11 JAN 2026: Telstar - Ajax; Match Day 18

[Orange14]

2nd half of the league seasons starts, Ajax need a win to start the wheels rolling.

[SPL]

Match seems on but Weghorst ,Berghuis still injured and Tomiyasu not yet fit enough although doing well in training. Weghorst will be the 1st back but probably not before end of the month.

[SPL]

Same line up that started NEC. Wijndal unfit so Rosa LB but I dont like Klaassen 10 and Gloukh RW. Gloukh is a no 10 and Bounida should have started.

No back up full back on the bench and only 11 subs so why not Jetten or Alders! Hope for a win.

[SPL]

Feyenoord drop 2 points a late goal by on loan Van Axel Dongen denied them the win .

[Tom_]

Enjoyed the FdB pass from Baas on the second goal!

[SPL]

Well we held on , a decent 1st half with 2 early goals but not a great 2nd half until the 3rd goal but after that shocking defending no MF once Steur and Reeger went off. Klaassen did nothing and F-Jim and Mokio were simply poor.Against 10 men for so long we simply were 2nd best.

The squad overall is of poor quality and I still find it crazy we signed Itakura when we had Sutalo. Still need 2 quality fullbacks but we got 3 points .

[Orange14]

On a cold and wind swept pitch, Ajax eked out a 2-3 win. It should not have been close but with a three goal lead and a man up, Ajax was lackadaisical with the ball and did not manage the match well at all. Grim's management was lacking as he was slow to sub off Regeer who was lucky only to suffer a couple of contusions on his calf after a dangerous challenge. It was not a malicious play by Hatenboer but after looking at the VAR the Red Card was deserved (though in England it would never have been reviewed). Ajax are still too slow in creating passing opportunities which in match conditions such as this are needed. I guess narrowing the gap between third and second place is a decent outcome but there are still issues with this team.

Player Ratings:

Jaros (6) - did a lot of worthless kicking when the wind cause issues on any kind of long ball
Gaaei (5) - hope he is OK after being hip checked to the ground late in the match, most all the play went down the left side before the RC so he had little to do
Itakura (6.5) - thought he was good but looked to be out of position on the first goal
Baas (6.5) - don't know what he was thinking on the own goal but otherwise was good and his pass to Godts was sublime and he scored off a corner
Rosa (6.5) - good game overall
Regeer (5.5) - really just average and sorry to see him get hurt
Steur (6) - good on the ball and should be the starter going forward
Klaassen (6) - had a couple of good passes but should not be playing a full 90 minutes
Oscar (6) - still don't know how he scored on a tame shot and he still gives up the ball more than I care to see
Dolberg (5.5) - had one shot but was really not a factor on all the long balls
Godts (6.5) - his goal was well taken and he seems to be passing the ball a little more, maybe he was the best player in an average match
Bounida (5.5) - decent enough coming in for Oscar
Fitz-Jim (5.5) - should have come on at the half when ball handling abilities were necessary in this kind of match
Konadu (NR) - on for the final 20 and had maybe one or two touches
Mokio (NR) - on along with Konadu with similar results
Edvardssen (NR) - no sub FBs on the bench so he had to fill in when Gaaei went off

A trip to Alkmaar for a cup tie this week. Not sure that Ajax will be favored in this one.

[Tom_]

Telstar basically fouled their way back into the match but Ajax needs an answer for it. It wouldn’t have mattered if we had finished some of the easy chances - Godts missed two or three and Bounida missed one at the end.

[Amol]

Had a squash game at the same time as the Ajax match today. Turned on for a few minutes around the 20th minute and saw that we were up 2-0. Came back and saw the last few minutes and had no idea how we were in such dire straits defending a 3-2 against 10 men.

Glad we got the 3 points and Feyenoord dropped 2. We march towards the #2 spot albeit a bit weakly.

[Tom_]

“Any away win is a great result”. I’ll keep saying it until I believe it myself :D