I could only watch the 2nd half as the feed was very poor in the 1st. Ajax keep a clean sheet and win 2-0 with goals by Tadic (from the spot) and Taylor. Rulli looked good in goal with nice passing but Den Bosch were poor and never threatened. Fitz-Jim is so good on the ball always calm with his passes. 2nd half substitutes were Rassmussen for Conceincao, Jensen for Taylor, Aertsen for Rensch and 16 year old Hato for Wijndal. Let's hope the ill players are better by the weekend. @wynaldaisagod - Jensen just came back from a year loan.
Enough of Rensch. He is utter garbage. Horrendous tactical understanding and zero positional sense is proven again! How was he capped for Oranje based on what? Terrible soft player who looks even more pathetic with faking injury getting stretchered off. Just a joke! Ajax midfield so lacking in quality once again. No leader on the ball. Bassey has been pretty good running hard in the Leftback role.
Watching this (and the last 3 seasons)... Why not Alvarez as a CB? He's so much better suited there for Ajax. Bring some actual quality in the MF. Taylor/Klaassen also not good enough. We buy 1,000 players and desperately need MF players- sign none. If it's 5 straight league matches without a win, everyone should be fired. The board is asleep at the wheel. Without CL money, we're in serious trouble.
The decisions made by AS are just poor. Brobbey (Little supply to him once again) off for Kudus who is needed to run from deeper positions perhaps as a 10 is not a striker. How often he gets caught being offsides or showcases sloppy work on the ball is frustrating. Keeping Klaassen and Tadic on just drives me nuts.
Well they defended better than any match this season despite being 10 down (I'm ignoring the opening 10 minutes when things were poorly organized). Rulli did not have any difficult shots to save. Ajax had a couple of chances in the 2nd half but Taylor pushed his shot wide and Alvarez's header was too weak. I guess we have to be thankful for the point, though AZ pulled ahead with a win today. Feyenoord can extend their lead to five points with a win tomorrow. The team still has too many holes and I would rather have Schuurs back, to partner with Timber. This was a stupid move by Ajax to let him go, particularly when it became evident that Bassey is not a CB. Player Ratings: Rulli (6) - had one dicey play when van Wolfswinkel blocked his kick Sanchez (6.5) - had a pretty solid 2nd half with a lot of good interventions and even made some decent passes Timber (7) - maybe the best player on the pitch Rensch (2) - hope he is Ok, but his game was a disaster from the get go; he has really regressed Bassey (6) - great athlete but that's about it; this will go down as one of the poorer transfers in Ajax history as he doesn't seem to have much football sense Alvarez (6.5) - played most to the match as a CB and didn't make any mistakes Taylor (6) - worked hard all match and had maybe the best chance of the game for Ajax Klaassen (6.5) - defensively outstanding and of course in a match such as this his offensive imitations were not apparent Conceicao (6.5) - really put in a good shift until he was exhausted Brobbey (5.5) - once Ajax were down to 10, not much for Brobbey to do Tadic (6.5) - played well, holding the ball up when he had the chance and laying the ball off Kudus (6) - got free a couple of times Bergwijn (5) - never got a chance in the offensive half Feyenoord up next weekend and I think that match will make or break the season. Ajax are in a must win situation if they hope to contend for the title
Err, we are not financially OK. Maybe very short-term, but definitely not long-term! @Orange14 we also have very little world class talent coming through the youth ranks
I would sell those 2 now if possible at what they were quoted for not very long ago. Lucky that Twente lacked in quality and speed of play despite having a man advantage. This season’s transfer window has bared next to nothing. Only Brobbey and Bergwijn have provided some production. Sadly nothing from either of them lately due to injury and no quality supply. Bassey works hard but is clearly lacking technically has been average at best. I think Sanchez is even lesser in quality in comparing him to Bassey. Nothing from Wijndal, Kaplan, Ocampos, and Lucca. Millions have been spent! No midfield quality in this team other than Berghuis who struggles against better quality teams and when he’s under pressure. Taylor lacking badly in my opinion. I’m completely aggravated and tired of watching Tadic and Klaassen. If they drop points I would really give the youngsters the chance to show what they can do.
Should have easily been 0-3 Twente after 45 minutes. Lucky Ajax EDIT: okay maybe I'm exaggerating a little bit, but you get the idea
There is no long term in football unless the team has oil money. Ajax are in good shape right now. It is always difficult to predict world class talent in the youth ranks which is why we have the Freddy Adu award. There are some very good players.
About 33% of revenue last year was CL (lots of it the historical coefficient). Going from CL to EL or Conference league and we're down loads of money-- our budget is based off of that: #Ajax 2021/22 accounts cover a season when they won the Eredivisie, were finalists in the KNVB Cup and reached the Champions League last 16. Finances still impacted by the COVID pandemic. Some thoughts in the following thread.— Swiss Ramble (@SwissRamble) October 10, 2022 We'd have to not only sell guys to make wage bill but you'd have guys we'd have no shot signing or keeping because they want to play CL football. The other issue is outside of Timber and Alvarez maybe Kudus, who is going to sell for a big fee? Really no one. It's not like when we sold de Ligt and de Jong but still had Donny, Ziyech, Neres, Maz, Onana who all could/did get a huge fee.
And obviously Transfermarkt is very subjective, but according to them we have 4 20+m Euro players (of which are ... 30+m Euro)... compared to previous teams: 22/23 - 4 (2) 21/22 - 8 (5) 20/21 - 9 (3) 19/20 - 8 (4) 18/19 - 9 (6) Keep in mind how transfers have insanely inflated too.
I feel like if it remained 11 v 11 that Twente would have won. Ajax packed it in when they went down to 10 and Twente didn’t have the creativity.
I don't get why Kik Pierie is sent off on a loan, while Rensch is put on the pitch. Rensch was a bench warmer and should stay there. Louis kept Struijck at home and selected this moron. And that goalie, my oh my.
You better not quote Transfermarkt values, as these mean nothing and are very personal views valuations. Take a look at how they value players.
Sure they aren't perfect as I said in my post..... But they paint the picture that is becoming very clear: No only is the coaching bad but the level of talent at Ajax is very low compared to the last few teams.
Ajax are always sketchy in the transfer market and it's pretty much 50/50 in terms of getting good players coming in. It's amazing that we got two very nice players from Argentina and one from Brazil. Ajax were never going to replace a half team from last season, I don't think many teams could. In all the years I have followed Ajax (this goes back to 1971), I cannot remember a year where the club lost so many starters. The 2019 CL semi finalists only lost de Ligt and de Jong, IIRC. van de Beek and Ziyech stayed for another year. The club needs a smart Technical Director who can assess talent.
While not officially a 'transfer', Ocampos might be the worst transaction in Ajax history: 8m between fee/salary for 114 minutes.