28 Aug 2005: Ajax - Feyenoord

[Kowalczyk]

Where is our man Lindenbergh anyway...?

I thought he was fit. Why don't we use him? Good player! he could have replaced Maduro yesterday, who had an absolute shit game...

K.

[GangstaRiB]

He is fit. Escude seems to have lost his spot. Hopefully Lindenbergh will replace either Maduro or Excusez. Juanfran is also needed in the defense. And luckily Galasek is still around.

[Kowalczyk]

He is fit. Escude seems to have lost his spot. Hopefully Lindenbergh will replace either Maduro or Excusez.

I'm not saying that Escudé or Maduro should lose their starting slots. They wouldn't deserve that, in my opinion. Maduro has been quite good in Ajax-1 so far and Escudé has been consistently one of Ajax's best for the past year (or more).

Both were piss-poor yesterday, but it wouldn't make sense to kick 'em out of the team because of one bad game.

I just don't understand why Lindenbergh hasn't been used as a substitute yet. He could have replaced Escudé or Maduro in yesterday's game... Would have fitted right in on both of those positions.

K.

[ZoefdeHaas]

I could see using Vermeer or Lobont now..Vonk makes too many mistakes in organizing his defence. I mean, grygera isnt too fluent in his dutch yet so its the experienced defenders and goalkeepers job to use hand jives or sumthin to tell whats going on. as for the Juanfran situation, i feel we got few of the best fullbacks in holland (trabelsi, emanuelson)

[AjaxThailand]

I think Vermeer has been hyped a bit. Let the kid get some experience under his belt. Lobont has also proven to be not the best option in the goal over the last few years. Actually even Vonk and Maarten have proven that they arent the goalkeeper what ajax needs so its a bit of a mess. We havent had a great goalkeeper since v,d Sar left.

Emanuelson is a delight to watch at times. i guess we can all agree there. However I dont think he is good enought ( yet) to be our regular left back. Lots of errors esp in the passing. I think he has been hyped up a bit as well IMHO

I know i mentioned it before allready but i dont understand why we didnt get some more players over the summer.

I think Blind should let Babel have a chance as Striker for a few games. Cant do much worse then Rosenborg or our greek friends

[SoliloQuy]

Yeah, Babel seems to be wasted a bit on the left wing, he seems to have the physical presence as well as flair, perhaps he could try being the number "10" for a bit.

There is no harm in trying, seeing as he can score.

[Venezuelan Ajacied]

Ah crap guys, utter disgusting crap, here my analisis player by player :

F-word were just plain efective, there forwards were just Lethal... our defence wasnt really bad( i´ve seen worse). Kalou´s goal was just a masterpice of a finish, something our current crop of strikers cant do.

Defense:

1)Escude: a lot is being said about him, that he should be dropped to the bench ETC ETC ETC. Please people he´s the captain for a reason, last year he was playing like hell when the whole team was shit. So chill, one(or two) bad games are not reasons to send a player back to the bench(yet). He´s main problem is the same problem since he got here, he´s not phisical enough, i mean Kalou is as skinny as bugs bunny and smaller than Escude yet on the second goal he gained posesion of the ball trough strengh and not wits. He needs to get meaner, he could have fouled kalou before he stole the ball from him.

2)Grygera: Great, plain and simple. He´s getting more confident by the minute, and i dont know if its just me but it seems like he's running faster.

3) Emanuelsson: hhhhmmmm i had my doubts but he seems to be getting he's groove. Still i dont think he's a natural left back. He played for holland U-20 at left mid, so you can see that he tends to "Drift" to the center of the field. He also needs to learn to take on pressure situations with a little more ease. Not Bad, really, i was impressed.

4)Trabelsi: as almost always he had a good game.When our ofensse is lost you can always count on him to give it a little spark.Still leaky in defense but what else is new?. Good game no doubt.

Midfield

5)Maduro: not a good game but still show's flashes of brilliance every once in a while. Still maybe Galasek was more suited for a high profile game like this one. Maduro is going to be good but he still needs to learn.

6)Sneyder: normal game, nothing special. He needs to learn to grab tha ball and take control of the game. Can he ?

7)De Jong: of day, i really dont like de Jong in midfield. Thats just me anyway.

8)Babel: Oh mi goddddddddd i mean lost as hell, he did not get past he's marker a single time. Completely isolated on the left and just plain bad. Really disapointed....... But he will be a star.

9) Rosenberg: got the first glimpse of him, not bad..... the chance he missed early in the game was because hes a lefty. He was surprised with the pass and had to try to shoot with he's weak leg.Charisteas had a similar chance in the last minutes when he had a free pasage towards goal but he's shot was way to weak because he is not left footed.(Rosenberg would have drilled that one). Other than that i think he needs to learn how to play with he's back towards goal, you can see that he is not the classic #9 striker. Still hes the best striker we currently have so lets use him. Keep the faith.

10) Pienaar: Did not have a bad game, yet i think he should stay in midfield, where he belongs.

Bouhkari: did not have an impact, a left sided cero.

Charisteas: scored but yet again showed why he is not a really world class striker, he should have scored twice but is just to clumsy with his feet.

Rosales: had a couple of good combinations with trabelsi but never made a good cross, not even on freekicks.

Ok there you go, we lost but so what???? its one of the game that we all ajax fans know we can loose every once in a while. We'll have payback in Roterdam, mark my words.

Peace. :sad:

[343]

the chance he missed early in the game was because hes a lefty. He was surprised with the pass and had to try to shoot with he's weak leg.

No, sorry. He is a 'righty'.

[aveslacker]

Other than that, good analysis. Thanks on behalf of those of us who didn't get to see the game.

[Per]

I agree with Aveslacker, good analysis.

Isecond the "back to goal" remark on Rosenberg. He's been very much a "deep running" forward in his earlier clubs.

He still has alot to learn.

[Venezuelan Ajacied]

Oh man if that is true than he should have scored on that one(Rosenberg).Tough luck, but he needs too start scoring those chances or we are going to have another Sonck on board.

[bluedaddy19]

Emanuelson + Escude + Lindenbergh makes 3.

Not that I'm unhappy that Ajax has signed a quality player mind you. I'm just annoyed that once again an excellent player from the youth system will be left rotting in the reserves.

escude at LB? UGH, i think we've seen enough of that mess

i would also consider lindenbergh an emergency LB only, he will probably come of use best in midfield

we had one proper left back, and he has about five games of experience

[DanK]

Well let's do the autopsy...Wingers: Babel/Pinaar are not true wingers, never will be. Rosenberg: Shockingly poor (as he was against Bronby).

I wouldn't say Rosenberg was 'shockingly' poor...don't forget he created what should have been given as a penalty early in the first half. Sure he wasn't great, but when your 'wingers' dont pass you the ball it does make it difficult.

Oh well....at least it's early in the season.......

I hear ya... :xyxthumbs:

[Kowalczyk]

In my opinion it's very easy to explain why Rosenberg has been so isolated against both Brøndby and feyenerd. In fact, it's so bloody easy to explain that I seriously don't understand why Blind doesn't get it.

Pienaar and Babel are good players, but they're no wingers. The only way they can get past their man is by cutting to the centre. By doing that, they're making the spaces for the #9 smaller. They almost never deliver a useful cross from the wings.

So, Rosenberg doesn't get any crosses and at the same time he has very limited space to move, because Babel and Pienaar don't stick to the sideline but squeeze to the middle.

There is a way to solve this, namely by giving the #9 extra support from midfield. In other words: by playing with a real #10, who constantly shows up in the back of the #9. But we don't play with a real #10 at the moment. Our central midfielder is Hedwiges Maduro, a more defensive type midfielder.

So - at the moment Rosenberg does not get any service from the wings, his space is limited by two 'squeezing' wingers and there is no #10 behind him. Now that's what I call being isolated.

Our #10 is on the right wing, fer fack's sake.

K.

[Philippe]

Just back from Amsterdam.
Well, pretty simple :
feyenoord played like feyenoord, the usual anti-football, but that means 2 goals out of 3 chances
Referee : inadequate, forgot at least 1 penalty for Ajax (second half, hand ball)
Ajax : almost everyone had an off day, but Escude (too slow), Rosenberg, and Babel (not at his best as a left winger) were the worse.

[Kowalczyk]

Yeah - copy that. I agree 100%, except perhaps that my top five of terrible players in this game would be:

1. Babel
2. Rosales
3. Escudé
4. De Jong
5. Rosenberg
(6. Maduro)
(7. Sneijder)
(8. Pienaar)
etc.

K.

[Kowalczyk]

On a positive note... Some absolutely fantastic tifo before the game, especially in the north curve (ancient Greek temple with Ajax in front of it against a blue background, with a massive banner saying "Ajax - founded to make history". I also liked the yellow and black 'AJAX' on the bottom tier (North). Sometimes it's nice to use different colours.

In the South curve there was a big banner with the old logo. The whole section was white, with a big red cross.

Check the Ajax Foto Side:
http://www.ajaxfotoside.nl/fnoord/fnoord.html

K.

[Philippe]

I guess I was not far from you : half way up the 126 section, right next to the steps (a friend had lent me his card, I usually am on the second ring).
Seemed to me that the fans were more depressed than angry.
Partly because untill the very last minute we beleived Ajax could score the 2-2 goal.
Still find feyevbord boring to death.

[ZoefdeHaas]

Indeed, Ajax fans have always put quite a display in big games. Let's hope Blind realises the many mistakes made this game, and our trip to De Kuip next year is in our favour.

[Per]

I don't get how it can be so fu#"#ng hard to get proper wingers?

I mean, seriosly, how many wingers have we been satisfied with the last, say, five seasons?

We have the up and downs:

van der Meyde did the business on rare ocassions and then went back to being utterly useless in beating his opponent.

Sikora.....well here people (with people I mean one or two ) tend to disagree. I will agree with myself that he tended to be a bit....up and down.

Boukhari can be stunning and dangerous in front of the goal as well. To be more of a talent in GK in the next moment. Now he's in midfield. Who knows where he's gonna wind up?

We have the talented that do not seem to take the next step:

De Mul, Ridders (or is he no10??), Rosales and Mitea. For me the jury is still out on these boys. If they can step up and become more consistent and fins their way, they can be the wingers we've been looking for. For some more likely that others (Rosales and Mitea will be the ones left anyway)

And then we have Tom Soetars :D . He's a category to himself.

[AjaxThailand]

One of the hardest possitions to scout for are the wings. So i would say it is a bit difficult to find proper wingers. Most teams dont play with wingers and there arent that many really good wingers out there

[Frans]

I don't get how it can be so fu#"#ng hard to get proper wingers?

The players are there. All that's needed is for the coach to make them practise their crossing. 14 hours a day. 5 days a week. Until they get it right. Or at least, in rosales' case, till he can get the ball above knee height and into the box.

[carcajou]

I don't get how it can be so fu#"#ng hard to get proper wingers?

The players are there. All that's needed is for the coach to make them practise their crossing. 14 hours a day. 5 days a week. Until they get it right. Or at least, in rosales' case, till he can get the ball above knee height and into the box.

I just watched ultrasuid highlights and in particular, Feyenoord's second goal. Of course Escudé wasn't tough enough on Kalou (seems to be a pretty worrying general problem with him) , but the fact that Kuijt had been left alone at the penalty spot, while no less than TWO Ajax players were watching him pushing the ball into the net is pretty worrying too...

[jakobg]

One of the hardest possitions to scout for are the wings. So i would say it is a bit difficult to find proper wingers. Most teams dont play with wingers and there arent that many really good wingers out there

A sugestion to our scouts: There's a really good and promising winger in Sweden. Tobias Hysén, son of legendary Glenn Hysén who had his glory days at Liverpool, is currently playing for Djurgården, but will probably leave after this season. He's been a target for Rangers among other clubs, and is a fast and strong youngster who is very good at beating his man and cross from the winger postition.

It would cost Ajax a few millions for sure, but given the winger situation, I think it could well be worth it.

[Per]

One of the hardest possitions to scout for are the wings. So i would say it is a bit difficult to find proper wingers. Most teams dont play with wingers and there arent that many really good wingers out there

A sugestion to our scouts: There's a really good and promising winger in Sweden. Tobias Hysén, son of legendary Glenn Hysén who had his glory days at Liverpool, is currently playing for Djurgården, but will probably leave after this season. He's been a target for Rangers among other clubs, and is a fast and strong youngster who is very good at beating his man and cross from the winger postition.

It would cost Ajax a few millions for sure, but given the winger situation, I think it could well be worth it.

I would like to add that the following statement has nothing to do with Tobias playing for Djurgården before I start to put him down (settled? ok, here we go)

I simply don't think he's up to the level that we expect from a winger (or an Ajax player for that matter).

He is well above average in Allsvenskan and and probably the best natural left winger for a 4-3-3 system there. However above average in Allsvenskan is not enough for us. He is not really near a spot in the national team and hasn't shown that much improvement since he came to Djurgården from Häcken (which btw mean "the ass" in Swedish slang - good name for a football team :D ).

He is now 23 years old and cannot really be called "talent" anymore. He's technique is ok and above average but again not really good enough. He whowed good promise against Juventus in last years CL-quals and this could be a hint of what he caould do against good teams. He hasn't really shown that consistently though.

Another thing has been his finishing , it has improved but is still not good for a forward.

If I could whish for a Swedish winger to come to Ajax it would be Christian Wilhelmsson, currently in Anderlecht. There's a guy with speed, ability to beat his opponent and to cross - but he carries a prize tag as well.

My two cents :xyxthumbs: