23 Aug 2009: Ajax - Sparta Rotterdam

[Tom_]

Absolute steaming pile of shit. These are the results that'll cost us the Eredivisie, not losing to PSV

[Orange14]

How was the Suarez pull down not a penalty???? Some days it's good to win ugly but today was not one of them.

[rjf1]

On the bright side -- at least we didn't concede a cheap goal and lose 0-1 like we would do last year.

[Blind3]

Pathetic !! 40 fucking shots and we can't score ? Another lost season coming up !!

[Van basten]

We fuck up so many many many many times, that i'm just to tired to be angry..

[Venezuelan Ajacied]

This is what happens when you have only ONE !!!! player who can score...for christ sake, Sulejmani had two clear cut chances and wasnt even able get a shot on goal...what the fuck is Cvitanich doing on the bench ???? Mickey is absolute crap...he looks like mickey mouse on the field. Aisssati is not far of by the way either

[souras84]

well that leaves us with no actual "quality" players in the front and you are talkin about all of the top transfer we made in the past seasons....

[Ajaxfanuk]

Words fail me...again :(

[ZoefdeHaas]

This just shows how dependent we are on Suarez to be on form.

Rommedahl was no good, Aissati was tripping on his own feet, and Sulejmani should be the most expensive player for Ajax Z99.

41 shots...absolute rubbish

[Philippe]

Bring Atouba back in the basis. He can score.

[SPL]

Oh dear 40 shots and no goals. Take away Suarez and we would be nothing . Cannot fault the defence today as they did not have to do anything. Would agree about Sulejmani , how can this guy be worth 16m euros. Well if we tried to sell him we would get about 3m if we were lucky. Wasn't really impressed with Rommendahl he should have come off middle of the second half.Sparta , with 3 players from our youth, came to defend and we did not know how to break them down.

After 4games Twente, who have lost their 3 best players, still look far better equiped to win the title than us.Worrying.

[Orange14]

I don't know what to make of this team at this point. Just like last year, teams that rank below us will sit back defend, and hope for a goal on counter attack. It happened on Thursday (unsucessfully) and today with unfortunate results. Some observatons. We don't have height up front and attempts to cross the ball are usually in vain as we don't have anyone capable of heading goals in. this has been a problem ever since KJH left. When teams sit back we really need two strikers up front and not just Suarez. If we decide to keep Cvitanich, he should be starting up front with Luis in matches like this. We can't continue to depend on Suarez for all our goals. Sulejmani is a big puzzle. I wonder now if his success at Heerenveen was because of Alves and not any ability of his own. It's still difficult to tell how good or bad our defense is as it's not been tested in the last two matches. I think for the Europa rematch coming up, Jol should give Suarez the day off and find out who else can score goals for this team. One thought I had from late last year is perhaps moving De Jong up front. He at least seems to be able get a shot off and come within a meter or so of the goal. I think this is much more than we can say of almost everyone else on the pitch today. Emanuelson looks to be playing himself out of the rotation; very puzzling as he seems to zone out of matches (we probably should have sold him two years ago when he had some value).

[Cedric]

Sulejmani is a big puzzle. I wonder now if his success at Heerenveen was because of Alves and not any ability of his own.

At the very best, they played 9 games together.

[Orange14]

Sulejmani is a big puzzle. I wonder now if his success at Heerenveen was because of Alves and not any ability of his own.

At the very best, they played 9 games together.

Thanks, couldn't remember. FWIW, Jol expressed disappointment in Sulejmani and indicated that Cvitanich is likely to be the choice if a second striker is needed. Personally, I would give the 4-4-2 a shot with Suarez and Dario up top.

[afcajax73]

cant believe we had so many shots and didnt score, but atleast we didnt lose this one 4-0 but ia gree that we rely on suarez too much, if we can get a decent goal scorer in who can make chances for himself. then i think were more than half way there really

[Cedric]

According to the Algemeen Dagblad Ajax produced 103 shots in the Eredivisie so far, for only 9 goals scored. Efficiency : 8,7% (AZ = 24,5 %).

Still someone to say how silly is Ajax to still be looking for a strong striker?

[gordonvandekamp]

Europa League hangover?

I agree, I don't why Cvitanich didn't play. I think we're in trouble if we're relying on Rommedahl/Sulejmani to provide an offensive catalyst. They just haven't been there to do that this year, at least not consistently. Crosses have been horrible on the whole. I think Suarez/Cvitanich are the best pair up top and have the most chemistry between them.

Another game where the defense wasn't tested, but they did their job, without some of the regulars too. It was a game where we just couldn't get a break (40+ shots and some good saves by Sparta's keeper).

I guess I'm most disappointed at this point that the squad is still being tinkered with. I would have hoped we could have a regular (effective) line-up by now, even excluding the transfer(s) we still want to make. It's the norm though, a few weeks into the season, and little stability.

[Rooie]

'Hightlights':
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7OrYzVzQ2Q

[Venezuelan Ajacied]

Europa League hangover?

I agree, I don't why Cvitanich didn't play. I think we're in trouble if we're relying on Rommedahl/Sulejmani to provide an offensive catalyst. They just haven't been there to do that this year, at least not consistently. Crosses have been horrible on the whole. I think Suarez/Cvitanich are the best pair up top and have the most chemistry between them.

Another game where the defense wasn't tested, but they did their job, without some of the regulars too. It was a game where we just couldn't get a break (40+ shots and some good saves by Sparta's keeper).

I guess I'm most disappointed at this point that the squad is still being tinkered with. I would have hoped we could have a regular (effective) line-up by now, even excluding the transfer(s) we still want to make. It's the norm though, a few weeks into the season, and little stability.

I agree, we need to stop switching players and formations like our underware, its obvious 4-3-3 just cant cut it, we dont have the players to play that way, 4-4-2 with 2 wide midfielders is the way to go.

[Orange14]

We managed to set two Eredivisie records yesterday according to Voetball Intl: http://www.vi.nl/Nieuws-item/169155/Ver ... ecords.htm

Not sure that these are the kind of records we want associated with the club!

[SE6Ajacied]

We managed to set two Eredivisie records yesterday according to Voetball Intl: http://www.vi.nl/Nieuws-item/169155/Ver ... ecords.htm

Not sure that these are the kind of records we want associated with the club!

OMG LOL (and not because I find it funny other than in a tragi-comic kind of way). I note the next highest number of shots was PSV with 38 in 2007 but they won that game 5-1!!!!

[Monkey Tonk]

To be so dominant, and not be able to create any real chances. How is that even possible? That is the bewildering question after Sunday's game. They didn't have the patience and precision around the penalty box. That much was obvious. But why didn't they? Why did they insist on taking one bad shot after another? What was the rush?

Jol should put those two records in the locker room as motivation.