I thought they misplayed Dest. He is best at playing deliberately down the right side. The helter skelter helped Valencia. I know the team worries about a Dest giveaway there but from what I could see he was placing his bets just right. They moved him back and to the left when Jong came on at which point he almost gave one away that could have been costly.
Also might make it better for Dest's development in the long run. Glad he played tonight, fighting until the very end in a match that matters is good experience.
Huh? Dest played RB until the final desperate 5'. He was OK. He's just not good enough to have a huge effect on a match like this. They brought him on moreso to just get Alvarez off. Quite frankly, he should have stated.
He has 7 goals and 12 assists in 16 league games, with 3 goals and 3 assists in the Champions League (including qualifiers) in 10 games. Truly mediocre.
it felt like ziyech kind of collapsed under the pressure of having to pick the slack for hte injured guys. some uncharacteristically bad play from him
For his standards, yes. For the main striker in Ajax, one expects a bit more. Last season he had 28 goals in the Ered, this season he's going to reach only half of that. And he's playing similar amount of minutes.
I think folks tend to underestimate what Promes brings to the attack. He is so good at unbalancing defenders and letting everyone else find the seams in the box. But Ajax lack a great finisher on this team - lots of chances and even with a packed box, they should have been able to craft a tying goal here.
Yeah most of his goals are from the spot. He's been very average this year. He looks worn out between all the minutes that started with the WC last year into CL qualifiers into CL Semis into CL qualifiers again (with Serbia Euro qualification in there too).
That is a pretty poor score. Form seems to have dropped since his decision to go with the US.... of course that was around the same time he lost his temporary starting slot back to Maz.
Sure... but he has gotten roasted on the set-piece counter twice over the last several games and if you watch the touch video above (or the game yesterday) you will notice he almost did it again w/ an errant pass playing the same backup set-piece position. Now, I love the kid and watch every AJAX game on ESPN+... just saying he has looked a bit shaky lately. Perhaps he has lost a bit of confidence.
Pretty big match, as the first spot is on the line. Will be a big test for all lines. Depending on how much the from injury coming back CD Vlaar is ready to replace the other CD who suffered a months costing injury the attack of Ajax will have the relatively easy task on hand of the 3 lines. Which doesnot mean much as that line with Dutch styled backs without them still kept a clean sheet. Goalie Bizot is busy running up his clean sheets tally as if the opponents attack are awol. The midfielders will have to deal with an AZ academy player who many already wanted in the Orange shirt. He's an obsessed perfectionist. The defense will have to deal with the two AZ academy graduates who bursted into the Orange team and a left winger that is fast and with a bag of stunning tricks and who's a Morocco national teamplayer. On top of that AZ has a German mentality. They managed to turn a 2-0 down score into a draw in the last 3 minutes of a Europa League match.
Shifting our focus to AZ Alkmaar, Sunday's hosts, and their beautiful field ... I will say AZ took the concept of 'obstructed view seating' to a whole new level.
https://nltimes.nl/2019/12/10/az-host-ajax-dec-15-return-alkmaar-stadium-roof-collapsed-august "Part of the AFAS stadium's roof collapsed during a storm on August 10th. No one was injured. The collapse was caused by carelessly welded connections, engineering firm Royal HaskoningDHV concluded. ... Since the roof collapse, AZ played most of their matches in the ADO Den Haag stadium. To celebrate their return to Alkmaar, the club launched "The boys are back in town" campaign. "After 7 Premier League matches, 5 Europa League matches, 29 goals, 2 stadiums and more than 2,022 kilometer traveled, we are back." the team said. "Welcome home, welcome back to Alkmaar."
Agreed, especially now that they are so lightweight. The roof still has to be sturdy, obviously, and not "carelessly welded."