Ajax in the ascendency again under Van Basten

Marco van Basten's influence at AFC Ajax is becoming clear to see following his side's 4-1 home win over fierce rivals PSV Eindhoven, a victory which raised the Amsterdam club to the top of the Eredivisie table.

Substitution success
Luis Suárez, who was playing in the absence of injured captain Klaas Jan Huntelaar, scored Ajax's first home league goal against PSV since February 2004 to give his side a first-half lead. Although the visitors replied after the break through Ibrahim Afellay, Van Basten made changes and was rewarded with a goal each from two of his substitutes. Serbian Miralem Sulejmani, who had been sidelined for two months with a hamstring problem, restored Ajax's advantage and after an Erik Pieters own goal, fellow replacement Leonardo made it 4-1.

'Beautiful victory'
The win starts to fulfil the goal that Van Basten was charged with when leaving his head coach role for the Dutch national team to take over at the club he made his name with – namely, to make the four-time European Champions Clubs' Cup winners the premier force in the Netherlands once again. Following an inconsistent start, Ajax have won six straight games culminating in, according to Van Basten, the most important one so far. "This is a beautiful victory and gives us faith for the matches to come," the former AC Milan striker said. "We started well, but even when we went through a tricky patch, we kept on fighting and I really have to compliment the team on that."

Golden touch
It was Van Basten, though, who made the crucial changes which turned the game the home team's way. "The substitutes worked out well; Sulejmani scored, Leonardo scored and Gabri also contributed," he added. "It is important for players who do not always start to be aware that their role in the team really is very important." Although Ajax only lead the way on goal difference from NAC Breda with AZ Alkmaar and FC Groningen both just two points back, the 44-year-old coach knows the significance of their advantage over PSV. "For now, we have to fight off AZ and NAC, but we are also very happy to be seven points ahead of PSV, who are candidates for the title – we feel good about that."

Injury crisis
With Ajax's injury worries beginning to subside – Van Basten had joked that he did not just have a full team in the treatment room, but enough to fill the bench too – the coach feels his team can now go from strength to strength. "In the past months, we have had an extreme number of injuries," he said. "In some matches, we were only trying to achieve damage control, but now players are returning we will only become stronger."