17 AUG 2017 Ajax - Rosenborg EL Qualifying Round

[Tom_]

What did you think of Ziyech?

We will need him and vd Beek to fill Klaassen's scoring boots this season. I like vd Beek as a #10 but find Ziyech too unreliable on the ball. If we had a true defensive midfielder I wonder if we'd see Schöne in a more attacking role and Ziyech on the bench...

[King Litti]

From Euro ecstasy to not playing in Europe at all? I wonder will the loss to ManU have a very long time effect on our club. A win would have brought us a place in CL with all the money and I bet there would have been lesser problems with Sanchez if were in CL this year. Well, still one chance to turn it around and if were out, we can put all energy on a domestic double.

[SPL]

On Sunday I think the fans should show white hankies to Overmars , v d Sar and the board.

We have an inexperienced coach but even Mourinho would struggle with our squad. Viergever Dijks Veltman are all good back ups so is Schone and Younes ,these 5 are not good enough as starters but we are stuck with them.

[Orange14]

I don't know how to cut and paste the charts on 11 tegen 11 Twitter feed, but it's very telling: https://twitter.com/11tegen11/status/898481014212833280 Ajax outshot Rosenborg 20 to 8 and was projected to get two goals to Rosenborg's one. The pass maps are also very good showing excellent penetration against a team that was trying to soak up the pressure. The take away quote, "...it's silly to think it's all horrible. The binary logic of knock-out football can do that to you."

[souras84]

It's the second time in a row that tegen 11 has us projected to score 2 goals. With Heracles, it was described as 0-2. So? Is it only a scoring problem. If we convert our chances, will we be able to win easily?

[Amol]

We did have a lot of shots - some saved by the keeper, but the majority were misses. I think if we just start putting some of these away, we'll start worrying a lot less. Both Dolberg and Huntelaar don't seem in form right now. Same happened with Dolberg for the first couple months in 2017 and once he found his scoring bots again, we had a great rest of the season.

It just sucks that we've had a lot of disappointment in the past 3 months. We all (players, management, and fans) just need a release. I have faith that the goals will come.

I do think we made a big mistake in belittling Riedewald and are now doing that to Viergever.

Hup Ajax!

[Tom_]

@souras I think another message is that we are conceding huge chances on the counter. In a match that felt so dominant the opposition shouldn't get an ExpG of almost 1. That was all from 2 or 3 big chances.

That's how I read it anyway.

[Orange14]

@souras I think another message is that we are conceding huge chances on the counter. In a match that felt so dominant the opposition shouldn't get an ExpG of almost 1. That was all from 2 or 3 big chances.

That's how I read it anyway.

I think Tom has it right. The goals that we have been conceding come from counters where the defender has been caught out of position. SPL saw more Jong Ajax game than I did last season, but I think they had the same problems. this is something that happens with high up tempo pressing and Barcelona has often conceded weak goals. I expect that as the players become more accustomed to the system, this won't happen as much (Bosz and de Boer never employed this type of strategy).

Despite the stumbles, I'm pretty pleased with the style of play that Keizer has the team playing. I hope that the club can stay in the EL as they should be able to mount a decent run this season. It's disappointing about the personnel changes but I really wonder with all the big money in the game whether Ajax is able to do much in the transfer market.