02 Oct 2011: FC Groningen - Ajax

[Manneken Pis]

On Sunday off we go to a tricky away game against to Gronigen (14:30 kick off)...

The fixture organisers really served us a sh!t sandwich for the start of the season with consecutive games against PSV, Lyon, Twente, Real and now Gronigen...

[Orange14]

The fixture organisers really served us a sh!t sandwich for the start of the season with consecutive games against PSV, Lyon, Twente, Real and now Gronigen...

"When the going gets tough, the tough get going!"

[souras84]

To Orange you listen!!! And then AZ?

[#14]

When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.

[orange goblin]

the 18 man for this one. again, no lodeiro. franky clearly does not rate him at all.
boilesen, ozbiliz, rits and silva are all officially injured.

Kenneth Vermeer
Jasper Cillessen
Gregory van der Wiel
Toby Alderweireld
Jan Vertonghen
André Ooijer
Daley Blind
Vurnon Anita
Eyong Enoh
Theo Janssen
Siem de Jong
Christian Eriksen
Thulani Serero
Miralem Sulejmani
Kolbeinn Sigthórsson
Dmitry Bulykin
Derk Boerrigter
Lorenzo Ebecilio

[Flipster81]

Never thought i'd be saying this, but I want to see Enoh in midfield Sunday.

[orange goblin]

update to my previous post: lodeiro has been added as serero suffers an injury.

[SPL]

Same starting lineup as RM. Their full backs Kappelhof and Burnet were in our Jong team last season ,will be interesting to see how they look.

[Flipster81]

Anyone got the sopcast stream?

[Tom_]

It's on M&M4, but I used the same channel as last week so I don't know the link OR channel number... not very helpful, sorry

[Flipster81]

Thanks dude I've found it.

[Van basten]

The usual 13th stream is also showing.

[Van basten]

Is Kolbeinn injured? Bulykin steps in.

[souras84]

This sending the ball always to Vermeer is getting to my nerves. Why don;t the midfielders move into space and get the ball instead of sticking in their position like me in my armchair!!

[Blind3]

Various Dutch language sites on Twitter indicating Siggy has an ankle injury.

[rjf1]

Have we put three passes together in this half yet?

[souras84]

Houston, we have a problem

[rjf1]

If I were Vermeer, I'd be slapping a few heads in the dressing room at half time.

[souras84]

with this yellow card rate, they'll be down to 10 men by the 60th minute

[Van basten]

That was pretty bad. We need some inspiration.

[Orange14]

The only thing that can be said for certain is that the weather is nicer in Groningen today than it is here in Bethesda! Kappelhof was fortunate not to be sent off for the nasty tackle on Sulejmani; these from behind tackles can seriously injure a player and should always warrant a Red card. Except for some poor back passes to Vermeer and the open header at the end of the half our defense has been doing well. Alderweireld may be the best central defender in the league these days. Offensively we still cannot bring the ball up from behind. Dennis Bergkamp - WAKE UP and tell FdB how Arsenal do things!!!! This is just bad management and cannot stand any longer. Of course all of our opponents will press up field because we have no midfield options to bring it up. Once we get the ball up into the attacking zone we do a better job and did have a couple of opportunities but this is so rare these days (it would be real nice to get the statistic of who much of our possession was in the Groningen third of the field. I bet it's under 10% if that).

Groningen show little ability on attack which is a good thing but of course we are likely to commit one big mistake. Hard to see who will get a goal for us. Sulejmani is still not 100% and I would have preferred Lukoki if only to get some speed on the wing. Sigthorsson must have taken a knock on the ankle and Bulykin is showing the effects of age.

[rjf1]

There was a short period after the middle of the half where we were buzzing around their penalty area and had them running in circles -- then we did that pitty pat pass nonsense back to the midfield line and allowed them to get reorganized, and lost the opportunity. I hate when they do that.

[souras84]

I guess that if we get behind, we'll never be able to equalize

[rjf1]

Looked like a red card tackle to me.

[Van basten]

well, wer'e fucked