13 MAR 2016 Ajax - NEC Match Day 27

[SPL]

Just watched their goal a couple of times and apart from v d Hoorn cannot see any defenders. Viergever and Dijks no where to be seen as NEC had a clear route to goal. Hopefully Tete will be back soon ,Veltman back in CD with v d Hoorn and Viergever on the bench .

Cannot be another side that loses a 19 and a 20 year old defender to injury and is weaker.

[rjf1]

Terrific run by Younes puts us in the lead again. Maybe this time we will be able to hold it.

[SPL]

Lovely run by Younes thought it was Milik but sure it came off their defender for og

[rjf1]

Can't believe how atrocious the defending is -- likewise the passing. Very nerve-wracking when they come down on the attack.

[SPL]

If our passing and defending are as poor next week PSV will take us apart

[SPL]

Defenders are rubbish

[rjf1]

Disgusting

[Tom_]

Sigh, punished again for taking the foot off the gas too early. We never score when we need a late goal; this one's over.

[SPL]

Poor overall performance we have blown it. PSV will beat us next week and thats it.Poor passing and in effect only 1 player Veltman is worthy of being an Ajax defender.Dijks is moderate at defending and Viergever and v d Hoorn are not good enough for us.

[Orange14]

What a disgraceful display of football exactly at the time the team needed to come big and take all three points. there is just no urgency about this team and they slow play to a crawl until the final five minutes when they realize that the match is tied 2-2. Schoolboy defending conceded two goals and almost two more. Youth is not an excuse in this league any longer as these players have enough match time to figure out how to get the job done. I lost count of the number of bad passes after the first 10 minutes. What was up with all those dummy plays?? These guys think they can play like Barcelona? REALITY CHECK TIME!

So let's call out those who didn't get the job done today!

Player Ratings:

Cillessen (7) - had three tough plays to make and did the job; unfortunately undone by his back line
Dijks (4) - not going to get a NT call up with this performance, generally poor crosses, turnovers galore, and look at how he let his man get past him when he was upfield and bingo the tying goal goes in a couple of seconds later
Viegever (4.5) - generally redeemed himself once he woke up from his nice nap during the first goal; loved how he pointed to van der Hoorn to pick up the man he forgot to defend
van der Hoorn (4) - wondered when he would screw up following two really bad plays on long balls when his man got goal side; sure enough he totally lost his mark on the tying goal; Veltman would have made the play
Veltman (5) - average play throughout
Mr. Irreplaceable (4.5) - poor free kicks and little else to write about
The €25M Man (3.5) - value is sinking fast; does he realize that Barca midfielders don't slow the play down or miss passes; what was he thinking when he finally made a good play in the last minute and had a chance to loft the ball to someone who could put it in the goal, instead a tame shot right at the keeper
Klaassen (5) -worked very hard to put in a very average performance
Younes (6.5) - again showed how dangerous he can be at the Eredivisie level (which is his max IMO)
Milik (7) - only field player to have a decent match, controlled the ball well and worked very hard to get into goal scoring position, really deserved better supporting play
Schöne (4.5) - maybe one or two passes of importance but his field awareness does not compensate for how slow he is these days
el Ghazi (5) - everyone starts out with a five but without maybe more than one touch el Ghazi can't move the needle up or down
Fischer (6) - a couple of stinging shots on of which was well saved by the keeper

Maybe they beat PSV next weekend given the CL tie with Atheltico that the current champions have on Tuesday. The reality is that this team is just not good enough!!!

[Tom_]

This was especially frustrating because despite not playing well, we were totally in control for a large chunk of the second half but didn't even seem interested in pressing home the advantage.

I thought Younes did well, I liked the way he was trying to get the ball in low to the centre of the pitch around the "D" rather than pumping a useless cross in à la Dijks. Milik also does well against this standard of opposition but vanished in the last quarter, probably should have been replaced by "backup striker X" at around the 60–70 minute mark.

[SPL]

After they gave us the 2nd we did control for a while but only Younes was dangerous. Milik did well until those last 15 mins but we have no other striker. We badly need a creative midfielder,Bazoer 30m !!!! a joke. Leicester wanted Dijks but watching him today I dont think so. He still cannot defend.

Biggest wish for the summer is to sort out the defence,V Rhijn ,Viergever v d Hoorn are all poor and we should get rid of them.Problem no one in Jong is good enough so we may to buy some back up. The clowns who let Fosu- Mensah go must be sick.We have to look at A1 for the future with de Ligt only 16 and Zeefuik a very promising RB ,18 this week, but no contact yet.

Overall this was a dreadful performance but the team is not good enough to win the title.I expect PSV to beat us and go on to win it comfortably.

At least when PSV beat us we can put Cerny, Muric, de Jong and Nouri in the squad and plan for next season.Schone Serero and Fischer can all be on their way so they can make way.

[rjf1]

They opened the game playing pitty pat, and when you get into that half-speed mode, it's next to impossible to get into a fast enough gear later on, and it cost them -- even when they tried to attack, the movement was glacial, and the passes were slow and sloppy.

Right before we gave away the second goal, I thought they should take Vergeiver off; move Veltman to central defence; and play V Rijhn at right back. Okay, his defending isn't all that great, but at least he's an attacking presence coming down the right -- something totally lacking in the game today. Maybe having Veltman in the center would have made a difference.

[SPL]

Problem is vd Hoorn and Viergever are just piss poor defenders and the fact we have such woeful back ups is down to miss management .We chose v d Hoorn over v Dijk.He now performs in the EPL vd Hoorn should be back at Utrecht .

Our squad is too weak ie 11 or 12 good players but made up by poor players. Schone Serero v Rhijn Viegever v dHoorn are not good enough and should all be sold.Add Fischer has struggled ,Sinkgraven is always injured and he is no better than 3x 18 year olds at Jong Ajax(v d Beek,Nouri and de Jong) and we are lucky to still be in the race.

[Philippe]

I did not like to read FdB putting the blame especially on van der Hoorn. We failed as a team, every player was below par, with the notable exception of Milik. If found the coaching questionable too : Schöne being terrible, El Ghazi could have been brought in sooner.
I want to see a totally different Ajax next week.

[Orange14]

I did not like to read FdB putting the blame especially on van der Hoorn.

But this is the way FdB operates. He wants to place the blame on players rather than accepting any blame himself. van der Hoorn was really quite bad in any event and I wonder if van Rhijn will come back into the line up and have Veltman move back to CB.

[Philippe]

I do not agree about van der Hoorn, I think he's a good defender.
According to Het Parrol, a reliable source, he's one of our highest rated players this season (number 4) with an average of 3,1 so far.

[Orange14]

I do not agree about van der Hoorn, I think he's a good defender.
According to Het Parrol, a reliable source, he's one of our highest rated players this season (number 4) with an average of 3,1 so far.

I differ from you. Going back to his Utrecht and U-21 NT play he was always in danger of committing one major blunder per game that resulted in either a goal or dangerous shot on goal. This is not good defending. Did you see how he was beaten over the top on two passes before the match tying goal? He was really lucking that the NEC player on the second of these only got off a weak shot.

I used to think he was a decent prospect now I'm convinced he was a desperation buy when Alderweireld moved on and the club was uncertain about whether Veltman was first team material. van der Hoorn is a capable bench player who can fill in for a few games when injuries strike but I don't thing he is a first team player for a team contending for the championship. I guess we'll see for sure this coming weekend.