20 APR 2025; FC Utrecht - Ajax; Match Day 30

[Orange14]

Tough game coming up against Utrecht. Ron Jans always has teams well prepared to play Ajax. I still remember the nightmare match Kenneth Vermeer had some years ago.

[Tom_]

Utrecht haven’t been in great form but i won’t be surprised if we drop points today. Wouldn’t be a disaster though.

[SPL]

A draw would be acceptable but a win against them would be great ,we always seem to drop points against them.

[Tom_]

I can’t see this lineup scoring. Did we get a single shot? Berghuis, Taylor and Gaaei mostly rubbish today, we’ll see what Farioli does with his subs.

[Tom_]

Fair result although the scoreline was a bit extreme. Ajax created no serious danger until the 92nd minute.

No big deal, we could afford to lose, but they will have to do something about the lack of quality in the midfield if we are going to play CL next season.

[SPL]

I thought every player was bad, goalie ought to have stopped the 1st and should have prevented the 2nd,defence poor, MF non existant and up front they may as well not bothered . Too much square passing dreadful non football.

Still need 7 points but we must hope Feyenoord beat PSV in a week or 2 . We should get 2 wins and a draw in the remaining 3 home games but 3 points next week is a must.

[Orange14]

Ron Jans + FC Utrecht = big trouble!!! A humiliating 4-0 defeat today with mediocre performances from virtually every player. Other then the first five minutes when Ajax looked like they would score, the team played flat football. Passes were either left short or over hit. The defense was surprisingly poor. Players who should have stepped up did not. For me the only player worthy of wearing the shirt today was Sutalo, who other than one poor pass was above average. I don't know what it is with Jans coached teams. He always has a good game plan against Ajax and as usual when teams drop back playing everyone behind the ball, this Ajax team just cannot figure things out.

For me the championship is not a done deal. Three of the final home matches are at home which is a plus but they have to be far better focused than today. At least Farioli is a realist and not celebrating anything right now.

Player Ratings

Mattheus (5.5) - undone by his defense but did come up with a couple of big saves that kept things from getting much worse; still could have done better on the first goal
Gaaei (4) - poor game, did not defend Haller well at all and his passing was mediocre
Sutalo (6) - best player on the pitch
Kaplan (4.5) - made a couple of bad plays and a couple of very good ones, unfortunately the bad outweighed the good
Hato (4.5) - was decent until getting schooled by Rodriguez who scored a decent goal
Henderson (4.5) - poor passing all match long
Taylor (5) - totally invisible on the day, but didn't make any big mistakes, of course he saw so little of the ball
Davy One Goal (4.5) - just so poor on the ball when the club need something much better; I would have started Fitz-Jim
Berghuis (5) - played hard but that's not enough in this kind of match
Brobbey (5) - had a good shot early in the game that clanged off the crossbar but again could not create anything else
Godts (4) - time for Edvardssen to start
Traore (5) - had one decent shot on goal
Weghorst (5) - no impact at all
Edvardssen (5) - worked hard as usual
Mokio (5) - got in on goal but the pass was not there
Wijndal (5) - got a cameo performance

Home to an improving Sparta who have our former manager Steijn back in the saddle next weekend

[SPL]

Agree championship is not done yet ,if we can beat Sparta that will lift the pressure after today. Do think 4 -0 flattered them a bit but that was almost as bad as anything last season . This is a very moderate squad and Farioli has done a good job up until now.

[Tom_]

One positive thing is that Utrecht are breathing down Feyenoord’s neck so there will be plenty at stake when Feyenoord play PSV.

Clutching at straws a bit.

[Amol]

A lot of players were just very poor today. Utrecht players were chasing us down when we had the ball. We were able to move the ball though but never really anything worked in the final third.

[Orange14]

One positive thing is that Utrecht are breathing down Feyenoord’s neck so there will be plenty at stake when Feyenoord play PSV.

Clutching at straws a bit.

The problem with Utrecht pipping Feyenoord is that they have 4-5 starters who are on loan to the club and will be gone in June. Not sure how they would do in Europe and their Jong side is not very good.

[Amol]

Also I've reached a point where I'd be ok letting Brobbey go in the summer. Don't think we'll get more than 10-15M max. But who knows.