27 NOV 2016 Heerenveen - Ajax Match Day 14

[Orange14]

A lot of fouling by Heerenveen certainly slowed things up. I think Makkelie got the call on Klaassen wrong as it certainly was not a dive. Anyway, I called it right at the half figuring it was only going to be a one goal match. Wonderful field vision by van de Beek not only on the through pass to Klaassen but several other times when he sent players through on goal; he seems to be the only player who sees and completes these passes. Defense had some dicey moments but in the end held firm enough for a clean sheet match.

Player Ratings:

Onana (7) - some kicking reminiscent of Vermeer but otherwise very good match
Sinkgraven (6.5) - some poor defending but he does pose a threat going forward
Viergever (7) - very steady match
Sanchez (7) - strong again in the middle wining almost every aerial challenge
Veltman (7) - some soft cross field passes that didn't result in much but otherwise OK
Schöne (7) - surprised he went the full 90 after playing mid-week but did a nice job managing the MF
Ziyech (6.5) - tired because of the flu bug he had but decent enough
el Capitan (7) - no mistake on the through pass from van de Beek and should have been awarded a PK for the foul that definitely was not a dive
Younes (7) - active as always but wasted a couple of chances
Dolberg (6.5) - persistently fouled and the one good chance he had was muffed
Traore (5.5) - some good play but some very weak give aways
van de Beek (7.5) - yes, he was on for a short time but he created all the dangerous chances in the last 25 minutes; very good on the ball and for me the MOTM
de Ligt (6) - on for Sinkgraven and will continue to progress
Cassiera (6) - on very late and managed a decent shot on goal when receiving a good through ball from van de Beek

The unbeaten run continues with a home match to Groningen coming up.

[SPL]

Agree with Tom Donny was good ,Traore wasn't poor I thought he was rubbish

[Orange14]

The way Mathijs de Ligt is developing, it's safe to say that this is Viergever's last season, since de Ligt would need more first team football for his development.

Don't think so, de Ligt is right footed and seldom plays on the left side. The first team matches he has started have been on the right. Ajax always want a left footed player there and I suspect with all the MFs coming through the system, it will be Riedewald.

[SPL]

Will comment more in a while ,need some exercise before it gets dark

[Amol]

Will comment more in a while ,need some exercise before it gets dark

2 minutes into the Utrecht v F-word game and Utrecht are up 1-0!

3 minutes and its 1-1. This is going to be a circus I feel.

[rjf1]

Kind of a weird game for the Eredivisie -- large parts of it looked more like 2nd division English football. Very entertaining though -- we created several good chances in the 2nd half -- and in the end, I think the win was deserved.

[Ayman]

The way Mathijs de Ligt is developing, it's safe to say that this is Viergever's last season, since de Ligt would need more first team football for his development.

Don't think so, de Ligt is right footed and seldom plays on the left side. The first team matches he has started have been on the right. Ajax always want a left footed player there and I suspect with all the MFs coming through the system, it will be Riedewald.

I wish Ajax would sign Rick van Drongelen from Sparta Rotterdam, he is in his late teens, but he has eredivisie experience, and is left sided defender as well.

[Amol]

Haller just made it 3-1 to Utrecht in the 85th minute. We are finally going to be in 1st place!!

[Orange14]

Looks like it was a wild finish in the Utrecht/Feyenoord match with the Rotterdam club getting the tie in the 7th minute of added time. Teams are level on points but Feyenoord with a better GD is in first.

[SPL]

Our biggest weaknesses are on the wings and fullbacks

Traore and Younes both play on the wrong wing always cut inside and are easy to contain by decent defences . Younes always runs into a dead end and Traore is just a one trick pony and although has quality I cannot see EPL sides having problems containing him. He does not really impress me and he can go back to Chelsea in January .

El Ghazi has his weaknesses but would score and make as many as Traore and is not costing us 2m euros for the season.

In the Jong we only have Cerny , who is left footed ,and he looked far better at Jong Ajax when he played on the left wing.

We also need 2 proper full backs. Dijks cannot defend and neither can Sinkgraven .I want to see a proper left footed fullback who can defend and also attack. In Jong the only so called LB is Savastano but he has played little. They usually use right backs at the LB position.

We have many RB's coming through but sadly Veltman is a CD and not a fullback .

Next week Klaassen in suspended so v d Beek should hopefully get a full game and Nouri can be used as a sub.

[ajaxcolombia]

Just a little statistical round up to close the weekend.

Player with the most shots taken: Davy Klaassen with 5 shots, 4 of them on target, not bad.
Player with the most amount of possession: Lasse Schöne with 8.9% with a total amount of 85 touches.
Player with the best passing success: Lasse Schöne again with 90% (Commander of the midfield), also had the most amount of passes with 61, and most amount of key passes with 3. Fantastic game by Lasse.
Player with most amount of interceptions: You guessed it, Lasse Schöne with 6! The Danish Metronome.
Player with the most successful amount of dribbles: Bertrand Traoré with 5. He attempted 8 in total.
Player with the most amount of aerial duels won: Kasper Dolberg with 6 (he may not have scored, but this statistic shows he can be consistent)
Player with the most amount of successful tackles: Joël Veltman with 5
Player with most clearances: Davinson Sanchez, my compatriot from Caloto in the province of Cauca, with 9. (De Ligt had 3 in the short amount of time he came on).
Player with most amount of blocks: Daley Sinkgraven with 3 (may not be the best defender, but hey, he can put his body in the way ).

Dispossessed of the ball: A tie between Dolberg and Younes with 5. Dolberg lost possession the most with a total of 9 times including turnovers.

Onana had three saves and one punch, if anybody wants to keep score of our goalkeeper's performance.

All statistics come from this fantastic site: whoscored.com.

If you guys like this, I'll try to do it every week

[Tom_]

Dispossessed of the ball: A tie between Dolberg and Younes with 5. Dolberg lost possession the most with a total of 9 times including turnovers.

Stats are always fun! I noticed in the Utrecht match that Dolberg couldn't bring the ball under control when he was being pressured from behind. It's probably his main weakness at the moment but he's only 19 and I'm sure he's working on it. He has a good first touch in general.

Younes, on the other hand... the classic "black hole" player, once the ball goes in it never comes out again.

[Orange14]

Dolberg's control of the ball has improved a lot since he began to play regularly. I remember some of the early games and his control was almost at the zero percent level. Now he's well above 50 percent and his ability to turn on the defender is quite remarkable. He's been working with Bergkamp a lot and it shows.

[SPL]

And he is as quiet as Bergkamp no emotions on the field when he is being kicked and shirt pulled.Very fine sensible lad ,I cannot see him going until he has been here for another 2 or 3 years.

[rjf1]

Just a little statistical round up to close the weekend... If you guys like this, I'll try to do it every week

I like it -- would really appreciate you keeping it up. Thanks.

[rjf1]

... I noticed in the Utrecht match that Dolberg couldn't bring the ball under control when he was being pressured from behind. It's probably his main weakness at the moment but he's only 19 and I'm sure he's working on it. He has a good first touch in general...

What I liked in the Herenveen game was when Herenveen had their corner kicks they had that big doofus placed to block Onana out so he couldn't respond to any balls coming in, so they had Dolberg (with his big body) come all the way back to move the doofus out of Onana's way.