20 DEC 2025; NEC - Ajax: Match Day 17

[Orange14]

End of the first half of the season with Ajax on the road to Nijmegen.

[SPL]

Having a full footy day today ,going to watch Worthing, who are 2nd in National League South ie 6th level league, then watch Ajax . Hope for 2 wins today.

Ajax should start with Steur but with Baas back will Bouwman stay or Itakura play at 3.

[SPL]

Well 1st game went ok ,Worthing won 5-0 ,play good football and 2nd in league. Now for the main event, Baas for Bouwman and Gaaei for Wijndal ie Rosa LB ,only changes from Feyenoord starting X1 .Delighted that Steur starts.

[SPL]

Well overall a fair result as we could not break down 10 men . Rosa at fault with their 2nd ,far too slow and let their player shoot. MF not great ,Klaassen and Taylor did nothing Steur not as effective like last week but still should not have been taken off still better than Klaassen and Taylor. Konadu for Gloukh was a crazy sub by Grim .

I would have taken a point before the game but we finish 3rd place which is great compared with where we were before Heitinga got sacked.

Now 3 weeks off and we will see what we can buy but 3 or4 players can go.

[Orange14]

What an awful match played by Ajax. So many errors and even with a man advantage, they couldn't get any decent chances on goal. Ajax played better in the first half with Steur in MF than in the 2nd when Taylor came on. That Klaassen played 72 minutes is just beyond the pale I just don't understand this at all. I guess Grim sees something different in him than I do. Godts made so many mistakes with the ball that I lost count and I was half thinking he would have missed the open goal after being sent in by Regeer. Winter break ahead now and maybe they get things figured out but I doubt it.

Player Ratings:

Yaros (6) - amazing almost triple save in the third minute; had he kept Linssen's 2nd shot out this sequence would go down in goal keeping history
Gaaei (4.5) - one good assist amidst some awful defending
Itakura (6) - decent enough
Baas (6) decent
Rosa (4.5) - really at fault on the 2nd goal letting a left footed player cut in for an open shot, otherwise better than average
Regeer (6) - great steal to set up the 2nd Ajax goal
Steur (6.5)- maybe the best player for Ajax on the day as he did not make any mistakes and had the pass that sent Gaaei in who then passed to Dolberg for the goal
Klaassen (3.5) - just really should not be on the field
Oscar (5)- quite an average game though he did get a good shot off the was unfortunately deflected, should have started in the middle instead of Klaassen since that's where he ends up anyway
Dolberg (6) - decent enough
Godts (3.5) - absolutely dreadful
Taylor (5) - average and not better than Steur
Bounida (4.5) - some stupid mistakes
Kanadu (NR) - bizarre substitution
Mokio (NR) - should have come in much earlier

[SPL]

Steur was our best Mf and in the 2nd half he should have stayed on and Mokio come on.Agree ratings , our full backs are not good enough and need replacing.Godts poor but Gloukh and Bounida are not wingers.

Overall Ajax were poor and the squad lacks quality

[Tom_]

I actually think we should have won this but in the end an away draw to the number 4 is a pretty good result for this team.

Taking Steur off for Taylor at HT has to be the weirdest sub I’ve ever seen. Taylor’s best position is Chad Kroeger lookalike in a cringe cover band, definitely not central midfield, and having him and Oscar on at the same time just doesn’t make sense.

[SPL]

I actually think our performance especially 2nd half was Heitinga like. See the report on Showtime says Taylor was dreadful so was Gaaei. Rosa and Wijndal are our best Fb's,not saying they are good enough but Gaaei is KKD class and has no idea how to defend.

Apart from one shot into the side net Taylor did nothing and was even worse than Klaassen .Steur and Mokio should have been playing instead .Fitz-Jim is injured and he is better than those 2 failures.

As for Konadu he does not score many goals for Jong and Unuvar ,who does score is way better. Of course Weghorst would be the sub if fit .Finally Goukh and Bounida are not right wingers and I would like Moro to be given a chance,he could have come on for Godts foth the last 10 mins.

Overall ,after 5 wins I put blame on Grim for his choice of starting 11 and poor subs.Yesterday he was no better than Heitinga

[Tom_]

On the positive side I found Itakura pretty good, he makes a few errors but he positions himself well and is calm on the ball. A back three of him, Baas and Bouwman could take some pressure off the fullbacks to defend.

It’s a bit defensive but our attack is so hopeless I don’t see the point of playing with two wingers, they barely impact the game.

[Orange14]

We got lucky as Feyenoord drew and AZ lost today.

[Amol]

I was shocked by the Taylor sub for Steur but I read somewhere that Steur had groin complaints and was taken off as a precaution.

Taylor + Klaassen in a midfield is a total disaster. I thought we had turned it around after going up 1-2 at the end of the first half. Taylor and Rosa bot left a lot of space and allowed the NEC player to have an open shot on goal.

Konadu for Gloukh was indeed strange.