18 FEB 2018; PEC Zwolle - Ajax; Match Day 24

[Orange14]

Still seven points adrift of PSV who host Heerenveen this weekend, Ajax play PEC away. PEC lie fifth in the table but have struggled against higher ranked clubs. Another must win for Ajax as the remaining games continue to dwindle without any dropped points from PSV.

[rjf1]

PSV - Herenveen ended in a 2-2 draw, so with a win we can get back to 5 points, which is a reasonable amount for us to overcome. If we can beat them in our head-to-head we will almost be there . The only problem is that ever since that 5-0 cup drubbing Zwolle gave us in a game we were supposed to win just by stepping out onto the pitch, they have proven to be the occasional thorn in our side. So... a little bit apprehensive about this one, but hoping for the best.

[SPL]

Unchanged from last week ,Wober is unfit so Bakker is sub.

Have to win today to cut back to 5 points.

[Orange14]

Kevin Blom is the match official. I have a bad feeling that we will see a Red card issued early on.

[rjf1]

27 minutes in -- after a good start, we've started letting them out grunge us. Sometimes it looks like we're going in slow motion. I really would like to see more urgency than what has been shown so far.

[Amol]

Great cross by Veltman, Huntelaar misses from 4 yards out.

[SPL]

We do seem to be playing slow motion ,sky guys saying the same thing.KJH should have headed in that cross but we seem to just shoot from outside the area and not test the goalie.

[Orange14]

Pretty disgusting half of football and Ajax are lucky that the one shot on goal Zwolle had, a free header, was wide of the mark or they would have been down 1-0. I hate to be a broken record about how static the MF is but that's again the case. No player is using the available space and the crosses by the outside players are not good enough. Our old #2 Boer has made all the routine saves and hasn't had anything difficult to deal with. The club is not playing good enough and it's always a puzzle why this is so with so much on the line. Where are the tactics to break down the Zwolle defense?

[SPL]

Should have scored then both missed

[Amol]

OMG what a ball from Eiting.

[Orange14]

Nice finish by Huntelaar off of an equally nice pass from Neres.

[rjf1]

What a relief! A goal comes. I was beginning t think it would never happen.

[SPL]

Yes KJH superb finish. After all the heart break of Appie i am loving see KJH back

[SPL]

How on earth did KJH miss that

[Amol]

C'mon Huntelaar. This could've easily been a 4-0 or 5-0 victory.

[Ayman]

One positive, Eiting came on after half time, and had an impact.
Two negatives, Siem de Jong keeps coming on, he has no place in the Ajax line up. the other thing is, Huntelaar should get subbed often in the second half of the second half of the game. He is ageing and it's kind of showing. Bring on Sierhuis!

[SPL]

A narrow win but it should have been a lot more.Donny's shot on the post left Neres needing to just poke it in and of course KJH missing a sitter.

Eiting improved things as Schone did nothing and our play did speed up in the 2nd half.

So 5 points behind and Feyenoord home to PSV next week. Ajax fans will want a Rotterdam win ,however hard that sounds

[rjf1]

Another nail biter of a finish. Maybe it was a condition of playing on that miserable rug - looked like they were sliding around on ice half the time, but I couldn't believe how poor the quality of the passing was. Well, on the very bright side, we climbed up to only 5 points back of PSV. We can do it yet.

[Dave the mac]

A good much needed win, PEC didn't make it easy. Inching closer to PSV.

[Orange14]

A win is a win even if it is filled with mediocre football against an opponent that is really not all that good on the ball. Two points picked up this week but Ajax still have to win out the rest of the season and judging by today's match this will be a heavy lift. There really was very little outstanding play and lots of poor finishing passes and shots. Good to see that Schöne was subbed off for Eiting as the Dane was much too slow in the first half to have any impact on play.

Player Ratings:

Onana (5.5) - some poor kicking and I will give him the benefit of the doubt on the two 2nd have shots that he unconvincingly punched away; the first one looked like a wicked shot that was swerving away
Tagliafico (5.5) - was playing well until he poorly defended the PEC winger late in the 2nd half was was really lucky that nobody was their to finish the cross
F de Jong (6) - some very fine defending on the day but as we all know he is wasted in his current position
de Ligt (6.5) - convincing on defense and maybe the best player on the pitch today
Veltman (6) - didn't screw up which was a plus on the day
Schöne - (4) - fortunately didn't have to watch his lackluster play in the 2nd half
Ziyech (4.5) - why did we pay so much money for him when he only has a couple of decent matches every year
van de Beek (5.5) - OK and not much more
Kluivert (4.5) - should watch some clips of how Neres plays football; one good play when he took a long cross pitch pass and got a shot off that hit the cross bar
Huntelaar (5.5) - got the match winner but missing three other decent chances is not the mark of a great striker but I will say he was being mauled on every pass to him
Neres (6) - still the most dangerous attacker for Ajax
Eiting (5.5) - did enough to keep things together
S de Jong (NR) - on late

Five back with ADO at home next weekend while PSV take on Feyenoord

[SPL]

Most weeks the ratings show our weakness is MF .Schone is not good enough and Ziyech flatters to deceive. Frenkie should of course be in Mf and Eiting today showed he should be used more. I will forever dream of last season's Jong with Donny Frenkie and Appie.

Back to reality de Ligt bossed the defence as usual. Sandler is going to Man City ,well to be loaned out all over Europe, and I didn't see anything special in him today . We got rid of him back in 2016 from our youth and he is developing ok but Man City!!!!!! .

[Orange14]

Sandler is going to Man City ,well to be loaned out all over Europe, and I didn't see anything special in him today . We got rid of him back in 2016 from our youth and he is developing ok but Man City!!!!!! .

I was wondering about Sandler. I didn't know (or forgot) that he was in the youth at Ajax. I agree he was an OK player but ManCity???? ManU, ManCity, and Chelsea just buy up any player that strikes their fancy, throw them in a mixer and see who ends up making it. I seem to remember that Chelsea has at least two dozen players on loan through out England and Europe! They loaned a very nice Belgian striker, Batshuyai, to Dortmund in January and he's scoring goals like there is no tomorrow. If UEFA really wanted to do something positive they would put a restriction on the number of players that can be under contract but that would probably not be legal under EU law.

[SPL]

Actually just Man city and Chelsea buy up loads of players and loan them out ,each have about 35 players out on loan.

I dont think the numbers employed can be cut ,after all Ajax have 74 players under contract but we do run 2 league teams.

UEFA can easily restrict the numbers of players clubs have out on loan and also restrict the numbers on loan at any side. NAC have 6 players on loan from Man City which is a joke.

As for Sandler at Man City well only one defender in Holland at present looks good enough to play at Man City, he is 18 and plays for Ajax.

[Amol]

Analysis and passmaps from 11tegen11 -
https://www.ajaxlife.nl/updates/passmap ... ecaja-1718

[Orange14]

Analysis and passmaps from 11tegen11 -
https://www.ajaxlife.nl/updates/passmap ... ecaja-1718

As usual, Ajax woefully underperform in terms of the anticipated goals. It's been this way all season long. The only redeeming thing in my mind is that the club is not playing the kind of mind numbing football that they displayed under de Boer. Onana probably has far fewer touches this season than any keeper of the past 8 seasons.