03 May 2009: Sparta Rotterdam - Ajax

[saddlerian]

Well, that's just about it as far as good signings for next season are concerned! Who's going to come to a team who, on many occasions, successfully fight to get AWAY from Champions League football?

[Tom_]

Yeah, but who would we replace him with?

[Kowalczyk]

Van Basten: please go away. Please.

Same goes for the entire squad, by the way. Please fuck off. Get out of my sight and never come back.

K.

[jamie]

I love Ajax and have done so since I was a toddler but I absolutely fucking hate the coach and most of the team. I will be an Ajax supporter until the day I die but I can't fucking stand this pussy football and and how this club is managed by a bunch of fucking retards from hell.

[Orange14]

Van Basten shows absolutely ZERO class by not even going over to congratulate the Sparta manager; heads straight for the locker room. I don't care how terrible a match ends up, the common courtesy is to acknowledge the other team's performanc!!!

I think this is the last match for Suarez. I have very mixed feelings. He was awful today and his reputation will never get him any calls. I think it's time to move in another direction. Maybe Sulejmani gets out of his funk and shows he is worth all the Euros. I hope Bodul is the answer up front, because Cvitanich clearly is not. don't know where Castillion stands these days. Oleguer is gone for good after the Red card today. I guess we will see Vertonghen and Wielaert or Alderweireld in the back next season.

[Cedric]

So much for our "inspiring away shirt".

Well, that was the worst case scenario today, so let's move on and grab a point next week to win the "least ridiculous top 3-team" award.

[bluedaddy19]

that was a disgrace

[DanK]

Van Basten: please go away. Please.

Same goes for the entire squad, by the way. Please fuck off. Get out of my sight and never come back.

K.

I have been all for given vB time, but fucking hell. Fully agree. This squad/club is a joke. We are nowhere near the best team (player wise) in the league. Even with shit managerial skills, good players do not allow a 4-0 loss when CL football is on the line.

Shit shit shit. So much for next week then...

[saddlerian]

guess we''l be the only 2 there next week, Dan!

[DanK]

guess we''l be the only 2 there next week, Dan!

Guess you will be the only one there next week :-)

I need to let my frustrations calm down a bit, but at the moment. It's not looking good for a visit to the ArenA next week, unless you guys all just want to hang out at a bar? Much more fun.

[SPL]

Utter disgrace especially when you see 2 small teams at the top.Had we finished 2nd I think the majority of todays squad would have stayed but now we must rebuild again.

[Kowalczyk]

guess we''l be the only 2 there next week, Dan!

Guess you will be the only one there next week :-)

I need to let my frustrations calm down a bit, but at the moment. It's not looking good for a visit to the ArenA next week, unless you guys all just want to hang out at a bar? Much more fun.

May 10th was the day Holland was invaded by Nazi-Germany, in 1940. There's a pretty cool day of re-enactment (re-creation of actual scenes at the actual locations) down in Dordrecht. Let's catch a train and go there instead!

K.

[Monkey Tonk]

Van Basten was unable to find the balance in the team, and when he found it, by accident, it was far too fragile. I wrote this after Ajax-Olympique Marseille. The tone back then, mid-March, was that Ajax had played surprisingly well. With the addition of Assaiti, it seemed, van Basten had finally found his midfield. The future seemed bright again...

I take a somewhat more negative approach towards what happened last night. Yes, it is nice to think that this game is something to build on. And I hope that happens. But the outcome of the game itself may have been crucial in the building process. I was just reading up the other day on horses, in relation to betting. An almost certain way to break the winning spirit of an up-and-coming horse is to introduce it into a pasture where other, superior horses will assign it a lower place in the pecking order. The horse 'politely' adjusts to this, and suddenly can't win another race. I had this in mind when I watched some of the young players last night. Were they able to play the Ajax way because they didn't know any better? They didn't know the spirit of the team they were injected into. But now that Ajax has nothing left to play for (in the words of Suarez...), I'm afraid that they will find out. A win last night would have been huge. Now it remains to be seen who will tilt the balance. The new players towards the positive side and Ajax style. Or the older players towards the poor execution we have seen too much of.

Obviously a 4-0 loss at Sparta is completely unacceptable. I'll stop short of calling for van Basten's head, but I don't see how he can maintain a level of credibility in front of this group. He has no grip over the quality of soccer that Ajax displays. When he found the balance six or seven weeks ago he should have 'locked it in' and build on it. Instead he let it slip right through his fingers. That, my friends, is a mark of incompetence. I don't mind the quest for the secret formula, even if it takes a long time. But when it is found, or comes within reach, I do mind if the coach still can't pin it down.

I will overlook one bad day, in Eindhoven, because everyone can have an off-day. But it is impossible to overlook what happened at the Castle today. Van Basten should do the honorable thing.

[Kowalczyk]

I don't see how he can maintain a level of credibility in front of this group.

Exactly. That's exactly it.

Also: he keeps saying that the poor performances "surprise" him and that he "can't understand" why the players don't deliver. That may be acceptable for a while, but he is the responsible man, the captain at the helm, and after a full year it's about time he f**king understands his team!

I want a manager who knows what the problem is, rather than a manager who keeps repeating that it's pretty damn' difficult to figure it out.

K.

[DanK]

Exactly. I have tried to support vB all season. I wanted him to succeed, and I was happy to give him 2 seasons, the first to show growth if needed, the second to kick arse. The last 2 away games have shown something is not right, whether its his fault or not, he doesn't appear to be the man to fix it.

There has also been a few comments about having the best squad of players in the league. I don't agree with this at all. Take out Suarez, and we have nothing. Sure we had a few players who did OK, but are they world class? Or potentially world class? If we kept this squad next season with a different manager would things be that much different?

This club has had a lot of downs over the past few years, but I dont think I have been more disappointed with this club than I was today. 4-0 to a club that could have easily been relegated, while we are fighting for a CL spot. This is beyond explanation.

I do not want this to continue into the next season.

[acab]

MvB will never resign. I hoped the bord will make him to resign, but today Van der Boog dayd, that he and the others are backing the coach. So...next year will the same - a few good matches, but nothing in the end. I know dutch are patient people, but come on, this was a disgracefull season.

[Philippe]

This is a disastrous season as far as the Dutch league is concerned, especially if you consider that both feyenord ans P$V are having their worst season in years, but also quite decent performance in the UEFA cup.

[Orange14]

This is a disastrous season as far as the Dutch league is concerned, especially if you consider that both feyenord ans P$V are having their worst season in years, but also quite decent performance in the UEFA cup.

Exactly right. How could we have had a decent run in the UEFA cup against much stronger teams than we either lost or tied in the Eredivisie is the big question. Marseille is top of the French league, Fiorentina is 4th in Italy, Hamburg battling for top three in Germany, Aston Villa solid top six team in England and we drop points to Willem II, Sparta, Vitesse, Vollendam, etc. Go figure. this is what is so maddening to me. Van Basten seems to get things right about 50% of the time but that doesn't work in the long run.

[Philippe]

Somehow this has to do with the players' motivation. Our most expensive buys did not meet expectations. I would keep the coach and fire half of the players.

[Harm]

I wouldn't call this a decent European run. Fiorentina played with Ajax and it was sheer luck that Ajax went through. It had nothing to do with Ajax'qualities, but the lack of goalscoring qualities from Fiorentina. The Olympique matches were a perfect extrapolation of the current season. In their away game OM shows Ajax every corner of the pitch and the damage could've been a lot worse. And in the ArenA something strange happens and Ajax show that they cán play decent football. It wasn't bad that Ajax won against HSV, but if it had been in the knock-out stages, it wouldn't have happened.

[SE6Ajacied]

Bloody Hell, I didn't miss much did I!

Been away for a few days down in Torquay (watched them v Histon in the Play Off Semi - 2-0 and a good game) and I've had a totally internet free time so only caught this result yesterday evening on TV.

This result is the absolute pits and judging by the posts here we absolutely deserved it. I won't be watching the highlights anytime soon - did anyone play even vaguely well?

[Kowalczyk]

I wouldn't call this a decent European run. Fiorentina played with Ajax and it was sheer luck that Ajax went through. It had nothing to do with Ajax'qualities, but the lack of goalscoring qualities from Fiorentina. The Olympique matches were a perfect extrapolation of the current season. In their away game OM shows Ajax every corner of the pitch and the damage could've been a lot worse. And in the ArenA something strange happens and Ajax show that they cán play decent football. It wasn't bad that Ajax won against HSV, but if it had been in the knock-out stages, it wouldn't have happened.

I kind of agree with your assessment, but - no matter how you look at it - Ajax did show fighting spirit against all three of the opponents you're mentioning. I agree that Fiorentina were a much better football side than Ajax (play them ten times and you'll lose at least seven or eight times), but something happened to Ajax in those games: they slowly started to believe in a result - and they held on to that feeling, like pitbulls.

That attitude alone would have been enough to beat Heracles at the ArenA in early February. Or to beat Sparta, this last weekend.

It is crystal clear that Ajax simply can not pump themselves up for matches like Sparta away. And if it starts to go wrong, no-one steps forward and shows any leadership.

Yes: our results against Fiorentina were very fortunate. No doubt about it. But 50% of the spirit Ajax had on those nights would have been enough to have ten points more in the league this year - and that's what frustrates me. And obviously the head-coach is responsible for that. He's supposed to motivate the troops.

K.

[Cedric]

That's very sad if the players can't motivate themselves anymore to win the championship...

[DanK]

I think you are both right.

van Basten as head coach is responsible for motivation off the pitch, and we have no player with leadership skills to bring it to the pitch. Yep, we are crap through our entire structure.

[Harm]

I wouldn't call this a decent European run. Fiorentina played with Ajax and it was sheer luck that Ajax went through. It had nothing to do with Ajax'qualities, but the lack of goalscoring qualities from Fiorentina. The Olympique matches were a perfect extrapolation of the current season. In their away game OM shows Ajax every corner of the pitch and the damage could've been a lot worse. And in the ArenA something strange happens and Ajax show that they cán play decent football. It wasn't bad that Ajax won against HSV, but if it had been in the knock-out stages, it wouldn't have happened.

I kind of agree with your assessment, but - no matter how you look at it - Ajax did show fighting spirit against all three of the opponents you're mentioning. I agree that Fiorentina were a much better football side than Ajax (play them ten times and you'll lose at least seven or eight times), but something happened to Ajax in those games: they slowly started to believe in a result - and they held on to that feeling, like pitbulls.

That attitude alone would have been enough to beat Heracles at the ArenA in early February. Or to beat Sparta, this last weekend.

It is crystal clear that Ajax simply can not pump themselves up for matches like Sparta away. And if it starts to go wrong, no-one steps forward and shows any leadership.

Yes: our results against Fiorentina were very fortunate. No doubt about it. But 50% of the spirit Ajax had on those nights would have been enough to have ten points more in the league this year - and that's what frustrates me. And obviously the head-coach is responsible for that. He's supposed to motivate the troops.

K.

I agree with you on that one. A squad that harbours the qualities of Ajax should easily win 90% of all matches in the Eredivisie if they were fully motivated. But all the energy that Ajax put in their matches against Fiorentina didn't stop them from creation numerous 100% chances.