what the story with Bakker.Why is he not in the squad. He should be paired with Tagliafico rather than having Blind and kristensen play there.
It's not clear that anyone will see first team action unless there are injuries. Mitchell Bakker is a very good LB prospect. Matusiwa is a good holding MF but is currently injured. Johnsen is a winger from Norway and Noa Lang also a winger has played some first team football. Che Nunnely is highly touted on the wing but other than blazing speed, I'm not sure he is a special player. Pasquali is an Australian MF who is decent and Ekkelenkamp (played a couple of first team matches). The real talent is at the U-19 level right now with the Timber twins, Brian Brobbey, van Gelderen and Ryan Gravenberch are all top rated talents and played for the Dutch U-17 Euro champions this past summer. Perhaps the best talent currently in the academy is Naci Unavar who just turned 15. He has really great skills; he may be the best MF talent since Wesley Snjeider.
Does it seem like it's the plan to regularly pair Blind and de Ligt in central defense? Or is it more just that Blind is versatile and will fill in wherever he is needed most urgently?
For me, central defense is the most glaring gap in the current squad. How can we not have a competent natural central defender to partner de Ligt??? Instead of resorting to playing converted midfielders there...
Schuurs, who came over from Fortuna Sittard, and Wöber can both play at that position. Schuurs might not be ready for first team football yet. Blind had a very nice match the other night and I'm not losing any sleep if he is the choice going forward.
Watched first Jong Ajax game of the new season. As expected different line up, compared to last season. I won't precipitate to conclusions after only one game, but still, Johnsen was particularly bad in every aspect of the game. De Wit looked like a worse version of Klaasen. The rest were decent enough. There is a lot of room for improvement though, so I'm moderately optimistic.
On a beautiful evening in Venlo it ended up VVV 0 - VAR 1. Oh yes, Ajax will go down as the winner of this match but were quite lucky in the end dodging some final attempts on goal by VVV. Why is it that opposing keepers always look like Gigi Buffon? Second week in a row that an opponent keeper will probably make the Eredivisie team of the week. Onana, on the other hand, probably could have slept during large stretches of this match. I think we also found out by Ziyech will be with the club this season; he just is not good enough to play at a higher level. Too many poor passes and can be dispossesed easily at times. A couple of good shots on goal did not make up for a below average match. Questions must also be asked of ten Hag. Does he even have a clue about what is going on during the match? Perhaps he is a good practice trainer but on a night when there needed to be some player rotation there was none. In the end a win is a win even if the MOTM is VAR. It also confirmed yet again that Kevin Blom is a terrible match official. Why no Yellow was issued when de Jong's ankle got stomped on is beyond me. Player Ratings: Onana (5.5) - unconvincing at times but really had almost nothing to do Tagliafico (7) - a couple of very good defensive plays and a wicked cross to Huntelaar on the play where VAR called for a PK Blind (5.5) - saved from embarrassment by VAR de Ligt (6.5) - had a couple of defensive lapses that would have been punished against better competition Mazraoui (6.5) - decent enough match Schöne (6) - no major complaints but really should have been rested given the fixtures coming up de Jong (7.5) - next to VAR, best player on the pitch Ziyech (4.5) - if he can't or doesn't want to play better he needs to sit out a match Tadic (7) - got the game winner Neres (4) - missed scoring early on and then an upper thigh injury that we hope is not serious Huntelaar (6) - played at his usual level of 110% but couldn't find the back of the net Labyad (5) - average marks for a very average player Eiting (5) - had no impact on the match van de Beek (NR) - had a couple of touches in the short time he was on; surely he would have been a better choice than Ziyech all things considered Home on Wednesday in the CL qualifier against Kiev. Which Ajax club will show up? What players will ten Hag have to choose from given injuries. Can some of the older players keep up this pace? Too many questions and too little time to answer them!!
Excellent assessment, as always. Penalty was clear, I don't know why the referee didn't call it in real time, waited a couple minutes instead and then went to the VAR. This VAR rule is quite annoying if you ask me. Ziyech was indeed frustrating to watch... had one decent shot when he found an acre of space in the first half but lobbed it over the bar. He kept sending failed pass-thru to Huntelaar, clearly they were not in the same wavelength. Frenkie De Jong is boss, 'nuff said.
I can count the number of good matches that Blom has called on one hand and I've probably seen him maybe 50 times. I can't figure out how he became a FIFA match official as he seems to sleepwalk through games. I don't think he even saw Huntelaar get bowled over which is why play went on. Worse for me was the stomp on de Jong's ankle which could have been very serious. Two best match officials in the league are Kuipers and Makkalie who were both at this summer's WC.
I haven't been able to watch full matches, but from all the highlights I've seen, Huntelaar seems to have some terrible shooting luck. Hopefully that will sort itself out over time.
I blame Ten Hag for our shitty start. This current team is actually better on paper then the side that made the Europa L. final and yet they're not playing very well
Too many speculations on (supposedly) key players, like MDL, FDJ, Neres, Ziyech, etc... seems like affecting Ten Haag’s season preparations, more than it should be. Also, I don’t know understand why Schone is getting so much time considering his age and involvement in the WC. I guess Donny isn’t impressing on the training ground, or maybe there’s a clash of personality already brewing here.
No report yet on the severity of Neres hamstring injury. Apparently his foot stuck on the artificial surface. The Dutch FA really needs to ban the use of these surfaces for the Eredivisie. Injuries are more common on them and a top flight team should be able to maintain a natural grass surface.
Here is a blast from the past: It was the semifinals of the NextGen league which was replaced a couple of years later by the UEFA sanctioned youth CL competition. Ajax played Liverpool (Raheem Sterling is in the Liverpool side). Wonderful performance by the Ajax youth (Veltman is the only one left at Ajax these days). Ajax went on to play Internazionale in the finals and lost on PKs.
KNVB said today that the stomp on de Jong's ankle deserved a Red Card; the VAR missed this call and should have made an intervention.
How come thousands at home saw the situation with the first replay, only the dedicated VAR guys missed it? Or they saw it well enough, but decided it's not worth bothering the ref? I might be slow, but I still can't understand how this VAR thing works. Sometimes it's the official running to the screen, on what seems, his own initiative, sometimes it's VAR people calling him a couple of minutes after the fact, sometimes it's that no one gives a damn.
Here is the link from the Ajax Showtime site: https://www.ajaxshowtime.com/articl...14745/knvb-vvv-speler-had-rood-moeten-krijgen I cannot cut and paste from it so you'll have to read it. Pretty clear that the VAR can call a Red Card.
Heads up for those living in the US - it looks like the match tomorrow will be carried on TNT (and also Univision Deportes)