Frank de Boer declared himself “annoyed” at his Ajax players following the 3-1 defeat to Barcelona at Camp Nou.
The Dutchman was particularly angry at his team’s display in the first half of the Champions League Group F game, when Barca raced into a two-goal lead thanks to Neymar and Lionel Messi.
“I’m annoyed because we wanted a better result and it didn’t turn out that way, although we improved during the second half,” he told reporters post-match.
“During the break I told my players that if we scored a goal then anything could happen, and that’s what we saw towards the end.
“That’s the attitude I want to see from them, not the one they showed in the first half.
“We gave them too much respect. Sometimes you have to play like your opponents and we have players who can do very well when they have possession of the ball.
“Their first goal was great, but the second was our fault.”
De Boer also felt that despite a 4-0 defeat at the hands of La Blaugrana in last year’s competition, his team had performed better on that occasion.
“Last year we did better than this. We had the ball longer than them. This time it looked as if my full-backs hadn’t played,” he said, while going on to praise the Neymar and Messi partnership.
“They are like Gareth Bale and Cristiano Ronaldo in that they are on another level,” he continued.
“They are very difficult to stop, yet I thought my defence did a great job because we didn’t let Messi have too many chances.”
