Ajaxtalk

Ajax host Scottish team Rangers on Wednesday to open their Champions League campaign. Rangers were thrashed yesterday by cross town rival Celtic 4-0. Big question for me is still Blind at LB. He really does not have the speed to defend these days and opponents are really going to push down the Ajax left side. I have not heard anything further about Wijndal's injury and maybe he was held out yesterday as a precaution. I hope Ajax can come out firing in this match as the group is going to be tightly contested.

Agree on Blind.

He’s in the team more to make those forward passes into midfield than for his value as a defender.

But he’s been caught out for his lack of pace against Utrecht and Groningen and for me it’s too much of a risk in the CL. I’m almost certain he’ll start though… we’ll see how that goes

And the right side of the field belongs to their very good right back Tavernier

Ajax did not register Ihatteran for the Champions League. I've not heard anything new but suspect Ajax are done with him and he will return to Juventus in January.

I just can't wait till Wijndal returns, a back four of Wijndal, Bassey, Timber, Sanchez is rock solid!

Ayman schreef: ↑

wo sep 07, 2022 1:32 pm

I just can't wait till Wijndal returns, a back four of Wijndal, Bassey, Timber, Sanchez is rock solid!

I don't think Rensch loses his place in the starting 11 unless he is injured. He had a very fine match on the weekend and we will see if he maintains this level of play.

Kudus starts as false 9 in place of Brobbey

Just hope for a win ,never mind the score 1-0 will do

Unbelievable start!!!!

kudus what a goal!!!!

What an amazing half of total football. Ajax could have scored 6-7 goal against Rangers who look like they stuck in quicksand. I don't think Pasveer has had a single thing to do other than some routine kicking. the Kudus goal was sweet and I think Schreuder will be able to manage this team quite well.

Great half of football and the goal of Kudus was fantastic.We have played them off the park and not sure how it is not 6-0.

hope bergwijn is ok. would be a big loss if he got injured

Ajax just coasted the 2nd half ,pretty sure Bergwijn had bad cramp.The game was over at HT so maybe we could have given our subs a few more minutes.Main thing we won .

It was a dominating performance by Ajax who downed Rangers 4-0 in Amsterdam. Defensively there were only a couple of glitches and the nicely taken goal by Rangers was struck off the board by a VAR off sides call. Total football was in evidence tonight with players constantly changing position and leaving the opponents befuddled as to where the danger would come from. Both Timber and Bassey pushed up aggressively with Alvarez dropping back as a single CB at times. Bergwijn had a nice goal and pulled up after scoring; I hope it was just a cramp. Next up is Liverpool in Anfield which should prove to be a more stern test.

Player Ratings:

Pasveer (6) - routine work and had a chance to nap during the game as the ball was in Rangers half for much of it
Rensch (7) - very nice game again pushing up and getting space behind Rangers defenders
Timber (7) - was able to push up quite a bit during the game getting deep inside the Ranger box at times
Bassey (7) - super quick and a very solid defender; as with Timber he pushed up a lot
Blind (7) - surprisingly had very little defending to do as Ajax had so much ball posession, created some nice space with his passing and over lap play
Alvarez (7) - got the match winner with a solid header off a corner kick, solid in defense often playing CB when Timber and Bassey pushed up
Taylor (7) - very workman like game, nothing flashy but able to run into space often enough
Begrhuis (7) - got a nice goal and his movement off the ball was quite good creating space; IIRC it was his corner kick that Alvarez headed home
Tadic (6.5) - decent but his passing was off
Kudus (7.5) - right choice by Schreuder for this game scoring a delightful goal and almost getting a second getting through some tight spaces
Bergwijn (7.5) - very good match with a well taken goal
Klaassen (NR) - on for the final eight minutes
Ocampos (NR) - on late had a nice intervention that he should have done better at clearing
Baas (NR) - quick turn around for the Jong Ajax LB who played on Monday night
Brobbery (NR) - on very late
Sanchez (NR) - on very late

Heerenveen up next in the League this weekend.

Such an amazing performance by us today. Rangers locked it down in the 2nd half by moving into a 5-4-1 formation. Good that we were able to get a look at that formation already and be ready for it the next time we see it.

Such a sensational game by Kudus. Schreuder is already miles ahead of ETH in terms of squad rotation and subs.

IMO it looked like cramps for Bergwijn. Hopefully I'm right.

Liverpool is looking quite terrible and is being beaten handily by Napoli.

agree with the ratings though I would have given berghuis a 7.5 as well. questions have to be raised about tadic. his form has dropped hugely and I hope brobbey gets the start ahead of him in the next game

kezme44 schreef: ↑

wo sep 07, 2022 10:24 pm

agree with the ratings though I would have given berghuis a 7.5 as well. questions have to be raised about tadic. his form has dropped hugely and I hope brobbey gets the start ahead of him in the next game

Ajax have a long history of not benching the Captain. I agree that Tadic did not play very well. A Scottish paper gave him a 9, unbelieveable. https://www.101greatgoals.com/top-stori ... -and-more/

Rangers were totally awful and I know there will be harder tests in the group, but I *really* like the way Ajax controlled this match.

In the past I often had a feeling in CL games that things could go belly-up at any moment. Like in the 4–4 against Chelsea, or even in the 1–5 at Sporting and 4–0 against Dortmund last season where they conceded a lot of chances.

Last night they looked like a confident and mature side that’s used to winning games in Europe. Can’t wait for the rest of the group games!

Our players were constantly changing position Bassey was at right wing at some time . This of course was really total football and glorious to watch,never mind the quality of opposition.

Bassey has integrated into the team and our mindset almost instantaneously. Apparently Blind has been coaching him on the field through the games.

Taylor (like I keep saying) is what Gravenberch was supposed to be.

Rensch has found his old form back and has started better link ups with Tadic. I see that developing more throughout the season.