Amsterdam, Netherlands (My Sportsbook) - Adrie Koster will make his head coaching debut for Ajax at Amsterdam Arena on Saturday against NEC despite having just one full training session with his club.
Koster took over for departed manager Henk ten Cate just seven months after joining Ajax as the reserve team head coach. He has taken over on an interim basis, but he will be charged with keeping Ajax in the thick of the title hunt, along with Feyenoord and defending champions PSV.
Ajax is currently sandwiched in between those two sides, one point behind Feyenoord and level on points with the Eindhoven club.
While Koster is inheriting a team that is unbeaten in its first seven games, he also has a number of injury concerns to deal with.
Edgar Davids (broken leg), Santiago Leonardo (knee), Nicolae Mitea (ankle), Kennedy Bakircioglu (groin), Thomas Vermaelen (ankle) and Laurent Delorge (ankle) will all be spectators for Saturday's contest, leaving Koster short on bench options.
Having already been eliminated from the UEFA Cup by Dinamo Zagreb, Ajax will now focus on the Eredivisie and trying to end PSV's three-year reign as league champions.
NEC is currently third from the bottom in the standings, and enters the match without strike duo Brett Holman and Jhon van Beukering because of injury.
Striker Tim Janssen is also not expected to play because of an ankle problem, which leaves head coach Mario Been with little up top.
A wounded NEC side gives Ajax a huge edge in this match, and should make for a successful debut for Koster. However, the real challenge facing Koster is how many more successes he can produce after this week.
In Saturday's other contests, PSV host bottom-of-the-table club Venlo, and league-leaders Feyenoord take on Excelsior in another contest that has mismatch written all over it. Heracles hosts Vitesse in Saturday's other matchup with Vitesse looking to maintain a spot in the top six.
In Sunday's action, AZ Alkmaar will host Heerenveen with both teams trying to turn around poor starts to the season, Twente will try to remain in the top five with a win at Groningen, Roda and Utrecht are level on points in the middle of the table and get together at Parkstad Limburg Stadion, while NAC looks to continue its strong start to the season when the club travels to Willem II.
