21 Feb 2013: FC Steaua București - Ajax

[Tom_]

Orange, in my opinion the lack of toughness comes down to age. We only have one or two players over 25.

[Orange14]

Orange, in my opinion the lack of toughness comes down to age. We only have one or two players over 25.

Suarez was tough, Vertonghen was tough; Strootman of PSV is tough; Clasie of Feyenoord is tough (I'm sure there are other examples as well); so I don't buy the age thing. The club develops a lot of finesse football players but sometimes it's not enough.

[Tom_]

Yeah, true

[paladinby]

This game had nothing to do with luck.

FdB has no guts to accept the failure of his tactics and general inability to play proper football. We are saved far too often by corners/free kicks while playing badly. Our midfield just can't create chances against an opposition that has a plan and is somewhat strong mentally and physically. Our wingers are not really good but the thing is that when receiving the ball they are left against two opposing players with no good options to pass. Generally De Boer is just obsessed with the idea of senseless ball possession which leads to naive tactics and constant failures in Europe.

Regarding mental toughness - it has little to do with age. Ibrahimovic and Wesley Sneijder were tough while being young.

[SPL]

Agree mental toughness has nothing to do with age . Nothing to do with luck yesterday we deserved to be ko'd. Even the commentator said he had lost count on the number of times Moisander and Alderweireld passed to each other( achieving nothing) It was still good to know Barca,the current masters of this type of football also be contained the other night and they have Messi plus 3 quality midfielders. I have to say I am not a fan of de Jong or Poulsen and would want to see them go. de Jong adds nothing to midfield and Poulsen is no substitute for Anita. The only benefit he brings is he is an elder statesman for the Danish kids.

Too early to say but not sure why we have bothered to sign Cuenca ,he has been injured since last May and it will probably take him a few more games to settle by which time the season will be over ie 11 league games to go.

A tough week ahead with ADO likely to play like Roda , Az in the cup and then Twente.

[Tom_]

Well in my own defense I meant physical toughness as well... ;)

I think Poulsen is better defensively than Anita was, but he is so awful on the ball I'm actually amazed he's a professional footballer. His passing and decision making are breathtakingly bad and it destroys our ball movement, especially when we are being pressed like last night. The problem is, without him we are exposed—for example, Steaua was able to move the ball through our MF in the Amsterdam leg very easily.

[Orange14]

Poulsen has had some decent games and has played exactly the way I expected him to given his age. He's a decent holding midfielder for the Eredivisie but as noted he does little for the offense because he doesn't have high handling speed. A midfield of Eriksen, de Jong, and Poulsen is doomed to failure as we have seen a number of times this season (when Eriksen gets the ball, there are precious few options for him and he's our best midfielder). Schöne has been decent enough coming in to give some added passing options which have helped. The absence of Sigthorsson (until recently) has been damaging to the team as he's the only one strong enough to hold up the ball and quick enough to get shots off when he's in the box. I'm hoping he can stay healthy for the rest of the year and score some goals for us. I think Cuenca is rounding into shape and can help as he's the only winger who seems to understand when to go at the defender and when to pass; the others get caught in double teams because 1) they don't recognize what's happening & 2) the midfielder's and striker (mainly de Jong in both positions) don't rotate quickly enough to provide an option.

I agree with paladinby that FdB has to shoulder 90% of the blame here. He's the one who puts in the team sheet and gives them the tactical approach to the match. A quick away goal seals this tie and that didn't come. The club then tried to play Italian style defense for which they are ill-prepared and it was only after the second goal that there was any sense of urgency scoring.

[Venezuelan Ajacied]

In a nutshell, we didn't play "to win". We played "not to lose" and in the end it bit us in the ass. I just wish we had one player, just one, who could will this team forward, serve as a spark plug and put the team on its back. Sadly, it's been a while since we had one of those.

[Kowalczyk]

In a nutshell, we didn't play "to win".

That's exactly it. Makes all other comments superfluous, imho.

K.