29 SEP 2019; Fortuna Sittard - Ajax; Match Day 7

[Orange14]

Ajax are away this weekend to Per Schuurs old club Fortuna Sittard. Currently the club is in second place because of goal differential and even on points with Heracles and Feyenoord. PSV travel Breda to take on NAC who are absolute rubbish this season so it's doubtful that any help closing the five point difference will be forthcoming. ten Hag stated in a press briefing that de Ligt should be ready to play.

[Orange14]

de Jong not in the squad because of a call problem

[Orange14]

Pitch is very slippery and Ajax are quite average. Neres is ok but the rest of the attackers are poor.

[Tom_]

Boring so far. There’s something off about this lineup. I think Neres dribbles too much for a central player, and Ziyech seems to be back to his policy of shooting with every possession.

[SPL]

Agree a very boring 1st half ,hope this is not going to be a 0-0.You feel PSV would win 4-0 on their form of this season.

[Orange14]

Agree a very boring 1st half ,hope this is not going to be a 0-0.You feel PSV would win 4-0 on their form of this season.

PSV only won at NAC 0-2 with the second goal coming in added time!

[SPL]

The ice boy breaks the ice.Welcome back Kasper

[SPL]

Well we made a bit of hard work winning as it was not until Ziyech's well taken goal that made it comfortable.

[Orange14]

Very average performance and one doesn't feel particularly optimistic about the upcoming CL tie with Bayern. I really wonder why Neres was withdrawn rather than Ziyech (who was really quite poor until he scored the second goal). Certainly Neres was not very happy with this. Onana was MOTM for all the tough saves he made.

Player Ratings:

Onana (7.5) - four quality saves to keep the clean sheet
Tagliafico (5.5) - not convincing at all on defense
Blind (7) - decent enough having to compensate for some very sloppy play in front of him
de Ligt (7.5) - made every single play in his sector
Mazraoui (6) - a couple of good interventions
Schöbe (6) - better than average
Eiting (5.5) - needed to bury the open shot he had on goal and was silent for great stretches in the second half
Neres (5.5) - Ok on the evening as the deep lying second striker but I would have preferred he stay on and move to the right wing
Tadic (5.5) - nothing special
Huntelaar (5) - took a lot of rough pushes but didn't contribute much
Ziyech (6) - nicely taken goal but too many wild shots on the night and easily dispossessed
Dolberg (6) - nice to see him net the game winner
van de Beek (6) - very active coming in for Neres
de Wit (NR) - on late and not a factor in the match

A trip to Munich coming up in mid week and then home to AZ before the next international break.

[SPL]

I will be in Amsterdam next weekend for AZ, our pal Cruijff has fixed me up with a ticket .Cannot wait to see a live game again in the JC Arena.

Hope to see a better performance

[Tom_]

Agree, Ziyech was awful today. Gave the ball away 40m from his own goal a few times. Bayern will press in that area, we’ll get steamrolled if we play like that.