Ajaxtalk

Ajax travel to Enschede to take on Twente in an early Sunday match. Tagliafico is still suspended but I don't know the status of Taylor or Danilo who carried over RCs from last season. I would expect Antony to get some game time this weekend. I also wonder if EtH will experiment with Berghuis in MF as a replacement for Klaassen.

Danilo and Taylor were only suspended for the one game.

Unchanged team but just Tagliafico and Kudus missing.

Why does Ajax always have trouble against teams coached by Ron Jans. they really seemed out of sorts in the first half, not figuring out how to break the high press. Too many long kicks by Stekelenburg. Not many noteworthy performances in the first half.

We got what we deserved today

Wow what a terrible game. Aside from Danilo’s header did we get a chance?

I don’t think I like Blind and Klaassen in the midfield at the same time.

The 1-1 draw was a fair result as Ajax were quite frankly awful on the day. Defending on the free kick that resulted in the tying goal was atrocious. Nobody marked Propper who was given a free shot on goal. Stekelenburg seemed slow to react to the shot which a quicker keeper might have saved. Nobody was above average in this match and Gravenberch's reaction to being subbed off didn't help things at all. This team needs to realize that they have to work hard in every game and cannot take anything for granted.

Player Ratings:

Stekelenburg (5) - too much kicking and most of it quite poor; I don't think he is a #1 keeper any longer
Blind (5) - helped create the goal but otherwise his passing was not up to standard
Martinez (5.5) - decent enough defending and had a nice header go just wide of the post
Timber (5.5) - had a critical intervention that saved a goal
Mazraoui (5.5) - one of the better players on the day which isn't saying much
Alvarez (5) - had several good defensive plays and had a chance on a free kick
Gravenberch (5) - had two good runs with the ball and that was it
Klaassen (4.5) - looked very slow out there
Tadic (5) - no magic today
Haller (5) - alert enough to poke home a garbage goal
Berghuis (4) - his days as a starter on the wing are likely over with Antony moving into the starting team; very poor today
Antony (5) - good to see him back in the squad but he couldn't make a difference
Rensch (5) - had a good defensive intervention
Neres (NR) - on late
Danillo (5) - on late and gets a rating only because of the late header on goal that was well saved

Vitesse coming up next weekend and they have a midweek match against Anderlecht on Thursday that they will have to recover from. Ajax have a lot of problems with this team that EtH has to work through. It looks to me that they really over paid for Haller last season which is causing a lot of issues in terms of high salary demands.

Very poor game and a draw was the right result.With Antony and Neres I do wonder why we needed Berghuis.Haller does little although poked in a goal. Biggest problem is MF ,no creativity and yes its like being back in FDB times.

SPL schreef: ↑

zo aug 22, 2021 1:46 pm

Biggest problem is MF ,no creativity and yes its like being back in FDB times.

Quite right. Most creative MF is Fitz-Jim who is not ready for the first team.

Funny hearing mention of football under FdB because it's exactly what I thought of watching the game. Something needs to be done to liven up that slow, plodding midfield, and the quality of the passing - along with the choice of who to pass to - needs a lot of improvement.

We seem to be about to sign another winger which will make 5 but with Kudus nearly always injured we have zero creativity in MF.

Watching little Fitz-JIm was a joy to see the other night for Jong