17 OCT 2015 Heracles - Ajax Match Day 9

[SPL]

Oh boy what a goal by Gudelj

[Cruijff]

Nice. I like the Ajax attack today. A lot of movement up front.

[Tom_]

Bit messy but we're in control. Like to see us get a third.

BTW el Ghazi can drill them from 20yd+ but he must have the worst percentage from inside the 6yd box in professional football ;)

[SPL]

Agree El Ghazi should have scored a 3rd which would have killed the game off.Our defence still looks suspect so a 3rd asap is vital.

[Orange14]

Less U-Turn football tonight with two wonderful strikes. They are doing enough on defense and a bit lucky to see the goal disallowed (properly) because of off sides. Good to see the team play these rough and tumble opponents and not back down. In previous years this is exactly the team that gives Ajax trouble.

[Cruijff]

Aaai Fischer you should have scored that one.

If Heracles scores one now it can end awful or difficult. But Ajax looks more like scoring the third than Heracles scoring even one.

[Tom_]

Decent enough win. We never really got in trouble and it was less dull to watch than it has been. Managed to get the ball to the forwards a lot more tonight.

[SPL]

we just played to contain in the 2nd half and a fairly comfortable win in the end thanks to 2 superb goals.

[Orange14]

Two wonderful strikes in the first half followed by a sleep inducing second half where the midfield decided to stop playing football left the scoreline at 0-2. Perhaps the only one more sleepy on the pitch was Kevin Blom who either made no calls on clear fouls or gave out cards where one was not deserved. Defense stood stout against a tall front line of Heracles denying any clean shots on goal. I guess FdB was content at the half to basically tell the club to shut things down in the 2nd half. The finishing is still a bit disturbing as there were three clear chances to score that were totally muffed. This has been the problem in Europe this season and there needs to be more concentration.

Player Ratings:

Boer (6) - really not challenged much but rather than distributing the ball quickly seemed always to go for the long kick out
Dijks (6) - some good crosses and defensively just above average, falsely carded on a nice tackle late in the game
Riedewald (7.5) - totally composed all night long, key blocks and headers and nice passing out of danger
Veltman (7) - coped well with Weghorst who is a head taller, positionally excellent
Tete (6.5) - not much attacking came at him tonight and he didn't have much to do during the match
Gudelj (5.5) - wonder strike but that was it, conceded a critical free kick late in the 2nd half by poor defending
Bazoer (6) - very good on the ball with only one poor pass but shut things down in the 2nd half
Klaassen (5) - did he have any impact on the match? Not as far as I could see
Fischer (5) - had a couple of chances to score and didn't, that was his highlight line
el Ghazi (5) - excellent on the first goal and that was his highlight reel of the evening, needs to clinically finish the soft chances
Schöne (6.5) - composed on the ball and the free kicks were excellent
Younes (6) - lots of energy coming on late for Fischer and had a nice shot on goal

Midweek EL action against Fenerbahce and points are needed if Ajax wish to continue playing in the tournament.

I think I'll go take my nap now as I'm so tired of watching aimless football.

[Cruijff]

Thanks for the ratings Orange14.

Could you, just for this weekend, also rate the psv players for their performance at psv-excelsior?

[Orange14]

Could you, just for this weekend, also rate the psv players for their performance at psv-excelsior?

I get all the Eredivisie matches on NGSN which is really nice as it's on about $6/month. It also has Argentina, Russia, Portugal, Japan and a couple of other country leagues. Matches are archived so you can watch them any time. I'll take a look at the last five minutes as I want to see stupid Bruma's mistakes. Why he is ever selected to the Dutch NT is beyond me!!!

EDIT: PSV bollix things up so bad in the last four minutes it wasn't even funny. they managed to turn a five on two break into nothing as Locadia (who has always been a rubbish player IMO) could not control the ball. Then back in their own end Schaars hits his own player in the back trying to clear the ball and the Excelsior player darts forward and delivers a delightful cross to Hasselbaink who beats Bruma who was fast asleep thinking the ball was cleared. Wonderful result!! Now we just need Feyenoord to drop points tomorrow.