Ajaxtalk

Ajax continue the journey in a congested match schedule traveling to Marc Overmars's boyhood club this Saturday. They are sixth now with two games in hand. Europa League coming up with a home game against Besiktas mid week. Former Feynoord manager, Gio van Bronkhorst is there.

In a surprising turn of events (at least for me), Kaplan is starting at LCB instead of Baas. Weghorst starting instread of Akpom.

Everyone else is the same as the mid-week game. Must win game IMO, if we are to keep continuing our upward trend.

Baas is not a sub so must be slightly injured.Though Rugani would have played as Kaplan did not have a great time for Jong during the week and ended up sent off after an indifferent performance.

A fairly boring 45 ,Sutalo nearly put the ball in the net with a poor back pass.

First Ajax go 1-0 down, which was hardly surprising. And then 2 minutes later Ajax al of a sudden Ajax can make a goal. We are lacking a lot of quality.

A fair result but we lack a quality creative no 10 and 2 decent wingers .Godts is ok as a sub ,Traore is nothing and Gaaei and Rasmussen what can I say not even Jong Ajax level as wings.

Brobbey is our best striker and Akpom is better than Weghorst . Delighted Davy scored ,loads of critics on Showtime but he has done this so many times.

The ghost of Marc Overmars and two players from our youth system curse Ajax in Deventer. Go Ahead Eagles are a very well organized club defensively and they did qualify for Eruope going ouit in the Conference League playoffs this past summer Only a goal from Klaassen to even things up saved a point. It looks like this team will not be capable of playing two matches a week as there is marginal first team quality and little depth, particularly with Berghuis continuing to miss matches (he is out for at least a month more). Hato's blunder led to the Llhanasa goal to put Ajax behind. It was a well-deserved goal as Ajax were too slow on the night and only showed any promise at all in the final five minutes when they tried to get the match winner. I wonder if Farioli was rotating players because of the fixture congestion.

Player Ratings:

Pasveer (6) - no chance on the goal and had to scramble to save an own goal off a Sutalo back pass
Rensch (5.5) - worked hard going upfield but to little avail
Sutalo (6) - other than the bad back pass decent on thenight
Kaplan (5) - average and no more
Hato (4) - bad ball decisions several times and is turnover on the goal sequence was inexcusable
Henderson (5.5) - mildly above average
Taylor (4.5) - looked slow and could not figure out how to get open
Fitz-Jim (6) - good passing as usual and a late snap shot was too tame to trouble the keeper
Traore (4) - looking more and more like an out of shape football player who just wants to pick up a paycheck
Weghorst (5) - got zero balls in the air for him to do something with
Godts (4.5) - mediocre
Gaaei (5.5) - certainly an upgrade over Traore and whipped in some decent crosses but they were just off the mark
Davy One Goal (6) - got the tying goal and put in his usual active shift
Wyndal (5.5) - back from the depths and a surprise substitution, decent enough going forward in the last quarter of the game
Brobbey (5) - meh
Rassmussen (NR) - on late for Godts

Besiktas up in the Europa League at home followed by an away game against RKC Waalwijk next weekend. I suspect this will be another long season.

Those 2 posp games due to police strikes did us no favours as we now have to play 2 games every week with a weak squad and Berghuis is a big miss for the next month.

A draw away from home is a good result for this team - we have to get used to that. Basically no chances on goal and we could easily have lost.

Think it is going to take a couple of more years to get Ajax back on top .This seasons squad is worse than last year and 3rd place will be a struggle. Reading on Showtime gloom and doom but letting 2 left wingers go on the last days and not getting anyone else was just poor from Kroes. Looking at Weghorst playing yesterday I think even Akpom is far better and he is not special.

Of course Kroes got rid of Forbs expecting Bergwijn to stay with Godts back up. Alas we got a great offer to get Bergwijn off our payroll but no time to get a replacement. Weghorst as a sub is ok but again Kroes expected Akpom to be sold.Both big mistakes by Kroes but I can see why .

We are now left with a lot of dross and seeing Rasmussen and Gaaei as wingers made me want to cry. What on earth are they doing being employed by Ajax.They are not the only ones.