16 APR 2017 Ajax - Heerenveen Match Day 31

[SPL]

Glorious football by de Ligt, assisted by Dolberg

[Amol]

Nice overall move. 2-1!!

[rjf1]

Finally some nice interplay de Ligt -> Dolberg -> de Ligt -- tap in!!!

[rjf1]

More nice interplay: Klaasen -> Neres -> Klaassen -- tap in!!

[SPL]

A lovely goal by Klaassen ,3-1 should be enough but lets get a 4th.Defence has looked dodgy,Sanchez and deLigt not at their best and Veltman moderate as always

De Ligt turned it around with that surging run and goal.

[Orange14]

Ajax suffered from the Thursday night hangover until they finally awoke and started playing football. After a fairly dismal first 15 minutes, three goals were put up on the scoreboard with some very nice play. A rocket by de Ligt that Mulder tipped aside led to the corner where the first goal was scored by Viergever off the header from Sanchez. Then de Ligt and Klaassen added their goals. Match should be under control now. Ziyech should come off for Nouri in the 2nd half.

[Tom_]

What a mess! Could be 3–0, 0–3, 3–3... It's like watching a Scottish premier league match with everyone running full tilt but awful defending from both teams. Oh well, it's entertaining for a change I guess.

Sánchez, Viergever and Veltman going too far up the pitch and missing tackles, not helped by the MF giving the ball away. Wait for ajaxcolombia's stats but I counted 4 or 5 turnovers from Ziyech alone.

[Amol]

I would pull Younes off to rest him for Schalke; Nouri for Ziyech and maybe Van De Beek or De Jong for Klaassen.

[King Litti]

I guess we should try to slow down the tempo of the game and try to save energy if possible, but what we don't want to do is let Heerenveen back in to the game. A fourth would surely do it. Would love to to see Nouri. Ziech could use a break.

[Orange14]

Nice to see Patrick Kluivert and Jari Litamen at the match today.

[SPL]

We all want see Nouri ,Ziyech is very ordinary

[SPL]

Dolberg ,the ice boy no problem with the pen. 4-1 game over .Zeefuik and v d Beek on Klaassen and Viergever off

[SPL]

Beautiful goal by Neres .5-1 and we have not played that well. Nouri finally on for 10 mins

[rjf1]

Younes splits the defense with a nicely placed through pass that Neres runs onto in the box -- takes a touch going wide of the goal keeper -- swivels and fires a left footed shot into the net for 5-1.

[Amol]

We played that entire game in 3rd gear (except the first 10 minutes in 1st gear) and won 5-1.

Also, Schalke are currently down 1-0 in the 54th minute to Darmstad, who lie at the very bottom of the Bundesliga.

[SPL]

Well a very comfortable win after a very poor start. de Ligt's fine goal turned it around as we then soon got a 3rd. 2nd half was a walkover nothing much from Heerenveen. Viergever was a booking away from missing PSV so we gave Zeefuik some time. Looks a decent prospect at just 19 . Will be our standby RB next season as Overmars has said Tete wants away and will not renew .

Our season will be decided in the next week.

[King Litti]

A nIce win and we were able to take our foot off the gas closer to the end. Good play overall for many games in a row now. We should be able to head to the final stages of the season with great confidence.

Nice to see Patrick Kluivert and Jari Litamen at the match today.

Litti visited de toemkomst as well this weekend. I wonder is this a personal interest as an great ex ajacied or something to do with his current job as an advisor for the Finnish football association. Seems to me he has visited Amsterdam quite often lately. He has studied some sort of a licence for coaching. If he would consider coaching I'm sure that Ajax would be on the top of his wish list.

[Orange14]

Too much helter skelter defense and the club was fortunate to only concede the one goal in what turned out to be an easy 5-1 victory. However, Feyenoord convincingly dispatched Utrecht to stay top of the table. Zeefuik gets his first senior team appearance coming on for Viergever in the 2nd half. Surprisingly, Ziyech stayed on until the 82nd minute before giving way to Nouri (I honestly don't understand why Bosz insisted in playing Ziyech almost the full 90). The attack was decent with some nice passing and interchange of the ball.

Nobody really stood out for me.

Player Ratings:

Onana (6) - had very little to do and was fortunate that Heerenveen could not capitalize on some early opportunities
Viergever (6) - scored a fortunate goal but was a little off defensively
de Ligt (7) - very nice performance from the kid today
Sanchez (6.5) - really weak tackle on Larsson that was eluded and the lone goal was the result
Veltman (6) - flipped over to the left side when Viergever came off and if Sinkgraven is out for an extended period it looks like Veltman will be the back up
Schöne (6) - OK performance and nothing more
Klaassen (7) - normal hard working shift put in
Ziyech (6) - very clumsy ball handling today; don't know why he started as he really is looking tired out there
Younes (6.5) - not as dynamic as Thursday but a great assist to Neres
Dolberg (6.5) - nailed the PK and was moving well getting into the attack
Neres (7) - some really nice moves
van de Beek (6.5) - a couple of shots on goal but nothing came of them
Zeefuik (6) - decent enough in his maiden voyage on the first team
Nouri (6) - really should have come on a lot earlier to run the MF instead of Ziyech

A very difficult week is coming up with the rematch at Schalke and then an away trip to Eindhoven to face PSV.

[SPL]

agree ratings .Nouri should have come on with Donny but they wanted to protect Viergever from being banned next week.

[ajaxcolombia]

Really happy to get back from Holy Week holidays with such a good result.

Statistics:

Ajax had 26 shots against 10 Heerenveen shots. We had 12 on target against 3 Heerenveen shots on target, and we hit the woodwork once. As usual, Hakim Ziyech took the most shots (5), including the woodwork shot, and only had one on target.
Kasper Dolberg had a good passing game with 93% accuracy, only bettered by Van de Beek's 100% when he came on. Of course, one of this accurate passes included the assist to De Ligt. Klaassen had 5 key passes, followed by 4 by both Ziyech and Younes.
Sam Larsson was a the dribble king today in the ArenA, with 5 dribbles completed. Best dribbler for Ajax was David Neres with 2. Seems like Younes had a more restrained game today with no dribbles, although he did attempt 3.
One weakness we have as a whole is we don't win as many aerials, specially compared to our competitors, Feyenoord and PSV. Today was also the case, as Heerenveen won 18 aerials against 10 won by us. De Ligt was great defensively though, as he won 5 defensive aerials.
De Ligt was Ajax's most prolific defender today, with 4 interceptions and 3 tackles, plus 6 blocks and 5 clearances! Is he more than ready to be a starter permanently? Ziyech not bad defensively with 3 tackles and 3 interceptions.
Ziyech was dispossessed 5 times,

[souras84]

I believe that the goal we conceded was an unlucky moment. Larsson was lucky that he regained the ball after Sanchez' tackle. I really don't know why Ziyech stayed on for so long and the same goes for Younes. Shouldn't he rest more?

[Orange14]

Really happy to get back from Holy Week holidays with such a good result.

Statistics:


One weakness we have as a whole is we don't win as many aerials, specially compared to our competitors, Feyenoord and PSV. Today was also the case, as Heerenveen won 18 aerials against 10 won by us. De Ligt was great defensively though, as he won 5 defensive aerials.

I wonder how many of the lost aerial duels are from Onana long goal kicks. It seems like our forwards never win those.

[Dubbel]

Some pretty nice plays.
http://livetv.sx/enx/showvideo/453679_ajax_heerenveen/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4YpnsND1vo

[ajaxcolombia]

Curious thing, we have 75 points with three games to go. During the De Boer years we only ever got one more point than that, 76, during the 2011-2012 and the 2012-2013 season. So we're on our way of getting more points than the four Eredivise title winners ever mustered during a season.
Oh by the way, as an Ajax fan I'm really excited with Tottenham's title chances. Alderweireld, Vertonghen, and Eriksen are easily three of my favorite Ajax players of all time (No. 1, and the reason I love this team is Dennis Bergkamp ).

[Dave the mac]

Well perhaps the biggest goal tally of the season. However I finally am able to log in!
A lot going on also....
Ajax is certainly trying to make the end of season interesting!!
Cheers all.