Ajaxtalk

Ajax take on Heracles on Sunday and let's hope for a bit of revenge from the dispiriting 0-0 draw last fall in the away match. Edson Alvarez was subbed off of Mexico's WC qualifier early in the week with a knee injury but I have not seen any report on the severity of the injury. Antony, Tagliafico and Martinez return from successful WC qualifiers. Antony scored against Paraguay after coming on as a sub. Martinez started both matches as a CD for Argentina who won both of their games. Taglifico started one game but was suspended for yesterday's game because of YC accumulation. Haller should be back as Ivory Coast was eliminated from the African Cup of Nations. Andre Onana's Cameroun are in the semi-final game to be played tomorrow and it's not likely he will be available on Sunday.

Haller is back in place of Brobbey and Kudus back in the squad.Antony is back and fit.Bad news Gravenberch is ill and out plus Martinez has a knock and Alvarez injured a knee with Mexico. Just as well NIco wasn't sold as he can be LB and Blind can replace either the above at DMF or LCD.

az come back from a goal down to beat psv in eindoven 2-1. Schmidt started mvogo for first time since august who made a massive error to give az the lead. psv looked poor all game long especially in the back

I would be surprised if Tagliafico starts with Blind moving in the middle. I would imagine Schuurs would come in with Blind at left back. In midfield, I would like to see Regeer and Taylor given a chance, but he will likely play Klaassen! The up side, we may see Kudus start? We shall see.

Martinez and Alvarez fit to start just Gravenberch missing Klaassen starts.Haller and Antony back ok.

Ajax should have had 2-3 more goals. Hope they crank things up in the 2nd half.

Davy with the all important goal but agree we should have had another 2 or 3.

Glorious goal by Haller 2-0 should be it

Oh wow Taylor fantastic

Taylor with the 3rd. This should give us a 5 point lead over psv

Nice to see someone actually take a shot when the opportunity is there instead of the usual attempt to pass it into the net - and failing. Nice give and go down the sideline and a very nice finish. Good for Taylor.

A very easy win ,shame Tadic missed the pen for 4-0 .I thought he should have given Danilo the chance. Overall we did not have our finishing back to normal as this game should have finished 7 or 8-0 ,but plenty of so called easy games coming up where we can improve our goals scoring.

Alvarez was doubtful for the game but is such a strong lad just played 90 mins and did his usual good job.Antony and Martinez both solid games having been away in S America.

A very good weekend 5 points clear of PSV and lets face it had we beaten Go Ahead and Heracles ,as we should have done, and not 0-0 we would be 9 clear and the title over.Feyenoord for 2nd place as PSV are just poor.

An easy win over an outmatched Heracles that should have been worse for the visitors. Some great goal keeping and poor finishing kept the scoreline at 3-0 for Ajax. No real outstanding performance on the day but a bunch of decent ones. Really nice goal from Kenneth Taylor and maybe transferring out Gravenberch might not be such a loss.

Player Ratings:

Pasveer (6) - pretty much a spectator all game long
Blind (7) - didn't have much defending to do which was good and spent a lot of time in the offensive half
Martinez (7) - solid until coming off late in the match
Timber (7) - same as Martinez in terms of play
Mazraoui (7) - nice game and had one great shot that was well saved; he is a player who will be missed
Alvarez (6.5) - surprise starter and only a silly early YC spoiled his day; he had a late game rocket of a shot that clanged of the cross bar
Klaassen (7.5) - got the match winner and made some very good defensive interventions
Berghuis (6.5) - above average but not much of a factor
Tadic (6.5) - missed a PK which almost never happens
Haller (7) - nice goal to give Ajax breathing room
Antony (6.5) - another player who picked up a silly YC
Taylor (6.5) - solid performance as a sub
Schuurs (6) - played well coming on for Martinez
Danilo (6) - drew a late penalty
Tagliafico (NR) - on late
Rensch (NR) - on late

Cup tie midweek against Vitesse and then home again against Twente next Sunday.