04 Feb 2007: Ajax - Feyenoord

dws · Bericht door **dws** » zo feb 04, 2007 3:15 pm

Van basten schreef:
dws schreef:
Van basten schreef: Babel made 2 asists. i wouldn't call that strugling
His best work was in the wide areas.
But still, i don't think that KJH would be beter today. good choice by Ten Cate

We don't seem capable of properly utilising the central striker, whoever it is. Ten Cate will have to find a way to rectify this.

rjf1 · Bericht door **rjf1** » zo feb 04, 2007 3:23 pm

dws schreef:
Van basten schreef:
dws schreef:One thing that worries me: whoever we play at central striker seems to struggle.
Babel made 2 asists. i wouldn't call that strugling
His best work was in the wide areas. Our way of playing is not getting the best out of whoever plays at central striker. We have to rectify this failing...

We've had this problem for years now -- starting with Machlas -- hard to know what to attribute it to -- but it is interesting how high scoring central strikers come to Ajax; have a great first year here; start going off the boil in the following year; usually gone to another team by the third or fourth year -- and become prolific scorers again (Arveladze being a prime example - not mention Charisteas). Go figure.

SE6Ajacied · Bericht door **SE6Ajacied** » zo feb 04, 2007 3:27 pm

rjf1 schreef:
dws schreef:not mention Charisteas). Go figure.

I follow what you're saying but Harry's still not doing that well :lol: ;)

saddlerian · Bericht door **saddlerian** » zo feb 04, 2007 4:59 pm

:headbang: :headbang:
Sod the talk about Harry, he don't play for us any more! Babel did the business today, holding the ball up for Sneijder to move onto. KJH, brilliant as he is at TAKING chances, wouldn't have held the ball up! Would Sneijder have scored his treble without Ryan????

Onwards and upwards........PSV WILL crumble!!!!

Roll on next week!!

:xyxthumbs: :xyxthumbs:

bluedaddy19 · Bericht door **bluedaddy19** » zo feb 04, 2007 5:08 pm

first of all, harry is playing quite well... secondly, leonardo did much of that hold up work too... finally, central striker has not been our problem (least of all, huntelaar!), our problem has been consistent wing play

Cedric · Bericht door **Cedric** » zo feb 04, 2007 5:14 pm

bluedaddy19 schreef: nevertheless, we look very good, like real title and uefa cup contenders! :eusa_dance:

In UEFA cup we will have to improve our defence because it didn't exactly look great today. We conceded 1 stupid goal and they hit the post twice but it was only the crap team of Feyenoord...

But anyway : great day :cheer:

Bericht door **ajaxusa** » zo feb 04, 2007 6:55 pm

Nice one today! (This is the game I would've seen, if I'd come to Amsterdam this season. DAMN.)

But before we start icing up the champagne... We still have 3 tough AWAY games coming up: AZ, Twente and PSV.

We'll probably need to get at least 6 points from those to have any chance of catching the lightbulbs. Pretty tall f*cking order, considering the inconsistent form this season.

Still, it's fun to be in the hunt again. :eusa_dance:

SE6Ajacied · Bericht door **SE6Ajacied** » zo feb 04, 2007 7:08 pm

bluedaddy19 schreef:first of all, harry is playing quite well...

Agreed, he is playing quite well. 6 goals all season isn't in the "prolific striker" mode though, that's what I was saying.

Anyway, as has been said, enough talk of our rejects - onwards and upwards!

Van basten · Bericht door **Van basten** » zo feb 04, 2007 7:16 pm

Cedric_AeF schreef:
bluedaddy19 schreef: nevertheless, we look very good, like real title and uefa cup contenders! :eusa_dance:
In UEFA cup we will have to improve our defence because it didn't exactly look great today. We conceded 1 stupid goal and they hit the post twice but it was only the crap team of Feyenoord...

But anyway : great day :cheer:

yeah defense wasn't perfect that's for sure, but we have a good excuse - stam and grygera weren't on the pitch. we didn't thought a lot about the defense today. even when result was 3-0 or 3-1 we were pressing them and it was curious when team who loses created their chances just after counterattacks

Philippe · Bericht door **Philippe** » zo feb 04, 2007 7:26 pm

why didn't KJH play ? are we already getting ready to sell him ?

SE6Ajacied · Bericht door **SE6Ajacied** » zo feb 04, 2007 7:31 pm

philippe schreef:why didn't KJH play ? are we already getting ready to sell him ?

I think because he's mnot scored for a while and is out of form. Four days after the transfer window has closed would be a strange time to be looking to sell him (and anyway, if he was in the shop window it would make more sense to play him).

Bericht door **Kowalczyk** » zo feb 04, 2007 8:29 pm

ajaxusa schreef:We still have 3 tough AWAY games coming up: AZ, Twente and PSV.

That's right. PSV's remaining schedule looks a bit easier than ours.

We have two 'easy' ones coming up now: Den Haag away and Excelsior at home. But after that it's AZ away, Heerenveen at home, Twente away and PSV away. The period from 25 Feb (AZ away) to 18 March (PSV away) will be decisive. If we do the business in those weeks, we can still overtake PSV.

No mistakes against Den Haag and Excelsior now! PSV play at Sparta next week. We got done 3-0 over there.

K.

Cedric · Bericht door **Cedric** » zo feb 04, 2007 8:48 pm

Not to mention the 2 Werder games in between...

Bericht door **Kowalczyk** » zo feb 04, 2007 8:57 pm

Cedric_AeF schreef:Not to mention the 2 Werder games in between...

Correct. But PSV have their two games against Arsenal... Who knows they'll drop a few points immediately before and after those matches.

K.

DanK · Bericht door **DanK** » zo feb 04, 2007 10:22 pm

What a way to start the week!!!

Melbourne Vicotry score the winner 2 minutes into injury time to go into the Grand Final and I wake up this morning and Ajax destroy the F'ers.

Wonderful! :cheer:

aveslacker · Bericht door **aveslacker** » zo feb 04, 2007 10:54 pm

Great game overall. Could easily have been 6-3, though, and although Ajax were easily the better team, they were also a bit lucky not to concede a couple more goals.

I see what's going on with Huntelaar -- he's being asked to play a different role than he's used to -- to play more withdrawn. I thought Leondardo played that role quite well today -- he was able to receive the ball deep and not lose it, which Huntelaar does too much (doesn't help that he gets raped a lot without getting the calls, though). Leonardo has more open field speed, which helps with that role.

Babel played well today, but he still lacks a little bit of first touch. De Mul also played well today, but he could have set Babel up twice when he was in the box, but he chose to play it himself and fluffed the shot. Nonetheless, he did play very well.

All told, pretty much everyone played great, at least on the offensive side. Our defense was, imo, shaky. Urby was getting abused on the left, and Heitinga was completely adrift of his man on the goal, and on one or two other occasions. They really miss Stam out there.

It was great to see Davids out there. He looked good, but he obviously needs some time to get in synch with his teammates.

All in all, can't be too critical of the performance. I just worry that our defense is still shaky, particularly down the flanks, and that it can get found out against an eredivisie team.

Bericht door **Kowalczyk** » zo feb 04, 2007 10:55 pm

That third goal... That was some absolutely great work from Ryan Babel and a very, very stylish and beautiful finish from De Mul. Great goal.

After the 3-0 it really felt like we were going to destroy them big time. It's pretty amazing: we could have won 0-10 in De Kuip earlier this season and if we'd converted all of our chances today... This season's score 'on aggregate' is 8-1, which is pretty amazing already, but it really could have been extreme. The number of chances we created in 180 minutes of football against that lot... incredible.

Fascinating little war in midfield, by the way: Davids and Buys kicking the s**t out of each other... :D

K.

bryan · Bericht door **bryan** » zo feb 04, 2007 11:09 pm

anybody know where the highlights can be downloaded from?

Cedric · Bericht door **Cedric** » ma feb 05, 2007 12:02 am

http://www.ultrasuid.nl/index5.htm ?

FlaFlu · Bericht door **FlaFlu** » ma feb 05, 2007 12:03 am

Ultrasuid.nl

Tom_ · Bericht door **Tom_** » ma feb 05, 2007 12:35 am

aveslacker schreef:Babel played well today, but he still lacks a little bit of first touch. De Mul also played well today, but he could have set Babel up twice when he was in the box, but he chose to play it himself and fluffed the shot. Nonetheless, he did play very well.

Yeah, although it's been said here before I'd never really noticed how bad his first touch is. It was atrocious last night, but I thought he had a good game as well.

Over Pasanens Head · Bericht door **Over Pasanens Head** » ma feb 05, 2007 11:27 am

aveslacker schreef: Urby was getting abused on the left.

He did but imo this is not totally down to him as he had very little support from the players that were in front of him. Davids was constantly sucked into the middle and Leonardo just didn't track back enough. The opposition sussed this and just poured into this area. Urby will struggle when the odds are so heavily stacked against him.

bluedaddy19 · Bericht door **bluedaddy19** » ma feb 05, 2007 12:18 pm

Cedric_AeF schreef:
bluedaddy19 schreef: nevertheless, we look very good, like real title and uefa cup contenders! :eusa_dance:
In UEFA cup we will have to improve our defence because it didn't exactly look great today. We conceded 1 stupid goal and they hit the post twice but it was only the crap team of Feyenoord...

in the UEFA cup, we will have stam and grygera ;)

ZoefdeHaas · Bericht door **ZoefdeHaas** » ma feb 05, 2007 2:12 pm

Some thoughts about the game:

Ajax were the obvious dominate force, despite a few shaky moments in the latter 15 minutes of the first half and first 10 in the second. The defense is still need in improvement.

Davids really brought the needed stability, and had a great "debut". Sneijder and De Mul were fantastic. The "worst" Ajacied was probably Leonardo, but he had a few good runs and chances.

As for Feyenoord, Buijs is a jack ass. Vincken has lots of potential, he caused some problems and well gave the assist.

Overrall good performance from the red and white, perhaps if the defense got more aggressive like Davids, the goal couldve been avoided as well as the chances Feyenoord had. Let's keep winning till the end boys!!

GangstaRiB · Bericht door **GangstaRiB** » ma feb 05, 2007 2:25 pm

ZoefdeHaas schreef:Some thoughts about the game:

Ajax were the obvious dominate force, despite a few shaky moments in the latter 15 minutes of the first half and first 10 in the second. The defense is still need in improvement.

Davids really brought the needed stability, and had a great "debut". Sneijder and De Mul were fantastic. The "worst" Ajacied was probably Leonardo, but he had a few good runs and chances.

As for Feyenoord, Buijs is a jack ass. Vincken has lots of potential, he caused some problems and well gave the assist.

Overrall good performance from the red and white, perhaps if the defense got more aggressive like Davids, the goal couldve been avoided as well as the chances Feyenoord had. Let's keep winning till the end boys!!

Don't forget we missed Stam and Grygera. As for Leonardo you are right. Leonardo is perfect for the last 20 minutes in a game. When the opponents are weakened, he will make them go crazy. Yesterday he had a few good runs, but the lack of a real striker, gave Leonardo no chance to deliver a solid cross. If Huntelaar played, Leonardo knows where to deliver it. With Babel he doesn't know, because Babel is not a good header and he is not the 'finisher' that Huntelaar is...