28 JAN 2018; Utrecht - Ajax; Match Day 20

[Orange14]

ten Hag takes his Ajax club to Utrecht in a return to the city where he was the team manager just over a month ago. This has often been a tricky fixture for Ajax and of course nothing short of three points will do!!!

[SPL]

Good morning all ,same line up as last week. Must win game

[Tom_]

Morning! Thought Veltman was out, but you're right he's in. Let's get revenge for the home match.

[Orange14]

That stomp on Tagliafico has to be a straight Red. Makkelie got that one wrong.

[SPL]

Why was that not a red,he got Tagliafico on the ankle and could have broken it

[SPL]

Very poor first half on a dreadful pitch.They should now be down to 10 men and a few more yellows,Thugtrecht.

[Orange14]

Typical rough play from Utrecht. Ajax midfield has been awful, nobody is creating any passing lanes when the back line players have the ball so there is no opportunity to move the ball up the field. Don't know why Huntelaar recieved a Yellow card, it looked pretty innocent to me. ten Hag better come up with a plan B in his halftime talk as Ajax look to be playing like a lower division English team hoofing the ball around with no purpose.

[Tom_]

Not a pretty match so far, pitch is not helping.

No one (including the ref) having a great match so far. He seems to be giving out the cards at random. Thought Görtler got away with two tackles that should've been yellows before that attack on Tagliafico, which was an obvious red if ever I saw one. So the ref saw what happened, and decided it was a yellow? Just don't get that.

[rjf1]

Seems like game after game the way teams defend against Ajax is to foul our boys black and blue. Not much of an attack in the first half -- I hope there's a Plan B for the second. Still think it's a waste of talent to play Frenkie at central defender -- we could really use him in the midfield.

[Dave the mac]

Hope the 2nd half is better.... The refereeing is curious.

[Amol]

Only caught the last 10 minutes of the first half. The commentators said that Utrecht are blocking passes to Schone. Need plan B.

[SPL]

Are we still all awake !!! Very poor boring game, so far!

[Dave the mac]

Almost a shot on goal.

[rjf1]

I wouldn't say 'boring' -- more like depressing.

[rjf1]

Another red card foul punished by a yellow -- maybe the ref forgot to bring the red ones.

[Dave the mac]

New boss, same as the old boss

[Tom_]

Not a single substitution? Guess the attacking options aren't that great.

[Amol]

He finally gave a red to a player sitting on the bench.

Is it just me or were you guys reminded of some U-shaped football today?

[Tom_]

Wonder if ten Hag was making a point. “Please buy me some attackers!”

[SPL]

Agree depressing rather than boring. Back 4 played well ,midfield not existant and front 3 not many chances.

Frenkie needs to play midfield.He had a good game and along with de Ligt our best 2 players. Coach not impressive,but apart from Siem who else can you put on as sub!! Wober for Donny and Frenkie in midfield

14 games left but PSV odds on champs at the moment

[Orange14]

this was the worst pitch for a first division team in any league that i have ever seen. Does FC Utrecht use it as a training ground? i know it is winter in Europe but there can be no excuse to have a playing field that is torn up and not smooth. What was ten Hag thinking during this match? A midfield that was totally dysfunctional (of course this is nothing new to those of us who have followed Ajax over the years) and no substitutions are made??? the only player pushing the ball up the field was de Ligt. Was this match better than any of those managed by Keizer? The only positive that can be said about this match is that the defense managed to hold up quite well. Onana had only one really difficult save to make and was fortunate that the ball he tried to punch clear was blocked when the follow up shot came.

Player Ratings:

Utrecht Groundskeeper (0) - players deserve a smooth pitch to play on
Makkelie the match official (2) - allowed persistent fouling and missed one or two clear Red card fouls

ten Hag (3) - what exactly was the game plan?

Tagliafico (5.5) - lucky not to have had his ankle broken
F de Jong (5.5) - should have been moved into the MF at the half with Wöber coming in
de Ligt (7) - best player on the pitch yet again for Ajax
Veltman (6.5) - defended well
Schöne (3) - extraordinarily poor
Ziyech (3) - extraordinarily poor
van de Beek (3.5) - just plain poor
Kluivert (4) - zero impact
Huntelaar (4.5) - persistently fouled all match long
Neres (5.5) - only positive front line player

this should pretty much do it for the title race unless PSV suffers some major meltdown which they show no signs of doing. Even if Ajax win out now, PSV will have to drop four points along the way which is not likely to happen.

You can count me as one DISGUSTED Ajax supporter today. We deserve a better performance than we saw.

[rjf1]

I know most of you didn't like Klaassen all that much, but he would have been perfect for this game with his knack for being in the right place to score from a chaotic scramble in the box -- like the opportunities we had at the very end. Also, with him gone we have no one making those defense shredding runs into the box from midfield that open up opportunities for the other attackers. Frankly, if I never see Ziyech in an Ajax shirt again, I wouldn't shed even half a tear.

[SPL]

de Ligt our MOM no question .Frenkie did decent in defence imo but watching him in defence is like a dog out for a walk and on his lead. This guy is a quality midfielder.Rudi Krol, legend of the 70's, said this week there are 2 absolute top talents in Holland de Ligt and Frenkie. Agree with him. Reading all those rumours of the top sides wanting all our players but in game like today only de Ligt stood out.Same last week.

Ten Hag is no better than Keizer .Nothing has changed.

[rjf1]

Was really looking forward to this game -- figured ten Hag had some time now to work with the team and was excited to see what changes in the style of play he would bring. As was said above, there was no difference from when Keizer was in charge -- what a letdown.

[Ayman]

Wow! Everyone already going for ten Hag's head! It's only his second game! He just started, hardly had adequate time, unlike his two predecessors. Give the guy a chance!