25 Jan 2009: FC Groningen - Ajax

[Daniel]

why the hell do we STILL not have a huntelaar replacement?!?!?!?!?

Cvitanich is the Huntelaar replacement.

[aveslacker]

Still along way to go and Az will drop points. It will be interesting to see if we go into the market for a striker this week.Another one who has experience is necessary .

Fully agree, we will get another bite at the cherry before the season is over, but we need a stronger squad if we are to take advantage.

Suarez can't be the lynchpin of the attack, he's not consistent enough in that role. We need a player that things can be built around. Having just one now that Klaas-Jan has gone is not enough depth.

The DIY construction we rolled out against Gronigen just wasn't good enough.

I have to disagree. We were plenty good against Groningen. They scored a cracker of a goal, and their goalie played out of his mind. We were a bit unlucky as we had several attempts hit the woodwork or go just wide. Our defense was inconsistent, but less so than previous games.

If you watched the game and happened to have gone to the bathroom during the Groningen goal, you'd think Ajax would have deserved at least a draw, and probably a win.

Sometimes luck doesn't go your way. That kind of thing happens every weekend in professional soccer.

The last few seasons, Ajax would dominate games early, give up a goal against the run of play, and lose the plot, allowing one or two more cheap goals to be scored. This year's team doesn't do that - they have much more fight in them. This game could (and probably should) have been a draw or Ajax win.

I'm not in the least bit worried about this. Ajax have just come through a fairly tough part of their schedule and made it through the end of the year -- a period when they often give up points -- unscathed. In the past AZ have shown that they can't handle pressure, and they're by no means out of the woods. Ajax can (and should, imo) reel them in.

[gordonvandekamp]

Yeah we looked bad, but that's how it is sometimes.

I don't get the grumbling about a replacement for Huntelaar, we don't know if we have a quality one, but we as others have mentioned we do have one in Cvitanich, who I think should be given the rest of the season to prove his quality. No one was crying out about how bad we looked after his hat trick a few games ago.I think him being suspended was one of the big reasons we looked so bad.

I agree Suarez should not be a center forward, he is just too inconsistent in front of goal. We've got problems without a true center forward against decent teams, which I think yesterday showed. For what it's worth, my preference would have been Sno starting for Cvitanich (hasn't he played up there for the reserves or Jong Oranje in the past?).

Our defense was decent and I think we're still looking good for a team just starting the 2nd half of the season with so many recent changes. It sucks to drop points when we're already playing catchup to a team playing as well as AZ, but there is still a lot of time left in the season, and we're not even close to being out of it.

That wasn't going to be an easy game to win, even if we had a squad at full strength. Not really a lot of positives to take either, but I think we'll look like a much better team with Cvitanich back and I'm still optimistic that we're going to get better over the next few weeks.

[DanK]

I saw the highlights on Studio Sport this morning, and must say chance for chance we kicked Groningen's arse. Obviously highlights don't show the flow of the game properly, but the last 10 > 15 min we should have destroyed them. Many missed chances.

Not much to worry about here, I agree. 1-0. Big woop. 4 loses for the season, if we can keep it at that for the rest of the campaign. No problems.

[Kowalczyk]

It's obviously not too late...

AZ are not exactly shining these days. They were (believe it or not) rather fortunate to beat De Graafschap and they seem to have lost their 'rhythm' a bit. Next week they play Sparta away, then two home games - and after that a string of very tough away games, including NEC, NAC Breda, Utrecht, PSV and then Ajax.

Everything is still very well possible. Of course it is.

K.

[bluedaddy19]

why the hell do we STILL not have a huntelaar replacement?!?!?!?!?

Cvitanich is the Huntelaar replacement.

i'm almost positive that a "replacement" comes after :D

we have one senior level #9, which is one too few

[Blind3]

Crap result !! Move on.