Peter Bosz and the New Ajax

One team came out to play football; the other team came out only to keep a clean sheet and hoped that they could snatch a cheap goal along the way. As it often happens, the anti-football team prevailed by a 0-2 score that flattered their doleful performance. If this is how the second richest football team in the world wants to play football, count me as an anti-fan. One goal off of a weak Ajax throw in and the other off a luck kick at a headed ball, yucky goals to be sure.

Ajax tried their best with probably 70% of the possession much of it in the ManU half of the pitch. Unfortunately, they couldn't come up with the penetrating pass and former AZ keeper Romero had just catching practice tonight. The 4-2-3-1 defense was packed in too tightly. Other than the two week goals the Ajax defense stood tough. ManU players were easily dispossessed and both Sanchez and de Ligt acquitted themselves well. Their 19 year old wunderkind Rashford was no threat at all.

Player Ratings:

Onana (7) - no chance on either goal
Riedewald (4) - a bit harsh but the throw in that led to the goal really had to be better
de Ligt (8) - wonderful game
Sanchez (8) - hustled all over the field and came back hard to deny a goal with a 50-50 challenge
Veltman (7) - turned out he didn't need to do much defending and I don't know what he could have done better on the 2nd goal
Schöne (6.5) - decent enough
Ziyech (6.5) - OK game but there really were few passing lanes
el Capitan (7) - put in a strong shift in what might have been his last Ajax game
Younes (7) - just couldn't beat a packed in defense
Dolberg (5) - saw little of the ball and was no factor at all
Traore (7) - worked hard but there was no way through to goal
van de Beek (7) - did a nice job getting free in the box but the off foot shot was easily saved
Neres (7) - gave a spark of life but again no way through to goal
de Jong (6) - good play coming on late

It was great to get to the final of a European competition. The win was not to be but Ajax kept true to their history, working hard, passing and trying to attack. Let's hope that the key players stick around for next season and that we can make it through to the group stage of the CL. There is a lot of future here.

 

I'm off to see my daughter's chamber choir sing the national anthem at tonight's Washington Nationals baseball game.

I'll catch up with all the comments tomorrow.

 

Here are my further reflections on the match after watching the replay this morning. It's always the little things that matter in football as even a minor mistake can be magnified and change the course of the match. I looked at how Reidewald was signaling the players to move further up the pitch on the poor throw in. I wonder if it didn't slip a little when he threw it as he was looking to throw it a lot further than he did. Then you had Klaassen who was just a shad off of Pogba on the shot and then the deflection by Sanchez. On the second goal I ran the replay several times to see that Felani gave Dolberg a little shove so he couldn't jump properly and contest for the ball. He might not have won the ball from Smalling but we won't know. Anyway, they were two pretty light weight goals but enough to decide the match.

ManU's tactical defense was just right for a team whose midfielders just cannot pass quickly enough. Spaces were always at a premium with a back four and five sitting in front of that. The ManU back four cleared every single high ball driven into the box. Additionally, you had Fellani in the middle of the front bank of players and his height further obstructs things. Ajax had 17 shots on goal but only three on frame and those were all easily saved. The best chances came with Traore's shot in the first half from some nice play by Younes; van de Beek getting free in the box and taking a left footed shot; and finally Neres breaking in on goal only to chip the defender but leaving the ball a little too far to get a shot off. There were some attempts at touch passes and back heels but too many defenders were in the way for those to be effective. In a game like this one, Ajax really needed to score first so that ManU could not execute their hunker down defense.

Looking at the player performances, Klaassen had a poorer match than I rated him at yesterday. Ziyech was a non factor and Schöne was a little better. I thought Younes was more than decent in the first half and just OK in the second. Traore tried to make things happen but is too one-footed and cannot go to his right. He's not good enough for Chelsea and it will be interesting to see which EPL team he goes to (certainly Kluivert and Neres have far more promise than he does). This was a game where Dolberg would never have any impact given the slow passing of Ajax; he also showed that he is at least two years away from playing at a top tier team.

The back line played extremely well when they were challenged. de Ligt was amazing and I don't think he made a single bad play the entire match. Sanchez was excellent and coming back to push Lingard off the ball on the late breakaway was good to see. Veltman and Riedewald were seldom bothered and managed to acquit themselves pretty well when players came down the wing (though Valencia did beat Riedewald but Onana made a nice save on a very hard shot).

What happens now? Certainly Tete will be leaving unless something dramatic by Overmars happens. Klaassen should leave both from the perspective of his own ambition and the need to find a proper balance in the MF. Veltman may leave but who will pay money for him other than some mid-table team. Sanchez showed that he can play at a very high level but is he ready for a team such as Barca right now? I would like to see him at Ajax for another year but don't think it will happen (but we should get top € for him). I was hoping Ziyech would come up big yesterday but that didn't happen. I'm not sure what his long term value is at this point.

The club now goes into the third qualification round for the CL with a two leg match in late July. the Turkish and Greek leagues still are not finished so two of the possible Ajax opponents are not known. We do know that Steau Bucharest, Young Boys, or Nice might be opponents. We will know for sure on July 14 when the draw takes place.

Congrats to Bosz and the staff for molding this team and getting them to the final of a Europe competition where they had to take on a team with far greater financial resources. They also came in a solid second, missing out on the league championship by a narrow margin. For me it was a successful season and a harbinger of good things to come

 

We hope Sanchez stays but if big money comes chasing it will be hard to turn down. If he does leave, de Ligt moves over to the right side and Viergever who was suspended for the match will play on the left where he started most of the season. Sanchez enables the team to play at a higher level in Euro competition but his absence won't be as damaging in the Dutch League.

I commented on this a lot over on the ManU forum as you know. I think you guys are way overestimating our attack. Ajax have been very wasteful in front of goal this season and if you look at our EL matches we played two very good ones, some fair ones, and some that were not so good. Ajax are a very easy team to defend against because our MF is not a quick passing team.

Mourinho tactically played the game in the correct manner. We don't like that style of play and certainly I voiced my opinion on this in my match report. Factually, we started a team of youngsters against a team of veterans; it was always going to be an uphill climb but you never know in football.

I did complement you over on your forum and wished your team well only to get dumped on and insulted as a troll by one of your posters. We tend to accept those who post over here and not insult them. I'll leave it at that!

 

Interesting perspective on Ajax from The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/football/bl ... ague-final

Only problem is he has likely not seen many Ajax matches this season. We all know that these were the same faults that Ajax have exhibited against even lesser opposition.

 

Two rounds same as this past season.