Just got my ticket to see Ajax play Sao Paolo (David Neres former club) in the Florida Cup this January!!!!! Last time I saw them play was here in DC in a post-season friendly after de Boer's first championship season. Looking forward to this even if it's just a friendly.
http://www.floridacup.com/ is the website for the tournament. Ajax also play Flamingo but I'm not going to that one. The Sao Paolo match is the first of a double header with Eintracht Frankfurt playing Flamengo so you get to see both matches. Let me know if you will be at the Sao Paolo match and we can meet up.
Thank you, Bijlow. On a serious note, I'm worried about v.d. Beek's form. I'd hate to see him turn into another Siem de Jong or Klaasen, with all due respect to both. Looking forward to finishing the 0-10 team off.
In the end it was a comfortable 3-0 win over Feyenoord but the play was certainly not scintillating from Ajax. Deserved Red Card on St. Juste pretty much decided this match but I have to acknowledge the good job Feyenoord did keeping shape and denying opportunities for Ajax. Ajax contributed with too many sloppy passes and not enough ruthlessness to attack when there were clear openings to do so. No real standouts for me in this match. Player Ratings: Onana (5.5) - had one hard shot to save from Berghuis and that was it Tagliafico (6) - had a couple of good hard crosses into the box but nothing came of it Blind (6) - had a couple to mop up duties to take care of when Feyenoord got past midfield de Ligt (6.5) - snuffed out a couple of half chances Mazraoui (5.5) - silly Yellow Card and beaten badly by Larsson late in the 2nd half Schöne (5.5) - slightly above average game in 1/2 of football de Jong (6) - some surprisingly weak passes marred his performance van de Beek (6) - got the ball in deep a couple of times but could not get the shot off Tadic (6) - nice header for the third goal but just above average otherwise Dolberg (6) - a couple of good possessions and one shot that was not troubling to the keeper Ziyech (6) - nice goal for #2 but lots of off target shots otherwise Neres (5.5) - surprisingly sloppy play from a player who is usually under control but a delightful pass to Tadic Huntelaar (5.5) - worked hard in the box but couldn't put the shot with his off foot on frame de Wit (NR) - just a touch or two coming on late Cup match coming up against Go Ahead Eagles mid-week. Expect to see lots of substitutes play
That challenge deserved mutilple-match ban... what was he thinking? Too bad this kind of stupid act ruined match. Dumfries had a heck of a game OTOH with a match-winner.
Can somebody throw some light on Mitchell bakker. Why the f**k he is playing for jong Ajax when he should be playing in the first team.its really dispponiting to see malacia get the nod in the U21s based on fews games for feyenoord while Bakker who clearly looks to have a better ceiling which he keeps showing every time he plays for Ajax is stuck in the queue. If im not wrong then on few occasions wober has being deployed at LB which makes no sense.
If nigel didnt get the red card for the karate kick vs spain then I think the challenge was yellow card offense. Plus if you look at the challege, initially st juste was coming to stamp on the ball. He did realize his timming was off and he made the contact with his feet sideways rather than straight like stamping ,with no intention on the ball.
Malacia shows his ability against better opponents. Until Bakker shows his capabilities against the same opposition and outperforms Malacia I can't see anything wrong with the U21 choice for Malacia.
He is not nearly as good as Tagliafico and from what I've seen of him so far he more resembles version 2 of Mitchell Dijks. I don't think he has the requisite speed to be a top class LB in terms of going forward. Blind/Wöber are the back ups to Tagliafico. We will see whether Bakker improves but right now I think it's even money that he departs Ajax (I think Raiola is his agent and we all know what that means).
I have seen malacia play few times. Offensively he looks to have it all but defensivly he is flying most of the time. Crossing, im not very sure as well.. Flying I mean when the oponents are more physical than him.
He's 18, so of course the adults are more physical than him. In a few years he'll be as physical as Dumfries.
Ex-Ajax Juan Familia Castillo is apparently shifting to LB and making a pretty good impression for Chelsea youth team.... same age group as Malacia and Bakker. That's another name to add to the list for future Oranje LB. And Owen Wijndal from AZ. Overall, looks like Malacia gets the much-needed experience in the first team that will further his development, while the rest of the aforementioned names are still competing at the youth level. I'll be rooting for anybody who can displace Van Aanholt, plain and simple.
You see this is what Im trying to say. Bakker at 18 looks more mature and has a good built and is a hard tackler. He looks like an improvised version of erik pieters.Regarding speed I dont think Tagliafico or even Blind has have the speed attribute to much extent either.one think that clearly stands out in bakker is his maturity jus like De ligt.
That's the same problem Tete had/has. He's a pure defender and that doesnot fit in Dutch sides. For a player in the defense you need attacking attributes too. By the way, Malacia yesterday in the ADO cup fight had an excellent match. Causing havoc going forward and focused and decisive in the defense with smart positioning.
Tagliafico is quite fast. I've seen all of his Ajax matches as well as his games with the Argentina NT. You can see his speed when he is far up field and has to catch up to the play on counter attacks. He also has a great cross as does Blind; Blind also took corners for ManU when he was in the lineup. I'm not convinced that Bakker has what it takes.
https://totalfootballanalysis.com/player-analysis/mitchel-bakker-ajax-tactical-analysis This is a good article on bakker giving the insight view of his overall package and again at 18 only. I want to go back to jetro willems when at 18 he was selected in NT on the back of his immpressive performance for PSV. 2012 if im not wrong.this was when pieters got injured. he had that same attacking orientated style like malacia.look at him todate, in long run it never worked out for him.he still lacks that physical factor and defensively is still flying which he compenstates it with strong runs and good crosses on occasions which again makes him average fullback. Im in the same opinon when a good offer comes to the table.he should just move. I dont think he will get a shot even if Tagliafico departs.
2-0 at the end and disappointing at that. How Ajax did not put up 6-8 goals against this opposition is troubling. They constantly were dispossessing Willem II in dangerous areas and had some nice passing going on but the final pass or shot was found wanting. As I've noted before this team sometimes is just not clinical enough which can come back to haunt them against better opposition. They didn't have much defending to do at all and only Blind was found wanting on one play when he didn't properly mark his man but the shot went way wide. Cannot see any reason to give any player more than a 6 or 7 in this match and there was no real stand out for me. Benfica coming up mid-week with all to play for in terms of moving on in the CL. Let's hope the shooting boots are properly laced up.
I did point out this weakness a few pages ago. While Ajax has a rock solid defense with de Ligt (how many minutes without a goal conceded?) compared to PSV, the Eindhovenaren just are a goal scoring machine and that could be the deciding difference in the race for the title. PSV scores more than their defense leaks. But if Ajax at some point donot score, it doesnot help de Ligt keeps it clean.
Benfica are slight favourites on betting sites. I have to agree, Ajax should take a draw and be happy with it. Anything better then that is a bonus
Fivethirtyeight has us at 40% to win, 26% to draw, and Benfica at 33% to win. Apparently there's a 1% chance of something else happening as well, but they don't way what that is. https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/soccer-predictions/champions-league/