PSV have earmarked funds to bring Mark van Bommel and Andre Ooijer back to the club in January. Van Bommel, 31, is riding the bench and an expiring contract at Bayern Munich despite officially being their skipper. He left PSV and their captaincy after their stunning run to the Champions League semi-finals in 2004-05. But since the current captain Timmy Simons and Edison Mendez have a firm grip on the holding midfielder roles and Ibrahim Afellay has a stranglehold on the playmaker's spot, exactly what Van Bommel is expected to do in Eindhoven is unclear.
Ooijer would be a much more useful addition, despite his advancing years. The 34-year-old can no longer rely on Paul Ince to play him at Blackburn and could be allowed to return to the club he served for nine years before forcing a transfer to England by going on strike. He would solidify a defence that can count only Dirk Marcellis as an asset. But with history as a guide, neither of these transfers will be that helpful. Clubs have tried this before, you see. It's a common knee-jerk reaction to try to re-establish the golden days by bringing back the same old players.
In the late 1990s, Ajax attempted to halt their downward spiral by bringing back their 80s stars Aron Winter, Richard Witschge and Frank Verlaat, while they just missed out on Bryan Roy - who would have kept one Rafael van der Vaart out of the team. It didn't work. Last year, Feyenoord tried to rearrange their fortunes by bringing Giovanni van Bronckhorst, Kevin Hofland, Tim de Cler, Denny Landzaat and Roy Makaay back to Holland. It doesn't appear to be working. While at Barcelona, Louis van Gaal tried to bolster his squad by bringing as many parts of his all-conquering Ajax side of the mid-90s to Catalunya as possible. Frank and Ronald de Boer, Patrick Kluivert, Jari Litmanen, Winston Bogarde and Michael Reiziger had varying degrees of success at Camp Nou, but the squad was not the same. It didn't work. It never works.
Football teams are not like ruins. You can't simply disassemble them and put them back together in another space and time and expect them to be the same. Even with the addition of the stellar Luis Enrique and Rivaldo, the Barcelona-incarnation of Ajax wasn't a better side. A crowded midfield forced Litmanen, Ajax's control room, off to the right or the bench. The whole was no longer much greater than the sum of its parts, the way it had been at Ajax. The sum of the parts was greater than the whole.
The present-day Ajax meanwhile also managed to eliminate themselves from the cup competition by losing to lowly FC Volendam last week. The Amsterdammers showed little and scored even less, despite a few decent chances. They and the viewers were put out of their misery by Jack Tuyp's goal in extra-time.
But Ajax v PSV wasn't the only big clash of the weekend. There was also Feyenoord's visit to FC Twente. Eljero Elia, who is understandably desired by any club that plays with a left winger, was a terror to Feyenoord's defence and drew a penalty which Blaise N'Kufo converted. A Makaay penalty at the other end capped a 1-1 draw which sold Twente short.
"The Rotterdammers could consider themselves lucky with a draw," Sjoerd Mossou said in Algemeen Dagblad. "With another heavily damaged squad Feyenoord struggled to contain FC Twente, who dominated three-quarters of the game."
Feyenoord's Henk Timmer confirmed his status as the worst keeper in the Netherlands, but what he lacks in skill he makes up for in humour. "When you consider that we're playing with guys that have to be home at seven, we did fine," he said of the toddler-brigade from Rotterdam. "When you look at their bench … and at ours, [ours] are 15 years old."
After 11 rounds, the Eredivisie still lacks a clear title-favorite. Or a deserving one for that matter. We should know more after AZ v Ajax next Sunday though.
Results: Ajax 4-1 PSV; Vitesse 1-1 AZ; FC Groningen 3-0 De Graafschap; FC Twente 1-1 Feyenoord; ADO Den Haag 0-1 Willem II; Roda JC 3-0 NEC; Heerenveen 3-2 FC Utrecht; Sparta 4-0 FC Volendam; NAC 3-0 Heracles
