Ajax (A) Champions League 26/10/22 - 20:00

[aws]

17 minutes ago, Mook said:

I think Jurgen will rest a few for Napoli, he has to given all the injury problems IMO.

 

On tonight the first 15/20 mins, we were all over the shop but recovered well & they were three lovely finishes to put us out of sight. 4 in 4 starts for Nunez & I thought tonight was better from Fabinho, who went from his average 3/10 performance this season to more like a 6/10. Hopefully signs of some improvement from him at last.

I thought both Fab and Curtis were better tonight. 

[El Rojo]

Nunez is ticking along nicely. He’ll score loads and miss a few too. Livewire.

[Baltar]

0-3 away from home in the Champions League, can't complain at all. A thoroughly professional performance.

[gkmacca]

 

[Caramac]

[etho]

The system tonight definitely isn't perfect, but with no Diaz or Jota think it's the best one we have to get Nunez Salah and Bobby all on the pitch in the places we want them. All different sorts of problems for defences to deal with 

[Trumo]

Proper 'what the fuck?' moment when they brought up the possession stats after 30 mins and said we'd had about 48% possession. At that point I can only recall us failing to string 3 passes together while Ajax were swarming all over us and looking far sharper.

 

Wasteful misses by Berghuis and Tadic, and a sitter missed by Darwin after some typically unselfish play by Bobby.

 

After that first 30 minutes we grew into the game and started to see (and keep) the ball in their half. No idea what their keeper was doing for Mo's goal. Pasveer is supposedly a sweeper-keeper but he looks like one of those who would rather be outfield than in goal. The Dutch in the 70s had a keeper called Jan Jongbloed who was in the same vain. Pasveer had a hand in our second goal too, punching Darwin's nothing cross/shot behind for a corner when it was a routine catch.

 

Good header by Darwin for his goal, and a nice finish by Harvey to make it 3-0, and job done.

 

Just a few other observations:

1 - 'Three Little Birds' is a belting song that sounds ace when sung by a footy crowd

2 - Ajax love their 'big boned' forwards don't they? Brobbey and Bergwijn both look less muscular and more chunky

3 - Timber should not be a centre back as he's too accomplished on the ball not to be used in midfield

4 - Joe had another one of those moments where he fails to intercept and then grabs onto his opponent to stop them getting away. This one happened on halfway down by the near touchline so wasn't threatening and he let go quickly, but it's still a habit of his

5 - Following his miscontrol of a simple ball to concede a throw-in, Robbo was excellent thereafter

6 - Another win, another player having to come off with a knock

[Daisy]

10 hours ago, Kevin D said:

4 wins from the last 5 games with 12 goals scored and only 2 conceded.

 

Diaz, Jota and Thiago to come back in and presumably Van Dijk, Trent and Fabinho can’t play this badly all season. I make us very strong contenders to win this competition.

Jota probably won't be available until February minimum. 

[El Rojo]

Juventus, Barcelona and Atletico all gone from the big cup. 

 

Not us, though. Why does the club excel in Europe even when struggling domestically?

 

Is it a legacy thing, an aura we have from our history?

 

Is it because sides don't sit back as much which generally benefits our game?

 

Clearly, Anfield on a Tuesday or Wednesday night is a huge factor too but doesn't explain our sound beatings of Rangers and Ajax away. 

 

Whatever it is, we'll be right back up there again this spring and nobody, absolutely nobody, will want to play us. 

[aws]

It’s because the tournament loves us. Not as much as it loves Real obviously. 

[The Golden Eel]

There's actually a decent chance of getting a tough draw in the first KO round, assuming we don't win the group. Bayern, Madrid and PSG all look like possibilities. Then Chelsea and City look like (or may already have - I can't be arsed working it out) winning their groups so we can't get anyone there. Other groups are Spurs group, which is completely up for grabs and the other one is either Bruges or Porto, which would do nicely...

 

 

 

 

[TheHowieLama]

Be happy to dump PSG out after the reaction to Klopp's comments.

[Mook]

I hope we never have to play Real Madrid ever again.

 

Unless Alan Kennedy is playing.

[Scott_M]

I'm not sure how I feel about last night.

 

Obviously made up with the result and we're through. I love, which for feels like the first time in ages, we scored a couple quickly and took the game away from Ajax. Should have been 2 in 2 at the end of the first half but then 2 in 3 mins killed it early in the second. That's been my favourite thing under Klopp, how quickly we will get a 2nd or 3rd and win games in a 5/10 minute spell.

 

I can't decide on the performance until we scored.

 

Obviously Ajax had a couple of great chances, however, the first came after Firmino tried to cut our a pass and fell conveniently for fortuitous to feed Berghuis and the Tadic chance was fortunate as Brobbey clearly fouls VVD, Gomez clears against their player (although Gomez should have been stronger) and another fortunate bounce went Ajax's way. 

 

Apart from those somewhat fortuitous moments, Alisson was only had catching practise from distances and crosses. 

 

In previous seasons I'd be like "We rode the storm & our quality told", maybe at the moment it's just because I don't have as much confidence in us and that we've looked so brittle, I'm always expecting us to concede. 

[neko]

I didn't get a chance to watch the game yesterday, but I'm going to stick my head over the parapet and just say that I really like that green third kit.

[Shitty Arse]

We are probably due a cunt draw after getting Benfica and Villarreal en route to the final last year. What are the chances we end up crossing paths with Sadio again? Call it women’s intuition but I’ve got a feeling it will happen. 

[Scott_M]

4 minutes ago, Shitty Arse said:

We are probably due a cunt draw after getting Benfica and Villarreal en route to the final last year. What are the chances we end up crossing paths with Sadio again? Call it women’s intuition but I’ve got a feeling it will happen. 

 

Great, the times we've beaten Bayern we've gone on to win the trophy. 

[Jose Jones]

1 hour ago, Mook said:

I hope we never have to play Real Madrid ever again.

 

Unless Dossena is playing.

Agreed.

[Captain Turdseye]

18 hours ago, Anubis said:

Oh, and just once more, before the thread fades into obscurity…

 

Davey Klassen - fuck off you Bluenose beaut. 

I can’t stop getting him mixed up with the other midget they had on loan from the Mancs last year. 

[AngryOfTuebrook]

2 hours ago, neko said:

I didn't get a chance to watch the game yesterday, but I'm going to stick my head over the parapet and just say that I really like that green third kit.

It is nice, like. Far better than that swirly shite.

[AngryOfTuebrook]

Are UEFA still pretending we're the worst fans in Europe?

 

[DalyanPete]

14 hours ago, Scott_M said:

I can't decide on the performance until we scored

Know exactly what you mean, but personally I didn't expect anything other than the start Ajax made. It was shit or bust for them. They are a decent team.

[DalyanPete]

6 hours ago, AngryOfTuebrook said:

Are UEFA still pretending we're the worst fans in Europe?

 

Brilliant, so good to hear.

[sir roger]

4 hours ago, DalyanPete said:

Know exactly what you mean, but personally I didn't expect anything other than the start Ajax made. It was shit or bust for them. They are a decent team.

Not saying we weren't awful for half an hour, but a decent young team with a rabid crowd behind them was always going to give us a few problems. Some fans seem to be expecting us to muller teams for the whole 90 minutes no matter the circumstances.

[El Rojo]

I think situations where sides come out and have a go at us from the start suit us a lot better than the alternative. Usually makes for a tough first twenty minutes until their intensity drops a little.