13 APR 2025; Willem II - Ajax; Match Day 29

[Orange14]

On the road again to play Willem II. Six matches left in the season!! Brobbey and Gaaei both return from their suspensions. Baas and Pasveer are still unlikely to return because of injuries.

[SPL]

Another poor 45 mins against one of the bottom sides. No clear chances but Willem defending well. How we let that goal go in I dont know but Willem have created nothing other than that.

Put Weghorst on , Brobbey does nothing.

[Tom_]

Think most of the attack will get subbed by the 60 minute mark.

[SPL]

|This is painful to watch

[SPL]

yes finally Edvardsen again

[SPL]

Wow what a turn around Weghorst

[Tom_]

Terrible game management in the last 10 minutes there. What were they thinking dashing forward and giving the ball away trying to counter? Crazy.

Anyway, another fixture ticked off.

[SPL]

Limped over the line again . Other than their goal and the penalty incident, which I thought was 50/50 so did ref and VAR, they created nothing but we continue to struggle against the lesser teams who stick 11 in defence. Had enough of Brobbey as Weghorst knows how to score Brobbey is clueless.

Tough game next week at Utrecht but today's win means a max 7 points for the the title.

[Orange14]

Ajax left it until late in the second half when the substitutes came up with two goals to cancel out the goal Willem II scored in the first half. The margin between Ajax and PSV remains at nine points. This was a match that Ajax dominated, doing everything but scoring. 29 shots on goal by Ajax to 2 for the home team. Unfortunately, most of the shots were either blocked or right at the keeper. Other than the goal, Willem II was not able to create much against Ajax staying back and hoping for a quick counter that never came.

Player Ratings:

Mattheus (6.5) - didn't have much to do but made one decent save
Gaaei (6) - had a decent game but most of his crosses were off target
Sutalo (7) - one poor pass in the first half but otherwise solid
Kaplan (7) - played a good game and was good with the ball at his feet, if he keeps this up he will challenge Baas for the starting position
Hato (6.5) - tried going forward a lot, but the defense was too packed in to do much creative passing
Henderson (6.5)- made a pivotal interception that led to the match winning goal
Taylor (6) -surprisingly, not a factor at all after some very fine matches
Davy One Goal (6)- put in the hard shift but did nothing to dispel his imitations
Traore (6.5) - saw a lot of the ball but was quickly double teamed and found it hard to get an open shot
Brobbey (6) - got the ball in deep several times but couldn't get a shot away
Godts (6) - didn't try to force things but also had no openings to probe
Berghuis (6) - beautiful assist with his off foot for the opening Ajax score
Weghorst (6.5) - put in a solid shift and got the match winner
Fitz-Jim (6) - solid as a sub and had a delightful pass over to Weghorst for the match winner
Edvardssen (6) - made a great run into the box getting to the goal side of the defender for an easy goal off the pass from Berguis
Rugani (NR) - on late and had a good clearing header

Five matches to go in the season. On the road to troublesome Utrecht next week.

[GangstaRiB]

Brobbey is becoming a problem. he only scored 4 (!!) this season. And today he was only lying on the ground.

[Orange14]

Brobbey is becoming a problem. he only scored 4 (!!) this season. And today he was only lying on the ground.

Based on his performance this season, he's not going to get any kind of big money for a transfer! His value is at best €10M

[Amol]

For Brobbey to work, he need the runs coming in from midfield for him to lay the ball off to. In such crowded defenses, that’s doesn’t work. So what does Brobbey do? More of the same and doesn’t think of maybe freeing himself from the defense and creating an extra man in MF or pull his defender to MF with him. He also has been a pretty terrible header of the ball.

For all of Weghorst’s faults, he was able to lay the ball off and also create space around him which resulted in the 2nd goal.

[Tom_]

It would be nice if Brobbey scored more, and he’s missed a few chances this season, but he doesn’t really get the ball in goal scoring situations that often.

Compare it to Haller who IIRC scored a lot of tap ins from being free inside the 6 metre box. This Ajax doesn’t create those chances very often.

[SPL]

Agree with above comments on Brobbey.Against these lower teams with packed defences he just plays with his back to the goal and most of the time wrestles to the ground. Weghorst may be a limited striker but he gets into goal scoring positions and knows how to put the ball into the net.