14 MAY 2017 Willem II - Ajax Match Day 34

[ajaxcolombia]

Feyenoord have been very smart in the construction of their team. Botteghin had been the best centre back in the eredivise for a couple of years and they went for him, I never understood why ajax never tried to get him. Jan-Arie Van der Heijden was always a player I liked when he was in the academy, and could have been a good replacement for Vertonghen but instead we went for Niklas Moisander (good bloke nothing against him). This combined with great youth talent, the experience of Kuyt, and getting lucky with a great season by Jorgensen, they had good recipe for success.

[Tom_]

Great stat, Sánchez is now level on goals with Ziyech. Probably a somewhat better conversion rate

[ajaxcolombia]

Colombia!

[SPL]

a nice goal by Sanchez and Nouri is now on

[Orange14]

just noticed that Bosz is not wearing his traditional grey wool scarf today. First time in a long time that he hasn't.

[ajaxcolombia]

echte mooi treffer! Nice play by Nouri, Kluivert and Klassen.

[SPL]

Beautiful goal set up by Nouri,more quality by Kluivert and Davy finished it

[ajaxcolombia]

HMM not the best afternoon for Neres.

[SPL]

Well a comfortable win in the end and I cannot complain about finishing 2nd Feyenoord were top from Day 1 to Day 34.In some games after Europe we should have trusted de Jong and Nouri in midfield and Traore is not a winger ,again today a waste of time ,never passes and not an Ajax player.Neres not a good game. Kluivert my MOM and in defence Sanchez working like mad running hard and scoring

So just the final to come and what ever happens at least we have finished the season playing good attacking proper Ajax football as per Cruijff and world wide the name Ajax lives again in the headlines

[Orange14]

Feyenoord dispatched Heracles 3-1 and will wear the Eredivisie arm patch next season. Ajax played a somewhat spotty match against Willem II but prevailed also 3-1. Onana came up with three big saves to keep the match from being too interesting. One big match left to play for the Europa League title.

Player Ratings:

Onana (8) - came up really big when he had to; let's hope that Overmars will extend his contract ASAP
Riedewald (7.5) - great pass to Kluivert to help set up the first goal and decent defending
de Ligt (7) - one poor pass that was easily intercepted but otherwise growing in stature; he will be one of the starting central defenders next season at the age of 18
Sanchez (8) - defended stoutly all match long and was well positioned to head in a goal off a free kick
Tete (6.5) - really had little to do defensively as all the movement was on the other side of the pitch
de Jong (6.5) - some smooth play but a couple errant passes keep him from a higher rating
el Capitan (6.5) - was this the last league match for our Captain? right place to score a goal but really should have defended the wing much better on the Willem II goal
van de Beek (6) - didn't have much influence on the match
Kluivert (7.5) - defenders are very afraid when he gets the ball in space, great cross on the goal
Dolberg (6.5) - easy tap in for a goal in only one half of play
Neres (6.5) - better in the second half
Taore (4) - the sooner he returns to London the happier I will be; some very poor touches and he totally wasted a gift chance for a goal
Nouri (6.5) - nice spell coming on in the 2nd half
Westermann (6) - OK performance but beaten in the air on a possible dangerous opportunity

Club ends up with 81 points almost matching last season's 82 (yes I was surprised at this!!! See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_AFC_Ajax_seasons for the history here). Some dropped points last August came back to haunt the team. We have a saying in American baseball that a win in April is worth two in September. Same thing applies to football in The Netherlands.

[SPL]

Hope Feyenoord fans say a big thank you to PSV goalie Zoet, who taking the ball marginally over the line has won them the title.

[SPL]

In the end we lost the title back in August vWillem and Roda,Glad Orange 14 agrees with me on Traore mind he will probably win the Europa Cup with a super goal!!

[ajaxcolombia]

A couple of stats to make sense of this season:

Defensive stats:

Joel Veltman led the team in tackles with 4.4 per game, also best in the league.
Lasse Schöne led in interceptions with 2.8 per game, third best in the league.
Davinson Sanchez led in offsides won per game, with 0.6, 16th in the league.
Clearance leader was Sanchez with 5.2. per game, 20th in the league.
Player dribbled past the most was Hakim Ziyech (1.7 times per game), 6th in the league.
Blocks leader was Nick Viergever with 0.4 per game, 42nd best in the league.

Offensive stats:

Goalscoring leader with 16 was Kasper Dolberg. 7th in the league.
Hakim Ziyech led in assists with 11, tied for best in the league with two other players.
Shots per game leader was Hakim Ziyech with 4.4, highest in the league.
Key pass per game leader was also Ziyech with 3.8, best in the league.
Dribble king was Amin Younes with 3.4, highest in the league.
Most fouled player was Dolber, fouled 2.2 times per game, 5th highest in the league.
Most dispossessed player was Hakim Ziyech, 2.2 times per game. 9th worst in the league.
Most bad touches, Kasper Dolberg with 3 per game, 6th worst in the league.

Passing:
Average passes per game leader, Sanchez, with 70.9, best in the league.
Most accurate passer, also Sanchez with 88.9 per cent, 4th in the league.
Most crosses, Hakim Ziyech with 2 per game, second in the league.
Most accurate long balls, Joel Veltman with 6.3 per game, 24th in the league.
Most Through balls, Hakim Zoyech with 0.4 per game, best in the league.

Most common assist to goal partnership for Ajax: Hakim Ziyech to Kasper Dolberg, 4 times, 5th most common combination in the league.

I know Ziyech gets a lot of a stick but he contributed creatively, even if he seemed to be lost at times.

[SPL]

Thanks for the stats.I would guess the player with the least passes in the league is Traore!

[ajaxcolombia]

haha actually YOunes does slightly worst (30.2). Traore averages 33.3. 14th for Ajax, I don't know how he does generally in the league, would have to do a long search.

[Orange14]

Is anyone else surprised by the absence of Klaassen in all the above categories posted by Ajaxcolumbia? It's amazing to me.

[Ayman]

When was the last time Netherlands had two teams in the Champions league? Over 10 years ago!!!! The result today is a victory for Dutch football.

[Orange14]

I just looked at the Whoscored web page for the Dutch league. I now have little confidence in what they post. You can find their all league team which includes Traore, Ziyech, Veltman, Schöne, and Sinkgraven!!! Sanchez is also on the team (deserved) but I'm not sure that a clean case can be made for any of the other players. Ziyech and Schöne are the two highest rated players in the league!!!! Go figure.

Here is the website: https://www.whoscored.com/Regions/155/T ... Eredivisie

[ajaxcolombia]

The ratings system is pretty wack, that's true, that's why I never mention those, they give too much weight to irrelevant actions like getting a shot on goal, no matter how wide. But no other website is keeping tracks of numbers like that.

[Tom_]

Good to see the best XI lined up in a classic Dutch 4-4-2!

[Orange14]

De Telegraaf announced it's team of the season and Onana, Klaassen and Sanchez made the grade. Not unexpected, Feyenoord dominated the selection with 7 players. Karim el Ahmadi was named player of the season.

[Manneken Pis]

Final stat .... Ajax named the youngest starting XI in Eredivisie history on Sunday with an average age of 20 years and 139 days.

[Tom_]

Maybe we'll be in a position to beat that record next season if Old Man Klaassen moves on...