Ajaxtalk

Two former European powers, now suffering in the doldrums. Can Ajax even get a point in this Champions League campaign?

Rosa Gaaei and Wijndal all fit and Grim said this was good news!! Berghuis still out injured which is good news as I dont rate him and I would not even use him as a sub . Same of course with Klaassen.

I would be happy if we get a draw .

Not an important game. Would be fine with me if they sent out a youth team.

Bounida starts at last but Mokio is sub and old has been Klaassen starts. Would be happy with a draw.

Offside that led up to the goal ignored not much Jaros could have done with the goal. Poor so far by Ajax only bright spot some nice touches by Bounida.

MF rubbish as usual, Itakura and Klaassen doing nothing Taylor tries but nothing special.Just square passing most of the time by Ajax.

Utterly dreadful and apart from Klaassen missing a sitter we created next to nothing.Bounida did well, one shot over the bar, one nice cross to Klaassen in the box.The rest are not fit to wear the Ajax shirt.Have we ever had worse full backs. MF nothing although Taylor tried his best. Weghorst ,words fail me , he did nothing.

Not sure we are going to get a point in this comp.

ajax show up with the third kit and Itakura at #6, neither of which brought the club any luck against Benfica. Another loss 0-2 though the team played better than on the weekend but just cannot seem to find any glimmer of good luck. In the sixth minute Jaros makes a great save but it ends up at the foot of a Benfica player who hammers home a beautiful goal. I honestly have no clue why the clear offsides leading to the corner kick was ignored by VAR. It should have negated the goal. Ajax had a couple of half chances but the miss by Klaassen on a clear shot was the nail in the coffin as it would have evened the score. In the final minutes Itakura defends poorly and that's the ball game. Bounida got the start at right wing and showed some moments of brilliance with some good ball skills and passes. I would have preferred him to Klaassen in MF with Moro on the wing but what do I know. Ajax stay on zero points with a trip to Azerbaijan coming up.

Player Ratings:

Jaros (6.5) - made a couple of very nice saves and stood no chance on the two goals
Regeer (5.5) - not a FB and not Ajax material either
Sutalo (6) - decent enough
Baas (6) - same as Sutalo
Wijndal (6) - really worked hard until he came off midway in the 2nd half, tried to make thing happen by overlapping and getting the ball into the box
Itakura (4.5) - just too slow to play at #6
Taylor (5.5) - put in a good shift but had no impact on the match
Klaassen (5) - surprised that he started; had one good shot on a pass from Bounida that was saved and then missed the chance of the evening
Bounida (6) - had some very good moments on the ball and should get much more playing time
Weghorst (5.5) - honestly don't think he deserved the YC as it was mostly playacting by the Benfica defender
Godts (5.5) - had one good crossing run but his show was high and wide
Mokio (5) - on for Wijndal early in the 2nd half and was just average
Oscar (5.5) - put some energy on the field
Dolberg (NR) - cannot be on the field with Weghorst
Fitz-Jim (NR) - probably on his way out in January and still sees the field better than any other player on the team
Moro (NR) - should have come on much earlier

Groningen coming up on the weekend and this will be another difficult one for Ajax.

SPL schreef: di nov 25, 2025 7:42 pm Offside that led up to the goal ignored not much Jaros could have done with the goal.

Yes, that was a strange no call by VAR. I have seen VAR disallow calls by fouls much further back on the pitch. I thought for sure it would be called back.

Would say Baas was decent and like Bounida worthy of being an Ajax player but the rest of the starters can just go ,although Jaros had a decent game but he is not going to stay with us. At least keep him in the side until Christmas.

My 3 worse players Itakura not a 6 , Klaassen who had one shot saved ,missed a sitter and barely did anything . Finally Weghorst did zero.

Bounida should get more playing time although he is no 10 and not a right winger and play Alders at RB .Give Steur some playing time and if you are going to play Mokio put him in MF he is not a LB.

I didn’t see it but if there was a break in play (e.g. a corner) between the offside and the goal then VAR doesn’t consider it.

Had an appointment in town today and on seeing my Ajax scarf the guy said he was a fan and aged 10 his parents were working in Amsterdam and he played in the u10 team . He still watches them . I said the current team is even poorer than that of 2 years ago and the football is dreadful but I am a fan ,I love Ajax and when I left I said we will recover we must go back to youth. Bounida stood out last night as the only player you could say was a real Ajax player. Baas can play football as a defender and he too is an Ajax player.

Tom_ schreef: wo nov 26, 2025 12:32 am I didn’t see it but if there was a break in play (e.g. a corner) between the offside and the goal then VAR doesn’t consider it.

In Euro competitions all goals are supposed to be checked. The video highlights show a clear offsides by the player receiving the ball and the shot following a pass goes off Baas for the corner kick. For me this is a clear mistake by the match officials including VAR not to strike off the goal. I've seen games where VAR strikes a goal for fouls much further away from the goal during a build up.

I posted the clip of the offsides along with a question on another website where referees hang out. Here are the comments:

"Once the corner kick is taken you can't go back past it for a review. And you can't review the offside before the corner kick because it doesn't involve a goal, red card, penalty, or mistaken identity."

"Put another way, nothing in implementation of VAR changed the fact that once a restart is taken, you can't go back before the restart. So, just as in a game without VAR, once the R lets the CK be taken, there is no way to consider an OS that took place before the CK. It is exactly the same thing as if a R missed a flag and restarted--too late to go back. (There is an exception for certain misconduct that can still result in a card despite the restart, but it wold be too late for a foul or OS.)"

Ajax were just unlucky that the Assistant Referee missed the offsides call. But Ajax have been pretty unlucky all season long in addition to being poor on the pitch.

Thanks guys for confirming this. We have been unlucky what with the Weghorst goal not given as a foul was let go earlier in the action .