09 DEC 2023; Ajax - Sparta; Match Day 15

[Orange14]

Home to Sparta this Saturday. The club is certainly in a better place now and they just need to continue improving.

[Orange14]

We have a chamber music concert that coincides with the match time so I'll be watching the replay this evening on ESPN. Ratings later tonight (hope they will be positive).

[SPL]

Martha stays at LB. Sutalo starts and Rensch RB .Gaaei who was replace at HT v NEC must be injured, he was not on the bench Weds at RKC and missing tonight . Sorry no loss he is no better than Sanchez or Reeger .

Sparta will not make it easy but we must just eke out another 3 points.

[SPL]

A hard fought win tonight ,a decent 1st half but 2nd half was pretty poor by Ajax.Brobbey superb, but we need a proper LB .Like last week v NEC, the Sparta goal thanks to nil marking by Martha. Apart from Hato I am not happy with any other defender.Sutalo ok but got court out a bit at times. Tahirovic still slowish and we badly need a quality experience DMF.

Dont see us beating AEK a draw wont be enough . If we beat Zwolle next week we could be 5th but we struggling at times against these lesser teams.

[Amol]

Played a blinder the first 30 minutes of the game. We should've been up by at least 3 or 4 goals by then.

We faded in the 2nd half.

JVS subbed players well to make sure we kept the lead and take the 3 points.

[Tom_]

Just did the necessary.

They probably could’ve scored a couple more in the first half, especially because the way they give up chances a 2 goal lead is never safe, but Sparta didn’t really come close to equalising.

[Orange14]

The first 20 minutes of the match were probably the best Ajax have played this season. Lots of quick one touch passing and a great assist by Taylor with the back heel and Brobbey turned the defender and scored with his off foot. The rest of the first half was decent with Brobbey drawing a penalty that was converted by Bergwijn. The usual defensive frailties came to the fore in the second half. Martha was at double fault on the Sparta goal. He doesn't get back fast enough and the winger on his side has acres of space to receive the ball. There are two men to his one and if he gets help he has to track the other man. Winger makes a nice pass and Hato comes out to challenge but Martha looks like he's expecting help when there is none. Open pass to the cutting winger and a real nice shot to make it 2-1 and nail biting time. Ajax do enough to lock in the three points but they did have some good chances to put a couple more goals on the board. AEK up on Thursday with a Europa Conference League spot in play. Kudos to Van't Schip for molding this team into something pretty decent.

Player Ratings:

Ramaj (7) - made a couple of good saves in the first half and his ball distribution was good
Rensch (7) - pretty good match from the RB with some very good runs into the Sparta box, a bit unlucky not to have scored
Sutalo (6.5) - OK match with a couple of minor mistakes
Hato (7) - has yet to miss a minute of game time this season
Martha (4.5) -other than the awful performance on the Sparta goal, an above average match
Tahirovic (6.5) - a couple of foolish give aways but otherwise not a bad effort
Taylor (7) - maybe he silences some of the haters with this game, great assist solid MF play with good passing on the night
Hlynsson (6.5) - could not believe he did not score in the first half when his effort was blocked; I could not believe it either
Berghuis (7) - good game on the wing and later as #10
Brobbey (7.5) - really fine goal and was threatening all game long
Berwijn (6.5) - ended up with the match winner from a spot kick
Akbom (5.5) - on for Brobbey with about 25 minutes to go, had one good take down of a pass and was in on goal but the shot was tame
Banel (5) - surpising substitute; demonstrated some fancy footwork that did not fool anybody
Sosa (NR) - on for the final 15 minutes
Forbs (NR) - same as Sosa

[SPL]

Ajax should have got another 2 goals in that 1st half and they did play some nice football but once they gave away a goal it was nail biting for the rest of the 2nd half. Sparta had no clear chances but I half expected another late goal by a silly mistake.Almere and OM both stupid penalties and NEC letting their guy somehow squeeze the ball in.

We are lucky we have had a run of lesser teams and, apart from Tahirovic costing us 2 points v Almere, we have got max points but not all performances have been great and it has been a case of getting over the line like last night.

Still think getting 3rd place will be difficult on current form and with this squad. What concerns me is we are only using 3 of last summers 12 new comers regularly.Ramaj due to Rulli's injury,Sutalo and Tahirovic and he because no other DM is fit.

We cannot sell many of them as most played for 2 teams this season but we cannot challenge for 3rd or 4th place with Martha at LB and playing Banel. These 2 yesterday are in the pecking order above Sosa and Mikautadze!

Lets try and beat AEK and Zwolle and see what the club intends to do on the January market.

[SPL]

Go Ahead Eagles lost to Utrecht so now we are 5th.Clearly Ajax are not going to be content with 5th but in 6 games plus finishing RKC we have risen 13 places. We are at least heading in the right direction.

[Tom_]

Good backs seem hard to buy. I’m trying to think of any successful transfers Ajax have made for left or right back and my list starts and ends with Nico…