18 OCT 2020; Ajax - Heerenveen; Match Day 5

[Orange14]

Ajax host Heerenveen who have yet to lose this season and then........................................CL begins mid-week against Liverpool. What a week ahead of us.

[Ayman]

Praying for no Labyad no Alvarez (I know they will most likely start)
Also praying for Tadic in the No.9 position and Promes on the flank

[SPL]

Well no Labyad or Alvarez ,relief. Schuurs is back but MF is Klaassen ,Kudus,Gravenberch up front Tadic and Neres wings with Traore striker!

Tadic is no 1 striker ,KJH 2nd and imo Brobbey no 3 ahead of Traore.Labyad is not good enough for Ajax ,never has been never will be.

[Amol]

1-0!! Great finish by Tadic.

[Amol]

That challenge on Nous didn't look too bad. Hopefully he's not hurt

[Orange14]

Best football of the season so far!! Klaassen has been fine as the holding MF with some excellent crisp passing. I always thought this was a position that he could grow into. Best play I've seen from Gravenberch as well. It looks like this MF will be solid going forward. Great point blank save by Onana when the game was still on the line. I wonder if ETH is going to rest some starters now.

[SPL]

3-0 at Ht very comfortable half for Ajax. MF looks a lot better although I would still want Tadic at 9

[Ayman]

Klaassen may be doing well as a holding midfielder in the Eredivisie, I am sceptical if he can perform well in this position in a champions league game though.

[Amol]

Finally benching Labyad & Alvarez produces slick fast moving football. Who knew?? ETH is a genius

Neres is woefully rusty. Imagine if were totally fit.

To rest for Liverpool midweek, we need to ideally sub out some starters. My ideas - Martinez for Blind; Promes for Tadic; Ekkelenkamp for Kudus/Gravenberch; Antony for Neres/Traore

[rjf1]

Beautifully worked 3rd goal. I wouldn't have awarded the penalty, though. Man was in the air with his back turned; arms were up to give him lift for the jump; the ball played him rather than the other way - I thought they were going to award a corner - was surprised when they signaled penalty.

[Ayman]

I hope Mazroui isn't hurt too bad, this is worrying

[SPL]

Very comfortable win and some good goals ,Antony's superb. MF was good indeed no Alvarez thankfully and hope its the end of Labyad as striker.

By far the best performance so far.

[rjf1]

So many players played so well - Klaassen did well, Klaiber looked decent in the time he was on, but it was Kudus who really impressed me - IMO he was the man of the match.

[Orange14]

Best match of the season with a comfortable 5-1 win over Heerenveen. Ajax dominated possession and had over 700 passes in the match. The MF was agile, found the open men, and other than the conceded goal defended well. I could not tell who was at fault but Blind was pointing to someone. VAR called out two penalties which were well taken. I still don't know what the front line will look like and whether EtH goes back to a false 9 at some point, moving Tadich in as striker. I guess we will see what surprise he has for Liverpool on Wednesday.

Player Ratings:

Onana (7) - had two tough saves to make and did the job but otherwise was not troubled
Tagliafico (7) - good game at both ends and his passing was on target
Blind (7.5) - defended well and passed the ball adeptly
Schuurs (7) - good enough on the day
Mazraoui (7) - took a hard knock to the knee and was decent enough in his play
Klaassen (7) - solid game from our former Captain with good passing and position play; I expect the Alvarez experiment may be over
Kudus (7.5) - my MOTM with stellar play with the ball and without
Gravenberch (7) - best match that I've seen him play and the pass to Kudus for the goal was exquisite
Tadic (7.5) - solid match from our left wing with a brace
Traore (6.5) - he works so hard and was hauled down for one of the two penalties
Neres (6) - still looks rusty after the long injury layoff
Antony (6) - wonderful goal coming on for Tadic
Klaiber (6) - solid enough subbing for Mazraoui
Huntelaar (NR) - had a header go over the bar
Martinez (NR) - picked up a silly Yellow card subbing for Blind

Liverpool up on Wednesday and they are without van Dijk who was scissored down in the box by Pickford yesterday and first choice keeper Alison. This could be a high scoring match at both ends.

[Ayman]

Liverpool up on Wednesday and they are without van Dijk who was scissored down in the box by Pickford yesterday and first choice keeper Alison. This could be a high scoring match at both ends.

And they are without Thiago! That means Wijnaldum plays, a former Feyenoorder always comes back to haunt Ajax!

[souras84]

Question. Was it that easy because we scored in the first minute? Did that destroy any Heerenveen tactics? Or were we THAT GOOD?

[Orange14]

Question. Was it that easy because we scored in the first minute? Did that destroy any Heerenveen tactics? Or were we THAT GOOD?

Heerenveen had not played any quality opposition until today.

[souras84]

Question. Was it that easy because we scored in the first minute? Did that destroy any Heerenveen tactics? Or were we THAT GOOD?

Heerenveen had not played any quality opposition until today.

Sounds ok to me

[Tom_]

IMO 5–1 is a bit flattering. It’s not like Ajax created a dozen chances, and both of the penalties were VAR calls. On the other hand Heerenveen were stuck in defence almost the entire match and our MF trio was totally dominant.

Once thing I always liked about Klaassen - you can see he tries to do something with the ball on his first touch. Polar opposite to Álvarez (who takes a touch for control) in that sense.