20 Oct 2012: Heracles Almelo - Ajax

[souras84]

Meanwhile in Eindhoven, psv are 0-2 down to Willem II...

[Orange14]

What a bonehead play by Vermeer. Never kick to the short middle when the man is getting pressure!

[rjf1]

It's a result of them reverting to pitty patting the ball at the back instead of playing forward. They never learn.

[souras84]

Another awful game by Eriksen. Orange14 I expect something lower than 6 tonight

[Tom_]

That looked onside to me! Be annoyed Heracles score now...

[souras84]

De Jong another tragic game... made a bad pass for no reason

[Tom_]

Ridiculous! de Boer looks a bit stupid for subbing Schöne now

[rjf1]

We truly deserved that for the way we played at the end of the game. I get so sick of that pitty pat crap. If it weren't for Vermeer making 2 fantastic saves during that spell we would have lost this game -- and deservedly so.

[souras84]

What a bunch of idiots...

[orange goblin]

The goal of Babel was not offside, just saying

[SPL]

well Vermeer cost us 2 goals what with his poor kick and then watching the 3rd go in .2 great saves by him though.Babel was on side so we could say we were unlucky but overall we did not deserve to win .Not sure de Sa or Fischer even touched the ball between them.

Very poor by us in this second half.

[souras84]

when playing a game like this, why on earth would you throw 2 youngsters in? we were trying to keep the score for Gods sake

[Orange14]

Three garbage goals conceded and points are dropped. I have no idea where van Rhijn was on the third goal. Alderwiereld was hung out to dry with no help at all. 2nd goal was Vermeer's fault plain and simple; you cannot short kick the ball up the middle when the man is under pressure, particularly in a match like this one where rough play is not called. 1st goal was unfortunate as the ball ping ponged around in the penalty area. Just a terrible match. I'm just plain disgusted with the performance in the last 20 minutes.

Player Ratings:

Vermeer (6) - only because he made a point blank save to prevent a certain 3rd goal
Blind (7) - very solid game yet again
Moisander (7) - good positioning throughout the match and didn't make any mistakes with the ball
Alderwiereld (6.5) - could he have done better on the third goal? Don't know
van Rhijn (6.5) - OK for the most part but I'm not sure where he was on the 3rd goal
Poulsen (6.5) - good for the first 75 minutes but maybe ran out of gas in the final 15
Eriksen (7) - much better today than in past matches
Schöne (7) - responsible for the first two Ajax goals and generally good on the ball
Boerrigter (6) - still not playing like last season and only on the pitch for a half
de Jong (6.5) - did he do anything influential in the match?
Sana (6.5) - on and off match, sometimes good and sometimes poor, could have made some better decisions with the ball
Babel (7) - brought on needed energy, hard to tell from the feed I had whether he was off side on the disallowed goal
de Sa (NR) - not on long enough
Fischer (NR) - not on long enough

Well we have ManCity coming up and this will probably end out European adventures as I cannot see us beating them. A draw would be great but I suspect they will score and I'm not sure that we have anyone who can beat Joe Hart.

[Orange14]

The goal of Babel was not offside, just saying

Did you have a good view of it? My feed never showed a level replay and from the angle I thought he was onside.

[SPL]

Taking Schone off if say Sporkslede was on the bench would have been fair enough but for a young winger who would normally have been playing for the A1 youths today !!!!

[SPL]

still wonder what will happen if say Moisander and Toby were both out injured or suspended? Poulsen and Veltman ! Anyway I agree Poulsen ran out of stream in the last 15 mis
and thus my comment yesterday that we were a midfielder short.Ligeon has played a couple of times for Jong at midfield but is an out and out right back. Sporkslede was good enough to come on v Real Madrid but does get on the bench today.

In the week FDB said he would rather Fischer play 90 mins for the youths than sit on the bench for the first and play 10 mins . So today he drops Hoesen and brings in Fischer who gets 10 mins and does not touch the ball!!

I know they should not have got a shot in for the 3rd but Vermeer never moved just watched it go in. I am still not a fan of his although he is a fine shot stopper.

[Orange14]

@SPL- I agree that there have been some strange decisions by FdB regarding match day rosters and substitutions. You are right about Vermeer; he's a phenomenal shot blocker but that's about it. He cannot kick and doesn't get the offense moving quickly enough. the team really misses Anita.

[SPL]

only plus point from last night is that Twente dropped 2 points and apart from the game against us have not faced any other teams at the top.We thus are still 5 points off the top
but that may change next week as we are always poor after the CL and its only F Word next Sunday

The ref admitted Babel's goal was not offside, that was clear from replay on TV but in this case we cannot say that cost us the game ,ok it would have been 4-2 and the game won but the manner of the 2nd and 3rd goals was just school boy mistakes imo. Toby was backing away all the time for the 3rd and thus let the guy shoot but Vermeer just watched the ball go in.

We are now half way through our fixtures for the first half of the season ,well we will be once Man City stuff us on Weds. We can still blame ourselves for not being top of the table ie Sporkslede's og v Utrecht cost us 2 points and V Rhijn's dreadful back pass cost 2 more points v Heerenveen I think it was that drawn game .Last night's throwing away points defies belief .

It will be interesting to see if Twente and Vitesse both with weak squads numbers wise continue to press at the top but we will at least be better once Enoh and Siggy are back and even Serero.All 3 are very experienced compared with say 5 of last nights sub ie Serero has already played more games for Ajax than Veltman Ligeon Dijks Fischer and de Sa put together. If Sulejmani stays for the whole season and actually gets match fit that also will be a bonus.

As for the defence I have already commented on the there being nil experience in reserve but although Moisander has settled in well and with Toby the central defenders are alright V Rhijn seems to still be struggling and again imo Blind is playing better . Vermeer I said last night a fine shot stopper but cannot kick a ball to save his life.Every time he goes to kick a ball I hold my breath and gives me no confidence. I cannot actually think of any English Premier clubs who have a goalie on their subs bench who costs 4m euros .

I am sure many will disagree with me but Ajax need a new goalie preferably one who can actually kick a ball properly .

[rjf1]

Last night's game reminded me of nothing so much as a Stoke vs Arsenal match, where the talented team cracks under the bullying and the pressure, and panics to the point where they cannot put two passes together and get stampeded into submission. And it happens to them both for the same reasons -- which, as I have maintained all along, is that you can't build a team solely of youngsters -- you need to mix in older, experienced players who know how to remain calm under pressure, and can stand up to the bully-boy tactics without cringing like a cowed dog with its tail between its legs.

[Orange14]

I agree with SPL about the need for a new keeper. In addition to his poor kicking, Vermeer is just a little too short to help out punching out corners which is the real bane of this team. I don't know whether Cillessen is the answer or not, he is much better at distributing the ball and gets plays going quickly. Also agree with rjf1 in terms of this team not having enough steel to avoid being bullied on the pitch. The Arsenal comparison is apt and one can see whenever we play these types of teams the squad goes into a shell.

[Kowalczyk]

Oh dear.

K.

[aveslacker]

It will be interesting to see if Twente and Vitesse both with weak squads numbers wise continue to press at the top but we will at least be better once Enoh and Siggy are back and even Serero.All 3 are very experienced compared with say 5 of last nights sub ie Serero has already played more games for Ajax than Veltman Ligeon Dijks Fischer and de Sa put together. If Sulejmani stays for the whole season and actually gets match fit that also will be a bonus.

As for the defence I have already commented on the there being nil experience in reserve but although Moisander has settled in well and with Toby the central defenders are alright V Rhijn seems to still be struggling and again imo Blind is playing better . Vermeer I said last night a fine shot stopper but cannot kick a ball to save his life.Every time he goes to kick a ball I hold my breath and gives me no confidence. I cannot actually think of any English Premier clubs who have a goalie on their subs bench who costs 4m euros .

I am sure many will disagree with me but Ajax need a new goalie preferably one who can actually kick a ball properly .

It says something about Ajax (and not necessarily something bad) when we are saying that Siggy is "very experienced."

Also, I don't know what Lloris is making to ride the pine at Spurs, but it has to be around 4m.

[Tom_]

Meanwhile both PSV and Feyenoord come back from 2–0 down to win 3–2. Reckon we could do that? We just don't have the stones I'm afraid...

[Philippe]

Appalling. Arrogance and poor coaching (late substitutions) cost us 2 points.

[SPL]

aveslacker you are on the ball I forgot Lloris was on the Spurs bench ,yes he of course cost a lot more than Cillessen. My point was no team normally spends 4m on a sub goalie
and for a club like Ajax, who have basically stopped spending very much money on transfers ,well no more than 5m euros max in future,it does seem strange we spend so much on a goalie and not play him.

Vermeer will now of course have a blinder v Man City( as long as he remembers his feet are for standing on and not for kicking a ball)