23 SEP 2018; PSV - Ajax; Match Day 6

[Orange14]

Battle of the top of the table teams in Eindhoven this Sunday. Ajax come in fresh off a thumping of AEK while PSV were undone by Messi magic at the Nou Camp. Dolberg played last night but who knows how fit he is and there is no word yet about Huntelaar's status. ten Hag must have some confidence in Dolberg's fitness as he left Sierhuis off the team sheet for the match. I also have not seen any update on de Ligt's knee injury. He seemed to be in good spirits from the television clips during the match last night.

There is still not much rest for Ajax as there is a cup match against HVV Te Werve mid-week, away to Fortuna Sittard and then the first big test of the European season with a trip to Munich to take on Bayern.

[Amol]

I would hope/expect Ten Haag to rotate players after the PSV game. Rest 4/5 players in the midweek game and then the other 4/5 in the game against Fortuna.

[Orange14]

We will probably have to wait until game time to see about the status of de Ligt (slight knee sprain), Huntelaar (hamstring) and Neres (foot). All three have been reported fit for duty but whether ten Hag starts one or more of them will likely be a game time decision.

[Amol]

Lineups for today -
Onana, Mazraoui, Frenkie, Blind, Tagliafico, Schöne, Eiting, Neres, Ziyech, Huntelaar and Tadic

Bench -
Lamprou, Wöber, Kristensen, Van de Beek, Labyad, Dolberg, Schuurs, De Wit and Gravenberch

Looks like De Ligt will be in the stands today.

[Ayman]

Lineups for today -
Onana, Mazraoui, Frenkie, Blind, Tagliafico, Schöne, Eiting, Neres, Ziyech, Huntelaar and Tadic

Bench -
Lamprou, Wöber, Kristensen, Van de Beek, Labyad, Dolberg, Schuurs, De Wit and Gravenberch

Looks like De Ligt will be in the stands today.

Very foolish. Why Eiting, hardly any experience. He isn't ready for a game of this magnitude. van de Beek on the other hand is. As for the centre backs, I hope Schuurs gets a chance, he isn't bad, and him coming on as a sub would be useful for all sides.

[Orange14]

Very foolish. Why Eiting, hardly any experience. He isn't ready for a game of this magnitude. van de Beek on the other hand is. As for the centre backs, I hope Schuurs gets a chance, he isn't bad, and him coming on as a sub would be useful for all sides.

this was the same line up against AEK the other night and they did quite well.

[rjf1]

Game over.

[SPL]

Shambolic defending.Frenkie may be valued at 80m but he is no defender

[rjf1]

Absolutely no justification for playing him as a defender -- in the first place he is no defender; in the second place it is a waste of his talent.

[Orange14]

Really miss de Ligt but it's a weird half in that Ajax except for a couple of mistakes are playing OK. Match is probably over now.

[Amol]

Wow. Down 3-0 in the 36th minute. Truly missing De Ligt here.

We need to get one back before HT, if we want to have any chance in this game. I agree that we are not playing terrible, but have been punished 3 times for 3 errors.

[Orange14]

Club had a couple of half chances on goal but could not make anything of it. For all of you bad mouthing de Jong, please tell me what options ten Hag has in the absence of de Ligt (other than wishing the club had kept Viergever which of course they should have done). Is Schuurs ready for first team football? Wöber can play in the middle but like Blind is left footed. they cannot play a pure back three with only Blind in the middle. I don't excuse the poor play by de Jong on the 2nd goal but it was ten Hag's call and I don't think he had much of another choice.

[SPL]

Badly missing de Ligt. Frenkie is a superb MF talent but should never be used in defence. I joked to my mates that only Ajax can replace a CD with an attacking MF whose idea of clearing the ball is to dribble out the area.

[Amol]

Club had a couple of half chances on goal but could not make anything of it. For all of you bad mouthing de Jong, please tell me what options ten Hag has in the absence of de Ligt (other than wishing the club had kept Viergever which of course they should have done). Is Schuurs ready for first team football? Wöber can play in the middle but like Blind is left footed. they cannot play a pure back three with only Blind in the middle. I don't excuse the poor play by de Jong on the 2nd goal but it was ten Hag's call and I don't think he had much of another choice.

Absolutely agree. This is why we need to get someone besides De Ligt some experience against minnows - which also gets De Ligt some rest. I don't think Schuurs is ready based on pre-season, but I also don't know who else can be played there.

[SPL]

Not getting another right sided defender as cover has finally backfired on us.Schuurs is not ready and as you say Wober is left footed but as our only Cd cover should still play.

[Orange14]

Interesting halftime stats; Ajax with 67% possession and high ratio of completed passes. Unfortunately, they are not getting the ball deep enough. Other thing to look for is that Mazraoui has lots of space on the right side of the field but Ajax are not seeing him, preferring to go down the left.

[Amol]

Dolberg and Donny on for Huntelaar and Schone.

[Ayman]

Everyone is saying that Schuurs isn't ready? Do you have an alternative option? No! Give Schuurs a chance! What do we have to lose! Also take Eiting off and replace him with Donny!

[SPL]

Nothing to add since Ht ,a very poor performance.Already PSV are in the grove for that title.Hope de Ligt gets fit soon as without him the defence is woeful.

[Orange14]

The lone good take from this game is that Ajax did not fold up the tend and go home after a problematic first half. The game was not as bad as the scoreline reflected; Ajax had 66% possession and a boat load of shots (most from distance that didn't threaten Zoet's goal) and some decent passing. Unfortunately, the final pass/shot was just not there. We did see the debut of 16 year old Ryan Gravenberch as a late substitute. So the Helmond Cup is also conceded with this match and Ajax will need to regroup with a rather easy cup tie midweek.

Erik ten Hag had to deal with de Ligt's loss for a second game and this time the roll of the de Jong dice was found wanting. It's difficult to say whether he had any other serious option given that de Jong had filled in on the back line during CL qualifying and again this week against AEK. Schuurs was the only other option to play on the right side and we really don't know if he would have been up to the task. The offensive tactics ten Hag put into place were decent enough execution was missing. ten Hag is still winless against PSV both at Utrecht and Ajax.

Player Ratings:

Onana (6) - made a couple of good saves and had some deft kicks away as well; he was screened pretty well on the first goal and had no chance on the second two
Tagliafico (5) - had a tough time this time around
Blind (6) - defended well and passing out of the back was very good
de Jong (4) - go to bed and forget about this one; don't watch the game film either
Mazraoui (6) - very nice match today and was really wide open during the match but nobody saw him
Schöne (5) - just average in the half he played
Eiting (5) - worked hard but his passing was a shade on the sloppy side
Ziyech (4) - really demand more of him in a game like this one; passing, dribbing, and shooting were all poor
Neres (5) - never tried to force things and when he needed to yield the ball he did
Huntelaar (5) - average and never in the game leaving at the half
Tadic (4.5) - first poor match of the season for him
van de Beek (5) - never a factor coming on at the half
Dolberg (5) - no upgrade over Huntelaar
Gravenberch (NR) - on the final eight minutes and had just a touch or two

Five points out of first now and it's not clear that other than Ajax anyone else in the Eredivisie has the same quality of players as PSV. Too bad they got the worst possible Champions League draw.

[SPL]

Gravenberch our youngest ever player to make a debut in the league.

[Orange14]

Gravenberch our youngest ever player to make a debut in the league.

Maybe Unuvar gets a call up and then becomes the youngest!!

[rjf1]

Another year and the same old story -- we'll be chasing PSV's tail lights all season -- we'll come agonizingly close once or twice over the course of it, but in the end we won't quite make it, once again.

And playing Frenkie as a defender cannot go on. Given the circumstances, you have to play Wober -- he being left footed notwithstanding -- he knows how to read the incoming attacks from a defender's standpoint, as well as proper positioning and distance control. A left footed defender is worth 10x what a right footed midfielder playing defender is. Plus, it's nothing short of criminal to waste Frenkie's talent as a midfielder that way.

[SPL]

Well put rjf. Wober is a defender never mind left footed. At 3-0 down we needed Frenkie in MF after all Real Madrid want to pay 80m for his MF skills.

[Orange14]

I just watched the "highlights" of the match on ESPN (they carry the game on their streaming platform). Each of the three goals were weird in their own way. On the first one, Onana made a very nice kick save but it went right to the middle of the field where Peireiro picked it up. He moved past Eiting who really should have tried to tackle the ball away rather than put a single foot out hoping for divine intervention. Once clear of that "challenge" he shot it like a croquet shot right between the wickets (legs) of Schöne and Tagliafico and past a screened Onana. The second goal was just a poor defensive play by de Jong as we all know and it didn't require any great skill by Luuk to put it away, but it all started with a very poor kick out of goal by Onana. The third goal was again problematic for de Jong as Bergwijn was in on him because Mazraoui was lost in space to far upfield. Again, Onana made a good save but it went straight back to Bergwijn who quickly slotted it over to Lozano who held up his run letting Tagliafico go way past him.

Lots of blame to go around and clearly the lack of de Ligt was a huge problem for Ajax.