In the first half Ajax got the majority of possession, but in the second half at a given moment it was like 28% Ajax vs 72 Feyenoord, which was astonishing given the match we had to play on Thursday. I expected in the second half more Ajax possession because left energy levels at Feyenoord should be lower than that for Ajax.
You were lucky that Hartman was not sent off in the first half. Even Slot was breathing a sigh of relief that Makkelie did not card him for obstructing Kudus. In the second half he cards Sanchez for less of an infraction.
Makkelie gave an explanation why it wasnot a second yellow card and it made sense. Less sense was no red cards for Idrissie and Kudus.
did understand berghuis assists on both goals. shame he cant replicate his performances when it matters the most and in NT.
Watched his explanation and still think it had to be a yellow. Rules are rules, but Danny makes his own. That being said, Feyenoord were deserved winners on the day. Not even sure Ajax would have won if Feyenoord were down to 10.
Match on Thursday was a glorified scrimmage for Feyenoord though. They expended zero energy and it became target practice. I thought the ref was bad but as Tadic said postgame, no excuse for the loss. Credit Slot. He is a great coach. Pulling Hartman that early was a ballsy move. Tactically he did a great job. I am curious where he ends up next. I wish Ajax would've gotten him before Feyenoord did.
That would have ment dumping ten Hag Edit: not only that move, but at the end of the match making attacking subs too!!
He had a very short track record with AZ (less than two years) and threw them under the bus by secretly negotiating with Feyenoord. That was very poor by both him and Feyenoord.
Timing never worked out. But he is 100x the manager that Schreuder was. You could say same exact things about ten Hag. Short track record with Utrecht. I wouldn't be shocked if ten Hag was negotiating with Ajax while he was at Utrecht. Ugly part of the game but just what it is. Let's win the Cup, finish 2nd. It'll be hard but doable.
ten Hag was hired by Overmars to take over Go Ahead Eagles (Overmars was a shareholder and that was his youth club) and he got them promoted to the Eredivisie the first year. He then moved to Bayern where he managed Bayern II before going to Utrecht. Ajax was up front with Utrecht and gave them compensation. Feyenoord did neither with Slot.
Slot was out going out of contract/he didnot extend his contract. It was AZ's choice to sack him immediately after it became clear he would join Feyenoord after the season. Slot only joined Feyenoord after the season ended.
Analysis of (unjustified) criticized Sanchez: https://www.footballtransfers.com/n...-sanchez-van-ajax-wordt-ten-onrechte-verguisd De Ajacied die ten onrechte wordt verguisd Milan Keskin Bijgewerkt: 20 mrt. 2023 15:29 CET Ajax lijkt door de nederlaag tegen Feyenoord afgelopen zondag in De Klassieker definitief te zijn afgehaakt in de titelstrijd. Jorge Sánchez speelde misschien wel een van zijn minste wedstrijden sinds zijn komst naar de Johan Cruijff ArenA en kreeg na afloop dan ook de wind van voren van Kenneth Perez: “Hij is een van de slechtste backs van de Eredivisie" “Die jongen snapt er helemaal niets van”, zegt de analist bij ESPN. Sánchez maakte alles behalve een degelijke indruk in De Klassieker en werd dan ook vlak voor tijd naar de kant gehaald: “Ik vind het knap dat hij kan spelen bij Ajax, dat de lat altijd hoog wil leggen.” Daarmee legt Perez de schuld bij Ajax. De Amsterdammers pikten de 25-jarige Mexicaan afgelopen zomer voor 5 miljoen euro op bij América, maar tot op heden is de komst van Sánchez alles behalve een succes. Hij begon zijn periode bij Ajax nog als basisspeler, maar na de winterstop komt Sánchez amper meer aan spelen toe. Devyne Rensch lijkt de Mexicaan definitief te zijn voorbijgestreefd. Desondanks mocht Sánchez - mede door blessureleed van Rensch - zondag starten in De Klassieker. De verdediger maakte een uiterst ongelukkige indruk en dus was de kritiek na afloop dan ook niet mals. Kenneth Perez uit kritiek op het transferbeleid van Ajax "Hij is een van de slechtste backs van de Eredivisie" pic.twitter.com/wssbz0brpE — ESPN NL (@ESPNnl) March 20, 2023 Toch is de kritiek van Perez niet geheel terecht. Data van FootballTransfers toont aan dat Sánchez wel degelijk van waarde kan zijn voor dit Ajax. De verdediger heeft tenslotte een Skill van 67,0 en blijkt zodoende beter te zijn dan Rensch (59,9). Het is dan ook niets voor niets dat Sánchez een basisplaats had op het WK in Qatar bij Mexico. Data van SciSports laat hetzelfde beeld zien. Hoewel Sánchez zeker niet de beste backs is dit seizoen in de Eredivisie, behoort de 28-voudig international ook zeker niet tot de minst presterende backs in de competitie. Met name op het gebied van passing zorgt Sánchez zeker vaak voor gevaar bij de Amsterdammers. Voornamelijk rondom de zestien van de tegenstander weet de rechtsback vaak een teamgenoot te vinden. Data van SciSports toont aan dat Jorge Sánchez zeker niet tot de slechtste backs van de Eredivisie behoort. Toch gaan er ook zeker dingen mis bij Sánchez. Met name als er een dribbelactie ingezet dient te worden. Geen enkele back blijkt dermate weinig succesvolle dribbelacties in te zetten als de rechtsback van Ajax. Dat terwijl Sánchez het redelijk van het opkomen en het aanvallende spel moet hebben. In dat opzicht lijkt het voor Ajax logischer om Sánchez in een meer verdedigende rol in te zetten om de opbouw vanuit de basis te verzorgen. Nee, Sánchez is duidelijk niet de slechtste rechtsback van de Eredivisie. De Mexicaan kwam afgelopen zomer terecht in een vreemd land op een vreemd continent en heeft vermoedelijk tijd nodig om zich aan te passen. Desondanks heeft Sánchez - met onder meer zijn doelpunt tegen Excelsior - laten zien dat hij zeker van waarde kan zijn voor dit Ajax in de toekomst.
For all those who pine for the days of Marc Overmars this one is for you!!! With some idle time on my hands today after the disappointment yesterday, I decided to go back to 2012 and tally up all the players that Marc Overmars brought into Ajax. He did pick some real winners that generated a lot of transfer money when they left but he also picked a lot of lemons. Some of the players signed were free transfers. Any way here is the list more less chronological: Mike van der Hoorn Lerin Duarte Bojan Kirkic (loan) Tobias Sana Lasse Schone Andre Onana Nick Viergever Daley Sinkgraven Niki Zimling Arkaeiusz Milik Richairo Zivcovic Nemanja Gudelj Amin Younes Davison Sanchez Mateo Cassiera David Neres Hakim Ziyec Bertrand Traore (loan) Luis Orejuela Nico Tagliafico Max Wober Daley Blind Lisandro Magallan Perr Schuurs Zakaria Labyad Hassane Bande Dusan Tadic Lassina Traore Bruno Varela (loan) Kjell Scherpen Edson Alvarez Kik Perie Lisandro Martinez Quincy Promes Ryan Babel Mo Kudus Antony Sebastian Haller Oussama Idrissi (loan) Jay Gorter Remko Passveer Martin Steklenberg Steven Berghuis Mo Ihattaren (loan) Mo Daramy
this is a pretty impressive list, actually - especially given the money spent, the league Ajax is in, etc. Let’s see a list of since he’s been gone. I’m sure it’ll be too much spent, too little quality.
In retrospect, the decision not to replace Overmars ASAP was a huge blunder by the Ajax Board. It was obvious that top players were going to leave, though they hoped to keep Antony for one final season but ManU came in with too much money to turn down. You can see the same thing happening in Belgium with Club Brugge who are struggling in their league after winning last season and even progressing to the KO round of the Champions League. Hamstra, who appears to be out the door, and Huntelaar did not distinguish themselves. Clearly they overspent on all the transfers coming in this season, and maybe a good technical director would not have done that. Off the top of my head here are the players coming in: Bergiwijn - left to rot at Spurs, he did have good games for the NT but Ajax overpaid by €10M Brobbey - I think he can still be a special player and apparently Koeman does too. That being said he should never have left Ajax in the first place but that was Raiola's fault Sanchez - strange purchase Wijndal - AZ always get top price when they sell to Ajax Bassey - Ajax were dazzled by how he played for Rangers in their Europa League run but over looked his deficiencies Grillitsch - got him on a free transfer but he has been hurt and missed most of the season Ocampos - at least the CFO of the club drew the line at spending €18M to bring him in permanently Rulli - maybe the best buy given the club needed a GK that was not approaching 40
I still don’t know what to make of Brobbey. I feel disappointed overall with him since he’s been back - maybe it’s just all too inconsistent. Rulli - I hope I’m wrong… but I really haven’t cared much for him in a number of the matches, including the last one. I feel like he has some poor mentality type things (like positioning), but is a really good reaction/shot stopper type of keeper.
I don't think he is being used correctly. He is the type of striker who can make quick runs to get open.
So Julian Ward is not coming to Ajax. Evidently once they got into negotiating, the club was totally indecisive. Not shocking. The TD search continues.
I think a man accustomed to EPL top team budgets would be a wrong choice, so Ajax most likely dodged the bullet. They need a TD, who like the Napoli one, manages to compose a selection worthy to win the CL on a budget being a fraction of the epl top 6. Don't think that would be someone from that top six.
Having seen Ocampos play for Sevilla several times, I was surprised that he went to the Netherlands to play for Ajax. Seems like a step down to go from La Liga to Eredivisie. And Ajax gave him, what?, 99 minutes over 4 starts to prove himself? Sheesh, maybe the rigid Ajax system is to blame, not the player. He just scored in Sevilla's match against Cadiz. I am glad that he returned to La Liga.