The saying goes that you can never win anything with kids. It is one of those poor ideas that football has had the misfortune of adopting from Alan Hansen.

By: Ole Gunner

The saying goes that you can never win anything with kids. It is one of those poor ideas that football has had the misfortune of adopting from Alan Hansen. Two of the most impressive sides of the last 15 years were teams of very good kids who dominated at home and in Europe.

I am talking about the young Ajax team of 1993-1995, and the young Manchester United team of 1999. Of interest to us today is the Ajax team.

As the young Arsenal team today face AC Milan in the Champions League second round, it is clear they have their work cut out for them. But so did that famous Ajax team which defeated AC Milan, also then defending champions, three times in one Champions League season.

Ajax were in the same kind of domestic form that Arsenal have been in this season. The average age of the squad was young and the first team consisted of several teenagers including Kluivert, Seedorf and Kanu. Players like Edgar Davids, the De Boer twins, Reizeger, Marc Overmars, and Ed Van der Sar were all under the age of 23. Even older players like Finidi George and Jari Litmanen were under 25. But the backbone of the team consisted of two old men: Danny Blind and Frank Rijkaard who were two very experienced veterans who had won everything in football. Just like with Arsenal isn’t it?

There were more similarities. Like this present Arsenal team, that great Ajax team scored goals by the bucketful, with goals coming from all over the squad. They loved to attack, could pass and did pass the ball to death at pace. They were devastating on the counter attack and had big strong centre-forwards in Kluivert and Kanu. Their wing backs, De Boer and Reiziger, had great pace and were very good on the tackle. Edgar Davids played the Flamini role with his boundless energy and running in midfield playing a more

The only dissimilarities perhaps was that Ajax had three players that Arsenal have no equivalent of; Finidi “Finito” George, Jari Litmanen and Marc Overmars. Litmanen was a Denni Bergkamp, a player who finished brilliantly but also could also give the brilliant penultimate pass with vision and precision, though one can argue that crocky Van Persie has a bit of that in him. In George and Overmars, Ajax had blistering pace and crossing precision on the wings. George, in fact was never recognised for being in 1994-95, the world’s best crosser of the ball.

In any case, the similarities are uncanny. Michael Reiziger and Gael Clichy even look alike physically and have the same gait on the ball. Watching that Ajax team was sometimes dizzying as they sometimes made a 30-pass move leading to a corner kick. They could also vary it as Arsenal has learnt to do this season. They could knock the ball long to Kluivert who was devastating in the air like Adebayor.

As Arsenal face Milan at the San Siro tonight they have to look to do what worked for Ajax in 1993 at the San Siro. They have to scare AC Milan. The way Ajax did it was to keep it tight in midfield and close down spaces and then to be devastatingly precise and quick on the counter-attack.

The way to scare the old AC Milan defence is to aim to get one or two very quick and very precise counter-attacks in the first 15 minutes. Even if Arsenal don’t score, there’ll be some level of confusion in the experienced Milan defence. The way it works is that Milan would look to do what they have always looked to do for years; keep it tight in midfield and then knick a goal. A quick counter-attack would put individual defenders under pressure, knowing they can’t match the younger players for pace and precision. They would take fewer risks and that would make their midfield play less effective.

Here is a link to Ajax’s 0-2 victory at the San Siro in Autumn 1994. Watch the second goal. Ajax win the ball in midfield through Seedorf, who knocks it upfield one-time to Kluivert who lays it off for Litmanen who is running up from deep, who lays the ball 40 yards along the ground at pace to George behind Maldini. Cue panic in the AC Milan defence as George gets to the ball first, resists the attentions of Maldini and has his cross diverted into his own net by the great and immensely experienced Paolo Maldini.

Ajax went on to defeat Milan in the final to win the cup. That year they won every trophy in sight, winning the Eredivisie title, the Dutch FA Cup, the Champions League, The European Super Cup, and the Club World Cup. In the 1995 season they went through the season unbeaten before losing to Juventus on penalties in the Champions League Final to signal the end of an era as they sold their best players.

The Arsenal game would not boil down to the first 15 minutes. Even if Arsenal score first in that first 6th of the game, there is no doubt that Milan can score two goals. The key would be for Arsenal to keep up the tempo and pressure, and keep the fear in the Milan defence for a crucial period. If they don’t score, they have to do what Wenger always says; they have to keep playing their game, but do something they sometimes fail to do. They have to defend heroically one-on-one, meaning that each player has to win his own individual battle. In any case they have something they can rely on that they have in common with the other great team of kids mentioned at the beginning of the article. They can always nick late goals and should fancy themselves to do it against an old and tired Milan defence. The reason they do it is superior fitness and they have to make that count.

Arsenal can upstage Milan. In any case it would make a fascinating contest. Now I have to leave for Milan. Come on Arsenal!