Ajax 2015-16: What Will Frank Do?

Ajax have faced this type of defense quite a bit since FdB has been manager and never solved it. They always resort to long diagonal passes from one of the back four and these are too soft and easily intercepted. One way to break this down is an over the top pass but this requires a striker who is quick to release and can stay onside. Milik never quite gets this right.

I'm not sure about the two concluding sentences above, I do think the players have passion but they are also easily frustrated. Look at all the shots from 30 meters when they could not create any spaces in the Molde defense. Gudelj is the only one who came close when his rocket hit the crossbar; all the other shots were wildly off target. I think these guys want to win matches but they are ill prepared by the training staff. I will again ask the question I've posed so many times before, "what is Dennis Bergkamp's role with this club?" Here's a guy who knew how to create space and score yet I see no evidence of him having any impact on this team.

 

Great Response, could be right!

 

Well deserved 1-0 loss to Utrecht today. FdB got the tactics completely wrong and stubbornly refused to do anything about it. If the Ajax management had any spine at all, FdB would be sacked because of the European and league performance so far this year. Sure they will stay in first place because of goal differential if Feyenoord win but this is just unacceptable football by any measure. You don't play a three man back line without wingbacks and putting two midfielders in those positions was a recipe for failure. Neither Serero or Bazoer did anything to show that they could adapt to the situation.

Why is it that this team cannot recognize potential double teams? They are too slow on the ball and with little or no movement into open spaces there is no opportunity to create chances on goal. This might be OK if there were players who could see how to counter attack but that's also totally absent.

With the wasted money on transfers and the Sanogo loan I'm sure that the management will be reluctant to buy out FdB's contract. We will see lifeless football the rest of this season and this club deserves to finish back in the pack.

Player Ratings:

FdB (0) - got it wrong from the get go and continued to see it out, wrong formation and tactics

Cillessen (6) - made a couple of good saves and had no chance on Ayoub's goal
Riedewald (5) - did OK playing on the left side of a three man defense and had one nice run up the field
Veltman (5) - OK on defense but too many wasted over the top passes
Tete (5) - decent enough on defense but had no clue what to do with the ball when he was in the offensive half
Gudelj (4.5) - semi-good today but gave up the ball cheaply a couple of times
Klaassen (4) - this guy is the captain of the squad? totally MIA
Serero (3.5) - totally lost at sea in this match
Bazoer (3.5) - maybe not all his fault but had no clue about what was going on
Younes (5) - average shift in the first half before being subbed off
Milik (4) - needed service, didn't get it, cannot play without someone providing help up front
el Ghazi (3.5) - had the one hard shot on goal but right at the keeper
Fischer (4) - did little at all
Schöne (5) - OK coming on late
van de Beek (5) - had a couple of good passes and right now he's better than any of the other MFs

This is just disgusting and cannot be allowed to stand. Ajax Board members, DO THE RIGHT THING; SACK de Boer!!!!!!

 

Because all of his friends are on the Board and he knows he won't get sacked. Any other team performing like this one in Europe and in the league would see the manager out quickly.

 

Milik does well with Poland but he's partnered with Lewandowski up front so he has a lot of help.

Ajax have brought in loan players but they have been failures. Cuenca was coming off an injury and only played a couple of games. Bojan was nothing special. It's best not to talk about Sanogo at all as he's absolutely dreadful

Well they did this in the past bringing in Huntelaar and Suarez who both scored bunches of goals. Now the club is content to bring in players like Sinkgraven, Viergever, Serer0, van der Hoorn and for old time memories Heitinga (who the club claimed not to understand why he is now too slow).

 

Play poor football and stay in first place, that's de Boer's plan for the rest of the season. We could have played Cerny, Nouri, van de Beek, Dekker and done a better job with these young players than those who started the match.

EDIT: It's amazing to read FdB's remarks after losses. He blames everyone except for himself. He said that the match today was a game of chess. It was only because he doesn't prepare his team to win. How can this behavior be tolerated.

 

any team that spends €s on either of these players should sack the technical director right away. Neither one is good enough to play outside the Eredivisie. It's amazing that they have both played for respective NTs. For some reason FdB likes these kinds of players, remember Siem de Jong and Theo Janssen? I still cannot understand why de Jong was given the captain's armband when Alderwiereld was so much more deserving. Also, would have made Cillessen the captain rather than Klaassen! I'm tired of plodding midfielders!

 

Boerrigter was quite good until he suffered the back injury in early December. I think he had a call up to the NT at about that time. He was never the same player after that. Sometimes injuries hit a player unexpectedly and they never fully recover. Don't get me started about Theo Janssen, that was money down the toilet.

 

Problem is Ajax have a hard €1M/year salary cap. There were a number of strikers available at the beginning of the season but Ajax would not pay enough. Kevin Kuranyi, Samuel Eto'o, Didier Drogba, or Dimiter Berbitov all have a season or two left in their legs but would want too much.