29 OCT 2016 Ajax - Excelsior Match Day 11

[SPL]

Lovely shot by Ziyech ,hope Orange hasn't gone for that walk

[King Litti]

a shot of great quality. He made that look very easy, but it really wasn't. Chested it down and boom. Nice drop by Doalberg.

[SPL]

Oh blow thought that was going to be the end of the game.Time for Nouri to come on and set up the winner

[Orange14]

Really light penalty call and Schöne shoots right at the keeper.

[Amol]

Goddamn it!! Should've scored that penalty.

Penalty decision was 100% correct though. Not sure what Excelsior was complaining about.

[King Litti]

Schöne keeps Excelsior in the game. Klaassen has a good record going in penalties. I wonder why he didn't shoot.

[SPL]

Younes fails with a clear chance

[Amol]

C'mon Younes!! Need to put these chances away!

[Tom_]

Schöne has a good record too. Can't remember another that he's missed.

[Amol]

Cerny and Nouri!!

I like Bosz. His substitutions normally make a lot of sense.

[King Litti]

Toekomst!

[SPL]

The great moment has arrived Nouri is coming on with Cerny. Younes and Traore off

[Amol]

Schone tries to do a tamer version of the old De Jong karate kick move.

[Tom_]

I only caught the second half. Looked like Ajax were playing pretty well to me. Just some key passes not clicking and shoddy choices in the final third.

Schöne had a good half except for the penalty and a mistake or two. Relieved the Gudelj era appears to be over.

[SPL]

Well we just did enough and the penalty should have made it comfortable.Cerny nearly scored and Nouri settled in well these 2 will get more games and will only improve. Klaassen did nothing,Younes just the one moment and Traore what does he actually do?

[King Litti]

Schöne had a good half except for the penalty and a mistake or two. Relieved the Gudelj era appears to be over.

At least against teams like excelsior Schöne is a decent choise for the holding midfield position. He can control the ball and distribute it nicely. He could be kind of like the "Pirlo" of Ajax.

[Amol]

I only caught the second half. Looked like Ajax were playing pretty well to me. Just some key passes not clicking and shoddy choices in the final third.

Schöne had a good half except for the penalty and a mistake or two. Relieved the Gudelj era appears to be over.

Both halves had good passing and interplay. First half was maybe played at 2nd/3rd gear and the 2nd half was played at 4th/5th gear.

If you played out all the shots (ours and theirs) with a little bit of luck, this should've been a 4-2 scoreline.

[Orange14]

Quite a boring game against inferior competition. The lone goal was started by Viergever with a pass that Dolberg nicely headed over to Ziyech who slotted it home. A missed penalty by Schöne left the match closer than one would like though Excelsior was never a threat to score. Nouri made his long awaited appearance coming on at the 70 minute mark along with his Jong teammate Cerny.

Player Ratings:

Onana (6) - had very little to do
Dijks (6) - didn't have to defend much and delivered some nice crosses
Viergever (7) - his pass started the scoring play
Sanchez (6) - poorest match in a while as he failed to properly mark his man on two occasions
Veltman (6) - OK match
Schöne (5.5) - ran out of gas late and missed a critical penalty; still not the solution to the controlling MF spot
el Capitan (5.5) - just a bit above average and that's all
Ziyech (6) - scored but that was it
Younes (6) - didn't dribble into trouble today and laid the ball off nicely on some cutting runs
Dolberg (7) - really nice control of the ball today and created some real danger
Traore (4.5) - poor match on all accounts
Cerny (6) - really dangerous speed and pressing ability on display
Nouri (5.5) - out of position on the wing and clearly nervous; skied a shot high when he should have done better

hard to get excited by games like this one. Celta in EL on Thursday. A win will pretty much send Ajax through to the knockout round

[Amol]

I'm hoping that both Vince Dekker and Cerny become our 1st team wingers in a year or two. We don't need Younes and Traore.

[SPL]

Pity that last shot by Nouri did not go in ,I really did think he would set up a 2nd to kill the game .

[SPL]

Well we dont need the 1 trick pony called Traore a waste of time and we are paying Chelsea 1m euros for his services.

He can only play on his left foot and always goes inside very easy to contain by a good defending side. Dont believe in loans unless you are going to buy the player. Traore can go and take Krul with him . Onana should not be dropped.

[Orange14]

Ajax gain a bit of ground as Feyenoord and Heerenveen draw in Rotterdam. They still have a +7 advantage in GD.

[Amol]

Our passing is getting better and better under Bosz. The major issue in the 1st half like all of us observed, was the tempo and not the passing and interplay. Passmap from 11tegen11 on twitter. I would've liked a little less passing in the back line and a little more in the mid-field. But, look at those triangles!!!

Also F-word drew with Heerenveen. Things are moving in the right direction as far as I'm concerned.

[SPL]

Watched the last 20 mins of F-word ,cheered on Heerenveen. F-word now dropping points and letting in goals.We now have some tough sides to play ie AZ Twente Heerenveen and PSV.

1 point from those home games against rubbish Roda and Willem is still going to come and haunt us.