08 OCT 2023; Ajax - AZ; Match Day 6 (still)

[Orange14]

Ajax host 2nd top AZ this Sunday. With only a lone victory and two draws in the league, Ajax are a staggering 14 points behind the visitors albeit with the unfinished match with RKC still to be played. This will be a tough match for Ajax ahead of the break for Euro Qualifiers.

[Tom_]

I haven’t seen any improvement in the way Ajax is playing so I don’t have much hope for a good result in this match.

I saw on VI that Ajax the the highest number of shots against in the Europa League. A lot of this comes from turnovers in the buildup and Vos does seem to help with that.

[SPL]

On current form I would take a draw.Just hope the F side behave and dont cause trouble

[SPL]

Berghuis and Sutalo injured so Medic and Avila at Cd ,Vos is back and Bergwijn is MF and V A Dongen on the wing. I notice no Misehouy,he missed Jong the other night and is not in the Orange U19 for Ints so must be injured.Shame as he should be on the bench and today without Berghuis he could easily come on as a sub.

My prediction 2 or 3-1 to AZ which would see the coach sacked but I hope to be proved wrong and we win.

[SPL]

Didn't think we played that bad until the goal ,where Avila just stood and let AZ score. V A Dongen needs playing time at Jong and is not ready to start.Another injury for him now.Brobbey has barely touched the ball and Mikautadze has touched it once in 10 mins,no threats up front.

[Tom_]

There doesn’t seem to be any way for this team to create chances. The closest they have come is Forbs being released on the wing a few times but he just gets pushed wide. Can’t get the ball to Brobbey, because they can’t get the ball through the middle of the pitch, because neither Taylor or Begwijn can make a 2 metre pass to a free player.

[Tom_]

My prediction 2 or 3-1 to AZ which would see the coach sacked but I hope to be proved wrong and we win.

Looking very likely based on the game so far

[SPL]

Dreadful ,is this really Ajax!!!

[Van basten]

Is this the last game for Steijn? I surely hope so

[Amol]

Lol. We just scored albeit a bit accidental. 1-2

[Amol]

Didn't think we played that bad until the goal ,where Avila just stood and let AZ score. V A Dongen needs playing time at Jong and is not ready to start.Another injury for him now.Brobbey has barely touched the ball and Mikautadze has touched it once in 10 mins,no threats up front.

Yeah he just let Pavlidis waltz behind him into space. Was ball-watching and had zero idea about where the AZ striker was.

[Amol]

A better side would've been up 6-1 by now. How far have we fallen? Steijn needs to go ASAP.

Even FDB will be a serious upgrade to this nonsense.

[Tom_]

Ajax’s goal was their only shot on goal as far as I remember, and that was on its way to the corner flag before it got deflected.

[SPL]

Apart from the lucky goal we created nothing. Been watching Ajax on streams and Tv since about 2000 and this is the worst position we have ever been in and frankly the worst players. Did not think Medic was that bad and Gaaei looked decent overlapping. Mikautadze ,Avila and Akpom ,what on earth are players of this limited ability doing at our club.

I know Martinez and Alvarez struggled at first but they were playing in Europe for the first time .Avila played in Belgium.

Where do we go from here, well Steijn has to go and the rest of the Board who appointed him and Mislintat need to go. Who do we bring in !! No idea.

16th place and I guess we should be lucky the Volendam game did not take place last week as I doubt we would beat them at present.

[Orange14]

We had guests over for brunch today which was far more pleasant than watching the replay of the Ajax - AZ match. Steijn added some new players to the lineup and moved Bergwujn to #10 to see if that would make a difference. Well, they did enjoy a good first 15 minutes with good pressure but after that AZ seemed to have figured everything out and got two nice goals to a lucky deflected shot by van den Boomen that left the AZ keeper no chance. Ajax just have too many mediocre players who seem lost at sea and it's not like they shouldn't know how to play correctly, it's that they just don't. AZ never lose there cool when Ajax have the ball in close and everyone seems to know where to play so that the GK is not threatened or a shot can be blocked. Contrast this to Ajax who are the king of giving up soft goals on easy counter attacks. Maybe van Gaal, in attendance at this debacle, makes a recommendation that Steijn has to go but who comes into to mange this mess of a team? Anyway, we don't need to worry about watching Ajax play next week as they are off for the Euro qualifying break. They have Utrecht up in two weeks who also seem to be going through a crisis; this could be the match to get things untracked or perhaps really face thoughts of relegation.

Player Ratings (for what it's worth and that's not much)

Gorter (6) - and a couple of good saves and saw more back passes than any GK since the time of de Boer
Rensch (5.5) - above average but off at the half with a knock
Medic (5.5) - better than his fellow Croation defender and did not make any major blunder
Avila (4.5) - below average and is no Lisandro Martinez!
Hato (4.5) - had some real problems with possession and position
Vos (4) - unimpressive game
Taylor (4) - maybe his time is up as he just can't play the ball quickly enough
Bergwijn (4.5) - disappointing as a winger and even worse as a MF
Forbs (3.5) - too many lost opportunities every time he touched the ball; just when you think he might be a promising player you are proved wrong
Brobbey (5) - I don't think he had a single touch in the 1st half and it wasn't his fault
van Axel Dongen (4.5) - did little and then went off injured
Mikautadze (5) - looked quick and tried to do something unlike some of his team mates
Gaaei (6) - had a very nice half of football coming in for Rensch with some good runs and defended well also
van den Boomen (6) - gets a point for scoring even though it was deflected
Akbom (NR) - on late with a prayer from Steijn

[Orange14]

Vos picked up a YC which was his 5th of the season and is suspended for the Utrecht match. the two YCs from Jong Ajax matches count against this penalty as did the one he picked up in the final two matches last season according to FA rules.