Ajax Formation and Tactics: Inside the 4-3-3

Ajax formation — tactical board

How Ajax's 4-3-3 is organised

The shape is a conventional 4-3-3 on paper and asymmetric in practice. Vítězslav Jaroš, on loan from Liverpool, starts possession short, usually into Youri Baas, the left-footed centre-back who completed more passes than anyone else in the Eredivisie. Youri Regeer plays the single pivot and drops between Baas and Josip Šutalo to make a temporary back three, which pushes Owen Wijndal and Anton Gaaei up the touchlines. Ahead of him the interiors split: Sean Steur, an academy graduate who turned eighteen in January, takes the left side, and the captain Davy Klaassen the right, arriving late in the box rather than sitting in front of the defence.

Width is non-negotiable. Godts stays on the left touchline and attacks his full-back one against one; on the right Steven Berghuis, left-footed, does the opposite and drifts into the half-space, leaving the flank to Gaaei's overlap. Gaaei, not Berghuis, is the crossing threat on that side, and he finished the league season with five assists. That imbalance gives Ajax a dribbler on one flank and a passing triangle on the other, and it is why Klaassen's runs arrive between the opposing right centre-back and full-back. Wout Weghorst holds the centre, wins the long ball when the short route is closed and occupies both centre-backs.

Out of possession the front three lead the press. Weghorst steps at the centre-back in possession while covering the return into the opposition pivot, and Godts and Berghuis fold inwards to force play towards a touchline, with Regeer screening in front of a high back four. It worked in patches. Ajax conceded 41 league goals and drew fourteen matches, ten of them away: five wins, ten draws and two defeats on the road describe a side that avoided defeat without turning control into goals. In Europe the record was heavier — six defeats in eight league-phase matches, twenty-one goals conceded, 5–1 at Chelsea and 4–0 at Marseille the worst of them.

The tactical units

1. Goalkeeper

   On the pitch: Vítězslav Jaroš

   Jaroš spent the season on loan from Liverpool and started nineteen of the thirty-four league matches, plus six of the eight Champions League nights, before Maarten Paes arrived from FC Dallas in February and started every league match from late February onwards. Neither goalkeeper kept more than five league clean sheets. The job in this shape is specific: hold a high starting position behind a back four that defends on the front foot, and give the centre-backs a short first pass rather than a long clearance.

2. Back four

   On the pitch: Owen Wijndal, Youri Baas, Josip Šutalo, Anton Gaaei

   Baas is the constant: thirty-one league starts, the division's leading passer by volume, and Ajax's Player of the Year. Left-footed, he carries out of defence and is the outlet Jaroš looks for first. The rest of the line rotated. Šutalo started eighteen matches at right centre-back, Ko Itakura ten and Aaron Bouwman six; Wijndal made fifteen at left-back, where the right-footed Lucas Rosa took the position for the last eight. Gaaei is the one settled full-back, and the only genuine wide man among the four.

3. Midfield three

   On the pitch: Sean Steur, Youri Regeer, Davy Klaassen

   Regeer is the controlling midfielder: he screens in front of the defence and drops into it during build-up. He started ten of the twenty-five 4-3-3 matches at the base, one more than Jorthy Mokio, who shared the role. Steur started more league matches at the left interior than anyone else, just ahead of Kenneth Taylor, who was sold to Lazio in January. Klaassen is the veteran contrast: club captain at thirty-three, he plays the right interior high and finished with six league goals from midfield.

4. Front three

   On the pitch: Mika Godts, Wout Weghorst, Steven Berghuis

   The front three carried the goals. Godts scored seventeen and assisted thirteen from a fixed position on the left touchline, half of the team's 62 league goals. Weghorst, at 1.97 metres, gives the side a target for the direct route and pins both centre-backs; he started twenty-one domestic matches to Kasper Dolberg's thirteen. Berghuis is the balancing piece, an inverted right winger who leaves the flank to Gaaei — though he started only fourteen league matches, with Rayane Bounida starting there eight times between December and March.

Key player relationships

Vítězslav Jaroš → Youri Baas — Builds play through

Ajax's first pass out of a goal kick. Baas is left-footed, which opens the whole left side of the pitch on his first touch, and he completed more passes than any other player in the Eredivisie: the defender most trusted to carry through a press rather than recycle sideways.

Owen Wijndal → Mika Godts — Underlaps

Godts has licence to attack his full-back one against one and to lose the ball doing it, so Wijndal does not double up outside him. He runs the inside lane instead, which keeps the touchline clear for the winger and gives Ajax a second body in the left half-space.

Youri Baas ↔ Sean Steur — Combines with

The left-sided build-up triangle. Baas carries, Steur drops off the interior line to receive between the opposition midfield and forward lines, and the ball returns to Baas if the passing lane closes. Most of Ajax's controlled progression starts on this side.

Josip Šutalo → Anton Gaaei — Frees

Šutalo takes the right of the two centre-back slots and holds the inside when Gaaei goes. His diagonal releases the right-back into the space Berghuis has emptied by coming inside, a simple exchange Ajax repeat all match.

Anton Gaaei → Steven Berghuis — Overlaps

The clearest asymmetry in the side. Berghuis takes the ball inside on his left foot, Gaaei runs outside him, and the opposing full-back has to choose. Ajax's right-sided crosses come from the full-back rather than the winger; Gaaei finished the season with five league assists.

Youri Regeer → Youri Baas — Drops between

Regeer drops between Baas and Šutalo to make a back three, which pins an opposition front two, gives both full-backs licence to advance and briefly turns the midfield three into a two. It is the reference point for the whole settled build-up.

Youri Regeer → Josip Šutalo — Screens

The other half of the pivot's job. With Ajax defending high and both full-backs advanced, Regeer holds the space directly in front of Šutalo and Baas, delaying counter-attacks long enough for the back line to reset.

Sean Steur ↔ Youri Regeer — Rotates with

The pair share the middle of the pitch rather than dividing it. When Regeer steps out to press or drops into the back line, Steur takes the base of midfield; when Steur pushes up between the lines, Regeer covers the space he leaves behind him.

Sean Steur → Mika Godts — Supports

Because the left-back underlaps rather than overlaps, Godts never gets support outside him, so the help has to come from inside. Steur moves into the left half-space to give the winger a short option, which stops Ajax's left side becoming a series of isolated one-v-ones.

Davy Klaassen → Wout Weghorst — Runs beyond

Klaassen scored six league goals from midfield. The pattern is simple: he delays his run until Weghorst has drawn both centre-backs, then attacks the space behind him, and in a side short of goals it was one of the few repeatable ways Ajax got a body into the six-yard box.

Davy Klaassen ↔ Steven Berghuis — Links play

The right half-space partnership. Both prefer to receive between the lines rather than in wide areas, and their short exchanges are Ajax's main route into the penalty area when Godts is doubled up on the far side.

Mika Godts → Steven Berghuis — Creates space for

Opponents commit a full-back and often a midfielder to Godts. That leaves the opposite half-space thinly defended, and it is the reason Berghuis and Klaassen see so much of the ball on the side Ajax do not attack directly.

Wout Weghorst ↔ Mika Godts — Presses with

Ajax's press starts with the centre-forward. Weghorst steps at whichever centre-back has the ball while standing in the lane back to the opposition pivot; Godts closes the near full-back from outside to shut off the touchline. Behind them the back four holds its line.

Tactical strengths

• The 4-3-3 is understood by everyone at the club: all three of the season's head coaches used it, and García used nothing else in his ten matches in charge.
• Godts on a fixed left touchline gives Ajax a repeatable way to break a compact defence without needing a coherent team move.
• Regeer's ability to drop into the back line lets Ajax build with three defenders and still commit both full-backs.
• The asymmetric front three, a dribbler left and an inside creator right, is awkward to defend with a flat back four.
• Weghorst gives the side a working direct route when the short build-up is pressed, and Ajax lost only twice away from home in the league.

Tactical weaknesses

• Twenty-one goals conceded in eight Champions League league-phase matches, six of them defeats: the defensive record did not survive a step up in opposition.
• With one holding midfielder behind two advanced interiors, Ajax are thin in front of the defence whenever Regeer is bypassed or pulled wide.
• Fourteen league draws, ten of them away, describe a side that controls matches without a second dependable source of goals.
• Remove Godts and the attack goes with him: his seventeen goals and thirteen assists account for half of Ajax's 62 league goals.
• Three slots were never settled — Berghuis started only fourteen league matches on the right wing, Rosa took the left-back position through the run-in, and Mokio started almost as often as Regeer at the base.

Famous tactical characteristics

The pivot who drops into defence

Youri Regeer plays the single pivot and Ajax use him in both directions. In build-up he steps between Youri Baas and Josip Šutalo to create a back three, which pins an opposition front two and frees Owen Wijndal and Anton Gaaei to advance. Out of possession he screens the same space in front of the centre-backs. It also means Ajax's midfield often has two players in it, not three, until the ball is out.

Wingers who hold the touchline

The instruction is simple: stay wide until the ball arrives. Mika Godts obeys it literally on the left, standing on the line to stretch the defence and then attacking his full-back in isolation. It places a demand on the interiors, who have to supply the width from inside. Godts scored seventeen league goals and set up thirteen more from that starting position.

An inverted right, a direct left

Ajax do not mirror their flanks. Steven Berghuis, left-footed, plays the right wing by coming inside into the half-space, so the width there belongs to Anton Gaaei's overlap. On the left the arrangement is reversed: Godts holds the touchline and Owen Wijndal underlaps inside him rather than running past him. One side dribbles, the other combines.

Pressing from the centre-forward

Wout Weghorst leads the press from the front. He steps at the centre-back in possession while standing in the lane back to the opposition pivot, and the two wingers fold inwards to close the near full-back and squeeze play into the touchline. Behind them the back four holds a high line, which is what makes the press worth the risk.

Klaassen's late arrival in the box

Davy Klaassen is Ajax's captain and, at thirty-three, the senior voice in a young midfield: the two players who start beside him in the middle both came through the club's academy. He plays the right interior high, delays his run until Weghorst has occupied both centre-backs, then attacks the space behind him. He finished the league season with six goals from midfield.

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Related formations

• FC Barcelona Formation and Tactics Under Hansi Flick

  The same Cruyffian 4-3-3 one generation on: a single pivot, an interior either side and wingers held wide.

• Benfica Formation and 4-2-3-1 Tactical Structure

  Another selling club building through a single pivot and leaning on wide one-v-one threat to create.

• Arsenal Formation and Tactics Under Mikel Arteta

  Arsenal pull a full-back into midfield where Ajax drop their pivot out of it: two answers to one build-up problem.

Frequently asked questions

What formation does Ajax play?

Ajax play a 4-3-3: a back four, a single holding midfielder with two interiors ahead of him, and three forwards who hold the full width of the pitch. It was their shape in twenty-five of thirty-six domestic matches in 2025/26, under all three head coaches.

Who managed Ajax in the 2025/26 season?

Three coaches did. John Heitinga started the season and was dismissed on 6 November 2025, a day after a fourth consecutive Champions League defeat. Fred Grim, by then his assistant, took caretaker charge until March 2026, when Óscar García was promoted from Jong Ajax for the rest of the campaign.

Who plays in Ajax's midfield three?

Youri Regeer held the single pivot most often, with Sean Steur at the left interior and the captain Davy Klaassen on the right. None of the three was undisputed: Jorthy Mokio started nearly as many matches at the base, and Kenneth Taylor held the left interior until he was sold in January.