Sustain the Excellence: Ajax, 2019-20

We'll see what the professionals say when you post them later on.

 

How can they give Blind a 5?

 

These high ratings for AZ players have to be judged by the quality of the opponent (and their reliability has to be further questioned by the high ratings I've seen for Blind who was just horrible on the night; I don't think he is fully fit).

Ajax are a highly flawed team and only seem to perform well when they get 1-2 early goals and force the opposing team to come out of it's defensive shell. They have conceded easy goals, something that did not happen last season and when they get behind they move players up into the attack leaving gaps. I don't think AZ MF were all that great from an attacking point of view as it was Ajax just forgetting where opposing players were. The team is mentally weak in that regard.

While I am not a big Eiting fan, he is better than Schöne in terms of his ball skills and passing. He is not in de Jong's class and never was. The magical Jong Ajax team of 2017 had van de Beek, de Jong, and Nouri in the MF and they were a wonder to watch. their tight passing was unbelievably fast and accurate.

Ajax are now in a position where they have to win out to take first place in the league.

 

Ajax U-19s defeated Athletico Madrid in the Youth CL and now go on to the quarterfinals. They won the game......................................wait for it................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. ON PENALTIES after it was scoreless at the 90. Heitinga subbed off the starting keeper for Reiziger who is judged to be better on PKs and guess what, he scored the winning PK!!! Amazing.

 

For some of us it was the awful day in the Alps in the summer of 2017 that remains central. I don't think it's the youth but rather the injuries and something that is just wrong with the club right now. Perhaps ETH is not the creative coach we think and clearly there has been a lack of cohesion ever since December. I was going back and looking at past player ratings and saw some that were extremely critical of Ziyech. Personally, I think it's good that he is transferring as he seems to be hot and cold and when he is cold he's quite bad.

Also remember that Botman and Noa Lang are loaned out and will be coming back this summer. Ajax needs to be creative in the MF and right now they are not.

 

There are many Ajax supporters who believe that to be the case. Schreuder has his team in the middle of the table and they are turning into the second most hated club in Germany behind only Leipzig.

 

Brazilian youth MF, Giovanni, joins Ajax from Santos on a free transfer. He was never signed to a senior team contract and Ajax had to pay just a development fee. He will join Jong Ajax immediately.

 

Yet another awful performance from a team that seems to have no clue how to score goals. Poor defending on a free kick and a silly penalty gifted Utrecht the match. Ajax had so many cheap give aways that they were always in danger of getting caught on a counter attack. Every cute lay off was right at the feet of a Utrecht defender. The free fall this team is currently in might see them not qualify for any European football next season. If they finish fourth I think they go into the Eredivisie play off for a EL place. I don't think we can talk of a championship season at all right now. I don't know what ETH can do short of resigning. I think he put the right players out there and dropping van de Beek back made sense. Unfortunately, none of them could do anything positive.

Player Ratings:

Onana (6) - made a couple of saves and guessed wrong on the PK
Tagliafico (6) - one of the better players on the pitch, going full bore and did put a couple of good crosses in
Martinez (5) - he really looks slow right now
Alvarez (4) - was having an OK game until the foolish penalty that he conceded
Dest (6) - like Tagliafico, decent on the night; unfortunately two good FBs are not going to win matches
Blind (5.5) - better tonight and had some good passing but also gave the ball away cheaply
van de Beek (5) - horrible on the free kick but worked hard all night long
Ekkelenkamp (4.5) - saw little of the ball and didn't move quickly enough in the MF
Promes (5) - average and nothing more
Tadic (4.5) - must really wonder where last year's magic went
Ziyech (5) - neither good nor bad and looking for the first plane to London
Hunelaar (4) - sad to see him out there missing some good chances
Marin (NR)
Danilo (NR)

The exciting thing is that Ajax get to play Utrecht yet again, making up the postponed league match. Away to Heerenveen on the weekend. Will this team score?

 

Amazing statistics from yesterday:
73% possession
695 passes with 84% completion rate; Utrecht - 255 and 59%
20 shots but only 4 on target; Utrecht 14 & 4
7 corners; Utrecht - 0

This shows how worthless statistics can be sometimes. Unlike the de Boer years when there was a lot of back passing, Ajax was pushing things forward and there were some good entry passes. Unfortunately, when they got close in very little danger was created. I can only remember Zoet making one difficult save. Is Alvarez the only one to score a goal off a corner this season? I remember him doing so earlier in the year but that's it. Last season de Ligt was always dangerous on set pieces.

I read some of the interviews with the players from last night and they seem to be as mystified as I am about this current state of the team. I don't think they will sack ETH at this point in the season and it's really unclear what he can do. He has to put out the players who can make a difference and really work hard to win the league. As I often note, I am forever optimistic and often disappointed.

 

It's the injuries but also the lack of magic/luck that I saw last year. All the layoffs and dummies last season were right on target leading to very good goal scoring attempts. this season they all seem to be at the feet of defenders and easily cleared away. Ziyech is really good when he has the opportunity to roam but he's horribly inconsistent. I was looking back at some of my game reports the other day and read the one where they got bounced from the cup in 2017 to Twente. It led to Kizer being sacked and ETH coming in. It was probably the worst match Ziyech ever played for Ajax and he hadn't been particularly good that year. He was very fine last year but inconsistent this season. I really wonder how he will do at Chelsea.

We'll see how the club does this weekend against Heerenveen. ETH doesn't have much room to make changes in the lineup as there are problems at almost every position other than GK and FBs. When those three are your best players, you know the club is in trouble.

 

The Chelsea away match was the turning point IMO. It was a combination of poor officiating and stupid cards picked up in the 1st half by Veltman and Blind. Injuries then complicated everything. Do you really thing ETH is going to leave in the summer? Where is he going? Thoughts were Bayern but they have been on such a good run I'm not sure they will change things. Favre seems to be OK at Dortmund and of course Bosz failed there. Does ETH want to be at one of the other German teams? Ajax will still have a lot of money in the bank. they picked up a second Brazilian who is said to be an AM in the Kaka mode and all they had to pay was a development fee. There are a lot of players coming up through the system. We'll see how it plays out.