24 APR 2024; Ajax - Excelsior; Match Day 31

[Orange14]

Four games left in this horrible season. Feyenoord won the cup so Ajax can puch a ticket to the Europa League by winning out regardless of what NEC does.

[Amol]

Up 1-0 but now Bergwijn seems to have pulled down an Excelsior player in our box. Ref gave a penalty to Excelsior, but VAR is checking

[Amol]

Might turn out to be a penalty and a straight red for Bergwijn. Aarrgghh.

[Amol]

Great job Bergwijn! Red card and a penalty. Correct decision IMO.

We need to get this garbage of a player out of Amsterdam.

[Amol]

1-1 now. Down to 10 for the next 50 odd minutes.

[SPL]

Brobbey off injured .Bergwijn's last appearance in an Ajax shirt . Even if its a 2 match ban I dont want to see him in our shirt again. If we end up 6th then I would sell the whole squad and start again.

[Orange14]

I NEVER want to see Bergwijn in an Ajax shirt. What a total waste of money. Even a 35 year old Tadic is a better player. Just disgusting.

[Amol]

Agree with SPL. Our downfall coincidentally started when we purchased Bergwijn. Sick and tired of him.

[Orange14]

Brobbey off injured .Bergwijn's last appearance in an Ajax shirt . Even if its a 2 match ban

Unfortunately, DOGSO RCs are only a one match ban.

[SPL]

If we can scrape a point from this game NEC play AZ on Sunday which wont be easy for them. If this shower of rubbish currently pretending to be Ajax footballers finish 5th it will be a small miracle. 6th place and sell everyone of them

[Amol]

Excelsior just scored their 2nd.

Hato didn't block the cross and Rensch umm had
1. no idea about what was happening or
2. no interest in marking his player or
3. no interest in heading off the cross.

[Amol]

Gaaei now on for Tahirovic. Are we trying to protect a lead or something?

[Amol]

By a stroke of luck we ended up equalizing. Ended 2-2.

[SPL]

A lucky point. Utter rubbish and I dont think we will win our last 3 games , Vitesse will beat us, I predict 7th place as NEC and Utrecht will overtake us.

[Orange14]

This Ajax team continues to surprise in a not so good way. Bergwijn was rightly sent off in the 38th minute for a DOGSO RC (too bad it's only a one game suspension, I wish it were three!). 10 man Ajax were resolute in defending and never gave up attacking; in fact, some of their pressing was as good as we've seen this season. Excelsior went up 2-1 on one of the prettiest crosses that Resnsch was really oblivious to, and the Excelsior attacker had free header into Rulli's net. Rensch redeemed himself late in the match with a driving run and cross that Akpom bundled in so Ajax record of never having lost to Excelsior stays intact. The four easy matches to end the season are not proving to be so easy after all and it is still no guarantee that Ajax can finish in fifth place.

Player Ratings:

Rulli (5.5) - went the wrong way on the PK and had no chance on the second goal but really had no difficult saves to make
Rensch (6.5) - key to both Ajax goals but gets taken down a bit for poor defending on the 2nd Excelsior goal
Sutalo (7) - strong all match, mistake free for a change
Kaplan (6) - decent enough
Hato (6) - he is really not a RB as he was beaten several times by the winger on his side, but he is so calm on the ball
Mannswerk (6) - worked hard defensively when Ajax went down a man but still unconvinced that he is a long term solution in the MR
Tahirovic (6) - worked hard but with his limited ability should be moving on this summer
Taylor (5.5) - worked hard as usual but the horribly weak back pass to Rulli was almost disastrous
Godts (5) - dribbled into double teams all match long and needs to watch some David Neres film to see how to really play on the wing
Brobbey (5) - don't know what the ailment was tonight but he came off in the first half
Bergwijn (2) - points for putting on the shorts and shirt properly and it's time to move on for one of the worst transfers in Ajax history
Akpom (6) - increddly hard worker coming in for Brobbey, never gives up and got the goal that tied the match
Gaaei (5.5) - came on in the 2nd half and added some speed down the right side, he remains an interesting player to me but needs to improve his reading of the game
van den Boomen (NR) - on late but other than some cross field passes did not impact the game
Rijkoff (NR) - no impact
Sosa (NR) - on late and had a couple of crosses

Ajax are two points afhead of NEC who are home to AZ this weekend. A win by AZ pretty much locks up fourth place but they have been really up and down this second half of the season.

[Tom_]

Every time you think you’ve seen the worst from this group. They are (collectively) so bad with the ball at their feet they can’t even create chances against Excelsior at home.

[SPL]

Only hope for 5th place is NEC play AZ and Feyenoord and go to Excelsior who are fighting to finish above RKC and avoid relegation playoff.Almere away as well. Sadly I dont think this woefully poor Ajax team are capable of winning their last 3 games. They will certainly not win 2 playoff games for the Conference League.

Looking back to January break Ajax should have bought in a quality coach and Henderson clearly a mistake. Think he has played his last game.Staying in England getting ready for Euros.

I have one big wish for the last 3 games,other than winning all 3 which is obvious. Bergwijn never wears our shirt again. If he plays at home to Almere hope the fans jeer him .The worst signing in our 124 years.30m and he really is rubbish. Who would buy him!!