26 OCT 2023; Brighton - Ajax; Europa Group Match 3

[Orange14]

Two draws from the first two games and Ajax travel to the south of England to take on Brighton who stand 7th in the EPL. I'm getting weary of commenting any further and will not. I'm just going to post the upcoming matches and let others carry the conversation.

[SPL]

Expect a 2-0 or 3-0 defeat as Brighton not so special but they will be far too good for us.

[Amol]

Expect a 2-0 or 3-0 defeat as Brighton not so special but they will be far too good for us.

I'm fairly certain, Steijn's team will get beaten by a lot of Eerste Divisie sides right now. And he will complain about Mislintat & Transfers blah blah blah

[GangstaRiB]

Expect a 2-0 or 3-0 defeat as Brighton not so special but they will be far too good for us.

I’ll settle for that! We could be in for a proper trashing…. Not ruling out scores like 6-0.

[Orange14]

Brighton lost two more starters to injury last weekend including Wellbeck, their striker. They are not in a good place right now

[SPL]

PSV could thrash us 5 or 6-0 but I dont see Albion getting 5 or 6 even against a poor side like Ajax.

[Orange14]

Mikautadze, Goter and Rensch will all miss the match because of illness or injury. Setford comes in as the 3rd choice GK and Vos is back in the selection after missing the last EL game because of suspension.

[SPL]

Dont think Maduro will change much in these next 2 games, Ramaj,Gaaei,Sutalo,Hato,Sosa,Vos,Taylor,Berghuis,Forbs,Brobbey,Bergwijn.
Cannot see van 't Schip changing much before Christmas.

Thats just 5 new signings who are going to get playing time.Medic,Akpom ,V D Boomen ,Tahirovic Avila are just moderate back ups.
Plus current missing injured Mikautadze is 3rd striker and Mannverk either 3rd choice 6 or 8.

[SPL]

From my team above looks like Berghuis will play right wing and Tahirovic MF. We will see

[SPL]

Only 2 changes from those who started v Utrecht,Ramaj in goal and Berghuis for Hlynsson. Vos is sub as Tahirovic stays with Taylor

[Orange14]

Tahirovic and Berghuis better do something big in this match. If they don't, I don't want to see them on the field again this year!!!!

[Orange14]

Plan A was defending with a 4-4-2 and hoping for a 0-0 draw. That failed when Ajax were pushed deeper and deeper and Brighton unlocked the defense. Does Maduro have a Plan B? I think Brighton will just play keep away now and hope for a second goal which would ice the match.

[Amol]

I do see small changes where Taylor is dropping back (sometimes) to receive the ball in addition to Tahirovic. Lots of sideways and backwards passes and lot of them ending up with the keeper.

Not unexpected as we only got rid of Steijn 3 days ago.

I don't think I saw Berghuis do a damn thing except take corners.

[Amol]

0-2 now

[Amol]

We finally got a shot on goal! Minute 56.

[Amol]

We are pressing while defending!! I'm about to cry.

2nd half looks much better to me. Game is more open.

[Orange14]

For the first 40 minutes of the match I thought I was watching an old Italian club team playing a catenaccio 4-4-2. It worked until Brighton scored just before the half and that was pretty much it for this version of Ajax. How dispiriting it is to watch a team just playing deep soaking up pressure and hoping against hope that the opponent will not unlock the defense. Maybe this is the way it had to be given Maduro had maybe just a day or so with the players. You cannot take a bunch of offensive minded players and hope they will turn into world class defenders. It was rather pathetic looking at Brighton just passing the ball around for most of the second half with out anyone challenging. Of course that kept the score line down to 2-0 but for those of us who have followed Ajax since the days of Cruyff,THIS WILL NOT DO!!!!!!!!!!

Player Ratings:

Ramaj (4.5) - not as good as Gorter and perhaps not even as good as either Setford brother
Gaaei (5.5) - he worked hard all match long and handled a very difficult winger pretty well with some good well timed challenges
Sutalo (5.5) - not sure he could do much on the Fati goal that iced the game
Hato (6) - one of the few who could say he was proud to wear an Ajax shirt
Tahirovic (4) - pay him off and send him packing, he is really just a bad player and certainly no Edson Alvarez
Taylor (5) - had a couple of decent runs with the ball but overall just average
Berghuis (4.5) - came closest to scoring but he's too old for a rebuilding program
Forbs (4.5) - maybe he is reverting to the mean after some success earlier in the season; he is not as good as Godts
Brobbey (5) - how sad it must be for him never to get a single touch in scoring position
Bergwijn (5) - mostly played wing defense and was passable
Hlynsson (5) - worked really hard again and if there is a move toward youth players, he will be considered
Godts (5) - another one who came on and worked hard
van den Boomen (5) - had some good passes but that's the extent of his game
Vos (NR) - on for the final 15 minutes but should have started rather than Tahirovic
Akbom (NR) - amazed that we even spent a single € for this player

Maduro's final game in charge (I think) comes up on Sunday in Eindhoven. Hard to think that Ajax will even threaten to score in that one. I'll tune in to watch with zero expectations. It will be interesting to see what Van't Schip will do when he takes over. Ajax have a lot of dead weight players and there certainly is not any money to buy in January.

It was also weird watching the game in the US. When #10 was announced for Ajax, the screen posted Tadic!!! If only that were true.

[SPL]

So for 45 mins,dressed in dreadful black playing with everyone in our own half I failed to see what that had to do with my beautiful Ajax. Ramaj at fault with the goal but he is 3rd choice and only played 20 minutes until today.

In the 2nd half at least we bought on some kids and hopefully Berghuis will stay on the bench as Hlynsson adds a lot more. Gaaei played well and the defenders all played better but as a unit need to improve .

For all their ticky tacky passing Albion only scored 2 and as i said the goalie should have stopped the 1st.

Next up PSV and they will score more than 2. Ajax then have ,on paper easier sides to Christmas and maybe with some of teh kids being played we can go on a run.

At January it is clear some of the new signings will go but Berghuis and Bergwijn need to go.2 decent quality wingers are needed. Forbs is no better than Godts or V A Dongen and even tonight 17 year old Kayden Wolff from our u 18 would not have done worse.

[Orange14]

At January it is clear some of the new signings will go but Berghuis and Bergwijn need to go.2 decent quality wingers are needed. Forbs is no better than Godts or V A Dongen and even tonight 17 year old Kayden Wolff from our u 18 would not have done worse.

There should be a club policy prohibiting the transfer in of more than four players in any given period. I agree that we need to unload a bunch of players in January. I hope Mannswerk can get healthy as he is a definite talent and Kaplan will also help out now that he is finally back playing.

[Tom_]

They set up much more defensively and I lost count of the backwards passes. I guess it did limit the damage a bit. I think we will see this approach a lot with this squad.

The sad thing is that any other Ajax would have looked to take Brighton apart.