Why are we playing so bad?!

[carcajou]

Babel scored his 6 goals in 16 Eredivisie appearances so far, but to his defense: in 50% of those games (eight in total) he was a sub and played for less than 45 minutes.

K.

Not even taking into account the games he played injured...

[carcajou]

Funny that Blind played players out of position in the game against Rosendaal... I know that RBC is not the best team in the Eredivisie, but let's hope that he won't do that again.

[astabooty]

Funny that Blind played players out of position in the game against Rosendaal... I know that RBC is not the best team in the Eredivisie, but let's hope that he won't do that again.

Maduro has been a CB/DM for a while I think. Escude before coming to Ajax was a LB and LCB just as Chivu was. Babel has been played on the left a few times and has done just as well there.

I agree that its not good to move players, but if it is only now and then, then ok.

[Philippe]

The general idea is simple : it is easy for the club to make money without winning competitions. The Ajax board speciality, or "niche", is to sell young players at higher price than they bought them.
Some wonder why we got Rosenberg instead of Arveladze.
simply because there is (or was) a high probability to make profit in selling Rosenberg in 2 or 3 years time. Whereas Arveladze is only good enough to score goals and make us win games ........

[cdnajaxfan]

There is an easy answer to this question after yesterday's disgusting :pukey: performance:

1) Our coach is not "First Team Coach" material yet. We brought him up too early. How else do you expalin a victory falling apart in injury time like that? We should have listened to Cryuff and picked someone else other than Blind.

2) Our defence sucks. We have nothing even remotely like we used to have (ie. Chivu) and what decent defenders we have are too offensive minded. Plus, as evident yesterday, they seem to "give up" and fall apart at the crucial time of the game, the final few minutes.

3) We have strikers that can't score. It is totally pathetic that the last 5 Ajax goals have come from Midfielders, 4 of them from Sneijder alone! We would be in a relegation spot and the bottom of our CL group without Sneijder right now. They guy even cleared the shot off the line in the AZ game even though the stupid ref called it a goal! We can't have one player and a bunch of bodies out there anymore.

As Jeremy St. Louis said this morning on FSW Canada, regarding the delay in playing the game due to security reasons, "With the way they have been performing lately, the team (Ajax) may need the extra security to keep them from their own fans!".

[Michael_B]

Babel cleared the ball off the line against AZ, not Sneijder. Further more, yesterdays performance wasn't disgusting, the final score is. During the first half Ajax played magical.

We just have to continue building on that, with some reinforcements ofcourse. We need a different left winger: Manucharyan, Boerrigter or someone who still has to be bought. We need a real goalie: Vonk fucked up twice yesterday, a good goalie would have kept at least one of the 2 out. Too bad Sar is no option anymore. Get rid of Vonk and Lobont, maybe even Stekelenburg as well.

We also need a player like Ron Vlaar for our defense and a replacement for Galasek, maybe Landzaat or so. Definetely a new striker: Benni.

Let Blind do his work and have faith in Van Geel.

[bluedaddy19]

now we have the biggest problem of all: they don't play that bad, yet still can't win

[Michael_B]

Further more, yesterdays performance wasn't disgusting, the final score is. During the first half Ajax played magical.

[carcajou]

We just have to continue building on that, with some reinforcements ofcourse. We need a different left winger: Manucharyan [....] or someone who still has to be bought.

Just what we need : more players playing out of position.... :sad:

[Michael_B]

And why would Manucharyan be out of position when playing as a winger? He is a winger, not a striker.

[carcajou]

And why would Manucharyan be out of position when playing as a winger? He is a winger, not a striker.

Well then from the pictures I saw from when he was playing in Armenia he's the kind of "winger" that plays in the center of the field and scores 22 goals a season, but whatever.... ;)

[cdnajaxfan]

Babel cleared the ball off the line against AZ, not Sneijder. Further more, yesterdays performance wasn't disgusting, the final score is. During the first half Ajax played magical.

I heard it was Sneijder but if it was Babel, now I am seeing why we can't score in the first place! That is not his job. However, I guess someone has to defend, our defenders sure do a bad job of that!

They can play great for a portion of the game but what use is that if you blow a 2 goal lead in Injury time?! I have not seen anything like that since that since the CL final where Man U cam back from a goal down to win (99?).

How about a win for a magic trick if they are playing so "Magically"? I am getting sick :pukey: of hearing that they are playing "magically". The only magic I see are defenders and strikers doing a "Disappearing act"!

Right now, all we have is a good midfield. That is all. We need everyting else: strikers who can score, a coach who knows what he is doing, goaltenders, and most of all, defensive defenders.

I don't think that we can blame it on the goaltending. Yes, maybe they are not the best but if the rest did their jobs, then they would not have to face many shots, would they? Blaming the goalie is what other players do when they know that they played like crap in sports. That is the oldest criticism in the book.

Maybe we should have listened to Cryuff (He is only one of the most influential players of the past 40 years, after all) and selected Neeskins instead of Blind until he had more experience?!

[Kowalczyk]

Maybe we should have listened to Cryuff (He is only one of the most influential players of the past 40 years, after all) and selected Neeskins instead of Blind until he had more experience?!

In my opinion the phase we're going through right now is due to three years of complete failure by Arie van Eijden and three seasons under a coach without a plan or a vision (Ronald Koeman), and therefore more or less inevitable.

Blind is doing good work. Look at the play and compare it to last season. As poor as the results are: it's a thousand times better. We're going somewhere with Blind, I'm sure.

Let's not panic.

K.

[Sir Alex Ferguson]

No lets panic-its much more fun

Fire Fire!

Perhaps try a different formation and play the players where they are comfortable?

[cdnajaxfan]

In my opinion the phase we're going through right now is due to three years of complete failure by Arie van Eijden and three seasons under a coach without a plan or a vision (Ronald Koeman)

Blind is doing good work. Look at the play and compare it to last season. As poor as the results are: it's a thousand times better. We're going somewhere with Blind, I'm sure.

Let's not panic.

K.

Yes, I guess that you are right about the cause of our current problems.

I am just worried because I do not see us having as good a team as AZ does this year, especially in the Striker Dept. They also have a much better coach than us.

Feyenoord are off to a good start but a team can't rely on just one person (DK) scoring all of their goals. Only thing is that he has scored more goals himself than our entire team has this year! Their coach is inexperienced as well though.

PSV seem to be having the season that everyone thought they would have last year so that is some relief.

We have many problems that need addressing. The only way to save this year is to dip into the Transfer Market in January and prey we do not drop too many more points until then. I don't see the players on our current rosters "waking up" anytime soon so that is our only hope. I know people hate getting players that way but I see no other solution. Otherwise, we can be a mid to low table team this year and prey some things happen over the summer.

[carcajou]

Feyenoord are off to a good start but a team can't rely on just one person (DK) scoring all of their goals.

Geez man !! Haven't you heard of Salomon Kalou ?

[bryan]

I agree that this Ajax team can play some magical football, but we need it to grow some spine pronto. We need some guys in the midfield and defense who will stand up, be counted and give out shit. The last player like that was Chivu.

Unfortunately the Ajax youth system doesn't produce these kinds of players anymore. We seem to be churning out wimp after wimp. What happened to the Neeskenses and the Rijkaards?

[Feest]

As if Neeskens was an Ajax youth-product... :nooo: :eusa_liar:

[343]

Rijkaard was a wimp also in his first period at AJAX.

[Kowalczyk]

What happened to the Neeskenses and the Rijkaards?

Yeah - we need a new Neeskens.

Here's one of my favourite Neeskens stories.

Back in the 1970s Ajax kicked off in some Eredivisie game and in the very first minute Neeskens' opponent made him look silly by playing the ball between his legs and slipping past him (to poort someone, we say in Dutch...). The ultimate humiliation for a defender.

Neeskens walked up to him and said (picture that stone-cold Neeskens face): "You're dead. Next time you get the ball I'll f*cking kick you in two."

According to the myth the guy 'played possum' for the rest of the game and never dared to ask for the ball until his coach replaced him, not understanding why he had such an off-day...

That's the type of murderer we could use! :xyxthumbs:

K.

[Feest]

Did you know that Neeskens is currently unemployed?

(Hint, hint, hint)

[Kowalczyk]

Did you know that Neeskens is currently unemployed?

Are you recommending him as a player...?

My God, am I glad you're a scout for Feyenoord.

K.

[Feest]

No, but he could teach those kiddos something about being resilient on the pitch.

[dws]

Ajax are showing the qualities neccessary to become a dominating team,
namely: good movement and support play, the ability to select the correct option in the attacking third of the field, the ability to effect the correct option via speed of thought and accurate passing. Did Ajax show any of these qualities last season?

Yes we have some problems to resolve , namely the forwards of Ajax have to start taking the numerous chances they are presented with and the defenders have to start concentrating for the full game. The goals we have conceded have mainly been down to individual errors caused by said lack of concentration rather than a lack of ability.

Blind is the man to take Ajax back to the top table of European football. We have to show belief in Blind and his players, otherwise Ajax stand to repeat the mistake they made in sacking Adriaanse.

[carcajou]

According to the myth the guy 'played possum' for the rest of the game and never dared to ask for the ball until his coach replaced him, not understanding why he had such an off-day...

AHAHAHAHHAHAHHA, this is the funniest expression ever : "played possum".

Laughin my ass off....