14 Nov 2010: AZ - Ajax

[Orange14]

This goes down in my book as one of the five poorest performances in recent history. Absolutely no clue about how to play and you could see by the players expressions on the pitch that they pretty much have given up. Too much trying to force play into the defense with the result of giving up possession. Fullbacks not coming forward to create mismatches on offense; midfielders standing around. At this point I don't think we can salvage anything out of this season and if we are worse than third by January (a real possibility) look for key players to be sold since financially we cannot support the wage bill unless we win the Eredivisie.

Bottom line; Jol has lost the confidence of this team (but maybe there is nobody out there other than Wenger or Morinho who could manage it). Very disappointing.

[acab]

The refs are fucking with us since the last game of the last season (remember Jener red card by NAC-Twente, when the result was still 0-0). This season it just continues. Excelsior game, Gheracles (clear penalty 4 us 4 handball), ado game, and now. In the same tame, remember the penalty 4 Twente against ado when the result was 1-2.
But today Jol showed once more, that he has no clue what to do. I knew it was going to be like that ever since the Dynamo second game and the game against F-word.

[SPL]

stream went off after 80 mins so missed the sending off. A woeful performance . Jol should go now.
He clearly wants to be back in England so he should resign.

[Amol]

Who do we get to replace him? Over-reliance on Suarez is one of the causes of this malaise. When the defense gets the ball, they just pass it back to Steks or up front to Suarez. Steks just hoofs it up to the other team usually. When the mid-field gets the ball, they just try to pass it to Suarez. If Suarez doesn't get the ball, he starts pulling back to the half line and all our forward play starts in that weird spot by the right side of the half line.

[saddlerian]

I remember say on August 17 "Jol's got to make a decision.....Suarez CANNOT play with El Hamadoui....just doesn't work! The latter did absolutely nothing to help the cause tonight!!!!" I think that was against Kiev.

It's starting to come home now as Suarez's form has dropped dramatically....they can both score if the ball's there, but the manufacture of goals has dried up!

Even without the "playmaker" in the middle of the park, we were still able to score goals and get results towards the end of last term, but this "new" line up is, as I suggested, starting to falter!

No, I'm not happy about it, it's not very nice to be almost proved right when you'd like to be wrong for the team's sake....but, it ain't working!

Nobody seemed to play with any real passion today against AZ, even though the season almost depended on this result! We're now 6 points behind PSV....got them at home next week, which, if we lose, means the season is totally "closed"....and this by November 20!!!!

God knows what the "Powers that be" will do about this, but the usual "Clearout and re-start" just does not work! I know we all clamour for success as Ajax are the biggest team in Holland.....but "big" isn't always "best".

I think we need that fairy with the magic wand now.....no idea where to go, who to blame.....

I'll still be there next week against PSV....not going to do what some of the players have done......maybe we can learn from Aston Villa's performance yesterday when quite a few younsters were put in against Manchester United.......they were told, "Go out there and enjoy yourselves....do what you do best...play football!" They weren't shown stupid little maps which told them where to go on the pitch....they played with their hearts....OK, they didn't win the match....but their effort was outstanding. maybe that's the way forward...let people play their natural game....just got to make sure that the right type of players with the right attitude get the shirts.

Maybe that playmaker is there, somewhere in Europe....just got to find the little bugger!!!

[kezme44]

fuck it, there goes the title.

jol saying ajax not good enough physically and mentally.

[Orange14]

jol saying ajax not good enough physically and mentally.

If Jol did in fact say this to reporters, he is dumber than I thought. This is a sure fire way to lose what every confidence your players had in you. It's fine for him to accept blame that he did not prepare the team, but NO manager worth his salt blames the players. Bottom line is the same as it has been all season long, the team has no clue how to build up offensively. 11 tegen 11 has already pointed out the flaws in the Ajax strategy and it appears that Jol hasn't a clue how to handle things. I disagree with Ian about el Hamdaoui and Suarez; I think they can be an effective partnership but maybe the sacred 4-3-3 needs to be sacrificed to make it work. Having a playmaker would be great but the Xavis and Sneijders of the world are few and far between. To compensate, movement in the midfield is what is required and if you look at the play of our midfield, it is totally static. Nobody is moving into open spaces. We make one pass to one of the forwards and everyone stands around to see what will happen next. How many times today did Suarez and el Hamdaoui try to get through 2 or 3 players?

[SPL]

I watched Jol giving an interview on BBc yesterday and what came across was he wants to be back in England and was very pleased to say he has a house in East London which is now empty ,had been rented out to a Spurs player. He obvously wanted the Fulham job and it is this fact that he clearly does not want to be here is my reason why I hope he goes.His heart is clearly not in this club . He does seem to have lost it tactically in recent games . If one or 2 players play badly thats football but when everyone except the goalie plays badly and not just this week then you have to look at the coach .

If God forbid we lose at home next week then he and the board who share the blame will be lucky to get out the Arena alive . The board of course would not let Rommendahl or Pantelic have 2 year contracts and stay which is what Jol wanted to happen . Maybe he has been fed up with the club since!

My opinion means nothing but I will be surprised if he is still here come January . In fact once West Ham sack their manager I will put money on Jol getting that job. Jol is one more defeat away from going in my book.

Where we go from there I do not know. If Jol does not go in January he will certainly go at the end of the season as the whole team will need rebuilding . You think I joke but 11 first team squad players have contracts up and will all leave and of the remaining 18 some will be sold so yes I do think we need someone who has Ajax in his heart and can work with youth. Yes I would like Rijkaard or Van Gaal but neither would consider the job so that leaves Frank de Boer with Blind and Bergkamp as his assistants. They will have to rebuild .

[Monkey Tonk]

This is not really Jol's fault. And he was right last week when he said that he could use a winger.

Let trace this back a few steps to the start of 2010. He had Ajax playing well in 2010, before the summer break. Then came the World Cup, where Suarez did excellent. Everybody, including Suarez, expected that he would leave Ajax after that. Ajax anticipated the move and did the only thing it could by contracting his replacement (El Ham). But then came the surprise: Suarez stayed...

As a result Jol was, pretty much, forced to play with two strikers. With no quality wing players to turn to. And with the rest of his team already build upon the 3 strikers concept. The players are as confused as Jol. They all knew what they were working towards last year, but not this season. And there will not be a solution as long as Suarez and El Ham are both in the starting line-up. Ajax should try to trade either one of this strikers for a first class wing player. That will restore the balance on the pitch.

The way I read Jol's words in the press last week, -the ones rather heavily criticized by Ko-, was that his team was out of balance, because the above situation was forced upon him (but of course he couldn't say that in so many words; so he voiced his frustration in a less transparent, and somewhat unfortunate manner). He doesn't need two strikers to start the game. Nor did he, or anyone at Ajax, ask for that. He needs a team in balance.

It may be too late for Jol, though. Dark clouds have been gathering over the Arena. Heads are about to roll. Again.

[Cedric]

He needs a team in balance.

This is why Ooijer plays? That Van der Wiel, Enoh, De Zeeuw and so on are that crap?
Coaching a team is not only about fielding 11 players in a 4-3-3 system. At least I expect a bit more... He can complains about wingers, but he can also do its job. I mean it's not because El Hamdaoui and Suarez are playing together that you can lose at home against ADO Den Haag...

[Monkey Tonk]

Jol should have been able to put a halt to the confusion. The concepts he teaches should be so clear that everybody would still understand their role (as well as those of others). He has not done so. But he didn't start this downward spiral.

Ooijer was a band aid. An answer to the fact that, early in the season, Ajax was getting in the habit of giving up 2 goal leads. I'm disappointed in Jol's ability to teach and get everybody on the same page. Still, if I had to point at the moment where the confusion and lack of confidence began, for this coach and team, it would be the Suarez non-trade. Not because Suarez isn't the best Ajax player, but because, after El Ham was acquired, it messed up the spacing on the field (on that point I believe Cruyff and Jol to be in agreement). Without wing players the same midfielders that looked fine last season now suddenly look clueless, because they have no natural continuation to a flowing attack. It's a cascading effect. Instead of playing fast and effective possession football, now you start losing the ball too often, leaving the defense vulnerable, and so on.

[Orange14]

I have to disagree about the presence of el Hamdaoui and Suarez being problematic. Last year we started Pantelic as striker most of the time and Luis floated from right to left wing depending on the circumstances. Why is this any different now with el Hamdaoui as the striker. The blunt fact is that the midfield is terribly static and they just stand around after making a pass. I know that we are not Barca but if you watch there matches everyone is moving into space so that if the ball holder is facing two defenders there is an easy pass out to look for someone else (and Barca doesn't even play with a classic striker after getting rid of Zlatan). Our offense regularly is playing 3 against 5 and this has been amply documented on the 11 tegen 11 website.

Regarding Oojier, why is it that the he needs to play over Toby. If you look at last year, we had the best defense in the league during the second half of the season. Something has gone terribly wrong this year and maybe there are multiple faults. The manager has to play the cards he has been dealt and I see nothing in Jol's performance to date that suggests he is doing anything but playing out the string.

[Philippe]

We are very lucky to have such an early crisis.
Thus we can start over right now.
Jol seems to be willing to cross the Channel : let him go at the winter break. By the way, he has no excuse whatsoever. We lost no key player at the end of last season.
By then we will be out of the CL, as we already are out of the title race. So all we have to lose is time.
And let's hear now what JC has to say.

[SPL]

As a fan I should never want anyone suspended but at least Ooijer will miss the next 2 league games and hopefully Jol will pick Toby.Ooijer has not over impressed me this season and Toby did nothing wrong to be dropped.