11 Nov 2012: PEC Zwolle - Ajax

[rjf1]

Well, we got our composure back at the end, so while it was disappointing to concede that late in the game we can at least be happy with the points.

On another note, I thought Daley Blind did a pretty good job of running the back line.

[souras84]

Has it become a pattern? We face problems in the last 10 minutes... Is it mentality? Is it physical problems?

[SPL]

after going 4 up I thought that was it but full marks to Zwolle for making our very young team fight . Fischer will be playing regularly now and took his goals well and set up the 4th .

At least we have finally won another league game. I thought Blind did well for most of the game playing in the centre of defence .

[Cedric]

I see that De Ridder opend the score for Heerenveen at PSV.
If Van Basten could do us a favor, that would be great.

[rjf1]

Has it become a pattern? We face problems in the last 10 minutes... Is it mentality? Is it physical problems?

It's a case of a team made up mostly of very young players getting rattled under the closing pressure -- it's the same kind of breakdown that Arsenal is famous for, and for the same reasons. It's why it's important to mix in a player or two who some may consider too old, too fat, too slow, and too static to belong on the pitch. They can bring the qualities of calmness and composure under fire, and settle a young immature side that is getting rattled under pressure.

[paladinby]

Has it become a pattern? We face problems in the last 10 minutes... Is it mentality? Is it physical problems?

It's a case of a team made up mostly of very young players getting rattled under the closing pressure -- it's the same kind of breakdown that Arsenal is famous for, and for the same reasons. It's why it's important to mix in a player or two who some may consider too old, too fat, too slow, and too static to belong on the pitch. They can bring the qualities of calmness and composure under fire, and settle a young immature side that is getting rattled under pressure.

I don't think that comparing Ajax to Arsenal makes any sense. The defenders who finished the game for us are aged 22, 21, 19 and 18. This is really young. Arsenal will never have anything close to this simply because they are not able to develop a proper player. They can vulture poorer clubs for talents but that's it.

[SPL]

Arsenal only really play kids in the League Cup and have won nothing in the last 7 years. We play kids in proper league games and like last week v man City put on an 18 year kid for the last 5 mins to attack.
I have been saying for a while that we have just kids to cover our defence and today that was put into practice. I think they did well with Blind marshalling them very well. They did come under pressure in the last 10 mins but I cannot say Enoh and Schone in midfield were that special.I am not an Enoh fan . Babel and Boerrigter would have come back and defended more had they been on the pitch but in Fischer we have someone special .

I still think we should have signed another more experienced CD as cover and thus allowed say Denswil to go out on loan to gain experience. Veltman looked ok today but he has little first team experience and ideally should also be out on loan for this season.

[souras84]

any update on the injuries???

[Orange14]

I was able to watch about 2/3 of the match on my cell phone today and thought the team did alright. I missed the 2 Zwolle goals fortunately. I liked the way Fischer played today and hope both Babel and Toby are OK.

[Tom_]

any update on the injuries???

If Babel really dislocated his shoulder then I guess he would be out for over a month?

I can't see any proper info yet. There's a note on eredivisielive saying de Boer will "know more this week" (useful huh?) and another one saying Babel doesn't need an operation, and he and Toby will be seeing the Ajax medical staff tomorrow (no kidding!). Funny that they feel compelled to report these things...

I'm also wondering what happened with Moisander, one of the articles says he is also out of the midweek game for Finland.

[Kowalczyk]

Don't count on Toby and Babel for next week... Babel dislocated his shoulder. Recovery is normally less than a month, but definitely more than a week.

As for Alderweireld. I saw an interview with De Boer on TV and he was quite light-hearted about it: it was a miss-step, nothing too serious, he replaced Toby out of precaution. But now there's a report on Ajax.nl saying that Toby will undergo checks at the hospital tomorrow in order to determine his 'recovery schedule' - and that he is very unlikely to play next week.

The third case is Moisander. He's just ill. Flu or something. We all know how you can suddenly feel like sh*t. That happened to him after the warming-up, but he'll play next week, no problem.

K.