26 JAN 2020; Groningen - Ajax; Match Day 20

[Orange14]

With a six point lead over AZ, Ajax hit the road on Sunday taking on Groningen. Ziyech and Neres will miss this one but it looks like everyone else is healthy. Onana should be back in goal but Varela has to get some minutes as Onana is suspended for the first EL game against Getafe.

[SPL]

A must win game ,and Onana joins Ziyech in being injured.Onana a shoulder injury but its not bad. Varela plays but Siem de Jong plays.Reading comments on Ajaxshowtime and all negative about Siem. Siem did take his goals well the other night but that was against a non league side. Dest is RB.

After last week hope to get a stream.Premiersports has the rights in Uk but not showing this game live and wont show PSV .I am not bothering to pay 15 euros a month just to get an odd live game.You cannot buy one game at a time just a month.

[Amol]

Not sure what Siem is adding to the game right now. All the balls he gets, he just makes sideways passes. Also not a lot of movement.

I want to see Eiting replace him and moving Donny up.

[rjf1]

They can also replace Babel and Gravenberch while they are at it

[Orange14]

Very poor first half with no shots on goal. Hard to tell whether the Dest cross got a slight deflection before going off of Babel's ankle. Gravenberch has been poor and there is no creativity on the field. Another team playing a 4-4-2 and Ajax just don't do well. Serhuis with a fairly weak goal though he did make a nice run between Martinez and Veltman. I wonder if Onana would have done better. I suspect this game will end up 1-0.

[Amol]

Babel still with his weak first touch is being mauled by Zeefuik. Zeefuik is on to Babel so quick that once the ball bobbles after Babel's first touch, he just takes it off.

Agreed - Gravenberch can come off as well. Maybe he's already starting to think of his life in Turin with Raiola putting in the shopping window in the near future.

Move Tadic back into #10, get Traore to replace Siem and Eiting on for Gravenberch.

[Amol]

...and no changes for either time at the start of the 2nd half.

[SPL]

We are very poor,nil creativity. De Jong goodbye and lets hope Neres is fit soon Babel again is woeful.

[Manneken Pis]

Nothing. No plan. No incisiveness. No tempo. We deserve everything that's happening to us.

[SPL]

-2-0 and thats it. Weak defending,no MF

[kezme44]

dest yet again caught going forward and that’s 2-0. piss poor. eth with no game plan for another game. fuck this. I’m going outside. finally sunny here

[Amol]

ETH makes the 2 changes which I suggested during HT. Lets see.

Dest way off on a run when Gravenberch mis-hit that pass which led to the 2nd goal.

[Amol]

I could be wrong, but I think we just had our first shot on goal in the 63rd minute.

[Amol]

1-2. DONNYYY! Game on!

[SPL]

Donny puts us back in the game .Eiting is making a difference Gravenberch was woeful and with siem gone we have 11 players

[Amol]

Chances coming thick and fast now.

[Amol]

Just didn't bring enough today. Deserved loss - we had a few missed opportunities, but so did Groningen at the end.

[SPL]

We were very poor until way after the 60 min mark.Why did we lose ? ETH set up and even at 2-0 down he just let the game drift .Very very poor coach today you cost us the game. de Jong is no way good enough ,Veltman slow again on their 2nd and Gravenberch ineffective. Tadic Promes and Babel were ineffective today. Eiting played well when he came on .

PSV will be 9 points behind if they win today and as bad as they are we look no better at present.

[Orange14]

A dispiriting 2-1 loss to Groningen with Ajax very poor on the day at almost every position. 70% possession does little if there are so few shots on goal. Groningen were able to get two weak goals which was enough on the afternoon. Groningen clogged up the penalty box with eight men dropping behind the ball and did enough to clear every danger except for the van de Beek goal. Gravenberch and Bable were huge disappointments and Eiting was rocking coming on.

Player Ratings:

Varela (5.5) - didn't have anything difficult to do and I think Onana would have been stronger on the Serhuis goal
Tagliafico (5.5) - couldn't get a good delivery into the box
Marinez (5.5) - maybe VAR turns the second goal into an OG becuase of the deflection but Martinez wasn't alert enough on the Serhuis run
Veltman (6) - decent enough
Dest (6) - had a good game and delivered a hard cross that was either slightly deflected or Babel just muffed
Gravenberch (4.5) - really not good and should have done better in getting back to close down the wing runner on the second goal
van de Beek (5.5) - all but invisible except but gets a slightly positive mark for the goal
de Jong (5) - he has no place on this team
Babel (4.5) - poor touches all game long but then we know all about this aspect of his game
Tadic (6) - worked tirelessly but couldn't bring out any magic
Promes (6) - worked hard but it didn't happen
Tarore (5) - hammering the ball boy was the highlight of his afternoon
Eiting (5) - some good passes and some awful ones but probably should have started the game to get some rhythm
Huntelaar (NR)

Ajax are fortunate to be hosting an absolutely awful PSV team next weekend. If the injured starters remain out for a considerable period of time there will be a swift exit from the Europa League

[Orange14]

I could be wrong, but I think we just had our first shot on goal in the 63rd minute.

First shot on goal came within the first five seconds of the match when Tadic tried to chip the keeper. Padt caught the ball which looked to be on frame so it has to count as a shot.

[Amol]

My 6 year old asked me what that was and I told him it was someone getting caught in 2 minds

[SPL]

When Sierhuis scored I told my wife he was only on loan from us.Had to explain the loan rules and why we loan players!

Watching games like today makes me realise how important Frenkie and Matthijs were.Veltman is a very limited player and we should have got a decent replacement. Magallan has been written off and Alvarez looks no better. Frenkie with those beautiful runs through the middle cutting through other sides like melting butter.

Again Marin is poor and like Alvarez not good enough to start.Would like to know why we bought these 2 lightweights.Still think we will be champs but Europa Cup no chance.

[SPL]

PSV only drew so we really only have AZ to worry about.

[Tom_]

I knew we were in trouble as soon as I realised de Jong was playing. Note that wasn’t until about 15 minutes in! I think vd Beek played too far forward and with Gravenberch struggling we couldn’t get the ball through the MF.

I’ll say it again, we *really* need another central defender. Martinez was poor on both goals.

[Tom_]

Another thought—I’m sure Schöne would’ve been handy in the last few rounds... even just for free kicks and corners. Certainly more useful than Marin and Siem de Jong. Pity that we let him go!