22 Dec 2012: Roda JC - Ajax

[Orange14]

Sigthorsson will be the striker today...

Well he certainly has not impressed so far.

[SPL]

poor defending by V Rhijn to let the Roda guy have a free header.We are creating chances but maybe we should stick Bojan on after HT in place of Siggy,not impressed with him and Fischer has not done much either.

[rjf1]

How do they expect to score goals when they only have one man in the box surrounded by four defenders on every attack, and the first choice for a pass from the midfielders is to go backwards. All season long, when they played that miserable pitty pat style they have gotten bit. The times that they committed to attacking, instead, they ran rings around their opponents.

[Orange14]

Sigthorsson will be the striker today...

Well he certainly has not impressed so far.

...and he's even worse than that.

[souras84]

Wasted (years) chances!! Heading for a heartbreak today

[Rooie]

Wasted (years) chances!! Heading for a heartbreak today

Same feeling over here, they just won't score today...

[souras84]

We must have some of the worst set piece tactics I've ever seen

[Tom_]

Man. How much luck can these guys have? Totally improbable save from Kurto on that Klaassen chance.

[souras84]

Hoesen's no better than Sigthorsson

[souras84]

I can't stand our number 9's... We end up paying the first 20 minutes!!!

[souras84]

The kid did it!! What 2 strikers couldn't do

[Rooie]

Yeah, a goal on his eredivisie debut!

[Tom_]

Unbelievable! Twice!

[King Litti]

Legend!

[souras84]

haahahah

Miracles happen

[rjf1]

First of all, isn't it amazing what can happen when you actually try to attack instead of playing pitty pat. In the second, for all the Hoesen naysayers, he was the one who made the first goal possible, being strong enough not to get outmuscled by the defender and able to turn and put the ball across the face of goal.

[Tom_]

Well we weren't great but we did attack for the whole game and deserved to win if you ask me. You can't judge the game just on the goals that go in, it's about creating chances, and we could have scored 4 or 5 times. Roda's luck almost held but ran out in the end. Great story for Riedewald.

[Amol]

First of all, isn't it amazing what can happen when you actually try to attack instead of playing pitty pat. In the second, for all the Hoesen naysayers, he was the one who made the first goal possible, being strong enough not to get outmuscled by the defender and able to turn and put the ball across the face of goal.

This season at least, I've liked Hoesen more than SIggie. Things seem to happen when Hoesen is around.

Also, great Eredivisie debut for the kid!! 2 goals!! Speechless.

[souras84]

Not bad for a left back! What is his real position? De Boer said something about him being a central defender. Maybe today his instructions were to join the attack as a number 9

[paladinby]

On my, our hero was actually in the place where winger should be during his first goal. Hoesen played well out there with shielding the ball and then making a cross.

[SPL]

unbelievable last week he was just a youth player now he is a hero. Far too much pitty patty ,when you are 1-0 down you cannot expect to do anything just keeping the ball in your own half.

So we are top but we need to improve our attack over the winter.We need to get a winger.

Last Thursday no one knew who Jairo Riedewald was ,well they do now.

After the tension and stress of today I think we all need the winter break.

[souras84]

If we get some wingers in the mix, it could free players like Bojan and get them more invovled in the penalty area.

As for the winter break, I certainly do!!

[Orange14]

Well we still don't know if Riederwald can defend but we sure know that he can score goals! Wow, what a finish to what looked like a dismal loss to a team that really could not defend at all. We go top of table now and still have work to do. I hope that de Jong can come back and slot in at striker because our current options are just not good. I can't remember seeing a worse game from a striker than from Sigthorrson today. Just horrible.

Player Ratings:

Cillessen (7.5) - couldn't do anything on the goal but was quite good otherwise
Blind (6.5) - had a poor match at fullback but came on strong when he moved up to midfield
Moisander (7.5) - really good match going forward on some rampaging runs
Veltman (7) - had one bad play but otherwise strong
van Rhijn (6.5) - didn't have much defending to do and is going forward a lot more not
Poulsen (6) - just so-so today, he wasn't really needed on defense
Serero (6) - decent enough but still could have pressed forward more
Klaassen (7) - bit unlucky to have his shot saved but wonderful how he controlled the ball
Fischer (6) - OK match but nothing special
Sigthorrson (3) - Awful
Schöne (6) - worked hard but his free kicks were nothing special
Bojan (6) - really cannot play on the wing as he constantly is going inside
Hoesen (5.5) - marginally above average
Riederwald (7.5) - the name of the game is to score goals and he did it today; well done

Open the 2nd half with PSV in mid-January and that will be a test.

[Amol]

.....and lets not forget one tiny fact. We're winter champions!!

Don't remember the last time we were in 1st at the winter break.

[Manneken Pis]

Apparently we go into the winter break as "Winter Champions" for the first time in ten years.