15SEP 2016 Panathinaikos-Ajax; EL Group B Match 1

[Orange14]

After bombing out of the CL qualifier in Russia last month, our intrepid Red and White crew journey off to Greece for the second time this season to play Thursday night football. Unconvincing against Ajax over the weekend, can Ajax turn things around? A point is probably necessary to keep the hope of advancing to out of the group.

[souras84]

Panathinaikos is on fire these days. He has many players on form and will probably field a 3-4-1-2. Do you think Bosz might go with a similar 5-3-2?

[Orange14]

Same players that suited up against Vitesse are traveling to Greece. Let's hope for something special.

[souras84]

I would say, let's hope we can keep 0 in our defence. Even if it ends 0-0

[Orange14]

According to the website, the match is "supposed" to be available streaming on ESPN3 today. Last time they posted something like this it was wrong. I'll be supporting Feyenoord today and hope they teach ManU not to tangle with Dutch clubs.

[Tom_]

I would say, let's hope we can keep 0 in our defence. Even if it ends 0-0

I'm hoping we score 3. Don't care if we concede 3 too!

[SPL]

same lineup as Vitesse. Cassiera and Bazoer dont make the bench( v dBeek not in the squad)

crcifree has loads of streams BT hopefully will be good as thats in english.

PS last month we wanted 25m plus for Bazoer ,aged 19 and not good enough for our bench .Sorry Football has gone completly mad. Anyway come January Bazoer El Ghazi and Tete will all leave the club for bigger leagues ok Italy,dont see any of them wanting to stick it out as subs

[Tom_]

Great result for Feyenoord. Their goal was offside but ManU didn't create a whole load of trouble. AZ also 1–0 up. Let's hope for a clean sweep for eredivisie teams tonight.

[Orange14]

el Ahmadi outplayed Pogba during the match which shows how silly salaries are.

[Tom_]

Wow. What can you say? Ajax sucks...

[Orange14]

So many mistakes on that goal that I cannot count them all. I keep wondering why I watch these matches since the disappointment is always so great.

[Tom_]

Apart from the shoddy defense... Panathanaikos are having no problem getting the ball through our three man midfield and into the box. What is the point of three attackers? We can't get the ball into the other half. Terrible mess of a formation.

[SPL]

Vermeer's back in goal. Usual boring slow passing rubbish. Still Jong play tomorrow Nouri and Co quick passing and moving the ball up field..

[Tom_]

Such appalling football. It's the classic "broken team", where the MF are neither getting the ball to the attackers nor helping enough in defense, so we're effectively outnumbered at both ends. How can it not be obvious that the midfield does not work in this configuration?

[SPL]

Good goal by Traore and we started to play a bit better ,well we could not play worse.Defence is very poor. Tete has to play and Riedewald as defender as well.

[Orange14]

Maybe six minutes of decent football out of 45. The remainder were dreadful. Veltman and Dijks are lost out there. Klaassen turned a clear breakaway into a counter in the other direction Onana goes for a punch instead of trying to catch (never punch a low ball, things don't turn out well). Ziyech had maybe three or four touches. These guys need to know that their first team jobs are on the line; right now they play like a bunch of entitled playboys.

I thought Viergever's Yellow card could have gone either way. I guess it was given because he went in with the leg up. The only good thing was the away goal for whatever that might be worth.

[saddlerian]

Someone tell me....why do Ajax get multi-millions for Cillesson from Barcelona...and replace him with.......nothing? What a terrible mistake for the goal...and he had the nerve to shout at his defence!!!!!!!
As for the "terrific save" at the other end....it was going wide....I'm directly in line!!!!
More after the game...to save the ue of internet on my phone!!!

[Orange14]

Well they got a bit lucky. Dumb defender puts an arm out and Dijks milks it for a PK. Klassen shoots right at the keeper and Riedewald gets the rebound. Not deserved.

[SPL]

Well the pen should have been re taken and Riedewald was off side but we will take anything

[zeux]

Well the pen should have been re taken and Riedewald was off side but we will take anything

Can't be off side right? Riedewald was behind the ball and the ball came back from the goalkeeper.

[Orange14]

What a comedy of errors on both sides! Unbelievable about stupid fouls.

[Tom_]

Sickening match. How did we win? Panathanaikos are bad too I guess.

[SPL]

What a dreadful advert for football.We were piss poor but they were actually worse ,they stopped playing football after our pen and I am not sure how the Greek thugs ended with only 9 .Ziyech was stupid but not sure that deserved a red

Penalty should have been taken again ,agree Riedewald cannot be off side but he and half the players were in the box when Klaassen took the pen. Our only luck .

Our defence is weak ,Onana not ready for this level,midfield concrete and do we have a meaningful attack!!!!

At least we won and tomorrow I can watch Nouri and co playing real Ajax football.

[Orange14]

What a disaster of a victory though maybe it will force some of these players to wake up. The overall play was quite bad across the board. Stupid fouls by both teams and a couple of very weak calls by Andre Marriner who is usually a dependable referee. Why Panathinaikos players thought they could get away with persistent fouling was totally mystifying.

FWIW Player Ratings:

Onana (5) - poor decision to punch on the goal but redeemed himself late in the game as he parried Berg's cross away; it was a difficult play as he had to hold his position as an attacker was coming in for a header but missed it
Dijks (4.5) - gets an Oscar for best collapse at the barest of touches but otherwise was quite poor
Viergever (5.5) - generally a shade above average
Sanchez (6.5) - pretty solid defending for an Ajax center back
Veltman (4.5) - only good plays were when he was defending in the box; don't know why he wasn't carded for obstruction late
Riedewald (6.5) - seemed like he was the only one who kept his wits
Gudelj (5) - some wild shots but a better overall performance than in past games
el Capitan (4) - continues to mystify with poor touches and a weak PK
Younes (4) - he continues to believe he can beat any two defenders every time
Traore (5.5) - above average only because of the goal
Ziyech (4) - yes it was a weak call to get the second Yellow card but you CANNOT let that happen in the closing stages of a match
Dolberg (3) - weak on the ball and why shoot in extra time when your team needs to control the ball with a one goal lead?
Sinkgraven (5.5) - kept is wits in the closing stages and knew what was needed to be done
Schöne (4.5) - dumb give away late

That's it, absolute mediocrity once again!!!

[King Litti]

Can someone please tell me why Zieych plays as a winger. I thought the thing was clear: our midfield was missing quality, so we spend 11 million for a good midfield. Now we have to see Zieych waste a way as a winger while Gudelj and Klaassen continue with the same rubbish as before. Can't quite comprehend this. We bought a 11 million solution, but we don't use it. You could see the frustration in Zieych. He is clearly not a winger type of a player. Not fast enough for one. Can't believe that Bosz doesn't see this.

And yes, the same feeling goes for Veltman as a wing back. Clearly he is better as a center back. This is so frustrating and stupid.