26 FEB 2017 Ajax - Heracles Match Day 24

[Orange14]

If they don't want to close you down, why not dribble and shoot. Nice goal from Sanchez

[Ayman]

Now Sanchez makes it 3-1

[SPL]

Meant to put great header by de LIgt and then Sanchez comes up with that.

[rjf1]

What a goal by Sanchez!!! They stood around and just watched him walk the ball in closer and closer, and all of a sudden a low screamer into the lower left hand corner of the net. Kind of makes up for a multitude of sins.

[rjf1]

Sanchez is suddenly rejuvenated -- terrific goal saving tackle low in the box.

[Ayman]

20 minutes left, why isn't Neres coming on?

[rjf1]

Neres on for Dolberg -- takes over the r wing; Traore to center.

[SPL]

Now its Frenkie's turn

[Ayman]

For the record, Copenhagen drew 1-1 away, I don't know how to post a screenshot here

[Ayman]

Traore 4-1

[rjf1]

Ziyech must have gotten some new free kick boots -- two really good direct shots at the goal from the 25 - 30 m range; then the corner for deLigt to head in; and now a free kick from near the end line that he puts on Troare's head for goal #4!

[SPL]

A nice goal by Traore at the end and 4-1 made it comfortable. de Ligt and then Sanchez with those 2 great goals took us into the comfort zone although Onana had a couple of good saves.

de Jong showing he should get more playing time and also de LIgt

[Orange14]

finally some balls in the net and fortunate that Ajax didn't concede more than one goal with all the sloppy give aways. de Ligt with the game winner off of a corner and that was nice to see. Viergever out with a groin pull and need to wait to see how long he is sidelined for. No ground picked up on the league leaders today and it looks like with a 6 point lead, the championship is for Feyenoord to lose (but they just keep winning). Neres with a nice run out but he didn't get a lot of touches. Very nice final goal by Traore off the Ziyech free kick.

Player Ratings:

Onana (7.5) - had to come up with a couple of tough saves and was a little reckless coming out on one of the breakwaways
Viergever (6) - only played a half before getting injured
Riedewald (7) - pretty solid first in the middle and then at LB for the second half
Sanchez (5.5) - very nice goal but some really woeful defending until straightening up in the last half hour
Veltman (5.5) - a couple of really dumb passes sent players in on goal
Schöne (6.5) - almost everything was in the Heracles half today and Schöne controlled things smartly
el Capitan (6.5) - another decent game
Ziyech (7) - if he can maintain this level of consistency the midfield will be decent
Younes (7) - dangerous all match long
Dolberg (5.5) - got the first goal but really couldn't get the ball after that
Traore (7) - nice goal to cap off a day of hard work
de Ligt (7) - got the game winner and was good on the ball after that
Neres (6) - good run out with speed and quickness
de Jong (6) - didn't miss a step coming in for Schöne

Off to Groningen next week.

[SPL]

fair rating may give Sanchez a 6 as he did have a good 2nd half but was pretty moderate in the first half.

Should point out Feyenoord have a lead of 5 points ,we are 6 clear of PSV.

[rjf1]

A good attacking game, and we finally got the goals we deserved. Unfortunately, our heretofore "rock solid" defense (ahem) was about as solid as sandstone and we lost our string of clean sheet games. Grrr.

Have to say, even though he wasn't on for all that long, I was really impressed with what I saw of Frenkie de Jong -- cool and poised under pressure, and showed excellent ball handling skills.

[SPL]

Frenkie may well be the best of our teenage midfielders

[Ayman]

Peter Bosz maybe wary, as to not play too many kids in the first team. After all, their inexperience, does show eventually, having said that, it must be frustrating for them, as the only way to improve, is to get more experience in the first team on the field. So it's a tough one to call as far as the managers decision goes.

[SPL]

With the 3 young midfielders it will be interesting to see if Klaassen or even Ziyech leave. I did post on them the other day after Legia.We cannot keep the 3 as just subs next season.

de Ligt is another matter.He can play with his left foot so next season should partner Sanchez.

[Orange14]

de Ligt is another matter.He can play with his left foot so next season should partner Sanchez.

He had a pretty wicked shot on goal. Maybe Riedewald needs to move to LB

[Ayman]

With the 3 young midfielders it will be interesting to see if Klaassen or even Ziyech leave. I did post on them the other day after Legia.We cannot keep the 3 as just subs next season.

de Ligt is another matter.He can play with his left foot so next season should partner Sanchez.

It's a dilemma every coach wishes to have. I can see van de beek and de Jong getting more playing time next season. Not too sure about Nouri though, he is a talent, but hasn't had the chance to prove himself in his favourite position

[ajaxcolombia]

Not much to add to Orange14's great reviews, just a couple of things:

Ajax managed a lot of shots this game with 34, 13 on target. Most were produced by Traoré (9, 3 on target). Hakim Ziyech also producing lots of danger with 7 shots (3 on target). Half of Heracles 10 shots were on target, which goes to show that although Ajax limits other team's chances, the team is susceptible of allowing very dangerous chances to be created.

Jairo Riedewald consistently puts up great passing numbers. Today he had a 96% success rate, matched by Sanchez and De Ligt. Traoré was very impressive with a 92% accuracy. Hakim Ziyech recovered from a bad game against Vitesse, by producing 6 key passes, with two assists today. Schöne also very on point with 5 key passes. *Key pass is the pass right before a shot, regardless of the outcome of the shot.

Ajax obviously had the lions share of possession with 64.2%. Sanchez had most of it, 9.1%. Dolberg only had 0.9% of the possession. Dolberg's heatmap shows him spending most of the time outside of the box, with just in front of the half line. Meanwhile Traoré is shown to have occupied most of the same space as Dolberg, with much more effectiveness. So it's not that we didn't create chances, is just that the wingers cutting in are taking up the chances of getting in front of goal.

Kristoffer Peterson had one or two mazy runs that gained him quite the impressive dribble count (9). Traoré was Ajax most successful dribbler with 5. All in all, Traoré had one of his best games of the season, if not his best.

6 tackles from Jöel Veltman (I know, he made that ridiculous backpass that was saved from last man block by Sanchez). Very good game in the midfield by Lasse Schöne with 3 tackles and 4 interceptions.

Finally I also have to say how exciting Frenkie de Jong is as a player. He's incredibly talented and technical.