04 APR 2024; Ajax - Go Ahead Eagles; Match Day 28

[Orange14]

Home to Marc Overmars's old club on Thursday as we head down the final matches of this dreary season. Brobbey still likely out for the game but Kaplan returns from his RC suspension. No word yet on Sutalo.

[SPL]

Kaplan in the back 3 with Mannsverk either sub or replaces V D Boomen . Should stick to 5-4 -1 or 3-4-3 and keep Taylor and Hlynsson as wing backs until Berghuis and Bergwijn are fully fit. Sutalo is a waste of time I would only pick him again if we had injuries.

[SPL]

NEC only drew at Fortuna so we are 1 point ahead , thus 3 points on Thursday is a must and will put us 4 ahead of them.

[Tom_]

Definitely need a win.

Our following games are Feyenoord and Twente. I don’t think we can hope for more than 4 points total from those two games and 0 to 2 points seems more likely.

NEC still has to play Feyenoord and AZ before the end of the season.

[SPL]

Last 4 its Excelsior home,Volendam away ,Almere at home and Vitesse away.Anything less than 12 points max from these games and every player should be sacked. If you cannot beat these sides then you are not fit to wear our shirt(Brobbey,Hato and Ramaj excluded)

[Orange14]

Last 4 its Excelsior home,Volendam away ,Almere at home and Vitesse away.Anything less than 12 points max from these games and every player should be sacked. If you cannot beat these sides then you are not fit to wear our shirt(Brobbey,Hato and Ramaj excluded)

I forget the year, maybe 2015 or 16 when Ajax was facing a bottom table team needing a win to take the championship and failed mightily. Maybe it was de Boer's final season?

EDIT; de Graffschap in 2016. Match report is here: viewtopic.php?f=24&t=12768&start=50#p1353817 This has to be one of the epic failures of all time.

[Orange14]

Berghuis definitely out for the two matches this week. Brobbey out of Thursday's game and iffy for Sunday. Sutalo is fit (don't know whether this is a blessing or not). Medic is also healthy. Sosa has been sick and is questionable. Henderson out for the two games and is being treated in England.

[SPL]

Reading through the posts on that De Graafschap game ,until this season the worst failure in my years of watching Ajax. I can still picture their goal.

This season we have given away loads of similar points and I still expect us to give away more points to lesser sides.

Of course NEC will probably win the cup and we will be 5th .

[Orange14]

The league is just crazy this year. AZ got thumped 5-0 away to Heracles today.

[SPL]

Akpom out injured but Rijkhoff on the bench. Kaplan back ,Gaaei and Taylor wing backs ,Hlynsson Mannsverk and Tahirovic MF how dreadful .

Will be lucky to get 3 points. Loads of moans about Van t' Schip but he has had a nightmare with injuries together with a weak squad. Still think Fitz-Jim should get some minutes and also Forbs should be stuck on later .

Would say if this is our team on Sunday I will predict a 5-1 defeat .

[Orange14]

World class volley from Gaaei and Ajax clinging to a 1-0 lead. they had a bunch of shots with Godts hitting the post. Very few errors but with this team then need to have ZERO errors.

[Orange14]

Would say if this is our team on Sunday I will predict a 5-1 defeat .

Not necessarily. Feynoord have eight players our injured right now and it's not clear that any of them will be healthy for Sunday.

EDIT: They played a nil draw at Vollendam.

[SPL]

At least we are 1 up . Maybe Feyenoord not clear favourites !!

[SPL]

Ramaj with a howler . Sorry I wont watch anymore this season or bother with the games. I really have had enough after that last minute goal ,how many points have we given away this season in ET.

It will be 6th place or NEC win the cup . No European football this season .

[Orange14]

This had to be one of the youngest starting 11 ever to wear an Ajax shirt. Even all the substitutes were really young as well. Of course, Ajax did fail at the end of the match like so many others this season and could only come away with one point. Maybe Ramaj could have punched the ball away, but it was an error of magnitude. Ajax had a number of opportunities to finish off the match but could not finish chances or make the final pass that would have led to a better shot on goal. Things stay the same in the table as all the teams around Ajax drew (other than AZ but they may be a step too far for Ajax to catch). Gaaei has to be the top player on the pitch with a very solid game.

It's not much fun to be an Ajax supporter and wait until they undo a lot of minutes of good work.

Player Ratings:

Ramaj (4) - two horrible fandango moves and almost lost the ball each time; he had to be brave and come out on the equalizer but maybe could have done better
Gaaei (7) - world class volley and generally very good play otherwise
Rensch (6.5) - defended well
Kaplan (6.5) - strong in the air
Hato (5.5) - Cal Ripken streak continues, but this was far from his best game
Taylor (6) - worked hard on defense all game long and came forward to be part of the offense
Tahirovic (5.5) - marginally average and just can't make quick passes when they are needed
Mannswerk (6) - had the ball in deep but just two very weak shots
Hlynsson (6) - hard worker and came back to help out defending
Godts (6.5) - a couple of great crosses but dribbled into two defnders too much for my liking
Bergwirn (4.5) - looked peeved when he was pulled out but he was really poor on the night, can't play in the middle
Fitz-Jim (5.5) - had some nice passes but when he loses the ball he gives up on the play
Rijkoff (5) - should have passed to the cutting player instead of shooting
Forbs (5) - I hope some team in Europe wants him this summer but I'm afraid no one will
Voss (5.5) - decent in the time he was on
Goojier (NR) - on late and his cross was not worth commenting on

Feyenoord, who are injury struck, up on Sunday. The dismal hits just keep on coming.

[Tom_]

Yet another cheap goal, in injury time, from a corner. How many times this season?!

I thought Godts was good but he looked exhausted 25 minutes into the *first* half.

As for Bergwijn, he did nothing and should have been subbed at half time. Maybe he’s still not fit but that’s no excuse for his turdish little tantrum when he did eventually get taken off.

[Orange14]

One final coda to yesterday's match. Other than Bergwijn, all the other players who started and subbed on were under 22 years old. As I noted in the match report, this is probably the youngest Ajax team ever and young players are going to make mistakes, particularly with an unsettled starting lineup resulting from injuries and lack of sufficient time playing together. I continue to remain optimistic about the long-term prospects of Ajax. Sure, we might lose some players to transfer this summer and maybe don't even play in Europe next year. The latter might be a good thing with those on the team coming back to avenge this season's poor performance.