14 APR 2024; Ajax - FC Twente; Match Day 30

[Orange14]

First of the final five matches of the season!!! Great joy ahead with the rebuilding project.

[Tom_]

Hmm, or five more games until the playoffs start.

At least this is a home match. And NEC still have to play Feyenoord and AZ so there is a chance of catching them.

[Orange14]

Brobbey is healthy, Henderson and Berghuis are still out.

[SPL]

Expect nothing more than a draw and NEC will beat Zwolle.

[Tom_]

I think so too SPL. That would put us 3 points behind NEC but they have two tough games coming up. So I’d settle for a draw today.

[Tom_]

Hlynsson is also injured apparently. Godts starting on the right.

[SPL]

Shock and surprise at 1-0 down I thought the worst but we have managed a win . Still hope for 5th place , as long as Feyenoord win the cup next week.

[Orange14]

Finally, something to cheer about as Ajax finally decide to move to a 4-3-3 and attack the goal. Two second half goals cancel out the van Wolfswinkel header from mid-way in the first half. van't Schip decided at half time that enough was enough and pushed Taylor up to 10 and Hato over to LB. That was the spark the club needed, and they put pressure on Twente. Taylor is MOTM for me with his lofted free kick that Brobbey made sure of. VAR was kind to Ajax and Rensch was judged to be fouled right at the end line for a Bergwijn PK. Ajax now have four pretty weak clubs remaining on the schedule with Excelsior, Vollendam, Almere City and Vitesse coming up. I hope van't Schip learned something from this game.

Player Ratings:

Rulli (6) - made some decent saves but had three really bad kicks that fortunately were not converted into chances
Rensch (6.5) - decent game for the RB
Sutalo (6.5)- played well with some good solid clearances and his passing was accurate
Kaplan (6) - other than not covering van Wolfswinkel on the Twente goal, he defended well
Hato (6.5) - Cal Ripken streak finally ends when he was subbed off in the 2nd half with a muscle complaint but was effective at LB in the 2nd half
Taylor (7.5) - solid match the whole way through with some punishing runs and good passes
Mannswerk (6) - decent enough
van den Boomen (5.5) - only played the first half and rather ineffective
Godts (6) - worked hard all match long
Brobbey (6.5) - starved of service in the first half but buried the header to even up the score
Bergwijn (7)- finally had a good match both on offense and tracking back
Tahirovic (6) - good 2nd half and relatively error free
Akpom (5.5) - on for Brobbey and put some pressure on the GK
Sosa (NR) - on for iron man Hato late
Vos (NR) - on late for defense
Gaaei (NR) - on late for defense

Off next week because of the Beker match and then a mid-week home match against Excelsior on April 24.

[Orange14]

NEC drops two points as they only manage a draw against PEC Zwolle. Ajax move into 5th by a point & 7 points behind AZ

Here are the matches remaining for Ajax, AZ, & NEC (don't think we can catch AZ but you never know)

Match Day 31: Ajax - Excelsior; NEC - AZ

Match Day 32: Vollendam - Ajax; AZ - Twente; Excelsior - NEC

Match Day 33: Ajax - Almere City; Go Ahead Eagles - AZ; NEC - Feyenoord

Match Day 34: Vitesse - Ajax; AZ - Utrecht; Almere City - NEC

[Tom_]

Taylor’s best game in an Ajax shirt that I can remember.

I was not expecting to say this but it was actually a deserved win. Twente only had two chances and their goal came off a hopeful punt into the box. It’s good to see Ajax keep a team quiet, even better that it was the current #3.

[SPL]

Good that NEC only drew. Just hope Feyenoord win the cup as I now have more hope for 5th place

[Amol]

Saw the game yesterday and the 1st half was truly abominable. As soon as we switched back to 4-3-3 in the 2nd half, you could at least sense that most of the players knew where they needed to be, which spaces to run into and where to pass.

I understand why we played the 5-4-1 when both Bergwijn and Berghuis were out and Godts was coming back from injury. But if we have Godts & Bergwijn, lets just stick to 4-3-3 for the last 4 games of this horrendous season.

Also hoping that Hato didn't pick up a bad injury yesterday. He seemed to be touching his right oblique/hamstring. Hopefully a bad case of the cramps.