04 FEB 2018 NAC - Ajax; Match Day 21

[Ayman]

I can't believe we've gone from a coach who made bizarre substitutions at a time when we needed good substitutions to a coach that is so rigid that won't allow any substitutions until the last ten minutes of the game. That's a great concern, the good news is, it's against NAC, in which Ajax won 0-8 away in Breda.

[rjf1]

My hope is that in this game he lets the team play a less conservative style than in the last one. Frenkie definitely needs to play in midfield. Makes no sense to me that they want to take one of the team's most creative players and make a central defender out of him.

[Orange14]

Same lineup as last week.

[rjf1]

Onana to the rescue!

[Orange14]

Unfortunate bounce off of de Ligt but what a great strike to make it 0-1

[Ayman]

Wtf! 0-1 down?!!

[rjf1]

No way to rescue that shot. Down 1-0 -- could have been 2-0, so I guess we can be happy it isn't worse.

[Dave the mac]

Not a good start.... Comon Ajax!

[Ayman]

1-1 van den Beek

[rjf1]

After a long spell in which we had been playing well but not getting any breaks as far as scoring goes, we finally even the score on a nice cross into the box by Kluivert for vdB to nod home.

[Dave the mac]

Yes! That's what was needed. 1-1

[Amol]

2-1!!!

You keep kicking us, we'll get up and score a goal!!

[rjf1]

Neres imitates Messi as he starts a run from midfield, plows his way through a gauntlet of defenders and puts a low shot inside the right post.

[Dave the mac]

Great goal! 2-1

[Orange14]

Two well taken goals by Ajax and Neres stayed well on the ball to get the 2nd one. NAC had only two chances off of counters; Onana saved the first one but a fortunate bounce to Ambrose who made sure of things got them on the scoreboard first. Ajax were very sloppy in the first 20 minutes of play which seems to be a recurring theme. Ziyech is only average and I would not mind seeing him come off. de Jong is wasted in the back line once again.

[rjf1]

After the way we had them running around for most of the half, they should be good and exhausted by the last 15 minutes of the game -- 2 more goals, perhaps.

[Amol]

I started watching around the 25th minute and I'm loving our play today compared to the last 2 games. A lot of quick passing and off the ball movement.

[SPL]

Bad start, should have been 2-0 down ,shows Frenkie is no defender,wasted there. We came back into it thanks to Justin and Donny then a fantastic goal by Neres.

Hopefully a quick 3rd and we go on for a comfortable win.With a game midweek hope we see some subs ,Wober to come on and Frenkie into MF

[Ayman]

de Ligt recieves a yellow card, he will miss the next game

[Ayman]

Wober on for Schone at 71 minutes in a tactical substitution... Frenkie can now play in midfield

[rjf1]

Why take off vdB? Take off Ziyech instead.

[rjf1]

Egads! I fell off my chair. Ziyech finally gets one on goal and it goes in. Nicely taken free kick, actually. I guess it redeems him for the rest of the game.

[Dave the mac]

A very comfortable win in the end. Ajax left it interesting until late

[SPL]

Not a great 2nd half ,kept waiting for them to score. With Roda in mind it would have been ideal to take de Ligt off and tried Kristensen with Veltman Cd. Siem hardly touched the ball and Ziyech I thought utterly dreadful until that free kick.The 2 best MF get taken off but it gave Frenkie a few minutes to play in his proper position.

NAC made us work and with 13 to go I dont see us catching PSV.Even if they drop points so will we.

[Orange14]

I think we deserved better than a yawn stifling 3-1 win over a NAC Breda side that was quite poor on offense and generated very few scoring opportunities. Still with a tenuous 2-1 lead, one always expects the unexpected. Today instead of conceding a foolish goal that would have tied the match, Ziyech recovered from being fouled outside the box with a nice free kick that made the final score 3-1. Tactically we saw Huntelaar playing further up the field and both wing players moving to the inside with much better overlaps from both Veltman on the right and Tagliafico on the left (I can't remember Veltman ever having so many touches inside the offensive half before).

Player Ratings:

Onana (6.5) - had one very difficult save to make but that was pretty much it as he didn't face much of an attack
Tagliafico (7) - solid match both on defense and moving up the field
F de Jong (7) - really needs to play MF full time but he did have a couple of good plays on defense
de Ligt (7.5) - recognized the open space quite well and moved up to attack; had one wicked shot on goal but did pick up a Yellow and I think that means he misses the next match
Veltman (7) - very nice match though one wanted some better crosses when he overlapped though his faults may be from lack of practice
Schöne (5.5) - just a shade above average and had little impact at all
van de Beek (6) - put away an open header for the first goal
Ziyech (5.5) - really want to know his passing % today; was it even approach 50%? Nice free kick at the end and did recover from his offensive mistakes to put pressure on the ball following turnovers
Kluivert (6) -a few too many turnovers to warrant a higher rating
Huntelaar (4.5) - wanted more from our striker and didn't get it
Neres (7.5) - wonderfully slalom run to put away the match winner
S de Jong (5.5) - little involvement
Wöber (6) - a couple of good plays on defense
Mazraoui (NR) - I think this was his senior debut coming on late for Neres

Still seven big points behind PSV with little help from other teams to make up the difference. Looks like a mid-week match coming up with a Wednesday trip to play Roda.