Euro 2008 qualifiers next weekend. No Eredivisie football.

Next Ajax league game: Ajax vs Vitesse on the 25th! It's a very good sign that I'm already looking forward to it. There's still a lot of work to do, but it really is god fun to watch Ajax these days. It's definitely not always good (still a long way to go), but they sure are entertaining these days. There seems to be a new spirit that gives me a good feeling.

K.

Roll on Sunday!
We might not be the most skillful team in the world, but it sure is exciting stuff that's produced nowadays!

My health insurance is bang up to date, so the defence can do their usual thing and watch the ball as it sweeps across the six yard box.......I wonder if they really DO know that there's not an opponent to slam the ball in the net.....or are we just lucky?

I couldn't give a sh*t as long as we score more than them!!!

Bring on Vitesse!!

PSV travel to Excelsior (yay, Jan Wouters' first win!). Feyenoord are at Groningen. They will drop two points there (0-0 or 1-1).

K.

Bring it on !!!! Its back too business as usual

PSV indeed won as expected, 4-1 or something was the score.

Vitesse aren't in a goal scoring form this season, so Ajax should capitalise on their "poor" scoring.

Interesting who will play in defence today

A solid 3-0 win here should indicate the long period of heavy turbulence
we suffered from the start of the season is completely over and Ajax are
fully back on track, giving us a full reason to be confident of the title.

SSSUAREZ!!!! 1:0

The Ajax crisis continues!!!

penalty!

Luuuuuuuuquuuueeee!!!

Shit.. 1-3

The second half was bad actually, we absolutely lost the midfield (i think because of that, that there weren't Gabri in second half. Was he injured?) and vitesse was the better side, but we still aded one more goal and 4-1 is result, that is fine by me and the best thing is, that feyenoord lost! Groeningen scored in 90min!

crisis is over, and it feels good

A win....not a very pretty win, but a win...AND..Fword lost! Why was Gabri taken off at HT...he took a couple of knocks during that first period, but yes, we did lose the midfield after he'd gone.
Luque did well, even moving at "pace" sometimes, but I'm afraid that Suarez was still on Uraguayan time! Still, top of the pile...3 points more, AND, still not playing all that well!

What will happen when the performance is perfect? I'd rather be well clear at the top when that happens.....a perfect performance might mean a loss!

Keep the faith......keep the Coach....!

Ian, jeez that was quick.

LOL Got the clogs in the wc draw.

Agree with Ian, change at h/t changed the game as we lost control of midfield completely - left our right side very exposed in 2nd half

but 3 points is 3 points

I was particularly impressed with Hedwiges Maduro.

He was a bit of a basket case for two years, but now he's not only playing well, but he also seems to run a marathon every game, and he's doing a lot of physical work. He's become a pretty hard tackler.

That second goal was prett much his goal (although Gabri scored it). He won the ball in midfield (great 'block tackle'), rushed down the right flank and waited for the perfect moment for the pass to Gabri. A fantastic assist, after a very good solo run.

Maduro is back. That's the good news.

The bad news is that Urby Emanuelson is sliding downhill. He'll be fine in the long run (he's got all it takes), but at the moment the boy has seriously lost the plot, especially defensively. Almost all of Vitesse's danger came from their right, and Urby was just standing there. Vitesse's goal was very typical: they scored it straight from kick-off after Luque's penalty. Question: how in the name of the Lord can our left defensive zone be completely and totally deserted straight from kick-off??? Everybody should be in position when the opponent kick off, or is that just me? Urby was nowhere to be seen - and it wasn't the only time.

We need a left fullback and a big, huge murderer of a central defender in January. Forget about midfielders. Our priority should be: two top drawer defenders. We're leaking way too many goals. Ajax need at least three goals in order to feel more or less safe - and we simply can't have that.

K.

Yes, he was. Gabri and Maduro picked up injuries, so we had a midfield with two teenagers: Siem de Jong and Mitchell Donald. They can't be blamed and didn't really do anything wrong, but it's a fact that we lost the battle in midfield in the second half. Definitely.

K.

Any news on when they'll be back??

Well, for me the priority still is a real central, creative midfielder. There is Vertonghen in left fullback position and he's doing well. We have Vermaelen, Heitinga and Wan der Wiel in central defence. I agree that we still need a big man, coz when Stam isn't there anymore, we have problems in second floor. But we don't have any creative, attacking minded midfielders. Now we playing with 4 defenders and 3 defencive midfielders. So my priority would be:
1. Creative central midfielder
2. Tall central defender
3. Left fullback

same here

I thought Donald started poorly (nerves, maybe?) but got a lot better as the second half went on. He looked out of place at times, but once he calmed down, you could see that he's got skills.

Of the other Jong Ajacieden, I thought Schilder was pretty average.

Man of the Match for me was either Maduro or Gabri. They both played well. It's good to have some depth in defensive midfield once Davids returns.

I think Urby has fallen prey to the same affliction that hit Nigel de Jong a few years ago. He's gotten called up to Oranje a few times, had a few good CL games, and now believes that he's a complete player who doesn't have to improve. He routinely gets caught ball-watching.

In general, I thought our first half was very good. We still give up too many crosses -- I would bet that 75-80% of goals Ajax gives up come from corners or crosses. We've talked about Urby, but Ograru gives up his share of crosses as well. It seems as though he is so scared of getting beaten off the dribble that he drops a few steps back off of his man and allows his opponent to get a cross in.

I thought Rommedahl played well. People complained when the club bought him, but he's been very useful.

Didn't see the match so I can't comment on who looked a seven or eight and who looked a 4 . I know a result when I see it and 4:1 to the good guys looks okay to me.

That said , I do agree that we're leaking too many goals. It seems that , even without a true creative midfielder , we are finding a way to score goals . I believe we are now at 37 after 12 matches . Good stuff. We still have Kennedy and Rommedahl as creative players off the bench to supplement our front three. Plus Maduro , Gabri , Heitinga , and even Siem de Jong have chipped in.

Conversely , we have conceded fourteen goals. Our plus 23 is one ahead of PSV ( 29 and 7 , +22) . With smart purchases of a central defender and a left back , I agree with Ko about this being priority in the short term , we can tighten up at the back and help to ensure we aren't cursing GD come May.

I have to correct you on that one, Ko. Emanuelson was closing in on the man with the ball before he passed it to the goalscorer.


Vertonghen has done very well as a left back and Urby has got what it takes. More than anything, we need a new right back. Ogararu is just plain horrible.

Emanuelson was closing in on the man with the ball, true, but that's because he was jogging back like the rest of the Ajax defense. I put it down as a mental error by the whole team.

Ograru is good going forward, but he seems to be too afraid of getting beat to play right in front of his man. As a result, he gives up a lot of crosses from the wing. I thought he was a bit better against Vitesse, probably because he had Gabri behind him to clean up any mistakes in the first half.

I'm not sold on Urby as a left back. Vertonghen has his moments when he's good, but, like the rest of the squad, he's young.

We could use help all across the backline to be honest.