Unfortunate but true; great player very poor manager. When will teams learn that some former players just are not worth the investment as a manager.
Now I'm really pissed. I am going to hire "zwarte Piet" to spank the whole lot. What on earth was Clasie doing on the pitch? Well, let's say goodbye to the title, the one we could have won with two fingers up in our nose on a stroll. But with this kind of attitude it isnot going to happen.
Put in Vormer, shift Vilhena to 10 and get Immers out. If one sees how Immers went in to block that shot that turned out to be the winning goal, then everybody should question his mentality. Was he afraid it would hurt him when he would go for a full block? What a spineless challenge.
Clasie with his quality and with his good play recently should have taken control of the midfield, but instead he was running around like a headless chicken. The defenders were inable to pass the ball into the midfield thanks to the shit way this midfield section played yesterday, so instead they chose to do it the English style..kick it hard to the other side of the pitch.
Sunday 14:30 CEST the match against PSV is next. We now expect nothing, fear the worst and have little hope for better things, considering the performance against RKC. 5 matches with only one win. The only lucky thing is that PSV is even worse with no win at all. 56 times before this match has been played in which PSV won 10 times against Feyenoord with 27 wins. Martyins Indi probably back. PSV has doubt about Willems.
So frustrating that BMI is still playing lb so often... Specially considering he has a decent chance of being our LCB this Summer.
I have been remiss after the past several matches in not visiting this forum! Sorrylah Feyenoord had a fine 3-0 win over PEC Zwolle in their final match before the winter break. Starting lineup was: Mulder Janmaat, De Vrij, Mathijsen, Martins-Indi Clasie, Immers, Vormer Schaken, Pelle, Boetius Vormer in for the ineffective Vilhena meant that Feyenoord controlled the midfield and the stats show it! Time of possession was > 60% for Feyenoord, and we had around 20 shots to PEC's 2. First half goals came from Immers off an assist from Janmaat, and Immers again from Clasie. In the second half Boetius put in a nice shot after the PEC defenders failed to clear the area. Subs were Bakkal on for Immers (so that he could get a standing ovation), and Goossens for Boetius. The defense played very well and Mulder had little to do. Nice to see us get a clean sheet, two matches in a row. As noted in the stats, Feyenoord had a lot of chances but the wind and the PEC goalie made it difficult to score early on.
Winterbreak, open transfer period. PSV seems to have gotten ex-twentenaar Bryan Ruiz on a half-season loan for big bucks, russian owned Vitesse seemed to have gotten a very promising (and needed) striker from Chelsea, I read that Twente just announced a cooperationship with sports(players) investmentcompany Doyen. Ajax being the biggest club, biggest ''fanbase'', highest revenue, and decently/properly managed at the top of the table. Well.. PSV is playing with fire and has done for a long time, a gemeente-bailout they had might still bite them in the ass but atleast its unlikely to happen again. Vitesse will be made eredivisie champion whenever the russians want it enough, Twente can be made champion if Doyens sports investmentcompany wants it enough. And little old Feyenoord? So far, still financially sound after years of mismanagement and almost bankruptcy. But no great arc of prospect for the future as the other teams have. No new or renovated Kuip on the horizon. It pains me to say but i greatly fear that the best chance Feyenoord had on winning the eredivisie would be maybe this year, but especially in the last 2 years. I hope im wrong though, and we can keep a hugely fun and challenging Eredivisie for the upcoming years.
It was good to see how well JPBoetius played and shows he is back after his injury. Pellè was extremely good this match and good old Ruben is on the path of reclaiming his good form too. Janmaat was again essential in the build up and assists.
We payed the price for not scoring the chances we got (Ruben, Ruben right after the break and in the first half several chances with Pellè and others). The good thing is that, despite FdB claiming that Ajax deserved the win, we were for an hour the better team, but I feared that our tendency to use alot of chances to score a goal would cost us and it did. Then Ajax tends to profit from its better experienced team players. That's why it sucked that we didnot have a prolonged run against foreign teams in the Euro league.
Did we attempt to? It has been a trend this season and in parts also last season that we rarely press or try to dominate matches. Especially not against any big teams. (No suprise we almost lost them all, because our conversion rate is way way too poor to be succesfull on counters)
Let's be realistic. Feyenoord were the better team for about 0 minutes. For the first half hour they did well staying in position, keeping the spaces very small and going forward fast if they eventually did get the ball. But at no point in the game did Feyenoord dominate the game or do anything impressive whatsoever. And Ajax isn't more experienced than Feyenoord. I think Feyenoord has been playing with the same formation for way longer than Ajax. It's just that Koeman is a shitty trainer.
Ajax has been playing CL matches for the last 3 years, and that's experience that counts, not playing in the same formation(which isnot true) or playing with the same core of players (which is true) in the Eredivisie.
But there has been a significant turnover in players during this period of time as well. The entire defensive back line is new this season relative to the one that started three years ago. Same thing with the midfield and the front line.
The worst thing is that he criticizes his group for playing long ball vs Ajax after conditioning them to do so (on and off) for as long as him being coach. He is such an opportunistic coach. He asks his fellow coaches what their plan B is, without understanding the power of consistent conditioning and it's spin offs. Koeman goes with whatever works short term, never getting to the accumulated effects of what consistent training on 1 system does for it's team and the teams under it who train accordingly. I remember a game where Feyenoord pressed Ajax and managed a draw in the Arena 2 years ago. Now he went with sitting back again. What has Feyenoord gained since then? I would be pissed if I were Feyenoord fan. Not with the team, but with Koeman and his coward tactics.
Koeman has been a failure at every job he's held. Valencia supporters couldn't wait for him to be run out of town a while back. I think I started a thread some time ago called 'The Koeman Watch' or something like that. EDIT: yes I did and it is HERE Time to bring it back?????
The fact that he keeps on fielding Immers should be infuriating enough. Makes Siem De Jong look brilliant and that is saying something.
Feyenoord, if not terrible at scoring goals, could have won the game early on. Like PSV should have done in much greater extent. But btw- I'm consistantly amazed at the Ajax supporters, also on this forum, who seem to forget are how little a margin they (with by far the biggest budget) have been crowned champion these last years. No. Not because of Ajax-awesomeness, but because all teams have been and mostly still are in the financial gutter. That said, Feyenoords problems lie with both the trainer and the team. We, under lightest pressure, crumble and panic. And have done so since Guidetti left (who magicly instilled self-belief and bravery on the team). This season especially, i've been absolutely shocked at our game-tactic against the big teams. We sit back, and when we sit back, we lose ( against anyone). I dont know what more i can say about it, because its painfully obvious. We rather just lose instead of going down fighting against any team who tries to dominate possession against us.
All this moaning and groaning is quite funny. Your club has some very fine players (3 of your back line players have started for the Dutch NT over the past year) so I wouldn't blame them. Rather the club should get rid of Koeman who has always found a way to mismanage his team.