21 NOV 2021; RKC Waalwijk - Ajax; Match Day 13

[Orange14]

Back to action following the international break and Ajax are on the road in an empty arena once again. Let's hope the club can get out of the goal drought and score. I assume that Martinez, Antony, Tagliafico and Alvarez will make it back for training on Friday. I haven't seen that any players suffered injuries and congrats to the Dutch and Captain Tadic's Serbia team for booking their places in the WC.

[SPL]

Kudus with a rib injury. Lots of clubs wanted a break for the 3 weeks but the lockdown will likely last longer so playing on with no crowds was obvious. PSV did not like this as they have many injuries at present. Revolting little club.

[Tom_]

Does this mean the international breaks are over? I find them dull so won’t be sorry to see them finished.

[Ayman]

Arsene Wenger warned how the bridge between club football and national football is widening in terms of entertainment. This was back in the late 1990s. We are seeing it now.

[Orange14]

Does this mean the international breaks are over? I find them dull so won’t be sorry to see them finished.

I only know that the UEFA Nations League begins in June so that won't interfere with the season. Don't know if there are any friendlies coming up. Both North and South America still have WC qualifiers scheduled for January 2022 so maybe there is a break with some friendlies for UEFA teams.

[Tom_]

Not saying I have anything against international football! I still get up in the middle of the night to watch World Cup etc.

It’s just hard to get excited for the qualifiers / Nations League since I don’t support anyone in particular, unless a team has a bunch of Ajax / ex-Ajax players.

I would much rather watch Ajax play RKC :)

[Orange14]

Not saying I have anything against international football! I still get up in the middle of the night to watch World Cup etc.

I've seen every World Cup final since 1966 which was the first to be televised in the US. I won't watch any of the Qatar matches next year because of the corrupt way it was awarded to that country and that they used slave labor to build all the arenas. It has brought great shame to FIFA but it's not surprising given the corruption has been going on so long.

[SPL]

Apart from Kudus everyone fit and our strongest team is out.If RKC stick 11 behind the ball like the last 2 games I do wonder the purpose of Alvarez , a decent DM but no creativity in him.Our Mf lack of creativity is our weak link.

[SPL]

Not sure if my chrome book is working ,ie no posts and after our first goal my stream died and having tried about 10 other sites i got a jerky stream to see 4th and 5th goals.Typical the last 2 games were woeful to watch and i got streams today 5-0 and all down,Very frustrated.

ps Why does Labyad ,a waste of space and zero future gets playing time and not Taylor! Onana,Mazraoui,Labyad ,Danilo all leaving for nothing next summer and Tagliafico wont fetch more than 5m max.

[Orange14]

Another clean sheet but at least the offense got on track today. The 0-5 win increases the goal differential to 40 which is quite stunning and they have only conceded two goals in the league so far. Pasveer had only one tough save to make with a defense that otherwise did a good job. Decent play from everyone today.

Player Ratings:

Pasveer (6.5) - had one tough save to make but other wise was not troubled at all
Blind (7) - solid game passing and moving up into the offensive zone
Martinez (7) - solid match
Timber (7) - well taken goal
Mazaoui (7.5) - all over the field today and really good with the ball
Alvarez (6.5) - solid game except for the time in the first half when he was too easily beaten in a 1 v 1 situation
Gravenberch (6.5) - better play today than in the past couple of games
Berghuis (7) - popped up to get a couple of goals
Tadic (7) - turned 33 and still a solid player
Haller (7) - should have done better with the shot just near the end where he would have had a hat trick
Antony (7) - good match and I like how he really tracks back quickly when the ball turns over
Klaassen (5) - on for Gravenberch and did very little
Neres (6) - solid performance coming in for Antony with some good passing and dribbling
Daramy (5.5) - has lots of speed but still doesn't quite know what to do with it
Schuurs (NR) - on late
Labyad (NR) - on late

Besiktas coming up in the early match on Wednesday in the Champions League with Sparta next weekend.

[Ayman]

Daramy did ok but needs to improve, he may need time to settle in. Neres is doing better, i hope he gets more time.

[Orange14]

Maybe it's too late, but Overmars really needs to sign Mazraoui. He's playing so well these days.

[SPL]

I see an article on Ajaxshowtime agreeing with my thoughts ,why Taylor did not come on and Labyad did. Alvarez is not available re Besiktas and in games like RKC a defensive minded player like Alvarez is not needed but Taylor gets no playing time .He looks good at Jong Ajax level and should now go out on loan if ETH does not rate him.

PS In January I would pay off Labyad don't rate him at all .

[Tom_]

Maybe it's too late, but Overmars really needs to sign Mazraoui. He's playing so well these days.

He’s a really good footballer. Far better than Rensch, from what I’ve seen. It will be very frustrating if he walks away to some sub-top French side.

[Orange14]

Maybe it's too late, but Overmars really needs to sign Mazraoui. He's playing so well these days.

He’s a really good footballer. Far better than Rensch, from what I’ve seen. It will be very frustrating if he walks away to some sub-top French side.

French league is in real trouble right now because of stadium violence. Lyon now has to play matches behind closed doors because of the bottle throwing that hit Payet when he was going to take a corner for Marseilles.