Sustain the Excellence: Ajax, 2019-20

The moment is proving to be too big for Lang right now. Has been so poor. His terrible passing lead directly to the goal. Also Veltman with another stinker so far

 

Blind with a weak challenge leads to the 0-1

 

Holy crap Lang's passing has been dreadful

 

Please sub Alvarez. Killing attacks with poor passing. Is not good enough technically to play MF for Ajax. Also is a matter of time until he gets his 2nd YC.

Ref tells Valencia to stop wasting time... then gives no injury time?

 

I still think we will get the 1-1

 

Lol this exactly is happening. This is so frustrating. The loss of Promes and Neres is huge. Lang is losing everything and our midfield without Ziyech was non-existant. We’ll see how it goes now, but it says enough about your injury status when you have to bring in a RB as your offensive savior.

 

As much as it sucks Ajax are out when they should have already moved on, they played terrible today.

They never stood a chance to win Champions League this year with the team they have but I think have a real chance at Europa League. I know people mock Europa but if Ajax can win Europa that would be a very successful year imo

 

Huge part of this loss is on Overmars. Ajax desperately needed someone in the MF and he just hasn't bought anyone good. Martinez/Alvarez are CBs. Marin is garbage. Without CL, it'll be impossible to buy someone good in the winter.

Ref was a joke but that's to be expected at this point. At one point fouls were 19-4.

I've been about as pro-Veltman as you can be: but my god that goal is 100% on him. Just moronic.

 

Ajax has themselves to blame. Referee was again a disgrace though.

 

I don't agree. Beyond the obvious discussion that we should never have been in this situation (and showed amazing resillience to almost reach the next stage despite being absolutely ********ed in both Chelsea games) this Ajax team tonight was simply not a representation of the potential of Ajax.
Missing Promes and Neres is huge. We had to bring in a youth player, Lang, who literally gave away possession on every play. We had to pull our best midfield player into another position completely disturbing our midfield. And our attack was so injury ravished that we had to bring on a fricken backup right back as our hopeful offensive savior. There is no doubt in my mind that had either Neres or Promes been here tonight we would have won.

But again, the situation should never have taken place. We were ********ed out of the tournament as soon as the two Chelsea games were stolen from us. And UEFA really needs to figure out some shit with their VAR system. Add up the amount of time wasted that second half and it should EASILY have been more than 10 minutes! I KNEW (and even posted) that they were definitely gonna ******** us over with 5 minutes added on. And then IN those 5 minutes themselves Valencia wasted probably at least 3 of them. Blind points this out to the ref and the ref signals 'don't worry, i'm keeping track of the time' and then fricken whistled after 1 extra minute. It's bullshit. No other sport is impacted as much by reffing as football. When a game is often decided by only 1 goal, bad calls can decide everything. And that to me leaves a sour taste and threatens to convince me to stop watching football. As much as I love the game, i'm starting to lose faith in it.

Lets be honest for a second. Ajax is and was clearly the best team in this group. That is undeniable and it is a loss/disgrace for the Champion's League that they went out the way they did.

 

Best GD in the group (and 2nd best of any of the 4 groups that have ended).

10 pts would be enough in every single other group to get through. The Chelsea 4-4 match was a fixed result. Today felt fixed at times... Ajax was really poor but the entire match was ********ed by the ref.

 

https://www.telegraaf.nl/sport/725179417/ajax-trainer-ten-hag-wantrouwde-arbitrage

"Ten Hag distrusted the referee"

 

Just a very unfortunate and sad result for Ajax and Dutch football.
Certainly the sting is worse when it also comes down to VAR and the poor refereeing.
Now the exodus will likely begin including ETH I would expect to go to Bayern Munich
One last note/ thought is the bad buys on Overmars has not helped.
Hoping for youth to develop quick as always.

 

Minuten en minuten 'stal' Valencia tijdens de CL-clash tegen Ajax. De arbitrage had dik tien minuten aan blessuretijd moeten geven, blijkt uit een analyse van de tweede helft: https://t.co/G7cyx8YmMb (PRO)

— Voetbal International (@VI_nl) December 11, 2019

Dirty referee.

 

This was so obvious to everyone, i'm glad they did the analysis. Valencia completely wasted away the entire second half, and they were rewarded for it. We were very threatening in the second half and in truth Valencia was really hanging on and hoping. That extra time could have been crucial. I mean Blind spent like 2 minutes practically passed out on the ground, multiple injuries, multiple substitutions, a few full-team 'fights'.... 5 minutes, right.

My frustration with the group stage of this champion's league campaign transcends just simply losing. I can accept losing (as we Dutch know very well), but when the results are so obviously and extremely impacted by referees, it really takes away any faith or joy in the game. I don't think there is any other ball sport in the world that is so systematically impacted by referees as football. The truth is that the thing that makes football so beautiful, that one moment can decide the result of a game, is also the reason why referee decisions so often decide the result of the game.

It's not just the big moments such as the bad offside calls, penalties, red cards etc. that are obvious to everyone. If you think of how many 50/50 moments happen throughout a game whereby one referee would make one decision and the other completely a different, this can have resounding effects on a game.

For instance, a player makes a 50/50 foul in the midfield to dispossess the other team of the ball thereby resulting in a counter-attack that creates a goal. Referee A calls the foul, referee B doesn't call the foul. Games are routinely won by just 1 goal, so the choice of the ref decides the game.

Look at the 2010 final between Spain and the Netherlands, there were SO many controversial calls going both ways. A different ref would have meant an entirely different game and possibly an entirely different outcome. So what eventually decides the winner, the quality of the team or the decisions of the ref? In my opinion equal parts both, which is not what it should be. The high pressure to reattain the ball in dangerous positions is so important to Ajax's game, but that element was completely removed from us because every single contact was given a foul. Any time we could have stolen possession in a dangerous position the Valencia player went down and the ref called it. This completely broke our game and allowed Valencia to pretty much stall away the entire game from the moment they scored.

I accept that the 50/50 scenario unfortunately has to be part of the game, which is why any winner of any tournament will always have to have a substantial element of luck. But it is really frustrating. Add on to that the historically terrible calls in both Chelsea matches and the obvious stats that the larger teams are significantly helped by refs and it becomes extremely disheartening.

I will say this, I know that Ajax/PSV also benefit from that preferential treatment in the Eredivisie, and that is also not fair.

 

Both Chelsea and Valencia will be obliterated in the next round.

 

I wonder if ten Hag will go in the summer or in the winter. I was thinking he'd wait until the summer so he could get a full transfer window under his belt, not be associated with Bayern losing the league, etc. However-- he did join Ajax at a low point for the club in the winter of 2018 so maybe he will go.

This is probably unpopular-- I think ten Hag has been very good as the manager but nothing irreplaceable. The CL results last year were incredible but Ajax also had the talent to go where they did. Personally, I thought Bosz did a better job in 16/17 than ten Hag last year-- the talent level of that 16/17 does not match up with how far they went in EL.

Overmars needed desperately to get us a CM (especially after Schöne left)... and we got 2 CBs (Martinez/Alvarez) + someone totally useless (Marin). With a legit CM like Propper, Ajax wins 5 of the 6 group stage matches. We're a threat to win the whole thing. Unfortunately, the Marin miss has already been absolutely massive.

 

Ajax got 5m Euro for Bosz... I expect something similar for ten Hag. He already confirmed he would finish the year with Ajax but we will see. Leaving CL changes things. If he goes to Bayern, I would imagine he will bring Ziyech (and maybe 1-2 more players) with him.

Martinez is OK in a defensive match. But in the matches like Valencia (which is most) where we need lots of possession, he just doesn't make quick enough decisions. I think he will be a great LB for Nico when he leaves. But I just don't like him in the midfield. I would like to see him and Marin together actually but Marin must be REALLY bad in training too to never really get any looks.

I am curious what Overmars will do (if anything) this window. I wonder if Donny will be allowed to go with the chance to play in CL for Real Madrid. If he does go, I would hope we buy a replacement. I don't see any CMs that are ready right now in the youth system. It looks like Eiting is toast, Ekklenkamp I don't really rate and Gravenbersch it seems like they don't think is ready yet. Plus he has a weird contract situation.

 

Tadic weigerde megabod uit China: ‘Ik voel me rijk van binnen’

Dusan Tadic kreeg afgelopen zomer een zeer lucratieve aanbieding om in China te gaan voetballen, maar legde die naast zich neer. Dalian Yifang wilde 42 miljoen euro betalen aan Tadic voor drie seizoenen. ,,Het was een 'crazy' bod, maar geld is niet alles. Geluk kan je niet kopen, ik voel me rijk van binnen", zegt de Servische aanvaller van Ajax in een interview met The Guardian.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/dec/10/ajax-dusan-tadic-spurs-china-southampton-interview