01 DEC 2024; NEC - Ajax; Match Day 13

[Orange14]

Another short turn around match because of all the Thursday night football which won't end until the winter break. Ajax travel to Nijmegen and then a mid-week match against high flying Utrecht managed by Ajax nemesis, Ron Jans.

[SPL]

Taylor Klaassen and Weghorst back but Kaplan starts ,having had no game time for a month,and Hlynsson on the wing with Berghuis.After 60 years of watching football I would not describe these 2 as wingers! Hope for a win but a draw would not surprise me.

[SPL]

45 painful minutes would take the draw.

[SPL]

90 painful mins but 3 points.Weghorst comes up trumps

[Orange14]

This was the kind of game they would have lost last season. Ajax were at sixes and sevens on defense all game long and only some fine keeping by Pasveer and the crossbar kept the Ajax victory at 1-2. Ajax now go ahead of Utrecht with a home match against them on Wednesday night. Lots of free attacking space down the Ajax left side and several times Hato was not to be found at all. Hlynsson, a makeshift LW, did not help out much and there was not much help from the MF either. Weghorst had two nice goals and Taylor's smart assist on the second made it the match winner. It looks like all the matches in a row are catching up with Ajax. There are still six matches to go before the winter break including a home Europa League match against Lazio and a Beker game with Telstar!!

Player Ratings:

Pasveer (7.5) - had to be really alert with all the shots that were coming in, his kicking for the most part was decent, and he had a lot of balls passed back to him.
Rensch (6) - was playing pretty well before he suffered a leg injury and had to come off in the first half
Sutalo (7) - kept his head and position and had some good blocks
Kaplan (6.5) - decent enough despite a bad pass or two
Hato (6.5) - don't know why he seemed to be so out of position on defense
van den Boomen (5.5) - pretty much immobile as the deep MF which doesn't help things out at all but Henderson cannot play all these back to back matches
Davy One Goal (6) - OK but nothing really special, was totally out of gas in the last 10 minutes
Taylor (7) - fine play on the second goal and moved up to the LW when Fitz-Jim came in
Berghuis (6) - had a fair amount of the ball but was not incisive with is passing
Weghorst (7) - good job on holding up the ball and his two goals were the difference
Hlynsson (5) - just ordinary in one half of play
Gaaei (6) - great going forward on attack, not so great when he has to defend
Fitz-Jim (6.5) - smooth with the ball and managed to help Ajax keep the ball when they were on attack
Traore (5) - not much impact coming in with 20 minutes left
Akpom (6) - had a couple of opportunities with the ball but could not convert
Henderson (NR) - on late to help the defense

Utrecht on Wednesday and a trip to Alkmaar to play AZ in a week's time.

[SPL]

We are really struggling since the Int break but thats 2 league wins in a row where we have been poor. If by this time next week ie after AZ, we are still 2nd then that really will be great as surely we can then beat lowly Sparta and Almere .

Our squad is not strong enough but we know we need a creative MF and 2 more back up wingers. Berghuis being offered a 2 year extension is a joke, but maybe he will stay fit and show his worth as the season goes on.

[Tom_]

Crap game, great result - I’ll take it two days after an EL away match.

van den Boomen (5.5) - pretty much immobile as the deep MF which doesn't help things out at all but Henderson cannot play all these back to back matches.

Have to say I’m not sure what the point of playing vd Boomen is. He’s not involved in either attack or defense. He was supposed to be a great free kick taker but his corners are poor and I don’t think he’s scored from a dead ball while he’s been at Ajax.

I’d think another defender would be more useful since Hato is really struggling at LB.

[SPL]

Evidently Hlynsson and Taylor had both been sick prior to the game. Rugani missing sick,Ramaj his wife was giving birth and Tahirovic has concussion.

Agree on V d Boomen he offers nothing and with a salary of 2.3m pa until 2027 how will we get rid of him.

[Amol]

Extremely lucky to have escaped with a win. I think a loss of 5-2 would've been a fairer result. But I'll take this win as we continue to rebuild.

VDB did virtually nothing all game. He was out of position and was mostly either walking back to join the defensive line or walking forward to join the press. He was late everywhere. No passes of note.

Hlynsson was very weak, but I wasn't aware that he was sick as well. So he gets a pass.

We can never play VDB together with Kaplan. It just doesn't work. Wasn't aware about Rugani being sick, but even Janse would've done better.

6 more games till the winter break with Utrecht, AZ and Lazio being the most challenging ones.