01 FEB 2026; Excelsior - Ajax; Match Day 21

[Orange14]

Another match Ajax "should" be favored!!

[SPL]

Need 3points ,never mind Feyenoord NEC currently winning at AZ and have a game in hand

[SPL]

Bounida and Rosa back lets start the new era of Cruijff with 3 points

[SPL]

Rosa unfit and just dropped out Mokio LB.Wijndal Gloukh ill

[Tom_]

Don’t worry, Berghuis is back!

[SPL]

A good 1st half and 2 well taken goals. We are playing decent footy but then again we have many from our youth playing.Get that 3rd goal quick

[Tom_]

Steur and Bounida both handle the ball quickly, which is nice to see. Excelsior look quite poor though.

[Tom_]

Really awful game management there. Mokio struggled all game at LB and should’ve been subbed way earlier.

[SPL]

Dreadful and disgusted with Ajax in teh 2nd half. Godts and Bounida were good , Jaros had to do little ,Klaassen worked hard and crazy to say but wasnt the worst MF .We are not fit enough to play 90 mins against weak sides and mentally cannot survive with 2 goal leads . At this moment I dont see us finishing 2nd and with NEC playing well we will be lucky to make 4th.

Hopefully we will see Tomiyasu and Zinchenko at full back. Mokio left their scorer free for the 1st but Gaaei let the cross go in and was nowhere for the 2nd .

Steur struggled in the 2nd half and Reeger invisible . A no 6 should have come in the summer and we are still looking but I fear its too late

[SPL]

Should add Grim is clueless subs Bounida who creates everything and Dolberg who works hard . Weghorst barely touched the ball and Edvardsen zero threat.

[Tom_]

Steur was clearly exhausted and couldn’t catch the Excelsior winger on their second. I guess Grim didn’t have a lot of options and thought Johnson was too much of a risk at 2–1, but in hindsight Steur needed to come off earlier.

I have no explanation for Mokio staying on, he was bad the whole game.

[SPL]

Steur was good in 1st half but struggled in the 2nd half ,he has played alot recently and only just 18 .We finished with Reeger invisible, Klaassen knackered and slow and Johnson who is nowhere near read. Those 3 playing together make we want to weep. Zero creativity and a good coach would have stuck on Ouazanne who is creative and quality.

[Tom_]

I think we can mark down zero points for our visit to AZ next week, meaning we’ll be in 4th with up to a 4 point gap to 3rd.

The thing is I’m not sure we want to finish second and go into the CL again with this squad. I don’t normally think like this but finishing 3rd and dropping into the EL could be better in the long run.

[SPL]

We got 43m this season for Cl but we have a squad thats Europa standard . PSV 3-0 up v Feyenoord so 2nd place is still up for grabs but we cannot afford to drop points when 2-0 up GAE and Excelsior were 4points thrown away. Mokio getting the blame but he is 17 and not a lb .Gaaei was worse and I would hang out the flags if he is sold in the next 2 days. He cannot defend to save his life .

Must do something else now to take my mind off Ajax .Yesterday was a nice sunny afternoon and I went for a long cycle but its raining now.

[Orange14]

Slept in this morning so I just finished watching. Another epic 2nd half disaster in a match that should have been clinched in the first half. Ajax were wasteful on two opportunities where they had over matched Excelsior on breakaways but bungled both chances. In the 2nd half they let Excelsior back in the match through mental mistakes that never happened under Farioli. I just don't understand how really simple checking of runners gets missed so much by this Ajax team. Mokio was asleep on the first goal but Steur should have done better to prevent the cross from happening. On the second goal every single player on the right side of the Ajax defense was at fault. Not sure Jaros could have done any better and the shot by the Excelsior player was quite nice. Tomiyasu and Johnson get their debuts as 2nd half subs. Rosa dropped out after warm ups and Oscar and Wijndal were out sick. NEC moves ahead of Ajax now and Feyenoord look like they will drop all the points against PSV. Not a fun match for our new TD Jordi Cruyff to watch. I am still absolutely CONFUSED as to why Klassen plays these days. He adds zero to the team other than putting the Captain's armband on correctly.

Player Ratings:

Jaros (6) - had a nice save to prevent a loss but has to kick way too much and is too slow on ball distribution; I think Liverpool puts him on the transfer list next summer
Gaaei (4) - average game and one of those at fault on the 2nd goal
Sutalo (5.5) - didn't have much defending to do and like Gaaei at fault on the 2nd goal
Baas (6.5) - no complaints about his game, he is one of the few Ajax players who rarely makes mistakes
Mokio (5.5) - gets a slight above average mark for some great wins in duels and helping set Ajax on some break aways but his error on the first goal was inexcusable
Regeer (6) - decent enough game and looks to be settling in but still not clear whether he is a long term solution at #6
Steur (5) - had some good moments on the ball in the first half with great field awareness but should have done better on both Excelsior goals
Klaassen (5) - again WHY play him for 90 minutes when he runs out of steam after a half of football, surely Fitz-Jim would not be as bad
Bounida (6) - solid performance on the wing
Dolberg (6) - good enough but I guess he still can't go 90 minutes
Godts (7) - best player for Ajax with two nice goals and hardly any turnovers
Weghorst (NR) - on for Dolberg and had little impact
Edvardssen (NR) - worked hard to little avail
Tomiyasu (NR) - if he can stay fit he might be of use down the stretch, decent enough with the ball
Johnson (NR) - big and strong but questionable skills with the ball, was outstanding on the U-16 team with Steur that won the Future's Cup a couple of years ago

A 2nd visit to Alkmaar looming for next weekend. Can Ajax finally end this jinx???

[Orange14]

Maybe Jordi can convince Pep Guardiola come over for a new challenge!!

[souras84]

I believe this isn't the place to ask a question about tickets, but I don't know where to ask. A friend of mine will be in the city during the weekend we play against NEC. Is it possible for him to buy 2 tickets? What is the procedure for that?