18 Dec 2005: NAC Breda - Ajax

[Kowalczyk]

Another tough road game (one we have lost in recent seasons), but hey: it really seems like Ajax are getting back on track!

K.

[kaiser]

Another tough road game (one we have lost in recent seasons), but hey: it really seems like Ajax are getting back on track!

K.

Yes so it seems, and i sure look forward to seeing Rosenberg and Charestias in action again, side by side! They will both score!

[aveslacker]

Lets hope so!

[Kowalczyk]

This the expected Ajax line-up, according to Ajax Netwerk:

Stekelenburg; Trabelsi, Heitinga, Vermaelen, Juanfran; De Jong, Galásek, Sneijder, Boukhari; Rosenberg, Charisteas.

So, another 4-4-2 line-up, with De Jong instead of Pienaar, who is 'three times unavailable' (suspended due to accumulated yellow cards, injured and under investigation by the KNVB... :D ).

Maduro (ankle), Grygera (concussion), Emanuelson (overtired) are also unavailable, plus of course Escudé, Manucharyan, Maxwell and Mitea.

Today Danny Blind will decide whether 17 year old A-junior Jeffrey Sarpong will travel to Breda with the first team or not. The youngster trained with the squad this week, but is as yet unknown if he will be on the bench for Ajax-1.

Kick-off time in Breda tomorrow: 14.30 CET.

K.

[Per]

0-1 Rosenberg

Is this guy finally taking off here?

YEAH!!

[kaiser]

Rosenberg has started to pay off!!! :xyxthumbs:

[kaiser]

0-1 Rosenberg

Is this guy finally taking off here?

YEAH!!

Three recent goals by Rosenberg (in five games, but the fifth is not over yet)and two assists tells us that it might be so!!!

[saddlerian]

:bis: :bis: :bis:
Great Result! Up to 4th in the table. Is THIS the start of the run???

:xyxthumbs: :xyxthumbs:

[Blind3]

Great result. Love the clean sheets! Happy to see Wesley Sneijder score.He of the contract extension and not wanting to jump ship. It can't be coincidental that the sun finally shone thru clouds here just after the final whistle.A great day all around; an Ajax win and an F-word defeat. :xyxthumbs:

[GangstaRiB]

Solid, rocksolid. Nothing sparkling. Ajax came, took 3 points and left.

[__earth]

:bis: :bis: :bis:
Great Result! Up to 4th in the table. Is THIS the start of the run???

:xyxthumbs: :xyxthumbs:

now it starts to look like the old days, Ajax, PeeAssV and f-word at the top (let's overlook AZ at the moment)

[bluedaddy19]

(let's overlook AZ at the moment)

overlook the leaders? :eusa_naughty:

[Kowalczyk]

This game was - in many ways - identical to the Vitesse game: Ajax were never great and they took the expression 'no frills' to the next level, but they were solid as rock, they looked mature and they were very effective indeed. NAC were dominant in the first half, but they hardly created anything.

This is not the football we want to play in the long run, but it is the perfect way to get things back on track, to repair some of the damage before the winter break and to increase the boys' confidence.

As for Rosenberg: good performance. The first goal made clear how fast this dude is, and his work for the second goal was terrific. He made the difference today -- no doubt about it. By the way: I thought Chari looked quite good as well today. Babel is f#cked at the moment, I'm afraid.

Next week (Boxing Day) is f-nerd vs AZ. If we beat Groningen and grab a result at Heerenveen, things will look reasonably okay at the end of the year. Much better than a few weeks ago anyway.

K.

[dws]

The full match of NAC v's Ajax for download at http://www.fbtz.com/forum/
requires bittorrent.

[Kowalczyk]

The full match of NAC v's Ajax for download at http://www.fbtz.com/forum/
requires bittorrent.

That's great. Thanks for posting this!

Match report is now up on Ajax USA, by the way...

http://www.ajax-usa.com/matches/m05-06/ ... s-0-2.html

K.

[Venezuelan Ajacied]

This game was - in many ways - identical to the Vitesse game: Ajax were never great and they took the expression 'no frills' to the next level, but they were solid as rock, they looked mature and they were very effective indeed. NAC were dominant in the first half, but they hardly created anything.

This is not the football we want to play in the long run, but it is the perfect way to get things back on track, to repair some of the damage before the winter break and to increase the boys' confidence.

As for Rosenberg: good performance. The first goal made clear how fast this dude is, and his work for the second goal was terrific. He made the difference today -- no doubt about it. By the way: I thought Chari looked quite good as well today. Babel is f#cked at the moment, I'm afraid.

Next week (Boxing Day) is f-nerd vs AZ. If we beat Groningen and grab a result at Heerenveen, things will look reasonably okay at the end of the year. Much better than a few weeks ago anyway.

K.

I have not seen this team play in the "new formation" yet but by the comments that have been posted i can kind of imagine the Ajax Koeman had when we made that terrific Champions League run (02-03 ??), if i remember correctly Koeman would play 4-4-2 on tough away games, Zlatan and Mandy(Van der Meyde) were the duo upfront. That team like many of you have said was a low scoring clan but also a solid one.
I Think we should use this formation in the next round of the champions league, you know fight fire with fire ;) .

Keep it up guy's cause the elevator A'INT stopin.

Hup AJAX!!!! :eusa_dance:

[ajaxnumberone]

:aai: I read Ajax articles for recent weeks and knew that Ajax reverted 4-3-3 into 4-4-2 formation. But is it the right solution for Ajax ? Holland under the control of Dick Advocaat had played 4-4-2 and got the results in the qualifying round in Ek 2004, but changed back to 4-3-3 in the Ek2004. Koeman played 4-4-2 formation and Blind did it again.

I think we had big trouble finding formations between 4-4-2 and 4-3-3. I watched Holland of San Marco, Holland always play 4-3-3 or 3-4-3, but doesn't mean that Holland easily get fragile, but it has less attractive with many crosses and passes than before.


KO said :This is not the football we want to play in the long run, but it is the perfect way to get things back on track, to repair some of the damage before the winter break and to increase the boys' confidence.

Yes it's not the football we want to play, but if Blind doesn't make his mind between them, Ajax will be get into the wrong way that Koeman took.
Why do Ajax have so many foreign players than before ? than PSV, than Feijnoord ?

I am happy with the results we got to get back into the race but i don't think 4-4-2 is the right or real solution for us when we get into trouble scoring or get poor resutls. We think we need to analyse Ajax suffering in detail

[ZoefdeHaas]

Yes I have always emphasized too that I dont want Ajax do become a foreign ghetto, but it's hard for any coach to handle abunch of meddling Dutch players.

As for the 4-4-2, I can still see a 4-3-3 dash to it, at least in the Vitesse game, but if we cant get Rosales on form and Mitea recorvered, 4-3-3 wont happen.

[akieden]

Yes it's not the football we want to play, but if Blind doesn't make his mind between them, Ajax will be get into the wrong way that Koeman took.
Why do Ajax have so many foreign players than before ? than PSV, than Feijnoord ?

Yes I have always emphasized too that I dont want Ajax do become a foreign ghetto, but it's hard for any coach to handle abunch of meddling Dutch players.

The team I think is still not Blind's team, so he need time to chomp it, maybe next season he together with van Geel will do as Co & Beenhakker(correct?) did in 2001 summer