Ajaxtalk

Will this be a repeat of 2019, when Ajax dropped the home match 1-2 against Madrid and came back at the Bernabeu with a thrilling 1-4 trouncing of the Spaniards? Of course the current team does not rise to the abilities of the 2019 squad but one always has hope with Ajax. EtH said that Schuurs, Steks, and Brobbey were held out of yesterday's game as a precaution and expects both Steks and Brobbey to be available on Thursday. Schuurs has a knee issue of unknown severity. Roma won their league match yesterday by an identical 1-0 score and will have a couple of players back in the squad.

If anything, it will be like the Schalke game rather than the Real Madrid game. Good to have Stekelenburg back and I hope Brobbey is 100% match fit, he has looked a little off recently.

Steks,Schuurs and Brobbey fit which is good news.

More nervous for today's game than I was last week. Lets hope the team comes out to play and brings their shooting boots.

It's unfortunate that Kleiber is starting he is only Eredivisie level like Laybad, but both are Ten Hag's pets so expect substitutions at half time. Kudus and Brobbey are part of plan B

Starting 11 today -
Stekelenburg; Klaiber, J. Timber, Martínez, Tagliafico; Álvarez, Gravenberch, Klaassen; Antony, Tadic, Neres

Subs -
Scherpen, Kotarski, Schuurs, Idrissi, Ekkelenkamp, Kudus, Traoré, Brobbey, Q. Timber & Kasanwirjo

Pros -
Glad to see Steks back today.

Cons -
Neres on the LW doesn't work and has never worked.
Kudus is being wasted away

J Timber is our best Cd so i guess no choice at RB other than Klaiber.Gut feeling we will draw or lose by the odd goal.At least Steks is back.

Roma closing down the spaces. We’ve had a few half chances but going to be tough

Ajax not looking like getting a shot off, much less scoring. Roma are very comfortable sitting in deep and breaking the game up with fouls or dives when they need to.

just a lot of half chances Don't see Ajax scoring two and it's more likely to end 0-0

Looking at the score 2-1 this of course is what we should have won by last week but I dont see us scoring 2 goals. Tadic is not a striker , Neres and Antony together does not work and in a game like this what on earth do we need Alvarez as a 5th defender , we need a creative MF and Kudus should be playing.These were my moans before play started and still stand. Kudus and Brobbey must come on otherwise thats it .

here we go!!!!

goal waved off for the 0-2 but now we look like scoring

Pellegrini komediant.

All the subs didn’t really change anything. No chances except the one Brobbey scored. I don’t think we can complain over two legs - out professionalled by the Italians as usual.

should have started with brobbey. not sure why traore and idrissi came on. oh well...

Both game turned with Tadic, the missed penalty and today the disallowed goal. Problem was after those 2 non goals in both games we never looked like scoring. Again they had luck with Timber falling over before their goal.

I keep going on about our lack of subs and today Brobbey got a goal but like Haller barely touched the ball again.Idrissi may have had a couple of touches and I am not sure Traore's name was not mentioned.Kudus did little.

Lets win the cup on Sunday and then beat Utrecht next week when we will then only really need a point for the title.

They played their hearts out but the two conceded goals in Amsterdam were just too far to overcome. Roma are a very poor team it must be said, but the did just enough to clog up the midfield so Ajax could not set up any real good chances on goal. Brobbey did well on his chance and had another good shot that didn't matter because VAR rightly called the rebound goal by Tadic back because of a foul by Tagliafico. Ajax were caught out on the Dzeko goal. I missed who turned the ball over in the Ajax half and Timber unfortunately slipped so the cross could be made. Gravenberch got a foot on it but it fell to the Roma striker. Ajax always had to score two on the night and could only manage one. Don't know how many are going to feel like playing in the Dutch Cup on Sunday. Defensively Ajax played well both pressing and covering. I have to give MOTM honors to Martinez who had an amazing game both defending and passing. Schuurs also played well in the hour he was on the pitch.

Player Ratings:

Stekelenburg (6) - had virtually nothing to do all night as Ajax had so much posession
Tagliafico (6.5) - decent enough and it was his foul that called back the 2nd goal
Martinez (8) - splendid display of defense and passing
Timber (6.5) - started inside and had to move outside when Klaiber went off and was above average
Klaiber (5) - only on for about 15 minutes
Alvarez (7) - strong match but was sacrificed for more attacking power in the 2nd half
Gravenberch (6) - weakest performance of the starting players
Klaassen (6) - worked hard but didn't create much
Neres (6) - had a lot of the ball but didn't do much with it
Tadic (7) - lots of good touches and was regularly beating his defender in the 2nd half but no magic like there was in 2019
Antony (6) - didn't think he was too bad and a little surprised that he came off rather than Neres
Schuurs (7) - solid defending coming in as a sub and then taken off for an attacker late
Brobbey (6.5) - well taken goal and a rocket shot on the called back goal
Kudus (5) - just ordinary play when something else was called for
Idrissi (NR) - on late and maybe had one or two touches
Traore (NR) - on with Idrissi and don't think he even had a touch

A chance for redemption on Sunday against Vitesse in Rotterdam. Barring a massive collapse, Ajax should win the Eredivisie this season.

Sorry Brobbey did of course get in the shot before Tadic disallowed goal,I said he barely touched the ball again after his goal.Martinez superb again,our best player.

Here is the goal that VAR cancelled out:


Biggest call of the night - disallowed goal by Taylor [VAR: Attwell] in Rome.
https://streamable.com/xvzg2j

Thoughts the day after:

- The scenario was always going to be difficult. Beforehand I thought we'd need 3 goals as a counter goal (however lucky!) was always on the cards. Never looked like we'd score 3 goals.
- We really missed a midfielder/winger driving the attack forward or a decisive forward passer (Blind for the latter). Instead we circulated without results. Neres and Antony didn't test the defenders (confidence or quality?).
- The subs after Brobbey were all unimpressive. We need more talent on the bench, or more rotation so that the subs are more match ready.
- We went as flat after the disallowed second goal as last week after the missed penalty. We need more leaders on the pitch and/or a better mentality in those moments.
- Our disallowed goal was correctly disallowed, but Tadic was also fouled by the corner flag before the (lucky) counter they scored from.
- Their goal on the counter was was lucky (have I mentioned that?) and the slip was unfortunate but they heavily outnumbered us in our penalty area to a degree that made luck more likely. Bad match discipline.
- We don't (and have never had) a plan B for the closing 15 minutes. We started running around like headless chickens. If you don't have a plan B stick to plan A. But you should have a plan B.
- When we get a corner we should simply give the ball to their goalie and save time.
- Should still have beaten this very mediocre team easily.

man, we should have tried harder against roma, because looks like both man United and arsenal will be excluded from the semifinals, so we could have played Villarreal in the final