16 Feb 2012: Ajax - Manchester United FC

[Flipster81]

I'm glad to see Issy also I think he'll do well, he can distribute the ball better than Enoh and is more mobile than Janssen.

[paladinby]

The referee is a coward.

[Orange14]

Wow, I've seen that given as a penalty; pretty tight no call. Why cannot we play with this kind of commitment in the Eredivisie??? We would be on top of the table instead of a mid-table club. Only a couple of minor complaints about the first half. We need to show a little more patience on the ball, looking to force things a little to much or go over the top when it's just not there. This will help in clock management as right now we are conceding way too much possession to ManU. Koppers and Anita are having good games on defense. I really liked the way Koppers intercepted the ball and went in on de Gea. He had a man breaking on his right and probably should have passed (but maybe he didn't see it). Got lucking on some bad Nani plays.

Aissati gives us a decent ball handler and outlet for the back line. He did stay on the ball a little too long but he's a marked improvement on Janssen and Enoh. Let's see what happens in the 2nd half!!! Forza Ajax!

[Orange14]

The referee is a coward.

No, he's just an Italian!

[paladinby]

The referee is a coward.

No, he's just an Italian!

I'm not sure who will do? Portuguese and Italian will not, Spaniards and English are a joke, French belong to mafia, some from Eastern Europe can appear to be drunk. That leaves us with those from Germany or some more distant places like Venus or Mars.

But seriously we are being axed by refs in Europe every season so I'm kinda used to it.

We are giving way too many chances on giveaways. There were some stupid passes through the middle that should never happen. If we cut those then we are in a good shape.

I have never seen Sulejmani helping defence so much in Eredivisie. He is usually standing and watching something to happen but this game he is doing a lot more than usual.

[Van basten]

Just said in my mind, that Vermeer having a good game..

[paladinby]

Man Utd stopped cat-mice game for starting 15 minutes of second half. After we conceded that game continued. Our finishing is just not clinical which has been a problem for years. We never have this level of concentration in Eredivisie which very very unfortunate as we can miss CL next year.

[ajaxusa]

Anybody got a SOPcast channel to share with me?

[ajaxusa]

Anybody got a SOPcast channel to share with me?

Uh, nevermind.

[Orange14]

My stream went out with about 10 seconds left in the match but I see it ended up 0-2. A fair result given the amount of possession that we conceded to ManU. Despite the loss, the team was far more organized than in past matches and given a break or two might have made things close down the stretch. First goal was weird, a clearance bounces off a ManU player to Ashley Young who does a nice job of cutting inside to get the shot off. Vermeer may have been a little too far out from the goal mouth but not a major criticism. 2nd goal we were caught on the break and Vertonghen missed the tackle that had to be made. After that it was just too many ManU players and Chicherto finished easily. This should put an end to our European adventures for this season as overcoming two away goals is going to be a real ask (like we will need two red cards in the first five minutes at Old Trafford since we can't seem to find the back of the net).

Player ratings:

Vermeer (6) - good saves but again some poor kicking and possibly bad positioning on the first goal
Koppers (6) - good match and made a couple of real nice defensive plays
Vertonghen (7) - solid today and organizing the defense and went forward well
Alderweireld (7) - solid match and made a couple of saving defensive plays
Anita (7) - really nice play both at full back and in the midfield
Eriksen (7) - best player on the pitch today and some of his passes were sublime
Aissati (6) - some very nice plays and some dumbhead plays but he really hasn't had much match time this season and here he is playing a holding midfield
de Jong (6) - not too bad in the midfield but less so when he moved up to striker
Sulejmani (5) - he really doesn't know what to do when he has the ball; bad passing and decisionmaking
Ozbilitz (6) - decent enough match but again some careless give aways
Bulykin (5) - really didn't do too much to write home about; I don't think he really can play for more than a half
van Rhijn (6) - good at right back when he came on; had a real nice run past Fabio and got a good cross in
Boilesen (5) - OK first match back from injury but really didn't defend well and was fortunate that nothing came of the two big mistakes he made
Lukoki (5) - good pressing but on too briefly to do anything more

I was impressed with how we pressed all over the field for most of the match and for the most part kept our poise despite playing one of the top five teams in Europe. Good job in the end but the talent deficit between the two teams was telling. Club needs to have more confidence on the ball and make a couple of more passes rather than some of the aimless lobs that were tried. We have some "easy" league matches coming up and lets hope that we get a streak going.

[SPL]

We played well and I have to say playing a proper striker did not matter as Bulykin was poor imo . Man U did enough to win although when you are 1-0 down in the last 10 mins you are always likely to be caught like we were with the second goal. Aissati did well and Eriksen was indeed our best player. If we played like that in the league we would be top ,after all Vermeer did not make a bad mistake tonight.

Looking at our age we are very young and inexperienced . Once Bulykin went off no one on the field was over 23 , Vermeer only 25. And of course we only used 3 players who did not come from the academy .

[Monkey Tonk]

I skipped the game. Told myself that a small win would be a great result, a tie would be respectable, and a loss by one goal would not be good, but understandable. A loss by more than one goal would be bad. So Ajax lost by two goals. At home. I don't care how you twist or turn it, that's bad. So I come here to read up on the game, only to learn that Ajax, apparently, managed to lose another game while playing surprisingly well. Yeah. Right. Cruyff once said that when you're up 5-0 it's better to hit the cross bar than score another goal, because then the crowd still goes oooh! That has absolutely no relevance to this game, but somehow I was reminded of it in this incredibly impoverished soccer climate. Ajax is a way of thinking. If that way of thinking is gone, there is no way back.

[Philippe]

We did play well, and were even better in the first half. Bear in mind that we missed about 5 basis players.

I watched the game on an English channel. Journalists concluded that there was a huge gap between Ajax and sides like ManU. I don't think that was the case yesterday.

attempts on target Ajax 7 ManU 4
attempts off target Ajax 7 ManU 5

[Philippe]

The referee is a coward.

No, he's just an Italian!

Bloody stupid.

[Monkey Tonk]

We did play well, and were even better in the first half.

Sure.

[aveslacker]

We did play well, and were even better in the first half.

Sure.

My expectations were depressingly low going into this game, so all I can say is that 2-0 flattered the visitors in my opinion, and so I'm not crushed with disappointment. I'm just continuing to feel the overall numbness that being an Ajax fan has meant in the last few years.

[SPL]

In the second half Man U's extra class did tell but overall they are a very ordinary side compared with the recent past. Best player is Rooney,but he earns £200000 per week so should be good. 2-0 makes out it was easy for them but I did not think so . We need to play like this against the Utrecht's of this world .

Our problem is that in recent years players all leave before they are 25 and this squad will end up being mostly sold in the next 2years. ( The best players V d Wiel Vertoghen Alderweireld and Eriksen will all be gone by 2013 ,Boilesen the other talent will probably last another year to 2014) We are for ever building teams and cannot compete with the rich english clubs .

In the league we have ,on paper, a few easier games coming up but Utrecht at home was easy on paper. We have dropped too many silly points to win the title or indeed to finish 2nd so 3rd or 4th place for Europa Cup will be our only target for the rest of this season.

I think we should be looking a little to next year by giving V Rhijn a run at right back especially as V d Wiel is still unfit and no idea when he will be fit .And no more Janssen .Plus de Boer has to make up his mind whether he wants to keep Lodeiro or not.

So last night I was not depressed. A bit odd opening my paper and seeing Anita on the back page and a report of my favourite club.

[SPL]

Just seen Boilesen is missing NEC game as he has a slight problem with his hamstring . Well playing him last night was stupid .4 months or more out ,only 60 mins play last Monday and they should have rested him until next Monday and given him say 90 mins for Jong Ajax.No they chuck him into Man U and he is injured again hopefully not too bad .