Back to Basics; Ajax 2025-26 - Garcia to the Rescue?

@feyenoordsoccerfan - don't throw stones if you live in a glass house. Your club brought in an over the hill attacker who has done nothing in the time he has been at Feyenoord. The club ignored the basic rule of never signing attackers over the age of 30 unless they are named Leo Messi.

Most of the point Garcia has made over the past several weeks are true. Maybe they hurt some players feelings but that's part of the game. Garcia was always going to be interim, and the club will move on. Organizationally, they are moving to set up a system of controls so that the Mislintat mess will never be repeated. Will it succeed, we won't know until matches are played next season.

 

Close to zero. IIRC we paid €12M for him and of course that was one of the many Mislintat purchases that we are still trying to get off the books. We was not very good at Ajax and I can't remember a single match where he was a net positive. He is reckless in his tackling and often gets carded. I think he came up through Boca Juniors and then moved on to Antwerp where he played under Mark van Bommel before coming to Ajax.

 

And so it ends withs a whimper with an Ajax team that had no urgency until the monsoon rains started. By that time it was too late to play any type of football. PSV did not roll over against Twente. Klaassen starts for what I hope will be his last ever regular season match and Berghuis can follow him right out the door. Pay both of them off as they are just not any good these days. The defense held well enough and we did not concede off a free kick for a change. I expect that Ajax will go out on Thursday night against Groningen who will be up for the game. It's weird that after seeing how awful Berghuis was in the first half, why not throw Carrizo on. Ajax paid money for an attacker, let him attack. He was the only one down the stretch how wanted a goal.

Player Ratings:

Paes (5) - made a hash of things late but maybe it was just too wet to make the save
Gaaei (5.5)- had one rocket shot that was saved but ordinary the rest of the time
Itakura (6) - one of the bettter players on the day
Baas (6) - decent enough
Rosa (5.5) - above average
Mokio (5.5)- OK and one player with a future at Ajax
Steur (6) - best of the MFs with some deftly weight passes
Klaassen (4.5) - retire already
Berghuis (4.5) - see the comment for Klaassen
Weghorst (5) - really never dangerous
Godts (4.5) - perfect explanation on why you are not on the Belgian NT
Regeer (5) - wasted money bringing him back last season
Bounida (5.5) - had a couple of decent moments but he is not a winger
Dolberg (NR) - I don't think he even touched the ball
Carrizo (NR) - sparkled under really adverse playing conditions; I would start him on the right wing Thursday

So it's off to Vollendam on Thursday against Groningen. It will be a fitting end of the season if Dies Janse gets the match winner off a corner kick.

 

14 wins and 14 draws and 5 dropped points to Excelsior!!!! Unbelievable season. The scissors are out and I am going to cut up this season's Ajax shirt and conduct the traditional purification rites for this cursed team.

 

I cannot burn it as we have an all electric apartment. In the old house there was a fireplace which is where it would go. The real purification rite that I briefly talked about when I was leading the Shabbat service yesterday involves a Red Cow!!! I don't have one of those either.

 

Ajax live on to play one more match this season. Groningen never looked threatening other than the one goal that was pegged back by VAR for offsides. Ajax were wasteful and shhould have had a couple of more goals with better finishing. Still a win is a win and Ajax looked much better than in the past several matches. Klaassen with the match winner heading in a nice cross from Godts. Mokio made sure of things with a second half volley. Defense did enough.

Player Ratings:

Paes (6.5) - did not have to do much but had one excellent save when his vision was obscured
Gaaei (6) - didn't have to worry about defending against this opponent
Bouwman (6.5) - had a good game considering this was his first playing time in several months
Baas (6.5) -decent enough
Rosa (6) - no troubled much against an inept attack
Steur (6.5) -so good with the ball
Mokio (6.5) - very nice goal to seal things
Klaassen (6) - great header for the match winner but ideally should have come off at the half as he was really laboring in the 2nd half
Berghuis (6) - decent enogh
Weghorst (6) - dealt with a lot of long kicks
Godts (6.5) - caught offsides a couple of times including once when he scored
Regeer (5.5) - on for Steur and a bit above average
Dolberg (NR) - had a couple of good touches
Carrizo (NR) - should have done better with his shot and he knew it
Tomiyasu (NR) - surprise appearance and maybe his last in an Ajax shirt

Winner of Utrect-Heerenveen back in the home away from home - Vollendam

 

Moneyball statistic of the day: Ajax record when Aaron Bouwman plays at RCB - 9-1-0!!!! Yes, the team has never lost when he plays.

 

After a lackluster season, Ajax come up with two very good matches to win the playoff to get into the Conference League play-in games. Ajax dominated the game but some good goal keeping from Utrecht kept the ball out of the net. I never thought Klaassen would be able to go 120 minutes and he was really winded in the end. He had a nice goal in extra time and an assist on the Utrecht goal that evened things though there was not much he could do about that. Paes came up big with a great save in the early going and then saved two penalties in the shootout. Had Ajax played with this kind of intensity during the season they would have at least finished second. I don't think Garcia is the manager the club needs but he did get them prepped for the two playoff matches. We'll see what Jordi decides in the days to come.

Player Ratings:

Paes (7.5) - fine match with two saves of PKs though Haller's kick was really bad, kicking and distribution were good
Gaaei (7) - defended pretty well on the day and had a couple of good crosses
Bouwman (7) - rock solid on the day and will likely be next season's starter
Baas (7) - good match and came off midway in the second half
Rosa (7.5) - I thought he had a fine match both defending and in the offensive half
Regeer (7) - played well though he still is not the answer in the MF
Mokio (7) - solid game but had to come off with what looked like a muscle issue in his leg
Klaassen (7) - yes, I kept saying bring in Bounida but then he surprises me with a goal in extra time and a Captain's penalty to start off
Berghuis (3.5) - absolutely horrible and should have been subbbed off at the half
Dolberg (6) - decent enough with the ball but never had a chance to shoot
Godts (7) - tried to do too much in the face of double teams but did score from the spot in the shoot out
Steur (7) - I don't think he had a bad pass the whole time he was on the pitch and had a couple of good interventions as well
Carrizo (6.5) - worked really hard while he was on the pitch
Weghorst (7) - nailed his penalty and had a couple of chances during open play
Itakura (6.5) - did well in his short stint at #6
Tomiyasu (NR) - did not expect him to play but he was more than decent defending

So that's it for a mediocre season. I'll have more to say on the road ahead in the next couple of days. It was good to see Ajax play like Ajax!!!

 

Here are some opening thoughts about last season and the future.

We can all agree that this season was a humiliating disappointment for both the players and the supporters. There was such a fall off from the performance under Farioli in he 2024-25 season. The club looked unfit, falling apart in the second half in almost all games. Surprisingly the club played well against both PSV and Feyenoord but then dropped points against Excelsior and were humiliated in the Cup against AZ. The club went through three trainers, none of whom could right the ship though Garcia did a decent job winning the two playoff games to assure minimal Euro football next year.

The club had some unfortunate injuries with first choice keeper Jaros sidelined for the final 1/3 of the season with a knee injury. Similarly, Zinchenko who was bought in January to play left back went down in his second game with knee ligament damage. Japan international Tomiyasu who was recovering from a knee injury when bought in January for six months was not game fit until the final six or so matches. Sutalo missed games throughout the season.

Ajax were fortunate that Paes who was brought over from the US soccer league did a passable job in goal. His back up, Jong Ajax keeper Heerkens suffered a freak ankle injury in a match and was out leaving only Reverson as a backup. Since Jaros returns to Liverpool, Ajax need to upgrade this position.
The MF was unsettled all season long. There is no true holding MF on the roster in the Jordan Henderson mode. One of the options is to go out and find an established #6 as there is no real candidate in the youth ranks who stands out at this moment. The other is to rely more on two deep lying MFs that can both cover and advance as needed. This was pretty much how ten Hag handled things in the CL run where de Jong and Schone played deep and either was a true #6. This will be up for Cruyff and the new manager to solve.

Here are the players on the roster right now including players coming back from loan (L);
GK – Paes, Heekens, Reverson, Setford (L)
DF – Gaaei, Rosa, Wijndal, Itakura, Baas, Sutalo,Bouwman, Alders (L), Goojier (L), Janse (L), Kaplan (L), Verschuren (L)
MF – Regeer, Gloukh, Klaassen, Mokio, Fitz-Jim, Bounida, Steur, Mannsverk (L), van den Boomen (L)
FW – Dolberg, Carrizo, Godts, Edvardsen, Konadu, Berghuis, van Axel Dongen (L), Faberski (L), Rijkoff (L)

Out of Contract: Weghorst, Tomiyasu, Zinchenko

Several Jong Ajax players have seen spot playing time or been on the bench because of injuries to first team players. Of these Ouzane is the only one ready to challenge for a first team place. Had Unuvar not missed time because of injury he might be a possibility as well. Most of the rest are either not good enough or need one more season at Jong Ajax. However, there are always surprises coming up through the ranks and it is possible that we may see some breakthroughs.
Not qualifying for the Champions League clearly has an impact on Ajax finances and whether they can bring in any new players if the price is over €10M. One way to address this is player sales. I think the team wants to keep Godts for another season and he wants to stay as well. Unfortunately, Ajax don’t have any players who command high sales prices. We are not going to see the Antony size money coming in. Here are players I think will be sold and their values according to transfermarkt.com: Sutalo (€15M), Gloukh (€15M) , Gaaei (€5M), Itakura (€10M), Wijndal (€4M), Fitz-Jim (€3.5M), Edvardsen (€4M). Maybe they also sell Kaplan but he is not going to bring in much either. You can see that even if all of them are sold, Ajax will get only about €50M. That’s not much of a transfer budget!!

Ajax have a good core of young defenders though I don’t know if Janse wants to sit on the bench behind Baas. Goojier had a good season on loan after missing much of last season with a knee injury. If Gaaei leaves he might be the right back. He also played as the holding MF in a Jong Oranje match so we will see. I would like to see what Bounida can do in the MF. I don’t think he is a natural winger. Steur needs to get stronger and also show he can play 90 minutes. Mokio had a very good second half of the season. Dolberg is questionable as a striker to bet the house on and Ajax have only unproven youth behind him.