20 DEC 2017; FC Twente - Ajax; Beker

[Ayman]

de Ligt misses and Ajax are out of the KNVB bekker cup. Oh well.

[SPL]

Would have staked anything on us losing at pens. No blame to de Ligt Ziyech cocked it up and lost the game.

Another game where subs were poor. Why was a 4th sub used !! Siem very poor ,Frenkie should have stayed on.

How did we lose that game !!

[Orange14]

Ziyech was just awful, 2 decent moments and 120 minutes of just bad play. It is all on him!!! I have to go pick up our car at the mechanics and may or may not do player ratings. I'm just disgusted!!!!!!

[SPL]

Agree I though he was crap .And he cost us the game, ie. KJH was never going to miss his penalty.

[Tom_]

Having a penalty saved because the keeper guesses correctly is excusable. Baggio-ing it 2 m over the bar isn’t. He didn’t even seem to care.

[Cruijff]

Ziyech was just awful, 2 decent moments and 120 minutes of just bad play. It is all on him!!! I have to go pick up our car at the mechanics and may or may not do player ratings. I'm just disgusted!!!!!!

Ziyech is awful in many, many matches.
Costed us the Eredivisie title last year.

And out of 54 attempts with free kicks he only scored one against Excelsior when Ajax already had a 2-1 lead.

[Orange14]

One player stands out in ignominy and his name is Hakim Ziyech. Playing against his old team yet again, and yet again he comes up disastrously short. Games such as this one bring tears to my eye and a heaviness to my soul because of what could have been but for the terrible event in the alps in August. I still don't understand the rationale behind Keizer's substitutions but maybe F de Jong was tired and with such a weak bench his namesake was "maybe" a good substitution (but why not Orjuela instead and move to a back four at the start of the 2nd half?). But I don't get paid the big €s to make game time decisions and it's always easier to be an armchair commenter after the fact.

Player Ratings:

Onana (7.5) - quite a nice game with some tough saves during regulation play; yes he was rightfully angry at himself for not saving the scuffed PK
Dijks (7) - not many complaints from me and he did have a good intervention when a Twente player was about to strike at Onana's goal
de Ligt (8) - just a stellar job of marshalling the defense all game long and convincing on all balls in the air
Veltman (7.5) - I thought he did a good job at shutting down Asaiddi when Ajax were playing a back three
F de Jong (6.5) - not as commanding as in previous games and came off after a half played
Schöne (7) - most time he's played in maybe three years going the full 120 and didn't seem winded
van de Beek (6.5) - good pressing in the MF
Ziyech (2) - one point for a good shot on goal, one point for a great free kick, zero points for 120 minutes of mediocre play - it's all on his shoulders and I won't cry if he is sold in January
Kluivert (7) - great goal on what was the match winner until the 91st minute
Dolberg (6) - thought he was better than decent on the ball
Neres (6.5) - pretty silent in the first half as everything went down Kluivert's side of the field but came alive in the second half
S de Jong (5.5) - nailed a PK in the shootout but how did he miss an open net by skying the ball over the cross bar in OT? I don't fault him for the slip on the goal as the pitch was slick and better players than he slipped
Orjuela (5.5) - a bit all over the place on defense
Huntelaar (6) - had a chance on a rebound but shot right at the keeper

Another season without a cup win. The second half of the season starts this Sunday against Willem II.

EDIT: Forgot that Johnsen came on late for Neres and had no impact on the outcome.

[SPL]

Will make some comments in the morning.I did read Frenkie went off sick so maybe I understand Siem coming on.

I too think of what might have been with Appie there and not the waste of space Ziyech.

[Cruijff]

Will make some comments in the morning.I did read Frenkie went off sick so maybe I understand Siem coming on.

I too think of what might have been with Appie there and not the waste of space Ziyech.

Ziyech is a piece of garbage.
He should be dumped as soon as possible.

[Cruijff]

But Orange14 is again correct with his ratings.

Hakim Ziyech is only playing just for himself, already 5 or 6 teammates are quite annoyed about this already a couple months.

[SPL]

Agree Ziyech plays for himself and I would sell him in January. As both Orange and I said last night we both think of what might have been as Appie was Ziyech's understudy and would now be playing more,and contributing more imo.

Ziyech should also let Schone take every free kick .

Back to the game ,unlike the league game a couple of weeks a go when we gave away 3x2nd half goals, the defence was good and we cannot blame Siem for slipping .It was some shot by Assaidi.

Again Keizer's poor use of subs cost us and shows why he should go. If Frenkie was ill,haven't checked the Ajax sites yet today,then Orejuela should have come on then or even Eiting who can play in defence.Kluivert went off 10 mins later and Johnsen should have come on.Neres swapped to the left wing and was not effective. KJH for Dolberg no problem and Siem could have come on in ET For Ziyech .

I do think we will finish 2nd and we only motivated our game for Fword and PSV and to an extent AZ although KJH experience got us through that. We start 2018 with Fword at home then away at Vitesse.

I feel as if the season has now died but it never started due to the events of July 8th in the Austrian Tyrol .

[Orange14]

Again Keizer's poor use of subs cost us and shows why he should go. If Frenkie was ill,haven't checked the Ajax sites yet today,then Orejuela should have come on then or even Eiting who can play in defence.Kluivert went off 10 mins later and Johnsen should have come on.Neres swapped to the left wing and was not effective. KJH for Dolberg no problem and Siem could have come on in ET For Ziyech

de Jong had a stomach ailment which is why he came off at the half. Kluivert started to cramp up which is why he was subbed off. it may be Keizer puts Siem in because of his experience but that is a very weak reason to do so particularly when they are playing a formation which F de Jong can only run.

I still don't know about Keizer but other than de Boer, Ajax seem not to be content with any trainer.