20 DEC 2015 Ajax - De Graafschap Match Day 17

[Orange14]

Ajax get the late afternoon kickoff to wrap up the first half of the Eredivisie 2015-16 campaign and with a draw will stay in first place. De Graafschap lie bottom of the table and offer FdB's squad a chance to score some goals. Of course this will not ease the bitter taste in the mouth of all the supporters who expected much more from the team this season.

[Dave the mac]

De Graafschap with only one win and 5 pts would need a minor miracle to avoid relegation. To bad, last time I was in Amsterdam I purchased one of their T-Shirts and it's in my squash kit.

A good time for them to visit the Arena. Ajax can increase the already impressive goal difference of +33!
Indeed I read where Ajax is off to one of their best starts ever! So I don't really understand why people are unhappy and calling for De Boer to be sacked. Until the last week or so things have been going pretty well. Goals for and against both easily lead the league. A tough crowd :)

The players will have the Winter break to rest and recharge. No major injuries. No European or Cup (?) distractions. Race to the finish and CL qualification! I'm looking forward to the new year!

[SPL]

Younes out injured so Cerny back in the squad ,v d Beek stays . Apart from Sinkgraven injured Heits, vRhijn and Sanogo are not picked.

[SPL]

back to 4-3-3 thank goodness. Fischer for Younes and the only other change from last weeks starting lineup Dijks for Serero. Dijks can actually cross a ball and that was missing last week.Hope for a good win.

[SPL]

Watching the last 10 mins of fword as they are 2-1 down.I am temporary a NEC fan

[SPL]

84 mins and its 3-1 for NEC,hopefully a great day awaits us Ajax fans.

[SPL]

F Word lost 3-1 so now Ajax stuff de Graafschap

[SPL]

Lovely free kick and superb header by Milik for 1-0

[SPL]

Ajax are asleep how did they let that in.

[Tom_]

This is disgusting. We're at home to the bottom team and so far we've created:

* a goal off a set piece
* a chance for Fischer after de Graafschap's CD gave the ball away 30 yd from goal
* another off a Gudelj long ball that dropped nicely for Fischer

OK, we are almost certainly going to win, but this is the sort of game where we should be making 10+ scoring chances. Why are we playing so defensively???

[SPL]

dreadful performance by us ,sky just saying Bazoer should come off ,so should El Ghazi,these are our 2 worst performers

1-1 at Ht this is a disgrace and worse than last week.

[Orange14]

Disgustingly awful and the only reason for being level is some kind officiating to grant the free kick that led to the goal. el Ghazi looks soooooooooooooooo slow. Fischer is decent and Tete is defending well. Everyone else is sleepwalking.

[Orange14]

OK, we are almost certainly going to win, but this is the sort of game where we should be making 10+ scoring chances. Why are we playing so defensively???

How can you be so sure?????

[Tom_]

Well we were 1–0 up when I typed that ;)

Pretty sure we'll win but I'm so fed up with this ultra conservative football. Do these guys even enjoy playing football? They realise scoring goals is fun, right?

[SPL]

Get v d Beek and Cerny on but de Boer will probably bore us silly by putting on Schone and Serero.At this stage last week he did not do anything positive so why should he does so today.

[Orange14]

Just watched the replay of the Graafschap goal. Where the heck was Gudelj??? Way out of position up field. No midfield help at all and they end up with three attacking players against to central defenders. Cillessen probably should have done better on what was a pretty weak shot.

[SPL]

Hi Tom ,the only Ajax teams who play beautiful football and enjoy themselves are the youth teams but Jonk and the ideas of Cruijff have gone , so even they will now have to play boring v Gaal like football like this shambles today.

The fans should show the white hankies in the 2nd half

[Tom_]

Orange this is what I was just thinking too. We are attacking 3 vs 8 yet somehow we gave up even numbers in our own half. This can happen on a quick counter of course but that's not where that goal cams from. Truly terrible effort on that one. I wish he could sub the whole team.

[SPL]

Cerny finally on for the woeful ElGhazi and nearly scored

[Tom_]

What an embarrassment. I enjoyed Bazoer's hit but otherwise nothing of interest. I think it's reasonable to expect some sort of football party, at home to the bottom club.

[SPL]

Thankfully we held on ,we did not deserve 3 points just a super goal by Bazoer.Cerny looks pure quality ,nearly scored with his first touch and unlike others creates chances.

Apart from the Bazoer goal I would say this was worse than last week.

[SPL]

Have to say Bazoer for his goal and Cerny because he adds creativity and looked like he could actual do something are the only 2 who would get over 5 marks. El Ghazi would get a 1 for me.

One final point watching a midfield with no creator when will Nouri be given his chance.He is a little kid like Cerny and has incredible skill

[Tom_]

SPL, it definitely earned the white hankies. I can't remember hearing whistles after a win in the ArenA for quite a while

[Orange14]

A woeful performance finishes out the first half of the season. Ajax are top of the table but have much to do in order to stay there. Against the bottom of the table team, Ajax struggled all match long and only a wondrous strike by Bazoer gave the home team all three points. The club had a enough chances to score but most of the shots were right at the keeper. A lot of players demonstrated very poor first touches which really should not be happening.

Player Ratings:

Cillessen (6) - one very nice save but could he have done better on the weak shot that scored?
Dijks (6) - good all around game and delivered some decent crosses
Riedewald (6) - rocky start of the match with some poor long passes but did well down the stretch
Veltman (6.5) - decent defending
Tete (6.5) - very good defending, mediocre when he has the ball in the offensive side of the field; really needs to speed up his passing and improve field awareness
Gudelj (5.5) - 26 free kicks and it's a wonder that his right leg didn't come off; at fault on the goal for being to far upfield
Bazoer (6) - below average first half and redeemed himself with the wicked volley into the goal
€20M Man (4) - take the money and send him off to Italy; very poor on the ball all match long
Fischer (6) - good activity and had some shots on goal that were unfortunately right at the keeper
Milik (6) - nice goal and was more than decent in the rest of his game
el Ghazi (3.5) - is he still hurt? looked way too slow and didn't react well at all to what was going on
Cerny (5.5) - maybe should give him a break on his first touch on the break away after enter the game but had he scored the match would have been settled
Schöne (5) - got the ball in a scoring position and didn't score
van de Beek (5) - on late for Bazoer and did better than the €20M man

At least the Ajax Board does not have to make a decision about sacking FdB which they likely would have would Ajax dropped all the points today. Off for holidays and the winter break and back in action on January 17 against ADO Den Haag.

The match commentators said that FdB graded Ajax at 5.5 for the first half of the season. They did not mention what he graded himself at.

[Tom_]

One last thought, it looked like lots of players were struggling with the pitch.

OK, have a good break everyone, guess we'll be back to discuss transfer season soon :)