17 Mar 2011: FC Spartak Moskva - Ajax

[SE6Ajacied]

He saved it with his bloody penis!!!

Not sure I spotted that but they do say all the best players are able to innovate. Brings a whole new meaning to the term total football........

[souras84]

We got eliminated by a bloody keeper. First in Amsterdam and now here

[souras84]

He saved it with his bloody penis!!!

Not sure I spotted that but they do say all the best players are able to innovate. Brings a whole new meaning to the term total football........

And you got your total football there

[Orange14]

They did not quit and Verhoeven comes up with a good save to close off a break away at the end. Unlucky not to have scored a goal or two this evening. Let's hope for a safe flight home and some rest before the big match on Sunday. We can now focus on the league championship. Twente are through to the next round as Zenit only scored twice this evening.

[SPL]

A much better second half and we should have scored. I wondered why Eriksen went off and de Jong and de Zeeuw were left on but clearly de Boer had given up and decided to save Eriksen for Sunday .Do not see him getting subbed many more times this season.

Hope we do not see de Jong playing up front any more and hope we do not see de Zeeuw at all. Cvitanich has to start every game and if he runs out of steam gamble by sticking on Castillion .This of course is assuming El H wont play again .

[Kowalczyk]

Stekelenburg would not have let that third one in, I think... But anyway: I expected something like this.

ADO away is more important anyway, as we have a bigger chance of winning the Eredivisie than the Europa League.

K.

[Orange14]

Another nice analysis by 11 tegen 11 on today's game: http://11tegen11.wordpress.com/2011/03/ ... formation/ I think they pretty much have it right and it's one of the problems with a young team.

[aveslacker]

Dear Frank:

Please bench De Zeeuw immediately. And while you're at it, how about you drop De Jong into midfield and start Cvitanich as the striker.

Ok?

Thanks,

Aveslacker

[aveslacker]

Another nice analysis by 11 tegen 11 on today's game: http://11tegen11.wordpress.com/2011/03/ ... formation/ I think they pretty much have it right and it's one of the problems with a young team.

It's not just a young team, either. A lot of these articles highlight how Frank is a bit slow to make tactical changes after his opposite number changes things around. This has cost Ajax points before. Hopefully this is part of Frank's learning curve as a manager.

[Philippe]

Humiliating. We made fun of ourselves.
A few thoughts after the disaster :
Pizzaman : let's get anyone else but him, some keeper from young Ajax,
Siem De Jong just can't play as central striker at top level, let's give El Hamdaoui another chance,
Sulejmani : slow ball loser,
De Zeeuw : invisible, never recovered since his WC injury,
Blind : played well,
Anita, van der Wiel : who ? where ?
Ebecilio : very good,
Eriksen :excellent,
Ozbiliz : excellent.
Special thanks to the club's management who did not consider any replacement to Suarez or Emanuelson.

[Philippe]

start Cvitanich as the striker.

the man who can't score from the penalty spot ?

[SPL]

Not sure Blind played well. The Irish winger took him apart imo and thats why Anita played left back in the 2nd half.

[aveslacker]

start Cvitanich as the striker.

the man who can't score from the penalty spot ?

Considering that Siem is an even worse finisher and El Hamdaoui is unlikely to ever play for Ajax again, what other options do we realistically have?

[Orange14]

Humiliating. We made fun of ourselves.
A few thoughts after the disaster :
Pizzaman : let's get anyone else but him, some keeper from young Ajax,

Special thanks to the club's management who did not consider any replacement to Suarez or Emanuelson.

Don't slag off on Verhoeven for his performance last night. He did every thing asked of him. Sure Stekelenberg would have probably saved the free kick but because of his height and reach not reaction time as Verhoeven was quick to move to the ball. He did not spill any shot. If you saw the Jong match on Monday you would realize that Bizot is not any better (and in my mind any one parries the ball right back into the middle of the field as he did is not a prime time player). Our other young keeper, Padt is out on loan and cannot return to the club until after the season. We have an U-17 NT keeper but I'm not sure one would want to throw him to the wolves at this stage in his career.

Regarding your other point, the club had to bank the money from both those sales (though we only got pocket change for Urby) to balance the books.

[Orange14]

Another nice analysis by 11 tegen 11 on today's game: http://11tegen11.wordpress.com/2011/03/ ... formation/ I think they pretty much have it right and it's one of the problems with a young team.

It's not just a young team, either. A lot of these articles highlight how Frank is a bit slow to make tactical changes after his opposite number changes things around. This has cost Ajax points before. Hopefully this is part of Frank's learning curve as a manager.

He's been a first team manager for three months now and I think has shown his mettle at getting a team prepared to play. The tough job ahead is game management which is a more difficult task. I think he's up to it.

[Philippe]

Regarding your other point, the club had to bank the money from both those sales (though we only got pocket change for Urby) to balance the books.

Sometime you can borrow money to prepare for the future, they call it investment.

[Orange14]

Regarding your other point, the club had to bank the money from both those sales (though we only got pocket change for Urby) to balance the books.

Sometime you can borrow money to prepare for the future, they call it investment.

Yes, but one can go too much into debt by relying on money from CL and EL and end up in the toilet. Just look down the road to Rotterdam to see what can happen! In truth, our recent forays into the transfer market have been less than successful.

[Philippe]

We got the money from the CL, and from the transfers. Where has it gone to ?

[aveslacker]

We got the money from the CL, and from the transfers. Where has gone to ?

Probably to pay off our debts.

[SPL]

not sure we had debts as such but the money is going to pay the wages of players like Sno, Oleguer ,
Atouba who between them are earning approx 5m euros for nil return .

[souras84]

how soon till we get rid of them, especially atouba

[Orange14]

not sure we had debts as such but the money is going to pay the wages of players like Sno, Oleguer ,
Atouba who between them are earning approx 5m euros for nil return .

There was a deficit from last season and the season before. While there has been sufficient working capital in excess of the deficits (unlike NAC who apparently have to come up with €2 M today to pay bills and Feyenoord who are dancing on a financial tightrope), one cannot keep this up indefinitely. The other big problem is that the club does not own the Arena (unlike FC Twente who do own their stadium) and have to pay rent (and also miss out on income from other activities that the Arena might be used for). I read the financial accounting from the most recent fiscal year and the club is in decent enough financial shape. There probably will be room for €15 M for transfers once they figure out who from the youth will go under contract and take into account the recovery of the salaries from the players SPL mentions. I suspect that they did not do anything in January as they did not see any players at a reasonable price who could help the team.

[SPL]

We get rid of those players at the end of June.

Just to go back to last nights game I was watching the goals again on tv and probably think Steks would have saved 2 of them but again we are talking about one of the best goalies in the world.

[Philippe]

Can't find the worst player poll anymore. Very strange.