Champions League 3rd Qualifying Round Ajax-Rapid Vienna

[Van basten]

fuck i knew it's gonna happen...

[Tom_]

Yeah...

[SPL]

well now we are out

[Orange14]

The 3 man back line was always a bad decision.

[Amol]

Just need 2 more goals.

[Dave the mac]

Just when I thought there was a chance....

[Tom_]

Well we were never in it except for the minute or so when it was 2–2 and apart from the two goals we didn't create a lot of danger. Obviously the worrying thing is how easily the Wien players were able to stroll in from our left and shoot on the 0–2 and 2–3. It's too soon to say of course but if you add defensive frailty to our toothless attack from last season we could be in for another fun season!

[Van basten]

Is there any slightly chance, that fdb will make a honorouble desicion?

[Amol]

Its over. I don't know how we manage to keep the core of the team, make additions and appear to look worse than before.

Spent 6 million on Gudelj, 3 million on that German winger, 3 on Dijks and also got Heitinga. I think its time to say goodbye to FDB and/or Overmars? I think we should make a move for Klopp who is still without a club.

PSV seems to get decent replacements every year. What is wrong with us?

[saddlerian]

Only two words to describe it....ABSOLUTE DISGRACE

No effing defence, half the team should still be at school.....good job I haven't got a ticket for this season!!!

WHAT A WASTE OF........just about everything!!!!

[GangstaRiB]

Is there any slightly chance, that fdb will make a honorouble desicion?

Hope so. This team has no leader, no experience, nothing. You can blame the coach and/or management that such a youthful team has to compete under enormous pressure. But the management expect to be praised because of the youth.. but it's working against them right now.

[Tom_]

It's strange. I'm not trying to defend Frank de Boer (I've said before that I think his tactics stink) but in this case I don't know if I blame him. A squad like ours is not good enough and far too young for Europe.

Well the only bitter pleasure I take from it, having watched the Austrian stream and had to listen to the commentator gushing about the 11 perfect Wien players after the final whistle, is that they will be out next round because they suck too

[Orange14]

It's evident that this is not a very good Ajax team. They are too slow in moving the ball around the field and allow the defense to get set. There is not enough quality to break down good defensive teams and end up with lots of meaningless possession. Defensive lapses on all three goals were horrible, one can see youth teams doing a better job than this Ajax team did tonight. If I were Cillessen I would put in for a transfer tomorrow, he's going to have a lot of problems this season.

I don't think FdB is getting this team adequately prepared for knock out matches but then that's been a constant for the past four years.

Player Ratings:

Cillessen (5.5) - didn't have a lot to do and was powerless to stop any of the three goals; at least he didn't get a lot of back passes
Dijks (5.5) - reasonably decent game and the cross to Milik was quite good
Riedewald (4) - looked lost at times and should have done better on the first goal as he was way out of position; he has the tools but not the experience
Veltman (5) - really don't understand why he was subbed off, Ajax were in a position to tie the match and having a 3 man back line anchored by an in experienced central defender is just a dumb manager's decision; otherwise he was average
Tete (5) - OK game but why don't our right backs ever go forward?
Sinkgraven (3.5) - really should have done better on the first two goals defensively
Bazoer (5.5) - best of the midfielders tonight
Klaassen (5) - average and not much better
Fischer (4) - one stinging shot that was just wide but otherwise not as good as he needs to be
Milik (5) - great volley for the goal and not much else
el Ghazi (3.5) - lost the fullback on the first goal letting him cross the ball on offense found himself in too many 1 v 2 matchups and all he could do was some Mickey Mouse step overs that were not going to beat anybody
Gudelj (5) - got a goal that probably should not have counted as Sanogo fouled the Vienna keeper
Sanogo (4) - other than being big and strong, can he play football at all?
Schöne (NR) - on too little to pass judgement

I don't know if we automatically qualify for the EL group stage or not. Maybe that will be a good competition for this young team as I don't think they could beat any of the seeded teams in the next CL round.

[SPL]

Woeful. We do have some talented kids but we all know there is no experience and they were never going to compete in Europe.Do they have to qualify for the Europa Cup if so hope they lose because we cannot do anything in the league with a load of Thursday nights in Eastern Europe.

This is going to be a long hard season and having not improved the squad with any experience except the over the hill Heits I wouldn't put money on us even finishing 2nd.

[Orange14]

I wouldn't put money on us even finishing 2nd.

The Eredivisie is really bad at this point in time as the Dutch FA really enforce financial solvency for clubs. Other than PSV, there is no other team that has the talent that Ajax do. Whether the players are used wisely is the question. Why did they bring Sanogo in? He looked terrible in each game.

[Van basten]

Eredivisie is currently 10th on the leagues ranking.http://www.uefa.com/memberassociations/ ... s/country/ After this season it will go down by 2 steps at least, coz Turkey and Switzerland will overleap them. The most points Netherlands got on 11/12 season, and that will not count anymore next season, so it's possible that Greece and Chech Republic also will be higher than Eredivisie. That would mean no guaranteed place in CL for Eredivisie champions.

[#14]

We do not go into EL group stage. We go to 4th qualifying round and might get Southhampton.

[Orange14]

Looking on the bright side, when we win the Europa League we qualify for CL football in the following season!

[kezme44]

this was so absolutely pathetic today that i'm compelled to post.
today has been a train wreck 3 years in the making. this ajax team under fdb and overmars has been total crap for a while now. i think people were deluded by the 2 last league titles. we need to remember how crappy every eredivisie team has been during that period, including poor psv and fword sides. so there was pretty much no competition. every time we played a stronger european team we lost, apart from that barca win, which i'm pretty sure they didn't care about cause they were already qualified for the next cl round. so instead of recognizing the total mediocrity, and maybe changing the team policy on signings and salaries, the team management did nothing. last season was pretty bad, and this season will be even more interesting. we will finish second, but only because everyone else will suck. forget any results in the EL, if we even make the qualification. i mean, we got knocked out by the runner-up of the austrian league i would not have been upset if we put up 2 solid performances and lost narrowly but this was an absolute disgrace. 20 years after the cl title and this is where we stand.
ok, i'm done. going to watch the bayern-ac milan replay from the audi cup today. remember we beat bayern 5-2 20 years ago in the cl semis. imagine us beating bayern these days!

[Philippe]

We are eliminated because of a poor defence and weird coaching, plain simple.

Why did Frank decide to play Tete instead of Van Rhijn ? Why didn't Heintinga play at all ?

Every 5 goals conceded to Rapid is due to defensive blunders. We cannot continue with a central defence with Riedewald and Veltman. And as a right fullback Tete still has a lot to learn.
IMO Dijks was our best man and only good surprise.

As for our defensive midfield, nothing convincing so far.
Gudelj does not seem good enough for Ajax.

Fischer missed everything he tried, and lost the ball almost every time he got it. El Ghazi proved his fighting spirit but seemed strangely tired at the end. Great goal by Milik.

[Orange14]

I'll disagree and say that Tete is a better defender than van Rhijn. Veltman has been disappointing in the two games and played his way off of the NT. None of the midfielders seem to defend properly.

However, the basic problem is the handling speed is way too slow on the part of every single player. Passes are soft and even mediocre defenses have plenty of time to double and triple team players. Once that happens the inexperience then shows; players have no clue to to pick the lock. This has been an ongoing problem for the past 18 months. How can a team have 70% possession and have only one real goal scoring opportunity (I don't count the Gudelj goal as that was a scramble goal and probably could have been waved off for a foul by Sanogo on the keeper).

Until this club is able to speed up play these kinds of results will continue and it doesn't matter whether it's Euro or league competition. The level of play is just like in my signature, lifeless. For all their talent, the players just seem to have no clue how to play the game. They are quick enough to play a high pressure game which they have done in the past but it's inconsistent.

Questions have to be asked of FdB. His first two league winning teams were based on players he inherited and once they all transferred off things have gone down hill. Two possibilities: manager or the players are just not that good. Perhaps it's both. It's going to be a long season.

[__earth]

[SPL]

Well its gone downhill since the end of 2013 season Eriksen went and we signed Duarte to replace him and then lots of poor signings. Schone and Cillessen are the only 2 players we have signed in the last few years who are good ,Schone being a free .Of those who have left Moisander was decent for 2 years.I wont list all the dross we have already got rid of.Zimling !!!!!!!!!!!

Duarte ,v d Hoorn and Viegever are not good enough and should not be here.Of those we have signed this summer Dijks cannot count as he has just come back after 2 years of learning elsewhere,Milik will be a good signing .Gudelj looks no better than Serero and he is nothing special. Sinkgraven is very young and we must question the point of signing a young kid when Bazoer was breaking through and Donny v d Beek and Nouri are nearly ready.A decent experienced DM was needed and we do have money.

Of the other signings Heits is over the hill ,Sanogo has no record of scoring goals outside the French 2nd div, Younes , injury prone already injured.

If we had no money like Fword fair enough but we have best part of 100m in the bank with another 30m coming in shortly when Man U buy Cillessen.

This squad may be good in 3 years but by then with only 1 CL for Dutch teams lots of this team will have gone.

The fans dont want a team thats good in 2018 ,we want a good team now but our policy of not spending money and just buying cheap 2nd raters is costing us already with no CL this season and the 20m that goes with it.

[Dave the mac]

Ouch! Being out of CL play is costly, not only monetarily but as a way to attract talented players. It's a major blow for Ajax, and us fans. It's a painful lesson for everyone involved, especially De Boer. He needs to regroup and win the title this season or surely he will be gone.

I'm still, well not as much, excited for the upcoming season. I know I'm biased but I thought Dijks played great and my man of the match. Tete on the other side is very good also and a major improvement over van Rhijn. So half of the defense is improved over last season, but the critical CB spots are in trouble. No way should an 18 yr old be playing there. Riedewald is a talent, but one for the future. vd Hoorn, or someone new should play there.
Midfield and Attack have lots of talent.

A devastating start to the season, but all is not lost.

[Tom_]

Yesterday I realised it could be worse! You guys from the UK will understand I guess. At least we don't suck at football as much as Australia suck at cricket :D