Ajaxtalk

This is the make up game and PSV are off. A chance to solidify first place.

Brobbey and Baas back training today and will be fit.Hope the flu bug now goes away.

Sutalo is not fit Kaplan and Baas Cd so with Hato thats 3 left footers.Mokio stays at DM ,Henderson benched but may still not be fit enough for a full 90 mins .He had hamstring trouble and Ajax need to mange his playing time.Traore Brobbey Godts up front is fine. Berghuis only sub .

Just win, then 5 points ahead of PSV but 14 clear of 3rd .

Pasveer has just dropped out with flu like syptoms Mattheus starts. Sutalo I assume has flu and Rugani played the other night whilst not 100% fit hence he is sub. I would be happy with a draw with all these players unfit but still hope for a win .

I hope they all get flu vaccinations next season!!!

Quite a tactical (ie boring) half of football. Ajax sat back and played long balls to avoid the press; then GAE stopped pressing and packed the defense and Ajax couldn’t find a way through.

Only interesting thing that happened was Godts getting the most brainless YC I can remember seeing in a while. If I was the coach he would get benched immediately and spend the next training session running laps!

relief Brobbey scored and now they get a red

You have to feel a little sorry for the GAE player. Neither of those fouls get you a yellow every time.

Wow thought it was 1-1 and now 2-0 and thats it.

Had to work for that but a win magic

5 points clear! Not a great game but got there with help from some dicey reffing that mostly went our way.

Also 14 points above third place with 11 games to play. Surely that’s CL group stage locked in now.

Ajax needed a couple of VAR decisions, both of which were correct and not controversial, to cement the win and go five points clear of PSV. Go Ahead Eagles hardly posed a threat from open play but were always worrying to me given their height and strength on free kicks. The apparent goal was ruled off an extended arm and called off. Ajax had a number of excellent scoring opportunities but the shots were either just wide of the frame or blocked by defenders. It took a good run by Brobbey to get the game winner in the 2nd half. Matteus looked good in goal having to come in after Pasveer took ill in the warm ups and he did a credible job. Godts had a wonderful game, despite a silly YC for kicking the ball away; always dangerous on the left wing. The 2nd YC for the GAE defender for a foul on Fitz-Jim was pretty weak. Fitz-Jim did go down but the I didn't think there was much in it.

Player Ratings:

Matteus (7) - solid bit of goal tending and made some decent saves as well as coming way out to kick the ball away, a play that Pasveer never will make
Gaaei (7) - wonderful cross to Edvarssen for the second goal and had a couple of good interventions on defense
Kaplan (6.5) - decent half of defending before being subbed off
Baas (6.5) - played well coming back after missing two games with the flu
Hato (7) - had a good match, very calm on the ball
Klaassen (6.5) - he's always in the right position but his passing continues to be suspect
Taylor (6.5) - decent game with a good chance to score but headed right to the keeper
Mokio (6.5) - got another start and was above average
Traore (6) - had a good lay off pass on the Brobbey goal but how he did not score when gifted the ball on a turnover will remain a mystery
Brobbey (7) - mugged again all game long and didn't get as many calls as he deserved very good goal and you could see his excitement after scoring
Godts (7.5) - dangerous all game long with some decent chances on goal
Rugani (6.5) - good defending and the PK that was called on the pitch was always going to be waived off by VAR as his arms were right against his body
Berghuis (6) - decent coming on to play on the right with Traore moving to the center
Fitz-Jim (6) - good in space but had on howler of a bad pass
Edvardssen (NR) - on for Godts late and scored a nice goal on the Gaaei cross
Konadu (NR) - great to see another youth player get on the pitch

With the Konadu substitution, Ajax are coming close to having more different players take the field in a league match. There was an article about this last week but I cannot remember the number that they need to break the record. Almere City away next week and fortunately, no Thursday night football.

I think that record players used was 37,we were listed at 34 but 2 more today so 36 now used. We are not going to finish lower than 2nd which would be a great season but title is now on.

It was a double good afternoon because my 17 month old granddaughter came over after the game.She is more exhausting than watching football.She seemed to be interested in my various Ajax books!

The press saying we were lucky .I must have been watching a different game.We should have got about 4 .Their defender got 2 yellows ,no luck there.
The only real chance they created looked offside but VAR showed handball .As for the Rugani penalty,words fail me .He had his arms against his body what else was he supposed to do.

We have played 16 European games so far, miles more than PSV and Feyenoord , and our dream of finishing at least 2nd is just about certain. We need 19 points from 11 games for 2nd and CL league stage. The 4 teams battling for 3rd will all drop 8 or 9 points so 10 more points could be enough .

We still have to play 4 of the 5 teams below us and PSV may go on a winning run and be champs but Ajax are already certain of 2nd and its still February.This is not luck we have a fine coach who is getting the maximum out of every players and our game is based on a sound defence ie we have won 8 in a row and let in just 2 goals.18 in 23 games.Nothing lucky about that.

Oh and we have been badly hit by flu this last week unlike our opponents.But that means we see youth getting chances and to the world that is what Ajax is famous for.

After 2 dreadful seasons we fans are getting out club back to where it belongs, 1st. And for this daft 74 year old english fan,its blooming wonderful.

Missed the game as I was on a flight back from Munich. Saw the highlights and am super happy that we pulled out the win after the marathon game on Thursday night!

Football journos… there have been games this season where we *were* lucky to win but this wasn’t really one of them.

The VAR checks were straightforward but a few other calls went our way. Nauber’s second yellow was reasonable but it’s not always given, his first was a bit silly. I guess the ref didn’t have a great game in general.

The pundits are now raving about Farioli which is a complete turnaround from just two months ago. I remember when they were all criticizing his rotation management of players but it turned out to be the right move. He also got them more focused on defense which was a huge issue the past two seasons. I hope we can keep hm for a couple of more years before he heads home to Italy. I worry that Juventus, who have made bad manager choices will come after him this summer particularly if Rugani tells them how good he is.

I remember when they were all criticizing his rotation management of players but it turned out to be the right move. He also got them more focused on defense which was a huge issue the past two seasons.

I have been criticizing our lack of rotation since Bosz's days. So, I've been happily on the contrarian side of this argument as are most of us here.

I'd be extremely happy if Farioli stays for another 2-3 years. He has been incredible for us this year.