26 Mar 2006: Ajax - NAC Breda

[Kowalczyk]

Five more league games to go... This is #30 of the season.

Vermaelen will be suspended, obviously. As for the injuries: Galásek and Maduro should be ready for Sunday. Mitea, Grygera and Sneijder are close to a return, but I don't expect to see them in this game. Heitinga and Emanuelson will definitely not play.

As for Steven Pienaar: today we'll hear more about his injury, but it doesn't look good. Sounds like we'll have to do without him for a couple of weeks.

K.

[saddlerian]

As for the injuries: Galásek and Maduro should be ready for Sunday. Mitea, Grygera and Sneijder are close to a return, but I don't expect to see them in this game.
K.

:headbang: :headbang:
Some reasonable news at last! I can't wait to see Mitea providing Huntelaar and Rosenberg with some decent crosses; with Sneijder there will be a little more bite in the centre of midfield, and with Grygera, the defence might look a little more solid. After saying this, I feel that the kids who came in on Sunday must be congratulated, especially Anita, who gave a very impressive performance.
Was Blind right to "blood" the youngsters, or not? I don't know, but at least we can see what's coming through the ranks!
ROLL ON NEXT SEASON!!!! (after winning the Cup and getting a Champions League place, that is!!)
:xyxthumbs: :xyxthumbs:

[DanK]

...Was Blind right to "blood" the youngsters, or not? I don't know, but at least we can see what's coming through the ranks!
ROLL ON NEXT SEASON!!!! (after winning the Cup and getting a Champions League place, that is!!)
:xyxthumbs: :xyxthumbs:

Actually seeing a few of these youngsters getting a run, does give me encouragement for next season.

Its always been a great part of the Ajax tradition each season as a few new faces roll-off the production line. It wouldn't be an Ajax season without it.

I still remember when Patrick Kluivert scored on his debut in the shield (?) and Martin Tyler saying "remember the name...", or seeing a young Bryan Roy spinning around 5 or 6 players (but actually going nowhere!) etc.

I wish I would have been able to see a young van Basten, Rijkaard etc coming up that would have been sweet. :yes:

[Kowalczyk]

The expected line-up according to Ajax Netwerk:

Stekelenburg; Trabelsi, Maduro, Boakye, Juanfran; Galásek, Lindenbergh, Boukhari; Rosales, Huntelaar, Rosenberg.

Thomas Vermaelen is suspended for this game. Wesley Sneijder is ready for group training, but not match-fit yet. Zdenek Grygera, Nicolae Mitea, Edgar Manucharyan, Johnny Heitinga and Urby Emanuelson still injured. Tomás Galásek is not 100% sure to play. If the staff decide that he's unable to play the full 90, Vurnon Anita will probably start instead.

NAC Breda have their problems as well. One of their excellent wingers, Anouar Diba, is suspended. Injured are Tony Vidmar, Mike Zonneveld, Rob Penders and our good mate Victor Sikora.

NAC are generally expected to play Ajax in a 4-3-3 line-up, with former Feyenoord 'boy wonder' Leonardo as their centre forward and the excellent Julian Jenner as one of the wingers (I still think we should sign that guy!).

K.

[Feest]

Uh, Ko, NAC dropped the 4-3-3 system months ago when they sacked Lokhoff and hired Lok. They'll most likely play Ajax in a 4-4-2 with Vonlanthen and Leonardo up front. Leonardo is a guy who's always done well at the ArenA. Jenner'll start on the bench.

[Rembrandt III]

no... miralo: http://www.nac.nl/voetbal/nieuwsdetail. ... ht_id=4131

[Kowalczyk]

Uh, Ko, NAC dropped the 4-3-3 system months ago when they sacked Lokhoff and hired Lok.

Lok announced that they'll play 4-3-3 at their press conference on Friday... He also more or less confirmed that Vonlanthen will start on the bench.

K.

[Feest]

Ok, I missed that press conference.

[LouisXIV & co]

Lok announced that they'll play 4-3-3 at their press conference on Friday...

Hmmm ok, but the fact that they play 4-3-3 at the press conference doesn't necessarely mean that they'll play 4-3-3 during the match ;) :D

[saddlerian]

:headbang: :headbang:
Who cares what system as long as we win! :xyxthumbs: :xyxthumbs:

[Kowalczyk]

:headbang: :headbang:
Who cares what system as long as we win! :xyxthumbs: :xyxthumbs:

WTF? Where are you? You're supposed to be in Amsterdam... Are you in an internet café or something?

K.

[SPL]

1-0 already KJH cannot stop scoring.

With Babel in the team Rosenberg appears to be in midfield!!

[dws]

Mendes da silva goal for NAC: superb strike from outside the penalty box .

Very sloppy second half from Ajax.

Steke and Boakye have saved Ajax on a few occasions.

[dws]

Huntelaar just fails to score at the death X'C

Utrecht move 1 point clear of Ajax after a late winner in the match V's Heracles. X'C

[Kowalczyk]

Extremely pissed off by this one!

The start was perfect, but Ajax should have been warned by the fact that NAC had like three amazing scoring chances in the first half alone. In the second half Ajax continued to play nonchalantly and sloppily, NAC created a few more BIG chances and eventually equalized.

Ajax just f**king FELL ASLEEP in the second half!!! They were asking for this and I can't STAND it, given the table!!! Question is: do we (the fans) really want it more than the players...??

Utrecht leapfrogged us - and both Heerenveen and Groningen are now within 'striking range'. A defeat next week (at Roda, who will do everything to take revenge for the cup game) and we'll be F*CKED!!

I hate them for this one!

K.

[Arthur]

I'll be glad if we don't make the play-offs now. That would only result in two or four humiliating defeats and finishing sixth or lower will give the board an(other) incentive to kick Blind's arse of the Ajaxbench.

Let's save all our luck for the cup final and be glad that we got a Uefa cup spot out of this horrible season.

[Kowalczyk]

I'll be glad if we don't make the play-offs now. That would only result in two or four humiliating defeats and finishing sixth or lower will give the board an(other) incentive to kick Blind's arse of the Ajaxbench.

Let's save all our luck for the cup final and be glad that we got a Uefa cup spot out of this horrible season.

Amen!

K.

[carcajou]

I'll be glad if we don't make the play-offs now. That would only result in two or four humiliating defeats and finishing sixth or lower will give the board an(other) incentive to kick Blind's arse of the Ajaxbench.

Let's save all our luck for the cup final and be glad that we got a Uefa cup spot out of this horrible season.

Amen!

K.

Bullshit. Let's finish in the top 5 and grab the Champions' League spot. Let's win the Cup as well. All the other teams have players who are not used to that many games in a season, they'll all be tired. The physical training at Ajax is more professional, and we have a lot of injuries. We can do it without any problem. UEFA cup sucks so much, I don't want Ajax to play against Besiktas Istanbul or fuckng FC Tallin. We belong in the Champions' League with the best teams in Europe. Period.

[SPL]

We might belong in the Champions League but on our overall performances this season we are lucky we are in UEFA Cup. Take out those recent 5 games where we won against poor teams and the rest of the season has been crap. We were lucky we had those 5 games when we did.

We can still get to the playoffs with 3 wins and a draw and of course some of our injured will be fit. We have missed Grygera and Sneijder badly but every team gets injuries.

The one big mistake this club made was selling De Jong when our midfield was alraedy weak.!! The 700k Euros we got for him will mean nothing if we do not get into CL next season.

Since the christmas break we have had at least 6 injured so we have in fact had a first team squad of 13 many of whom are not good enough.

AZ and Fword should be contesting the playoffs as they are miles better than those in 4th and 5th but playoffs usually throw up something unexpected. Heerenveen or Groningen will probably win the playoffs.

A win at Roda is a must.

[Arthur]

The physical training at Ajax is more professional, and we have a lot of injuries.

Doesn't that sound like a contradiction to you? ;)

Physical training at Ajax is virtually non-existant. It's telling that SQD worked on his strength voluntarily (because no one told him to), and that he was the only one :sad:
You might also recall that we often have a lot of problems when physically tough opponents push our midgets aside so they don't even have the chance to show their technical abilities.

You're seriously overestimating Ajax' professionalism. We can only hope it will get better with Van Geel in charge.

[Manneken Pis]

WILL PEOPLE PLEASE STOP BEING POLITE...............


BLIND OUT
BOARD OUT
LET's START BUILDING FOR NEXT YEAR INSTEAD OF PRETENDING THE EMPEROR HAS CLOTHES ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


:fundamentje:

[dws]

The physical training at Ajax is more professional, and we have a lot of injuries.

Doesn't that sound like a contradiction to you? ;)

Physical training at Ajax is virtually non-existant. It's telling that SQD worked on his strength voluntarily (because no one told him to), and that he was the only one :sad:
You might also recall that we often have a lot of problems when physically tough opponents push our midgets aside so they don't even have the chance to show their technical abilities.

You're seriously overestimating Ajax' professionalism. We can only hope it will get better with Van Geel in charge.

Agree with Arthur on the physical training.

Ajax seem to believe that a player can attain the required conditioning by taking part in sessions which replicate game conditions/situations. They need to reintroduce strength and conditioning elements to their training.

[carcajou]

Doesn't that sound like a contradiction to you? ;)

Physical training at Ajax is virtually non-existant. It's telling that SQD worked on his strength voluntarily (because no one told him to), and that he was the only one :sad:
You might also recall that we often have a lot of problems when physically tough opponents push our midgets aside so they don't even have the chance to show their technical abilities.

You're seriously overestimating Ajax' professionalism. We can only hope it will get better with Van Geel in charge.

Really? Now that is a disappointment. I mean, injuries don't always have something with unproper physical training... But if what you're saying is true then it's more than time for Ajax to enter the third millennium, because I know that all the top notch clubs around work a lot on the physical aspect.

[Over Pasanens Head]

The one big mistake this club made

I think SPL that you have underestimated the big mistakes the club have made over the season.

[carcajou]

The one big mistake this club made was selling De Jong when our midfield was alraedy weak.!! The 700k Euros we got for him will mean nothing if we do not get into CL next season.

MODE BROKEN RECORD : ON

And don't forget about selling Escudé, one of the best players of the past season (I remember a post where Ko thought he was the man of the season).