30 AUG 2025; FC Volendam - Ajax; Match Day 4

[Orange14]

Another "easy" match for Ajax.

[SPL]

Itakura is back ,Rosa RB and Gaaei sub ,only change from last week. Brobbey not picked as he may be sold but Taylor starts even though rumors he will be sold. Fitz-Jim starts for 2nd game in a row .

[Amol]

Volendam just scored a goal out of nothing. Great strike though.

[Tom_]

Total garbage again. Ajax are trying to play the ball wide but I’m not at all impressed with either winger - Moro has poor control and Gloukh always tries to go to his right which makes him very easy to defend.

A midfield containing Berghuis and Taylor is not going to rip many defences apart so I’m not expecting a win here. Maybe Itakura can play striker in the second half or something.

[SPL]

Great goal not much we could have done the ball dropped wrong . Still think Gloukh is a no 10 and not a winger and we need a quality no 6 .Just hope we can get an early goal and go on and win.

A lovely sunny day in Volendam would love to be there. Morning in beautiful next door Edam, then a couple of beers by the harbour and watch the game.(Our U17 lost 1-0 at Volendam U17 earlier so hope that is not going to be repeated by our 1st)

[Amol]

Lots of misplaced passes when they mattered. Somehow ended the 1st half at 68% of pointless possession.

Edvardsen on for Gloukh

[Amol]

Phew. Itakura just scored a goal from a corner.

Godts, Sutalo and Klaassen on for Moro, Itakura and Fitz-Jim.

[Tom_]

Fair result. Think we’ll have to learn to be happy with away draws this season.

[Amol]

And there is the final whistle. 1-1.

Don’t really know what Heitinga’s plan is. But we’ve struggled against teams setting up walls against us.

[Tom_]

IMHO getting rid of Taylor will allow a more attacking combo of midfielders so it might actually help the team. But the quality just isn’t there to break down teams that set up in a block like that.

[SPL]

Luckily we got a point ,thought we were dreadful and again MF is rubbish . Jaros Itakura and Baas were fine , fullbacks not good enough , MF Taylor nothing special but Fitz-Jim was ok with the ball the rest poor and our wingers non existant . Gloukh as a winger and Moro add nothing so far . This could be a poor season and with such a weak MF we are going to be thrashed in CL and 3rd place is all we can hope for in the league

Sorry to be so negative we were that bad.

[Orange14]

The worst thing that happened was that this team almost won the league championship last season and finished 2nd. We all thought that Ajax turned the corner but Farioli papered over all the deficiencies with his conservative style of football. Nothing wrong with that as he had a bad poker hand to begin with. The only good news is that there are three good CBs on the team. We have a MF that is inconsistent and terrible in the absence of Fitz-Jim who is the only player who has any field vision at all. Our wingers are all fast but the end product is disappointing. We have a striker who can play full speed for 30 minutes and that is it. The club has spent money on players who don't seem to fit in at all. Why but an attacking MF and play him on the wing and then for only 30 minutes. If we finished in 4th last season as we probably should have, all the promising youth players would be given a chance this season. Oh yes, the officiating was terrible.

Player Ratings

Jaros (6.5) - made all the saves he should have made and was helpless on the goal
Rosa (5) - late foul could have been costly
Itekura (7) - got the goal the team needed but they could not add to the total
Baas (7) - best player on the pitch for Ajax so that should tell you something, too bad he cannot play at #6
Wijndal (6.5) - tried to press an advantage down the wing
Fitz-Jim (6.5) - outstanding passing but he is too easily dispossessed when a defender gets close
Taylor (6) - should have scored and looks a pale imitation of last season
Berghuis (5.5) - neither good nor bad and is on the wrong side of 30
Moro (6) - really pacy and tried to make something happen but did not
Weghorst (5.5) - cannot continue playing a full 90 minutes
Oscar (5.5) - why did we buy him?
Edvardsen (5.5) - works really hard and was cheaper than Oscar
Sutalo (6) - working back into shape
Godts (5.5) - took a hard foul a he cut across and it was not called
El Capitan (5) - I'm tired of writing that he has NO reason to play for Ajax!!!!!
Bounida (NR) - if you are going to sub him on, play him instead of Klaassen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[SPL]

Have to say Fitz-Jim is good on the ball and passing but is far too easily dispossessed ,he was the only MF I though was ok. Seeing Berghuis and Klaassen as Mf and doing nothing what are they still doing at Ajax

[SPL]

Most fans on showtime want Heitinga out on the basis he has no idea what he is doing.Cannot disagree I think he will be out before Christmas if we start dropping more points against lower sides and struggle against the better ones.

Just about most posts want Berghuis and Klaassen out the team and why give Bounida 5 mins,this could be another season like 23/24

[Orange14]

Weird result in Eindhoven. PSV 0 Telstar 2. I watched the last 10 minutes to see the Telstar players celebrate!!!

[SPL]

Yes PSV losing at home to Telstar gives us hope but Heitinga is now slagging off the players.If he loses the players soon and he has already lost the fans he will be out quickly.

If JC were alive and watching today I think he would cry .Ugwu left us as he was not going to get a regular game at Jong but he was as good if not better than Rosa.

[SPL]

In addition to Ugwu being as good as Rosa I should have mentioned Yah their DMF who was released from our youth 3 or4 years ago but was superb and certainly better than our MF.

Most articles from press are for Heitinga to be sacked.I agree after his press conference after the game slagging off the players. It will take a 7-0 defeat by Chelsea or Inter for him to be sacked but the likes of v Gaal and Blind who control things will just bring in another coach with Ajax DNA .

There was nothing Ajax DNA the way we played yesterday and it was dreadful to watch.

Johan you left us too early if only you were around now to put your influence on this shower running our beautiful club.

[Orange14]

My take is that Kroes is not any worse than Overmars though it is still early in his time as Technical Director. Overmars brought in some good players and also a bunch of only average or below average players. I posted a list of all the Overmars transfers a year or so ago and there were a bunch who were absolutely dreadful: Magallan, Perie, Bande, Orjuela, Casseria and one or two others. He did make some good buys such as Ziyech, Neres, Antony, and a couple of others. The big problem is the panic buying and trying to fill holes when there are good youth players waiting in the queue.

[Tom_]

IMHO the personalities don’t really come into it. Mislintat and Kroes both used the same approach - buying third-rate players from around Europe, often at second-rate prices. A lot of Overmars’s buys were the same.

Mislintat was shocking partly because of the number of purchases, but the club gave him the budget to do that.

Anyway, I don’t know why they keep making these purchases, we know it doesn’t work. It also doesn’t make any sense logically… if we buy 4 players from Europe for around €10M each, what’s the probability they are all going to be undervalued? At best maybe one buy works out well and the other three don’t.

One of the things I find strangest is the excitement, like the frenzy on Ajax Showtime over Gloukh before he signed. Maybe I’m too negative but I honestly don’t get it.