I’d rather look at what people with actual tactical knowledge have to say like Suley or Pieter Zwart instead of the populistic nonsense that comes out of Van der Vaart and Sneijder. They’re not free thinkers, they don’t really think at all.

That’s called cherry picking, and is not a good habit to pick up.

Mislintat bought several interesting players, but it seems like he didnt put much thought on squad building

Indeed, that is a great way of putting it.

Ramaj hasn’t played because Steijn was angry at not getting Olij.

That’s what people say about Steijn, but I think he genuinely saw that his team lacked cohesension and communication and tried to help create that by fielding a Dutch goaly that has been at the club for a while.

Ramaj never played for a club like Ajax, nor under this amount of pressure, and doesn’t speak the language. That is fine for 1 player, but Ajax already had to field to many new players that were still settling in and had no clue about what it means to play for Ajax.

Also, Steijn was quickly getting a lot of criticism for subsituting to much and not giving his players confidence, had he also changed his keeper those voices would have been even stronger. Gorter played in the pre-season and did alright, naturally he didnt want to swap another player.

Steijn would have played Rulli or Pasveer if they werent injured and we would never be talking about who is second or third in line in the goal. It’s one of the many examples of that he was dealt a really bad hand.

I’ve been wondering what’s the link there. I can imagine you’d back your former colleagues. But why are guys like Sneijder and Van der Vaart so determined to back Steijn?

They are not, they are just free thinkers withs lots of experience that dont buy the emotional oversimplifications that the fans want. They all recognise Steijn had to go because he wasnt performing and that Steijn was dealt an impossible hand due to all the chaos, high expectations and lack of quality surrounding him.