17 MAR 2019; AZ - Ajax; Match Day 27

[Orange14]

No room for slip ups again this weekend. Ajax travel to Alkmaar to take on an AZ team that is capable of winning at home. Currently fourth in the table, just three points behind Feyenoord, AZ have some good attacking players and a decent enough MF. PSV are on the road in Venlo against VVV in the first match on Sunday.

[kezme44]

i'm a bit worried about this one. de jong, ziyech and mazraoui are all questionable and we didn't play great on wednesday. schedule definitely catching up with us slowly.

[SPL]

Everyone fit Ziyech and Frenkie are back so Tadic striker Dolberg sub .

[Cruijff]

Good game for Tadic to be striker I think.
And Dolberg / Huntelaar will also get minutes for sure.

Rainy and windy weekend so far in Noord-Holland. Now still windy but also sunshine and I'll be there in the AFAS Stadium in Alkmaar

[Ayman]

Standard procedure. PSV score late 0-1

[Orange14]

Standard procedure. PSV score late 0-1

Quite right, I posted on the thread 'Other Eredivisie Teams' about this one. Lozano with magic saves the day yet again.

[SPL]

Yes 86th minute winner.On Ajax showtime all the posters having a moan the ref blew 10 secs early,sorry but that happens many times in our games. PSV grind out wins regularly with late goals ,we did the same v PEC Zwolle.We do this very rarely but they seem to do it every other game.

We should stop moaning about their luck and curse we did not beat Heracles and Heerenveen at home and lost with a pitiful performance at Almelo.If we lose the title it will be those 3 games we will need to blame not lucky PSV.

Lets just win today

[rjf1]

Standard procedure. PSV score late 0-1

That's because, unlike Ajax, when it gets down to the end of a game, they bear down and throw everything into getting the necessary goal. You see it in game after game. I wish Ajax had that kind of grit and determination -- we might get back to winning a championship if we did. Tonight's game will go a long way to determining if we are going to do that.

[Ayman]

Shit! Ziyech is injured. Replaced by Dolberg

[Orange14]

wind is playing havoc with Ajax passing game. Maybe the change of sides in the 2nd half will improve things. Great clearance by Tagliafico off the line. AZ have had the better of the play.

[rjf1]

Some very rough moments in the half -- we were lucky to come away without being scored on. That being said, it is extremely difficult to play into the teeth of the kind of wind blowing in the stadium. My belief (and hope) is that with the wind at our backs we will have a lot more scoring opportunities in the second half.

[SPL]

Not a great half for us

[SPL]

goal to Az its getting worse.We cannot maintain winning just using 12 basic players plus KJH

[rjf1]

Painful to watch this team stumble and fumble their way across the pitch.

[Manneken Pis]

Painful to watch this team stumble and fumble their way across the pitch.

They seem to do a lot worse when there's no international scouts in the crowd......

[SPL]

sorry but we deserved nothing and yes the title is nearly over. You will come back to me and say we will beat PSV bring it back to 2 points but in the remaining 7 games we will drop more points than they do.

We have far too many games to play from 31 March to 27 April 9 games in 28 days and I keep saying we use only 12 starters. For the 2nd game running Ziyech is missing and nothing created. If he and de Ligt missed 3 or 4 games we dead.

I am being realistic, glory in CL but we will finish 2nd and 6 or 7 of this team will leave winning only the Cup v Willem

[Orange14]

A tough match on a windswept pitch and poor defending on one of the two corners won by AZ decided the match. The ball could not be cleared and it fell to Guus Til who slotted the ball home for the only goal of the game. All the Ajax shots on frame were well saved. Some of the Ajax players are looking very tired these days and the loss of Ziyech early in the first half didn't help things much. Squad rotation is important for teams playing as full a schedule as Ajax are but ten Hag just doesn't seem to believe in it unless a player is clearly hurt. I don't know how much longer Tadic can keep his batteries humming. Schöne is too slow and was beaten several times. Five points down now with six to play may be a mountain too high to climb.

Player Ratings:

Onana (6.5) - made some good saves but fumbled a couple of balls which may have been a result of the wind
Tagliafico (6.5) - great clearance off the line in the first half to save a sure goal
Blind (6) - some indecision on his ball handling
de Ligt (6.5) - had a screamer that Bizot parried aside
Mazraoui (6) - decent enough
Schöne (4) - really not good enough on the day
de Jong (5.5) - he has to step up and show why he is worth the money Barca paid; today was not it
van de Beek (6) - had some good touches but could not help unlock things
Neres (4) - surprisingly quite poor
Tadic (4.5) - really looked tired both in the middle and on the wing
Ziyech (5) - had to come off after 20 minutes
Dolberg (4) - another one who has to step up and did not
Lang (6) - has great speed but is he good enough with the ball
Huntelaar (5.5) - had a good header after coming on that was well saved

Our CL opponent in the next round, Juventus, came out very flat today and without CR7 in the squad lost 2-0 to Genoa

[Orange14]

Should have added that I really like Calvin Stengs. He might make a good pick up for next season with the loss of other attacking players.

[SPL]

Stengs the only one who did look good enough for us.

[Tom_]

Yuck. Haven’t seen us look so incompetent on attack for a while. Lucky it was only 1–0 IMO.

[souras84]

IMO it wouldn't make a difference if we equalized. We needed 3 points. Lose or Draw won't matter. We still need to beat PSV and hope they Lose or Draw one more game. We will be on top if we have the same points. Losing might end up teaching us something...

[kezme44]

can't say i didn't see this one coming. we saw a preview against zwolle. tired players all over the field. i know labyad has been pretty useless most of the season, but he did have a decent game against zwolle and would have been more useful as a sub than dolberg. huntelaar created more in the 15 minutes he was on the field that dolberg all game long. i still think we can win the title, but it's a must win for all the remaining games.