09 AUG 2015 AZ Ajax Match Day 1

[Orange14]

I tried posting this the other day but it disappeared for some reason. Opening match of the season and it may be postponed because of a police strike. As of today the only opening day game that is certain is Feyenoord-Utrecht. Anyway, Ajax need to come out of the blocks strong this year unlike the past several seasons. Keep the pressure on from the get go.

[SPL]

Nice early start for my American friends. I have sky live again ,so lucky.cricfree has plenty of streams for anyone .

Gudelj back as midfield with Sinkgraven as a forward with Milik and El Ghazi.

[Tom_]

Nice early start for my American friends. I have sky live again ,so lucky.cricfree has plenty of streams for anyone .

Gudelj back as midfield with Sinkgraven as a forward with Milik and El Ghazi.

Looking forward to it!!!

So we essentially don't have a left winger in the squad? Maybe Sinkgraven will play as an extra MF...

[Tom_]

Holy ****! Came from nowhere but that's one hell of a hit!

[rjf1]

Milik needed to take that right away with his right foot -- completely lost the angle when he tried to set it up for his left.

[Tom_]

Well we're not creating a lot of danger but somehow it's 3–0... One freak strike from el Ghazi (what a goal) and two seemingly saveable shots that ended up in the back of the net.

Seems like the plan is to play lots of early crosses rather than try to break AZ down, but these crosses have a low probability of success especially since we don't really have anyone to challenge for the header. Maybe Sonogo is a better choice than Milik if this will be our approach.

I think Klaassen and Bazoer plus Sinkgraven as a fourth MF is looking reasonable. Not sure I see much in Gudelj so far to justify the pricetag but it's still far too soon to say.

[SPL]

What a great 1st half fantastic shot by El Ghazi and then 2 more ,not in the same league as the the first.Dijks looks good to me but we are pressing forward more although I am sure we will see more back passes and posession football in the 2nd.

[Orange14]

I get to watch on my TV as we again get nice feeds from NGSN that carry a lot of the lesser leagues via the Internet. Three nice goals though the AZ keeper should have saved Gudelj's strike as he got two hands on the ball. We are still mentally deficient on defense allowing lots of room on occasion and corners look like an adventure every time. Tete is showing a lot of bite on defense and Veltman seems to have recovered from the weak matches against Vienna. Ajax should be in control of this match but with this club one never knows.

I hope Milik can get into the game in the 2nd half as he has been quite poor so far.

[aveslacker]

Gudelj set up the second goal and scored the third. Not a bad start to his Ajax career, imo.

Still a couple of unsettled moments on defense and the ball is occasionally a hot potato in midfield, but overall we're the better team, even if 3-0 is a touch flattering.

[SPL]

Hi Tom ,you surely need a good win by Ajax today to make you forget about the cricket.(England beating Tom's Australia very easily)

[aveslacker]

What a great 1st half fantastic shot by El Ghazi and then 2 more ,not in the same league as the the first.Dijks looks good to me but we are pressing forward more although I am sure we will see more back passes and posession football in the 2nd.

I feel like we started to get into that possession mode after the third goal. Not really a whole lot to complain about, except for some defensive brain lapses. Still, this is a great way to start the season and put the European disaster behind them.

[Tom_]

Hi Tom ,you surely need a good win by Ajax today to make you forget about the cricket.(England beating Tom's Australia very easily)

Very true... I'm trying to look on the bright side and hoping the drubbing will have a net positive effect on Australia's selection policy. Too many sloggers, no real test batsmen!

[aveslacker]

Pretty comprehensive victory today (and at a decent hour for those of us in parts East, too!). Coordination between our center halves is somewhat worrying, and Sanogo or Milik will have to do better. Nonetheless, we couldn't really have asked for a better start to the 2015 - 2016 campaign.

[Orange14]

It is always nice to win the opening match of a new league campaign. Ajax looked more than decent today putting the CL misery behind them. AZ really is not a good team at this point in the season and perhaps their EL qualification match on Thursday took some of the steam out of their game. Very good play for the most part from the back four and Cillessen only had to make one save by my count. Midfield was a little spotty closing players down but were not punished by their mistakes. el Ghazi had two nice goals and Milik was MIA for the match. Sinkgraven was serviceable on the wing again.

Player Ratings:

Cillessen (6.5) - really no tough shots on goal but one time he should have come out for the ball rather than sitting back, distribution and kicking were good
Dijks (7) - a couple of good whipped in crosses on offense and held his position on defense
Riedewald (6.5) - a couple of lapses positionally and a silly Yellow card near the end of the game but he is just so good on the ball
Veltman (7.5) - a number of key interventions throughout the match, really good defensive performance
Tete (7) - made only one mistake in letting a man get past him early on but solid from then out, he had more tackles today than any Ajax player had all of last season; good to see a defender who has that passion
Bazoer (6) - still a bit of wandering without purpose on defense and needs to improve his handling speed
Gudelj (6) - nice goal (but should have been saved) and needs to step up the defense a notch
Klaassen (5.5) - slightly above average
Sinkgraven (6) - better play in the second half but of course he's not a winger
Milik (4.5) - poorest player on the pitch, really did little of any consequence
el Ghazi (7.5) - two excellent goals before coming off with a leg injury, he stayed on the bench for the match so maybe it's just a bruise of some kind
Schöne (6) - good play coming on for el Ghazi
Sanogo (6) - very active and better positionally than Milik but can he score goals?

Willem II up next.

[SPL]

A good start to the campaign, we dominated the 2nd but apart from Klaassen's shot at the goalie not many chances.Veltman had a good game. Not very impressed with Sanogo, Janssen for them looks a better bet and he has just been signed from Almere.Milik missing I agree.

Having got a league game under our belts had the Rapid 2nd leg been this week I think we would have gone through.

[rjf1]

A good omen for the coming season is that they didn't revert to the self-defeating pitty pat style after taking the lead, but kept on trying to attack. If they keep that up, this season may turn out to be a lot better than what I was pessimistically figuring on.

[Tom_]

Happy to have a good start and hopefully we can get some momentum going. I didn't find our attacking really convincing (other than Klaassen's shot in the second half I can't remember any attempts from inside the box) and on another day we could have gone home goalless. We got lucky with a wonder strike, a goal from a set piece and that shot of Gudelj's that I also thought might've been saved.

On the other hand I thought our ball handling in midfield looked pretty good and AZ never really made any danger.