Ajaxtalk

Ajax take on Union Berlin in the Europa League play in round. Winner of the two leg tie advances and loser is out. Union Berlin is play very good football and stands second in the Bundesliga, one point behind Bayern. This should be a stern test for Ajax. Though I do watch occasional Bundesliiga matches, I've not seen Union play this season. Ajax have never played this team. All six of Union Berlin's matches have had the identical 1-0 score with the German club winning four and losing two.

I dont see us getting through this round,we are only just beating moderate Dutch sides like RKC and Excelsior but football is a funny game.

Quite excited about this game. Such a change in my demeanor compared to the doom and gloom from our CL campaign.

Bergwijn back and Bassey starts,Klaassen sub

HT - 65% possession and 0 attempts so far. Missed most of the half, but it's been a scrappy game from what I saw.

Sadly I cannot get a stream and the sites I try all have the same links which dont connect. On one site I got a malware threat blocked and the other site porn . I get a proper stream for league games and that will have to be it, but will now give up cup games.I will ask my son what he does as he has to use streams for some Arsenal games.

Brobbey on for Wijndal.

The nil all tie was flattering to Ajax who were outplayed for maybe 80 of the 90 minutes spending much of the time in their own half of the field. VAR intervened seeing a the merest of hand balls on a what would have been the match winner for Union. Kudus was the only offensive player who created much at all. Everyone else was mediocre with a lot of lazy passing. Heitinga has a week to figure out how to break down the Union defense and I wish him well but don't think he has the MF players who can make a difference. Football is a strange game, and all it takes is a single goal to win a match.

Player Ratings:

Rulli (7.5) - made some very nice saves to keep a clean sheet
Rensch (4.5) - had some very lazy passes but did have some decent play as well but not enough
Timber (6) - good on the ball as expected
Bassey (6) - defended well
Wijndal (4) - mediocre and rightfully subbed off
Alvarez (6) - defended well but poses no passing threat in the MF which is needed against this type of team
Taylor (5.5) - played deep to provide a passing outlet on the left as Wijndal pushed up the field; the tactic did not work
Berghuis (5.5) - slightly above average is not good enough in a game like this
Kudus (7) - really strong with the ball all evening but got little help
Tadic (5.5) - his free kicks were next to useless, wait, they were useless
Bergwijn (4.5) - mediocre
Brobbey (5.5) - drew some fouls and had one chance where he was ahead of his defender but did not control the ball well
Klaassen (5) - worked hard which is average for him

Ajax host Sparta on the weekend and then travel to Berlin for the 2nd match of the tie. Maybe the football gods will favor Ajax.

In terms of silver lining, we can never be worse than today at taking shots on goal. We had zero. Lool.

Couldn't get a stream so followed on Showtime and clearly this was an awful game to watch.This and the recent 2 games v Twente are the 3 I missed through no streams and all 3 were dreadful so I have not missed much but still want to watch so frustrating.

Of the ratings by Orange the 2 that really are poor are Bergwijn and Wijndal. After a decent 5 or 6 games Bergwijn has produced nothing and really looks a waste of 30m. Wijndal was a crazy signing as we had Blind and Baas or Salah-Eddine could have been back up.I daresay Hato would not be any worse.Most fans wanted Blind out but I wish he was still here.

Bassey seems to have had a decent game and I thought he was ok last Sunday.

This Ajax team has real difficulties in getting shots on goal against teams that pack it in. Union hardly pressed at all and would drop all 10 players back in a 5-3-2 defensive posture. This should not have surprised Ajax and I think Heitinga tried to solve it by dropping Taylor back on the left side. Unfortunately, when he would get the ball he seldom could do anything except pass it back to Bassey who would then rotate it on to Timber. We'll see if they can come up with a different plan next week.

Ocampos with a nice goal and even nicer assist as Sevilla are hammering PSV 3-0.

Embarrassing to get zero shots on target, at home, against a team that was quite well organised but otherwise not that good.

Internet reports and fans on Showtime all negative about our performance but Union are 2nd in the German League and only EPL is a stronger league. A draw against them is good especially as we have a very average squad of players.Only Kudus and Timber are top quality potential.

SPL schreef: ↑

vr feb 17, 2023 2:53 pm

Internet reports and fans on Showtime all negative about our performance but Union are 2nd in the German League and only EPL is a stronger league. A draw against them is good especially as we have a very average squad of players.Only Kudus and Timber are top quality potential.

Only Bayern have a better defensive record than Union. Union are rock solid on defense and difficult to break down.