Dusan Tadic: How former Saint cut sins from his game to become a star for Ajax

During his time at Southampton, most could see that Dusan Tadic was a serious talent. That talent showed in glints and glimmers, however, like a faulty light bulb or a sparking wire. Tadic gained a reputation as a flick-book footballer: mesmerising, entertaining, but only in short bursts which seemed to be over before they had really begun. Technically gifted with a sharp eye for a final ball, his low-centre of gravity allowing him to drift smoothly between the lines, he was also – with the exception perhaps of the 2015-16 season, in which he scored seven and assisted 12 league goals in tandem with Graziano Pelle and Sadio Mane – enormously frustrating and inconsistent at St Mary’s.

When Ajax moved to sign him for around £10m last summer, then, it was generally seen as a sign of how far the club of Johan Cruyff had fallen since its glorious heyday. Still, when things have gone right in Tadic’s career there has generally been some link to the Netherlands. Having started out with FK Vojvodina in his native Serbia, Tadic made his name in the Eredivisie first with Gronigen and then with FC Twente, while his best years at Southampton came under the guidance of Ronald Koeman. Since joining Ajax, Tadic has hinted at a multitude of reasons he needed to leave the south coast: the fact that he was “tired of everything” in England, Southampton’s decline more generally, his mixed chemistry with Koeman’s successors and what he felt was a lack of protection from referees in the Premier League.

Not only did Tadic make what he has described as an “easy” decision to return to Holland, he can now feel certain that he made the right one. He has completely reinvented himself with Ajax this season, with 30 goals from 46 appearances in all competitions and 10 assists in the Eredivisie alone.

Roaring past Real Madrid

Ajax are the only side in one of Europe’s major leagues to have scored 100 goals this term. Tadic has been directly involved in 30 of those, while he has had a hand in nine goals in eight appearances in the Champions League. On a historic night for Ajax at the Bernabeu in the last 16, with the Dutch side trailing 2-1 from the first leg at the Johan Cruyff Arena, Tadic teed up Hakim Ziyech and David Neres – his assist for the latter including a frankly ridiculous dribble around the helpless Casemiro – before scoring an absolute screamer in the second half to make it 4-2 on aggregate. When Lasse Schone added some extra gloss to the scoreline with a looping free kick not long afterwards, it was the only goal on which Tadic had no claim.

Just as he once struck up a fruitful three-way partnership with Pelle and Mane at Southampton, Tadic now has an intuitive relationship with Neres to his left and Ziyech to his right. Often used as the leading man in a 4-3-3 alongside those two as wide men, he has also regularly been shifted out to the left with either the veteran Klaas-Jan Huntelaar or the rookie Kasper Dolberg through the middle. Either way, Tadic has thrived and proved himself remarkably adaptable for a footballer now in his thirties. Where once, under the moribund tenure of Claude Puel, he would struggle to complete the full 90 minutes for Southampton without being substituted, he has been an ever-present for Ajax this season as they have stormed to the top of the Eredivisie and the quarter-finals of the Champions League.

Though Juventus will be firm favourites to progress ahead of the first leg in Amsterdam on Wednesday evening, the Bianconeri cannot afford to underestimate Ajax. With a multitude of exciting young players including Dolberg, Frenkie de Jong and Donny van de Beek at their disposal, the Eredivisie leaders will be fearless, hungry and energetic while Juve may have to shake off the sense of comfort which comes with a 20-point lead at the top of Serie A. In the midst of those youngsters will be a creative talent in Tadic who has been rejuvenated since returning to Holland. Juve would do well to watch him like a hawk, lest they end up like Real Madrid.