20 FEB 2020; Getafe - Ajax; Europa League

[Orange14]

Ajax are off to Spain for a Thursday Round of 32 Europa League match against a very tough Getafe team. Currently in third place in La Liga, Getafe have exceeded expectations. they play a tough brand of pressing football and can be relentless on the counter attack. Ajax will have to be at the top of their game to get a result from this one. An away goal or two will be very useful. I watched their match with Barcelona on Saturday and they can be beaten over the top with good passing, something that Ajax have excelled at this season. ETH said yesterday that Varela will be the GK in place of suspended Onana. Let's hope his performance of Jong Ajax last Monday was an aberration.

[Amol]

Blind and Alvarez as the CB pair, Martinez moves back to DM, Donny and Ziyech complete the midfield.

[SPL]

Going to be very tough tonight.Varela is the weak spot as Onana is real top class

[Tom_]

This is so poor. Keep this up and we’ll be going back to Amsterdam with a 3–0

[SPL]

Very poor game by us. Only positive ,so far,Varela doing fine.Hope he keeps this up .Maybe the other 10 players can start playing

[SPL]

Varela now starts with a couple of poor actions.

[kezme44]

creating absolutely nothing. worst thing is, i was expecting this against such a team.

[Tom_]

That’s probably sealed it. Without an away goal we’re on a tightrope in the home leg. Getafe are a horrible club, fouling, diving and cheating then hoping to score off set pieces but Ajax were way too naïve.

[SPL]

That 2nd finishes the tie. We were abject all night .Only player I couldn't fault was Varela . Cannot really complain over 90mins with a 2-0 defeat

[souras84]

Wow! Babel and Ziyech were shit

[SPL]

Looking at other results coefficient place for Dutch seems ok even if Ajax and AZ get ko'd. At the end of this seasons coefficients Holland needs to be in top 10 for 2021 Dutch champs to qualify automatically.

Holland currently 9th but well clear of Ukraine ,Turkey Austria who could catch up. These 3 have only 4 teams between them. Turkish side lost 3-1,Salzburg lost 4-1,Donetsk beat Benfica 2-1 and Linsz beating AZ. Linsz and Donetsk would both need to reach semis for us to end up 11th.

PS Back to the game I thought KJH should have either started or come on at HT. Traore is a good talent and playing RKC and Heracles is ok but against a tough bunch of cynical players like Getafe he looked out of his depth.

Our subs bench looks woefully weak. The other 5 had Eiting and 4 kids, Gravenberch and 3 from Jong Ajax

[Orange14]

I had some meetings today and just finished watching the replay of the Getafe match. This was by far the worst Ajax offensive performance that I have ever seen in all my years (and I go back a long ways). The first shot on goal came in the 86th minute by Huntelaar. It looked as if Ajax had never scouted Getafe and had no clue how to break them down. Almost every pass was over weighted and the MF was totally absent in terms of ball control and passing. Getafe pressure was excellent and Varela spent the match kicking long balls that had no receiver. Down 2-0, it's doubtful that Ajax will dig themselves out of this hole given the lack of offensive punch. ETH has to take a long look in the mirror as he really did not have his team ready to play.

Player Ratings:

Varela (5) - didn't look to distribute the ball out very quickly at all
Tagliafico (5) - I didn't think he deserved a YC but that call stands and he sits the return match out
Blind (5.5) - did try to make things happen
Alvarez (4) - storybook is now closed, he is just not good enough for Ajax
Dest (5) - no chances to push forward tonight
Martinez (5) - worked hard on defense in MF but that was it
van de Beek (5) - no factor at all
Ziyech (5) - Chelsea must be wondering if he is really worth €40M
Babel (4) - reverted back to poor-touch player tonight and was quite poor
Tarore (4.5) - probably not too much to fault him for as he hardly ever saw the ball
Tadic (5) - no magic this season at all
Schuurs (5) - has to start from now on
Huntelaar (5) - a scuffed shot was all

[Orange14]

I'm not going to dwell on the disaster last night other than to post this link: https://www.ajaxshowtime.com/article/ho ... de-malaise I was wondering why ETH had the two CBs playing so close to the keeper on kick outs, this explains it and why it didn't work.

[SPL]

Just read through the Dutch guys comments. Ref was poor in allowing so much time wasting and play acting but we know how Getafe play. Clubs dont all play the beautiful football of Ajax but many play the dreadful cynical non football of Italian style and Argentinian if you get my meaning.

Ajax were toothless and pathetically poor but miss Promes and Neres on the wings. Tadic should play striker role and Babel ,well
I think this guy adds zero to us.

Our MF has misfired much this season as Frenkie was such a quality player but Matthijs is the big loss.Top quality defender and mentally so strong.

Everyone knocks Veltman but Alvarez and Schuurs are not as good. Schuurs poor mistake cost us v Az and last night another simple mistake cost the 2nd goal and in effect the tie.Ok the other 10 were rubbish.

Alvarez looks a nothing player to me.No way a MF and looks weak as a defender.Who on earth scouted this player.Marin I have not seen enough of but was not even on the bench last night! 4 out of the 7 being teenagers with zero experience.

I will miss next Thursday, going to a quiz with my pals, and I do think we will win by the odd goal but will be ko'd.

We need to then regroup and win the title.Schuurs should get regular playing time to see if he is good enough. If not we have to buy a really good Cd in the summer. Alvarez and Veltman should be sold together with Schuurs if he keeps making expensive mistakes.

We will be selling many players this summer and will have loads of money to spend but although Martinez has been a great buy Magallan,Marin ,Alvarez are no way good enough for Ajax and nor is Pierie who looks poor at Jong level.

[souras84]

Around the time Schuurs came on, was it the 70+ minute? I'm not sure. Anyway, Blind was free and starting moving between lines, Frenkie style. That was when we started passing the ball properly.

You could say that the other team got tired and it was a factor, but it was a positive sign. Their defense isn't anything special. They just play an 11 manmarking system. Till death! That means if you break the lines you need to shoot the ball.

Watching Ajax games with some of my friends in Greece that aren't Ajax supporters, I get the same complaint. We pass too much in the area. Donny can shoot, but prefers a pass to Tadic etc. I get that once you start being able to create 10+ chances in a game, you try for something fancy. We must become cynical

[Tom_]

It reminded me of that tie we had under Bosz against Salzburg, I think, where we were completely unprepared for their playing style and got blasted off the pitch.

I’d say there’s a 95% chance we’re out. I just hope whoever gets Getafe in the next round destroys them, they play horrible football.

[Amol]

Schuurs should start next week. Alvarez is too slow in decision making and passing - same as Varela. Once Schuurs came in, Blind and Martinez kept exchanging roles and we were playing back 3 for a time as well.

My thought it that the CBs were so close to the GK to expand the field and make it easy to hit balls over the top. We kept trying that all match, but ALL those balls were overhit by at least a couple meters. It was amazing. It's like they were using trick balls or something.

Babel had a decent chance with a header 8-10 yards from goal and decides to umm pass it someone else. Madness.

First shot in 85th minute - that was absolutely crazy.

This game reminded me of our performance against Man U in the EL finals. We still haven't figured out how to beat that. Of course now we're without Frenkie, Mathijs and also Promes/Neres.

[SPL]

Schuurs indeed needs to play regularly with Blind next to him and hopefully he will learn not to make the silly mistakes.From others comments its not just me who doesn't rate Alvarez.

Reading comments from the Dutch guys on our site and on Ajaxshowtime I think one of the biggest questions is who on earth agreed to buy Magallan,Marin and Alvarez.

We should have bought a couple of 30 ish players as we have a hugh amount of talent coming through.The football factory called AFC Ajax is in full production at present.

[Orange14]

My thought it that the CBs were so close to the GK to expand the field and make it easy to hit balls over the top. We kept trying that all match, but ALL those balls were overhit by at least a couple meters. It was amazing. It's like they were using trick balls or something.

Look at the Ajax Showtime link I posed a little further up, it explains why ETH did this. I'm not convinced and it was something they never had done before.

[Amol]

My thought it that the CBs were so close to the GK to expand the field and make it easy to hit balls over the top. We kept trying that all match, but ALL those balls were overhit by at least a couple meters. It was amazing. It's like they were using trick balls or something.

Look at the Ajax Showtime link I posed a little further up, it explains why ETH did this. I'm not convinced and it was something they never had done before.

Interesting - totally different than the way I read it. Yeah the mid-field players were definitely not opening up for passes at all.