Sustain the Excellence: Ajax, 2019-20

Do you now agree that those games were robbery? I seem to remember that before you were the only person here arguing otherwise.

And it is clear to me why it has gone so heavily downhill. Our attack has become absolutely decimated through injuries. Neres, Promes, Ziyech and Labyad all out for those periods, those are our top 4 choices for attacking forwards/wingers. Without them we have been forced to bring in an average player in Babel and throw youth players onto the field. Really, given that we might have been better off keeping Noa Lang even though he's far from ready as well.

Schuurs has a lot of promise but he has not made the best of Veltman's absense. My god the guy has made the exact same suicide lateral pass 3 times now in the last two games. All 3 moments caused extremely dangerous counters with one being the lethal 2-0 in Getafe.

It's not a horrible decision but it is one I strongly disagree with. Yes Martinez hasn't played LB but that has been simply because we have Tagliafico, not because it isn't Martinez's best position. Prior to the transfer I spoke to a lot of Argentinians who all felt Martinez was a very good player and a better LB than Tagliafico. I understand us not playing him there if Tagliafico is around (since he is great for us and we can use Martinez in different positions) - but clearly dropping him back to LB and keeping Blind in the much more important CB role was the better choice.

When all is said and done this Ajax team with the heavy injuries just could not beat a strong Getafe team. In truth if we hadn't been robbed out of the CL, the results in the CL probably would have been the same, not because I don't think Ajax has a sick team but rather because that team just hasn't been around for a very long time. It's unfortunate because I actually think this Ajax team with everyone fit is no worse than last years team. The Ziyech to Promes combo was insane, but unfortunately we haven't seen that in a long time now thanks to injuries.

 

Yes, for sure they were great and we absolutely miss them (especially De Ligt).... but more than anything I think the lack of significant injuries is the difference. This Ajax team with its best players is almost just as good as last years team. Adding Promes is a huge improvement and Martinez/Van de Beek/Ziyech in midfield is not necessarily worse than Schone/De Jong/Van de Beek in midfield. Unfortunately because of the massive amount of injuries we haven't been able to play that midfield in a long long time.

People are talking about how much Ajax has fallen now and how bad this team is compared to last year... thats just not fair. Look at the team before the injuries and you will see a very different story. We were killing it in the CL before massive injuries and unbelievable refereeing decisions completely ********ed us. I think in terms of pure talent this Ajax team with all of its players available could definitely have made a far CL run again. Just look at those first 4 CL games when most of the team minus Neres were available. We were much more dominant in those games than we were in the groupstage last year.

 

Rough day for Ajax and Dutch football today.
Chelsea debacle pissed season away.
F UEFA

 

Yup. The difference between Dutch clubs like PSV, Feyenoord, Ajax and big league clubs is the bench.
When the stars are in line and our clubs have a mix of quality youngsters braking through coupled with a few experienced veterans, we still can run high into the CL/EL. When injuries take their toll it gets different. Last season Ajax had no injuries and the perfect young/experienced combo and almost were in the final. A couple of years ago PSV missed the final against AC Milan in my opinion because Fabregas out of frustration that Arsenal was incapable of braking PSV down, kicked Kone out for the season and as far as I'm concerned the missing link that made PSV by one goal miss the final.
This years injuries were too much for Ajax.
AZ had too many defenders injured too.

 

I'll say this about my Ajax team today, they fought to the death against Getafe!!!

It just wasnt enough. We were missing 2 or 3 world class players, and clearly we didnt have those

 

I thought Eiting was really good today btw.

Oh, and can we now keep Babel out of Ajax and Oranje, please!!!!

 

Whoscored disagrees with your ratings, especially Eiting:

https://www.whoscored.com/Matches/1435998/Live/Europe-Europa-League-2019-2020-Ajax-Getafe

 

Lol... expect Koeman's call in not so-distant-future. Desperately needed.

 

Eiting with the FK and set up the first goal with an incredible pass. He's an amazing passer. Limited defensively and physically but can spray the ball all over the field. I'm still dumbfounded why Alvarez was playing MF in matches like Valencia over him.

 

What puzzles me is why Kik Pierie from the start of his signing got demoted to Young Ajax, while he has far more experience at matches with top level clubs in the Eredivisie than Perr Schuurs.

 

So why did they buy him?

 

BTW what happened to Danilo at HT?? Can swapping your shirt after the whistle goes get you banned for the 2nd half?? I've never heard of that before

 

kik Pierie should probably be loaned back again to heerenveen when Botman rejoins Ajax. this will at least continue his development at more competitive level compared to now where he is losing out, playing in eerste divisie. I remember that game where hereenveen drew 4-4 with ajax, he had a solid game in that match. lammers also was on loan at heerenveen that season.

 

I've seen both Botmans and Schuurs and both are less than Kik Pierie.
In the CD spot it is less of an importance to be left or right footed.
Are they de facto looking at Kik as a CD, because at Heerenveen he played on the left back spot because he could do that well and they were short of a decent one at H'veen, while having a couple of CD's that could do the job.
Edit: Kik was a couple of years ago in the Guardian list as one of the top talents of the world.

 

Bite = fel

 

It''s obvious the team is free-falling in some sort of a black hole but he was obliged to try to change the course of the game. Chang tactics, substitute payers. None of this was done. The one substitution was made after 80 minutes when we were already two goals down. All 12 players that took part in this debacle were plain mediocre. Passing, first touch, ball control, shooting were close to Eerste Divisie levels.

 

80'

Tagliafico gaat op het onderbeen van Svensson staan, maar de Argentijn wordt niet bestraft.

A filthy red card on purpose stamp on the leg clearly ment to take him out of the match

 

I think you're far too kind to him. He wasnot worth more than a 4. Actually I fail to see him as a quality player. He doesnot produce against quality midfield opponents.