Barkley, Kante, Christensen, RLC, and Pedro have not traveled with the team to Amsterdam. 19 other players have, including Billy Gilmour, though the U19 team did also travel on the plane for their own match. I see a draw here.
But too many mistakes in the back that so far have not been punished because of poor finishing. If we do that tomorrow, Chelsea might get two goals off of gifts. Everyone is healthy for Ajax. the big question is whether ten Hag goes with a defensive double pivot of Alvarez and Martinez which was the formation against Valencia away. Martinez is a wonderful holding MF and destined for a place in the Argentina NT. Chelsea MF will have to work very hard tomorrow as Ajax ball rotation is fast. All the Ajax attackers are very good in tight spaces and can run off defenders in the box very well. It should be a wonderful fixture and let's hope for some exciting football!!!
Great info. Appreciate you stopping by. We'll make a go of it which is a nice change to some previous regimes. We aren't the best finishing team but we do create quite a few chances.
Haha typical Dutch reporter: https://www.voetbalzone.nl/social_i...CYIoFsxUKluYOKfZgp4imEp4iXmXUD2O9l1Wz7sERzwaI For whatever reason I have a feeling tomorrow is going to be one of those days that Ajax really underperforms. Think Chelsea might take the win and it would probably be a good reality check for Ajax. Should be exciting though, good luck to you guys.
Big one this. The group is still pretty open but we can go a very long way towards qualification with a win here. Hoping for Lille to get something from Valencia as well
I'm actually wondering how Lampard will approach this one from a tactical point of view. Lamps has had great experience in European football in a stellar career, seeing the highs and lows of playing away at tough opponents. I'm wondering if he is going to go the Mourinho way, setting up the team in a "we may not win, but we'll sure as hell be hard to beat" way. I'm thinking he'll be savvy enough to realize that this game is not the "must win" one of the two, that'll be the home leg.That being said, he'll also want to give us a chance at taking all the points so anything other than 3-5-2 will be a shocker to me. James gets another start I'm thinking, Azpi drops into the back three. I think Pulisic should get a nod over Mount in this one, to start in the middle as CHO is not being displaced by anyone and Willian is yet to play his way out of the team. Brings up an interesting question though, which of the players, Mount or Pulisic, does Lampard trust to follow his tactical instructions? Now, young Mount has over a full season plus, under Lampard and continues to be picked by him, so that there is all telling in how on board Mount is with his way of playing. Young Pulisic is just a couple of months into a learning experience, but somewhere along the line Lampard has to give him a run out to see what(if anything) he is taking on board. Wouldn't be at all surprised to see Pulisic start this one. Hope we score twice though, don't think we're good enough to stop them scoring at least once, and we're just not set up as a Mourinho type team, that can soak up pressure for 90 whilst winning it 1-0.
Better not play bunker down football. Ajax regularly face this type of tactic is in the league and dealt with it successfully. Best strategy is to try to match up with Ajax and prey on a mistake which will come.
Going 3-5-2, with the talent we have, would not be considered "bunker down" ball. As I said, we're simply not good enough to play that way, defensively speaking, of course.
If we didn't do it against Liverpool, fat chance it's happening against you or anyone else. Should be an entertaining one tomorrow. Good to have you in the thread btw always nice to get opposition insight. Wonder if we'll see Lamps mix it up and throw Pulisic a start. He's got the edge in terms of CL experience over Mount by some margin. Won't be too bothered either way but.. I feel it's 50/50. Cautiously optimistic, per usual... 3-2 to the boys in blue
The match is actually on TNT (USA) at 1PM EST. Thanks for the Ajax point of view; good to know that other fans are as insecure about their clubs as we are about ours.
Being an Ajax supporter in recent years is only for the insecure!!! We finally have a trainer who usually gets the tactics correct and is well liked by the players.
No Billy Gilmour for the U19s today, so he'll be in the mix today for sure. My guess at the starting 11: Kepa, Az, Tomori, Zouma, Alonso, Jorginho, Mount, Kova, CHO, Tammy, Willian We're left without many options in defense or midfield.
The thing about Mount (like Willian a bit)) which goes a bit unnoticed and underappreciated, by many not named Frank, even if he not contributing his best on offense, is his effort, movement, and key spearheading of the deep press we like to impose. (Also what Lamp seems to hint the most at what Pul needs to improve-though Pul does seem to put in a fair effort at it mostly, but Mount after a year knows the in 's and out's of the Supah Press likely better.) All in all I think we go with a 3-4-3/3-5-2 with James rather than Kova in Brock's line-up, or more likely with CHO getting a rest and Kova playing deep with Jorginho with Mount inside behind Tammy. If we go with the 4-2-3-1, could see Pul starting on left and CHO getting a rest to start but on bench as CHO has played a fair amount of matches post-recovery.
Don't forget that Mount spent a season on loan at Vitesse in the Dutch League and knows quite a bit about Ajax tactics.
Chelsea go Kepa, Azpi, Zouma, Tomori, Alonso, Jorginho, Kovacic, Mount, Hudson-Odoi, Willian, Abraham as I guessed. Pulisic on the barnch. Sergino Dest starts for Ajax (US or Holland guy).