23 OCT 2019; Ajax - Chelsea; CL Group Day 3

[Orange14]

Ajax host the top seed in the group, Chelsea, on Wednesday. It is the early match that day and should be on normal cable TV here in the US. Chelsea look to be rounding into better form than they started the season. It's a young team because of the transfer ban imposed by UEFA. N'golo Kante, arguably their best player, was injured playing for France and did not play in yesterday's win over Newcastle. Tammy Abraham has been a consistent scorer coming back from loan and they also start Mason Mount who played in the Eredivisie on loan. It's weird that Giroud hardly gets a game yet scores for France these days.

If Kante does not play the Chelsea MF is weak defensively. Of course Ajax has to tighten things up and cannot make any mistakes as they did yesterday as Chelsea won't miss finishing. I wonder if ETH starts Alvarez along side Martinez to provide more defense.

[Ayman]

They can still do wel without Kante, they have Jorginho among others

[Orange14]

Chelsea will be without both Barkley and Kante in the MF as both are injured.

[kezme44]

i'll be happy with a draw.

[Orange14]

Ajax going with the double pivot of Alvarez and Martinez; Promes, Tadic, Ziyech up front with van de Beek at #10. Back line of Tagliafico, Blind, Veltman and Dest. This is going to be an interesting match and Ajax will be punished by mistakes in the back line so they need to keep things neat and tidy. Chelsea backline is porous as well and it may come down to which keeper has the best day.

[kezme44]

for those in the US, the game is being shown on TNT. freshly arrived from amsterdam and wearing my new jersey. we can win if we are careful in the back. watch out for willian

[Tom_]

Pretty evenly matched so far. Both teams making handling errors leading to chances.

[Orange14]

Amazing that no goals were scored. the offsides call against Promes was one of the tightest I've ever seen but I guess VAR got it right. Ajax are managing to make all the last ditch clearances. Other than the one shot on the disallowed goal, Ziyech has been quite poor. He just is not the kind of player that can beat players easily and is getting dispossessed too much. ETH has a hard decision to make about when to bring Neres on and for who.

Both Martinez and Alvarez have been poor passing the ball. One of these teams is going to score in the second half but I don't know which one.

[SPL]

Not much to add ,a tight game and one goal could settle it

[Tom_]

Was afraid that was coming.

One of those games that can go either way. One goal ruled out, one against the post and a really good penalty shout for handball in the first couple of minutes but it didn’t go our way. Not outclassed though.

[kezme44]

eth should have made some changes mid-second half. it was clear that there were tired legs on the field and chelsea were overrunning the midfield

[SPL]

Shame thought one goal would do and it was for Chelsea,they finished stronger .Tadic and Ziyech did little but Neres did nothing so why was Promes taken off!

Not convinced having 2 defensive MF though .Still all to play for in this group

[Manneken Pis]

Chelsea were better than I expected, we haven't got our mojo back (like the weekend).
I can't complain that they shaded it and won, as they were a bit better.
VAR was right.

We miss Frenkie and Mathijs in matches like this, and I think that's why we won't get quite so far in the CL this year.

[Orange14]

the defensive frailties that were on display all night long were finally punished with a late goal. Dest struggled with the forward on his side throughout and Pulicic toyed with him driving a hard cross that was slotted home by Batchyai who missed badly earlier. this was also a night when the departure of Frenkie de Jong was most apparent as neither Alvarez or Martinez have the ball skills to move the attack forward. Ajax looked sixes and sevens when trying to play the ball up the pitch from the back. Otherwise, it was a pretty even match with Ajax having some chances as well. Ajax will get a chance to even the score in two weeks and ETH should learn some key points.

Player Ratings:

Onana (6) - had one good punch but not much else as balls were constantly being scrambled away from the goal mouth
Tagliafico (6.5) - Willian was no factor at all in this match and Tagliafico was the best option for bring the ball forward
Blind (6.5) - decent enough against players that were taller and he subtly kept Abraham from bringing the ball down
Veltman (6.5) - did a good job
Dest (4.5) - had some good moments in the offensive zone but weak defending all night long
Martinez (4.5) - a lot of poor passes
Alvarez (4.5) - not a good match other than the header that clipped the post
van de Beek (6.5) - worked hard all match long
Promes (6.5) - slightest of off sides brought the goal back and tracked back well
Tadic (6) - not much of a chance to do much
Ziyech (5) - really not up to standard and dispossessed to often
Neres (5) - on for Promes but not a factor
Huntelaar (NR)
Not Frenkie de Jong (NR)

Feyenoord coming up on the weekend

[SPL]

Agree Matthijs and Frenkie are badly missed.Siem de Jong should no longer be in our squad ,there are kids who should be put on for a final 5 mins like tonight.Lang or Gravenberch should have been subs.

[Tom_]

I think that MF combo just turned out to be a shade too defensive - particularly because Ziyech had a bad game.

Chelsea did look to block up the midfield and stop us bringing the ball up the pitch. ten Hag will have to come up with a solution.

[kezme44]

Lille did us a massive favor by scoring in the 95th minute and equalizing against valencia. so still a 2 point gap to 3rd place. I don’t think we’ll win in London and I don’t think we’ll win in France either. I think it’ll come down to the Valencia game and results between the other teams. today’s loss was a massive fuc^ up imo. It left the group wide open with two difficult away fixtures for us

[Ayman]

There is a problem, we can see Dest is a huge talent but shouldn't start. Veltman should be right back, even though he did a good job at centre back. But Alvarez should partner Blind from now on. Now if Alvarez moves back. and the front 3 are Promes, Tadic, Ziyech, who fills the whole in midfield, with van de Beek and Martinez? Gravenberch is too young he isn't ready, neither are Ekkelenkamp, Eiting, Lang. Marin is taking time to adapt. If only Neres was in form, it would be a massive boost. Oh and Siem de Jong is such a liability.