@ Johan Neeskens I think it is not so much the stats that speak for him, but his "presence". All those assists on KJH. All that creating something out of nothing situations. Last year he was pretty wasteful with the chances he got, but somhow this year he is making those goals. If he starts doing that he is something special. On the Alves thing. Well. Then there was off course the Kezman thing. Do these examples prevent me from giving recognision to big players? No. Shevchenko is in Italy a big player, but not in England. There are risks with transfers. Behind every player there is a story. Malouda was crap with Chelsea, but when Guus came he revived the man. Who knows, maybe Guus sprincled his magic over Kezman. Maybe Heerenveen have an ideal setup to make strikers opperate far better than normal. His first half year was not bad with 11 games and 6 goals at Middelsbrough. And against a Kezman there is v Nisterooy, Ronaldo, Romario at PSV. At Ajax there are countless talents making it internationally. I don't see an Alves or Kezman as a disqualification for the class I see in Suarez. I think to myself when he makes another career choice I hope he can find his way, as in every transfer there are risks he can't find his way. Kanoute is better in Spain. Sjevchenco better in Italy. Not to talk about all the Brits that can't make it on foreign soil. Should Owen give back his European Award because he could not make impression in Spain? Stepping over to another leauge takes casuelty's.
Just read that Suarez has mentioned Barcelona as a club he would definitly go to. That it would be the dream of every kid. I'm glad he understands where is future should be. Not Arsenal but Barca.
My respect for Suarez has grown a lot over the last year. He has toned down his diving and yellow cards and has grown into a real captain that gives his all every match and never whines. Plus, he's one of the rare world class players that actually says he wants to stay at Ajax for at least another season because he feels he's not done yet....if only Babel would have said that to himself. Babel seriously has to leave Liverpool because he got another chance in the first game of this season and he was shite, just absolute dire. Benayoun came on and Liverpool's game instantly improved, that's a bad sign. Second game Benayoun played, oopsie Babel? Let Cvitanich go to Argentina and bring back Babel for a year or so please.
I think he'd be great there, but I don't see Barca as needing a striker just yet. This is also a good sign as it means we might not need to sell Suarez until next summer. I said it last year and so far events are proving me right: Suarez plays much better when he has the armband on.
I agree with you on all of that but I still have my doubts about Suarez with regards to his future European career. He's not enough of a specialist in my view. He's a better alround forward than Huntelaar, for example, yet Huntelaar had big clubs clubs lining up for him, whereas Suarez doesn't. I've a feeling that there's a lot of people in the football industry who've the same doubts as I do. It would be nice if Suarez proved me wrong though.
On the one hand, I certainly hope you're right if it means that Ajax can hold on to him a little longer. On the other hand, I wonder if the worldwide recession has played into that a little as well. On the third hand(!) I think that the only clubs he would consider going to are all set at his position or couldn't afford the transfer fee. At the end of the day, I hope he spends the entire season with Ajax (something I though impossible at the end of last season) and would be thrilled to death if he hung around for another year. My only problem with his transfer is if he left in the winter window.
Suarez has been better when there was more pressure lifted on him. There is a whole other kind of pressure at "must-become-champion"-clubs, the title runners of the respective country's in Europe and the sub top in Europe. Suarez has demonstrated he can handle that specific pressure. That is one of the biggest hurdles to overcome where many others have failed. I think he should go to Barca as, he stated today as his being dream, instead of Arsenal. it was exactly the club I have picked for him earlyer as a good one, also because they play for the prizes. When Henry plays another year he will be pretty old. Suarez can take his spot the year after this one or take the position over from Zlatan when he is injured. Then off course it is still a question if he makes the transition well, but I think at this moment his confidence is extremly high and I enjoy seeing him playing, more than a Huntelaar. When he demonstrates +25 goals this year on top of his ability of creating something out of nothing, Barca will not be the only club waiting for him.
sigh... Sparta at home. Still 0-0. We need to ditch about half our squad if we want to go anywhere with this. Clearly they just don't have what it takes. Look at Emanuelson. What is that guy still doing here? How many years are we going to wait for that ********** to man up and play like a professional? Not gonna happen.
Stekel just finished his last Sudoku it seems. Right in time to see a defender's leg save the day for Ajax - to a marginal extent.
Definitely need that second striker. Suarez can't do it all by himself. Though that Sparta defender did a helluva job saving that goal off the line with his head. Looking for the official shots. At one point I saw were 40-1... but that was with about 5-10 minutes left.
I think today´s game sort of proved my point. He has trouble when he gets a decent man marker following him around everywhere, compare to the likes of Van Nistelrooy who will always find a chance and who will always score regardless of how many men he has clinging to him. Add to that that Suarez is not technically giifted or insightful enough to be a Bergkamp class number 10. Suarez is very good but Barcelona quality he´s not. Not yet anyway, he´s still young after all. I don´t think he´s going anywhere for the time being.
Quite right, and he would be well served to play another year after this one to get ready for the big time. I wonder if we can pick up Van Nistelrooy from Madrid? He's likely not to be featured there and we certainly can use someone who can get us a goal under the type of game conditions we faced today. I think we had 41 shots on goal and Sparta had 2. Of course a lot of the shots were of the 20-25 meter type, way over the cross bar. Very frustrating. BTW, the match today was exactly like the match my home team played last night against the Beckham and Donavan Galaxy. Outplayed them on both sides of the pitch and settled for a 0-0 draw. Ugh!!!
Too true. It also proves your point in that Ajax can dominate play, but if Suarez is having an off day or is a bit unlucky, there is no one else to put the ball in the goal.
22 shots on goal, 41 total shots. But what matters is 0 goals! Lame. I had a bad feeling about this one by about the 50th minute and it was still nils.