Ajax's form in Europe improved as well under Ten Hag, with the team looking promising, despite a second consecutive relegation to the Europa League, having finished third in their UEFA Champions League group. Erik ten Hag’s Ajax looks like a mix of Pep Guardiola’s Bayern Münich team and Jürgen Klopp’s Liverpool in the way they behave on and off the ball. Following a 4–0 defeat away to Brentford on 13 August in his second Premier League match, [22] Ten Hag became the first Manchester United manager since John Chapman in 1921 to lose his first two games in charge.

Positional play works to enable teams to progress the ball forwards through the creation of triangles or diamonds that give the ball-carrier space and several passing options at any given time. Their aggressiveness and acceleration to close down opposing players on the ball is essential in their desire to regain possession as close to the opposition’s penalty box as possible.Ten Hag then became the sporting director and head coach of Utrecht in summer 2015, where he led the club to fifth place during his first season. At the same time, he’s a press-resistant player who can make progressive carries and look to both cause havoc in the oppositions defensive organization by dribbling forward with the ball, and give his forwards time to recover in their correct positions.

Following his retirement, Ten Hag took on a coaching role at Twente's academy, initially overseeing the U17 team, followed by the U19 team until 2006, when he was promoted to assistant manager. Ajax kicked off their 2019–20 season in style, with a 2–0 victory over long term rivals PSV in the 2019 Johan Cruyff Shield.However, Ajax were unable to progress, and Ten Hag's team suffered a 3–2 aggregate defeat to Roma, ending any hopes of a possible UEFA Europa League final. This to keep a quality passing lane to progress play if Mazraoui receives the ball, while Tadic is positioned more into the left half space and Berghuis and Gravenberch moves closer together in the center channel. What they will often do is to stack up players on one side – creating overloads and numerical superiority around the ball zone before having a player running into space on the opposite side of the playing area.