Nah, donot think he will. He's clever enough to understand he needs to show himself in international confrontations to come in at clubs of the stature of Barca with respected results. He started with owning Ronaldo this week. My bet is he will be another season at Ajax.
One really has to wonder why this team was celebrating at the end of a match that was just an awful display of football. Any semblance to Ajax football of the past was not in evidence today in Groningen. Exactly two good plays that led to goal amidst a match were they were constantly pushed off the ball by a more physical team and almost undone by a wretched display of officiating (Kevin Blom, if you got paid for this match donate you paycheck to charity you did not earn it). Down to 10 men with the sending off of Veltman and then all of the sudden Neres puts the ball into the mixer it bounces back to Kluivert who finds Huntelaar for what was a perfect clinical finish. I guess Onnana has to be MOTM for the PK save and a couple of other good saves (it was a mystery why he received a Yellow card in added time). The team sill has a chance at the championship though even a third place finish is not out of the question if AZ win out. It was striking that the club resorted more to Frank de Boer U turn football than what we saw last season under Bosz and in earlier matches this year. I continue to have doubts about ten Haag and thought several times that the players had just quit on him until the final five minutes of the match. There was just too much standing around and everyone was too selfish when they had the ball. It was a disgusting victory. Player Ratings: Onana (8) - great saves today to keep the tally to just one goal conceded Tagliafico (5) - OK and sure he should have buried the header late in the 2nd half but I'll cut him some slack because he is a FB de Ligt (5) - good in the second half but woeful defending on the Groningen goal Veltman (4.5) - sloppy on the ball at times and unjustifiably called for a hand ball when it was clearly ball to hand Kristensen (4) - defensively questionable all match long Schöne (2.5) - slow does not begin to describe his play today van de Beek (4) - didn't help create much of anything Ziyech (3.5) - Ajax tried to run everything through him and except for a couple of passes everything failed; shooting was wild and not on frame Kluivert (4) - buried the first goal but of course wasn't marked and then delivered the pass to Hunelaar for the match winner; other than that he was just plain poor Huntelaar (5.5) - buried the shot to win the game but was sadly not passed to by teammates when he made good runs to get open Neres (4) - too selfish today and other than the pass to set up the match winner was poor S de Jong (4.5) - just a shade below average Eiting (5) - not sure if he even got a touch Wöber (NR) - on in extra time after the goal for defense but never invovled
Yes, he was really awful. He didn't call a lot of obstructions and nasty tackles. I guess he gets a '1' for remembering to bring his whistle, notebook and cards to the match. Other than that it's hard to see what he got right. This is not he first time I've seen Blom really disinterested in the match.
Wow, Onana honouring the memory of Tonnie van Leeuwen with an epic performance against FC Groningen! demmit. somehow my post didnot arrive (or my old brain forgot to click the post button)
^^Onana was amazing. Can you point me to a link for the Dutch player ratings? I though Ajax were very poor yesterday except for the two plays where they scored. What was really strange is ten Haag stating in the post match comments that the introduction of de Jong changed the match!! This guy is no better than Keizer.
On a day when players needed to step up and show what Ajax football is like, most of them decided to play their poorest match of the year. Ajax were no match for PSV losing almost every contested ball, playing very poor positional defense, and only creating one real opportunity on goal. The midfield was totally over run and aside from a couple of searching passes the trio of Ziyech, van de Beek and Schöne were exceptionally poor. Of course this has been a problem for Ajax ever since the tragedy in the Austrian alps and no real good solution is in sight. Questions remain about ten Hag. What's up with the corners? Why were both Schöne and Ziyech at the corner flag and everything was to the short man rather than whipping a ball into the box when we have some good headers of the ball? No silverware of any kind since the 2013-14 season. This is unacceptable. I could go on but will leave it at that! Player Ratings: Onana (6.5) - can't be faulted on any of the goals and made some nice saves to prevent even a worse rout Tagliafico (3.5) - sent off after a second yellow and generally poor Wöber (4) - beaten in the air by L de Jong for the second goal de Ligt (5.5) - tried to keep things together on the back line but that was an impossible task Veltman (3.5) - beaten badly on several occasions Schöne (3) - too slow even for the Eredivisie van de Beek (3) - a true horror story of a game after a very good inaugural season as a starter Ziyech (5) - a couple of pretty passes but too many others were off the mark and it's time to say good bye Kluivert (4.5) - not much of a contribution at all Huntelaar (5.5) - had the one chance on goal but it was too close to the keeper and I'm surprised he stayed in the game for as long as he did with all the persistent fouling Neres (5) - a couple of good moves in the box but never a chance to get a shot off S de Jong (4) - saw Red when he lunged out and caught the PSV player's Achilles Dolberg (5) - I guess he gets a '5' for being on the pitch but did he ever see the ball? Ajax are still in danger of dropping down to third place as they are only five points ahead of AZ. Ajax are home to VVV on Thursday while AZ take on Vitesse.
de Jong is likely done for the season. He tried to return to full practice but there was a subsequent foot problem this week. Now that Ajax are eliminated he won't return. I have not heard anything about Sinkgraven and with the total meltdown in the MF today I think he should be returned to that position rather than LB where Tagliafico will be starting next season (assuming he is not sold after the WC this summer).
I think your being too negative. The first half was pretty even, but PSV scored the goals. In this link one can find more details about the match (after running it through GoogTrans): https://www.ad.nl/nederlands-voetbal/psv-pakt-glansrijk-de-titel-na-grote-zege-op-ajax~a6108590/
Ajax only had a good first 20 minutes. Both of the first half goals were a result of mistakes as opposed to great play from PSV. PSV are mentally tougher than Ajax. It's amazing that an 18 year old defender, de Ligt, is the toughest and best Ajax player with Neres probably second (based on his season performance and not necessarily yesterday's match). As a supporter, I am very disappointed by the team's play this season.
That's the role of a proper supporter, excitement one week followed by heartbreak the next. I remember a lot of years ago one of the college football teams I followed lost on the final play of the game. When the coach was asked about his reaction he commented, "...there are 700 million people in China that didn't even know we played today..." Life goes on!!!
No, it was back in 1970 IIRC that this happened. UCLA against USC and it was a 40 yard touchdown pass on the game's final play. I think the population of China was about 700M at that time. EDIT: 1969 it was and here's a write up on the catch: http://articles.latimes.com/2009/nov/22/sports/la-sp-sam-dickerson-rivalry22-2009nov22
Ziyech got a shove by one of the Ajax supporters yesterday and he has taken down all his Ajax Instagram pics. So clearly he's upset about it https://www.ad.nl/nederlands-voetba...-als-supporters-verhaal-komen-halen~aecce32b/
http://www.abc27.com/news/hidden-hi...acial-barriers-in-college-football/1081480618 is a nice article on Jimmy Jones who threw the touchdown pass. He was one of the great black quarterbacks ever to play college football. You can see a clip of the final pass that beat UCLA.
When Feyenoord was trashed 10-0 by PSV we flocked to the stadium when the next match sold out and gave the players our support. That's a statement from supporters. These socalled Ajax supporters doing that are mere gloryhunters.
Seeing what they did in the PSV stadium, I'm not in favour of lifting the ban on away fans from the Feyenoord/Ajax clashes.
https://www.ajaxlife.nl/updates/passmaps-ajax-op-alle-fronten-afgetroefd-door-psv-psvaja-1718 shows exactly why Ajax deserved to lose.