19 Oct 2013: FC Twente - Ajax

[SPL]

A much better 2nd half and we got out of trouble with Siggy scoring although he was not very impressive tonight. de Jong did get some chances when he pushed forward but Serero is just weak imo. Fischer just keeps the ball and doesn't pass and has gone backwards this season.We could have won tonight as Twente are not that special especially in the 2nd half

Anyway at least we did not lose and its a much tougher game Tuesday in Glasgow.

[Tom_]

Agree, Twente looked poor as well. The eredivisie matches I've seen this season (although I've missed a few) have been SUCH an awful standard. Am I imagining this? None of our opponents have looked very good at all, in my recollection.

[saddlerian]

Fischer just keeps the ball and doesn't pass and has gone backwards this season

He just needs that goal!!! Just wait for Celtic Park...he'll score there and go on to win the league for us!!!!

[paladinby]

Agree, Twente looked poor as well. The eredivisie matches I've seen this season (although I've missed a few) have been SUCH an awful standard. Am I imagining this? None of our opponents have looked very good at all, in my recollection.

You are very right Tom. Eredivisie clubs are very poor, especially in terms of finance. No team can play proper football if they are loosing key players each midseason. Bad results in eurocompetitions just add up to that.

The second half showed some courage and desire to play the game. Someone should have a talk with Fishcer as he's imagining himself being another Messi or something. The only time when he decided to involve his teammates resulted in a scoring chance for De Jong.

[Orange14]

Well I had a very pleasant dinner and saw a good movie (Enough Said with Julia Louis-Dreyfus and the late James Gandolfini). I was able to catch the replay of the second half on ESPN3 and clearly the team looked a bit better (why can't they string two good halves together?) and maybe the shared points was a fair outcome. The breaks evened out with both goals coming from the other team's error rather than any creativity (was Castaignos offside on the Twente goal? He came from out of play which has to be an offside position to score). There are still huge problems in the midfield because of a lack of handling speed. Our captain had three good chances to score and failed each time.

Player Ratings:

Cillessen (7) - no complaints other than a couple of poor kicks made two brave saves coming out at the attacking player
Boilesen (4.5) - poor match and was lucky that his errors didn't lead to a Twente goal, a number of poor passes and give aways that are not like him
Denswil (5) - really should have known where Castaignos was on the goal
Veltman (6) - decent enough and like Denswil, good with the ball
van Rhijn (6) - made a couple of good plays on defense and dealt with Tadic reasonably well
Blind (5.5) - OK in the holding position but got little help from his fellow midfielders who liked to sit and watch him play
Serero (5.5) - MIA for most of the game; what is his role?
de Jong (3.5) - if you get the ball in a scoring position you need to put it away, de Jong failed badly
Fischer (5.5) - too selfish but at least he did attack the goal
Sigthorrson (5) - scored the tying goal and that was the highlight of a very poor night
Andersen (6) - one of the few players to see the field and made several nice passes that were poorly dealt with
Schöne (5.5) - OK coming on for van Rhijn
de Sa (5) - average in the short time he was on the pitch
Hoesen (5.5) - did get a shot on target and really should be playing much more than he is

Off to Scotland for a Tuesday match. Celtic put teams through a meat grinder and I'm not sure this team of lightweights is up to the task.

[SPL]

I too thought Andersen was ok ,not sure where his best position is, possibly he will end up in midfield but he will get more and more playing time.

Hope Cillessen is there for the long term,a good normal goalie who can kick a ball and catch it with no real problems unlike Vermeer who I think a poor overall goalie.

The midfield is a real problem,Siem is invisible for most games and Serero is not good enough. I take it Oranje MIA is missing in action? Blind was ok but I don't see him as the answer to being DM.Poulsen is now too slow and cannot manage 2 games a week.We need to buy another DM ,Bazoer coming up for 17 is not ready yet.

[Orange14]

The midfield is a real problem,Siem is invisible for most games and Serero is not good enough. I take it Oranje MIA is missing in action? Blind was ok but I don't see him as the answer to being DM.Poulsen is now too slow and cannot manage 2 games a week.We need to buy another DM ,Bazoer coming up for 17 is not ready yet.

Yes, Missing in Action. You saw exactly what the problem was when they tried to speed up play; de Jong, Serero, and Sigthorrson cannot handle quick balls played to them. Serero lingers on the left side and de Jong on the right and Sigthorrson occasionally moves up to receive the ball. None of them really move around to create passing lanes. The fellow who was doing the match commentary on ESPN3 made the same observation. This is one of the reasons that so many back passes are played to the two central defenders (and also to Blind last night); FdB probably realizes that this is the chief problem and a more deliberate style of play is required. I think that Veltman and Denswil are the two best players on the ball and they are central defenders!!

I think Duarte is better than Serero or de Jong in terms of knowing what to do in the midfield. You also saw Fischer dropping back to get the ball in the last 20 minutes of the match. I think that Fischer will turn into a much better player with a little more experience and he needs to keep his head up to see the field better. I thought Blind was OK but Boilesen was quite disappointing so I'm not sure how long this experiment will continue. This current midfield setup is really too easy to defend against and I suspect that we will continue to have difficulties on attack. Hoesen is a better footballer than Sigthorsson and deserves a chance to start. "If" Bojan gets fully fit maybe he adds something to the mix but I'm doubtful (I think he peaked as a player when he was 17 years old and really never advanced).