09 Mar 2014: Ajax - SC Cambuur-Leeuwarden

[saddlerian]

Shambles!!!!!

[souras84]

Once again De Jong did nothing. The same goes for most of our players. Our game is outdated and there is no chance to turn around this kind of games. Unfortunately, we will win a 4th straight title and people will think we are some kind of super team...

I won't say the same things again, so it's either change of philosophy or wait till another team plays better and end up 2nd or worse

[ajaxcolombia]

What a huge slap in the face this result is. We've played bad matches in the last couple of months, but this one frustrates the hell out of me. Mediocre all over the place. We dominate so much of the possession all the time but is basically just veltman and moisander with no real impact at creating anything forward. I don't think our midfield has been so lacking in talent and creativity since back in the Martin jol days. Serero provides nothing more than good pass accuracy towards the defenders. I'm all for bringing up our players but geez, couldn't we have tried a little harder to replace eriksen with some sort of quality? Oh and klassen, starting to look like the siem de Jong type of player, nooot good!

[SPL]

Well we did not deserve to win and now the others are back in it as we do not have such a great away record and 4 of the next 6 are away,including Vitesse with Twente being a home game. Still see Vitesse and Twente dropping points but who knows we are very average this season lucky the others are poor.

Serero is just poor and yet again I really do not see that Bojan adds anything. As for Poulsen coming on ,words fail me, he rarely saw the ball. Surely Duarte or even de Sa would have been more obvious.

At the start of the game I thought a win today and we would be out of sight. Now I am not so sure.

[rjf1]

I don't know -- the last couple of weeks we played crappy but managed to win. Today we played crappy and got a draw. If this keeps up, I don't know where we will wind up. I'm starting to wonder if we have what it takes to hold on and take the title. Certainly not if we continue to play like we did today.

[Orange14]

Another big ZERO for FdB's game management ability. A lot of scrambling in the last 15 minutes but they could not find the winner and almost conceded the game to Cambuur. Out of 90 minutes there was maybe 10-12 minutes of decent football. This is just not good enough and I don't care if the team is in first place, they are just not worthy of playing anywhere in Europe with this current starting 11. Sure the Eredivise is a joke of league at present but Ajax should be above this!

Why Serero is even considered for the starting 11 is just puzzling. He's had maybe two good games and the rest are just awful. Once Sigthorrson joined de Jong up front any thought of pressing is gone by the wayside as the team is just too slow.

Player Ratings:

Cillessen (6) - made a couple of nice stops and distributed the ball better than in the NT friendly against France
Riederwald (5.5) - didn't do anything terrible but wasn't particularly involved in the play
Moisander (6) - one of the better players on the pitch
Veltman (5.5) - put Cillessen in danger on three occasions but was otherwise OK
van Rhijn (6) - one of the better players on the pitch
Blind (6) - did a good job over all both in the midfield and at fullback
Serero (3) - other than drawing a foul that led to a late free kick he should be consigned permanently to the bench; just a very weak player
Klaassen (5.5) - a little too static at times but played with good physical presence
Schöne (5) - should he have done better when in on the keeper? Surprisingly dispossessed quite easily on a number of occasions; poor pass to de Jong
de Jong (5) - scored a goal which is cause for celebration
Kishna (5.5) - two good plays in the opening two minutes and that was it
Bojan (3.5) - not good enough for Barcelona and certainly not good enough for Ajax
Sigthorrson (3.5) - ponderous and not good on the ball at all when he has to play away from the middle, either play him at striker or not at all
Poulsen (5.5) - highly questionable substitute but did play with heart as expected

Absolute disgust prevents me from writing anything more!

[ajaxcolombia]

I really think it's about time de boer gets questioned. We've won three championships under him but we had an obvious advantage in quality of players (just having vertonghen was unfair to all other teams!) now that we need an edge in tactics as we are not so superior in quality, we tend to only scrap wins and play mediocre games. This might not be a popular idea but I would maybe switch to a 4-2-3-1 instead of the 4-3-3 as I don't believe we have the dynamism to play with this formation. Instead use both poulsen and blind to actually provide the cover we need, and also giving blind a bit more liberty, which is more than what serero can add to the team.

[SPL]

Vitesse need to drop points v PSV next week and if this happens and we beat NAC we are still well ahead .

We have played poorly for a while but thats 12 wins and 3 draws since our last defeat v Vitesse back in early November.

Midfield is not good enough Blind is ok but Serero is poor and not good enough and Klassen is looking like a clone of de Jong in recent games. And we finished with no wingers. Schone and Kishna were no more than average today but Bojan should just go back to Barca . I think we would be better just playing de Sa or even bring in Becker and Meleg from out Jong .

[SPL]

Agree with your assessments Orange. You also think Bojan and Serero are not good enough.

[Orange14]

I really think it's about time de boer gets questioned. We've won three championships under him but we had an obvious advantage in quality of players (just having vertonghen was unfair to all other teams!) now that we need an edge in tactics as we are not so superior in quality, we tend to only scrap wins and play mediocre games. This might not be a popular idea but I would maybe switch to a 4-2-3-1 instead of the 4-3-3 as I don't believe we have the dynamism to play with this formation. Instead use both poulsen and blind to actually provide the cover we need, and also giving blind a bit more liberty, which is more than what serero can add to the team.

Poulsen is gone after this season and I really don't like a 4-2-3-1 as it really slows down the game (and that's the last thing this team needs). We still have conceded the fewest goals in the league (even with the horrible performance in Eindhoven) so it's not a question of helping out the back line. What is really needed is better ball handling skills from the three players up front and the two midfielders who play with Blind. At present there is a severe deficiency here which is really quite surprising given how much time the academy spends on this with the youth. There just is no quickness at all with this team which means lots of back passes between the two central defenders and the keeper. Eriksen really drove things in the three seasons he started under FdB and there is nobody at present to replace him.

Ajax are the best of a very poor football league.

[ajaxcolombia]

I really think it's about time de boer gets questioned. We've won three championships under him but we had an obvious advantage in quality of players (just having vertonghen was unfair to all other teams!) now that we need an edge in tactics as we are not so superior in quality, we tend to only scrap wins and play mediocre games. This might not be a popular idea but I would maybe switch to a 4-2-3-1 instead of the 4-3-3 as I don't believe we have the dynamism to play with this formation. Instead use both poulsen and blind to actually provide the cover we need, and also giving blind a bit more liberty, which is more than what serero can add to the team.

Poulsen is gone after this season and I really don't like a 4-2-3-1 as it really slows down the game (and that's the last thing this team needs). We still have conceded the fewest goals in the league (even with the horrible performance in Eindhoven) so it's not a question of helping out the back line. What is really needed is better ball handling skills from the three players up front and the two midfielders who play with Blind. At present there is a severe deficiency here which is really quite surprising given how much time the academy spends on this with the youth. There just is no quickness at all with this team which means lots of back passes between the two central defenders and the keeper. Eriksen really drove things in the three seasons he started under FdB and there is nobody at present to replace him.

Ajax are the best of a very poor football league.

Maybe a 4-2-3-1 is not the best option but how can we fix something that is clearly wrong in our midfield? The problem is not so much ball handling as I believe klassens best asset is his technical skill with the ball. The huge problem is the "siem de jong conundrum", which I will now use to refer to the lack of drive and ingenuity of a midfield player to participate in the flow of the game and not just being a ghost of a player in the field. One baffling statistic is the incredibly low amount of touches serero and to lesser extent klassen get with the ball. Serero even has a decent pass accuracy percentage but it's no use cause he hardly touches the ball. This is our biggest problem. How do we get our midfielders to participate in the game? This is what eriksen, and sneijder back in the day , could do.

[SPL]

Agree Ajax are the best of a poor league.Only plus today Twente lost and are now 9 points behind and are now out of it. Only Vitesse can now overtake us.

[Orange14]

How do we get our midfielders to participate in the game? This is what eriksen, and sneijder back in the day , could do.

If you come up with the answer to this, I will nominate you to be the next technical director at Ajax!!! Maybe one of the youth players has this skill, maybe Andersen does; we really don't know. The only thing that's for sure is the current set up doesn't work. I'm not all that pessimistic about Klaassen and think he can turn into a really fine player. He's not afraid of physical challenges which is more than you can say about the rest of the players.

[ajaxcolombia]

Yes you're right, I don't have a better answer other than individual quality. What eriksen did well was exemplified by the second half against psv last season when he exploited the space that van bommel gave him in the left flank, our midfielders should learn to read these trends to find space to touch the ball and influence the game. Could we overturn the overmars policy and bring dusan Tadic?

[SPL]

Its the Cruyff policy to not spend. Andersen looks a little lightweight when in the 1st team this year ,only other regular Jong MF are not yet ready ie El Hasnaoui has only just started games at Jong level having been mainly a sub and Keskin has had a long injury . Loboka looks ok but more defensive.Bazoer also a DM is the other regular this season.

Having taken Riedewald and Kishna out of the A1 youths have to say the current A1 youth team's best midfielders are Nouri and V d Beek both are 16 and very highly rated but not yet ready for the 1st team.

Duarte has to start instead of Serero seems the only real change we can make in midfield unless we play Schone in MF and bring a young winger in on the right. de Sa, Meleg or even Becker ,none of these kids could do any worse than Bojan .

I really don't see anything in Bojan so far and along with the injured Cuenca last season really don't want us taking Barca unwanted on loan anymore.

[Tom_]

Agree with the points you guys are making. As I mentioned a few weeks ago I think a 4-4-2 (admittedly not very cool these days) might work better with our current squad, because it would help with the fact that our midfield is usually outnumbered (which is a problem because no one has the quality to beat multiple defenders), and also because we don't have any adequate wingers. For example I noticed a couple of times today one of our midfielders looking to pass into the acres of room on the left flank but Kishna had gone central (he even seemed to have vanished from the pitch on one possession) and Riedewald was staying back.

I wouldn't mind seeing how something like the following diamond in midfield worked out:

-Klaassen/de Jong-
Duarte-----Schöne
-----Blind-----

Anyway it's fun to talk about but ultimately pointless since FdB is totally committed to the current 'style' at all costs. If there was any doubt about his inflexibility it was eliminated during the two matches against Salzburg.

I'm still confident we'll be champions again (or should I say "least crap eredivisie team"?) but we haven't exactly lit it up this season, have we...

[Cruijff]

Shit game.

And they didn't play Bob Marley at half time so Ajax really deserved to drop points.

[souras84]

Klaasen should play as a false 9. No more Siem-type midfielders.
I read that we're about to sign Zivkovic. Maybe the other AMC from Heerenveen too.
Could this reinvigorate our axis????

Blind -- Duarte (insert some other name here also) -- Heerenveen dude

Kishna -- Zivkovic -- Fisher

Could give us some mobility and HOLDING midfield....

[ajaxcolombia]

Do you mean ziyech? It would be awesome to have him.

[Cruijff]

Do you mean ziyech? It would be awesome to have him.

We are about to sign Zivkovic and Ziyech this summer.

[Manneken Pis]

We are about to sign Zivkovic and Ziyech this summer.

I feel a ZZ Top joke coming on ......

[Cruijff]

A ZZZ joke if we add Zlatan Ibrahimovic to this attack!

[zeux]

Klaasen should play as a false 9. No more Siem-type midfielders.
I read that we're about to sign Zivkovic. Maybe the other AMC from Heerenveen too.
Could this reinvigorate our axis????

Blind -- Duarte (insert some other name here also) -- Heerenveen dude

Kishna -- Zivkovic -- Fisher

Could give us some mobility and HOLDING midfield....

Why should we only look in the Eredivisie? Can't our scouts find anything beyond the borders of The Netherlands?

[SPL]

Ziyech is a know talent but cant say I saw much of him when we played Heerenveen the other week.

We may need to bring in more than just Zivkovic as an attacker next season.
1. de Jong hopefully will go if anyone wants him.
2.Siggy needs to find a club who play 2 proper wingers who can cross balls to him and indeed a club where he will be a starter.
3.Bojan will go .
4.Fischer is rumoured to be unhappy with the coaching staff and is being offered to Liverpool!!
5.Schone may be looking to cash in on a big money move.
6.Hoesen wont return to just be a sub.
7.Sana de Sa and Lukoki will all be sold as they are not good enough and we have youth wingers Acolatse,Becker,El Ghazi all in Jong Ajax next season and also Meleg coming through .

[Orange14]

A ZZZ joke if we add Zlatan Ibrahimovic to this attack!

With our current midfield even Zlatan wouldn't score much!