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Ajax vulnerable in defense…

July 27th, 2009 | By: Jan | 13 Comments »

Ajax ended it’s season warm up with a loss against Benfica (2-3) in the Amsterdam Tournament.

Just like in the Atletico game last Friday, Ajax created many opportunities, but it’s clear that the defense at the Sons of Gods is the weak link.

Ajax conceded six goals in two games and the goals all came from horrible defensive mistakes. The Ajax management is still looking to sign a “ruthless defender” and it’s not for nothing. But it doesn’t seem Ajax will manage to find one before the competition starts.

It’s remarkable how Martin Jol didn’t use the Amsterdam Tournament to play his fave line up. Luis Suarez, Aissati, Emanuelson and Vertonghen were the only players starting against Atletico and Benfica. These four seem to be regular starters, while Demy de Zeeuw and new signing Atouba will most probably also be designated starters.

So, it’s interesting to see if and how Jol will finish his jigsaw puzzle within one week. Jol still needs to pick a first goalie, Van der Wiel and Atouba seem to be the starting backs. But of all the center backs starting this weekend, Spaniard Oleguer made the best impression.

Jol has already declared to start with 4-4-2 although he did try 4-3-3 at the Tournament as well.

A new name, Mitchell Donald, is a player to be reckoned with. A strong midfielder from Ajax’s youth system played a good game against Benfica after a year of injury problems. He scored the 1-2 right before halftime, after Ajax conceded an own goal (Aissati) and a Di Maria goal.

Luiz scored Benfica’s third due to a Bruno Silva howler before Dennis Rommedahl – him again – scored the 2-3.

Martin Jol was crystal clear after the two games. “We need to defend better. Much better… But, we will. Defending is trainable. Out of the six goals we conceded only one was a really good field goal, the other ones were presents from us to them. That simply can’t happen again. If we’d face teams like Atletico and Benfica in our Eredivisie, we would be in severe trouble.”

Ajax starts next weekend against FC Groningen. Jol didn’t want to confirm that Ajax is still searching for a defender. “But, you can’t score five times in two games but at the same time chase your opponent. That tells you something is wrong. At Ajax, they always say: when the opponent scores, we just make sure we score one more. In our case now, it’s the other way around. We’re able to score, but our defense allows the opponent to score one more….”

Tags: Aissati, Ajax, Donald, Group C, Jol, Rommedahl, Suarez

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Comments

By Tiju | July 27th, 2009 at 2:59 am

Not only Ajax the total orange diffence is crap.Recently i heard that Az ready to give Gijs luirink on loan…i think ajax can grab him with a relativly cheaper amount.who knows he will come up with a surprise…….
The Tall, strong,focused diffender must be a good signing for any team.But poor guy anointed with unluck and injury.Hope he will shake off his injury worries.Ajax can consider zuiverloon too.i think at present he is the most trustworthy rightback at the momment.In offenec he may not be as good as Vanderweil but not that bad.This guy(zuiverloon) can shut any “ballon d ors”in the planet thats for sure.

Posted from India

By bobotoh | July 27th, 2009 at 3:29 am

I think after Frank De Boer and Stam, defence is always the problem. Not only for Ajax, but for Oranje as general as well.

Ajax have a famous football academy, I am sure that one of the students there want to be a central defender .

Posted from Indonesia

By Tiju | July 27th, 2009 at 4:38 am

Va Der sar is not ready for retirement………is it going greedy?
http://www.espnstar.com/football/premier-league/news/detail/item298822/Van-der-Sar-not-ready-to-retire/

Posted from India

By ferenc | July 27th, 2009 at 5:07 am

i don’t think that oranje’s defence is as crap as many of us see it. sure,we don’t have jaap stam and frank de boer but this defence is quite all right especially with van bommel (who is great) and de jong helping them.

Posted from Hungary

By Tiju | July 27th, 2009 at 7:04 am

@ferenec buddy.so far we played with lesser skilled and lesser trickery teams like iceland,norway etc.so we haven’t faced a real threat not yet.My crystell ball says that by the hand of a skilled team will get eliminated in the world cup may be argentina/brazil/france/portugal/russia/spain or may be an african team.The guys like ur Ineasta(he is my favorite too),Messi,CR7,Ronaldihno,Robihno,kaka,Agurro will destroy our back line,besides vanbommel is proned to redcard and he is man of mistakes.Dejong is too good as Holding mid and has good stamina also.At present vanbommel is more like a build up player,dejong doesnt have any kind of creativity and i am constantly following him with ManCITY.i am seeing a heavy crack in our diffence.i would always go with a Brapheid-Mathjenson-Bulahruz-Zuiverloon + De jong as defencive unit against forementioned teams.If de jong is injured schaars would be the man.i know Van bommel is doing good but what he did for bayern against barca.so thats my point.

Posted from India

By Michel-Olivier | July 27th, 2009 at 7:10 am

@ tiju
portugal and france will not qualify for wc2010
with diego in charge argentina can’t beat orange.

Posted from United States

By Tiju | July 27th, 2009 at 7:10 am

My first eleven would be like this

———Stekelenburg—————
Zuiverloon—-Bulahruz—-Mathjenson—-Brapheid

———-Dejong———Znijder————

Vander vaart——Vanpersie——Elia
————-Hunter———————
My second eleven would be

—————-Velthuizen—————–

Vanderweil–Maduro—–Marcelis—-Bouma(if fit)

————-Schaars—–Emmauelson——–

Kuyt——-De-guzman———–Roban

————Babel/Castaginos/Volfswinkel———–

Third keeper
??????????

Posted from India

By Tiju | July 27th, 2009 at 7:12 am

@mario well said if mardaona is the coach for Arjentina then we have hope.But dont write off portugal and france

Posted from India

By Carlos | July 27th, 2009 at 8:02 am

Tiju what a pathetic team….no room for castelen ? He should be the first name on the sheet!!!

Posted from Singapore

By Lerkot | July 27th, 2009 at 9:46 am

I think Donald was really good yesterday. Could become something great actually.

By Jason | July 27th, 2009 at 10:40 am

The Oranje defence is great. Oranje loses because the wheels fall off the truck. Let’s not confuse Ajax with Oranje here. Oranje has let in the fewest goals over and over again in big tournament qualifying so maybe we shouldn’t crucify them like this.

Ajax is a different story though, slam away – from what I saw yesterday, they were absolutely horrible. Silva was complete garbage and looked like he was moving around on a tricycle. Anita is not good enough yet. Vermeer is not Stekelenburg.

Donald was completely great. I also thought Zeeglaar played pretty well too.

Posted from Canada

By sonneveld | July 27th, 2009 at 10:53 am

tiju : van bommel deserves to be in the line up

By David | July 27th, 2009 at 1:20 pm

@ Tiju
Come on man Elia over robben? that is a very questionable decision also not including kuyt? Kuyt is that hard working team first player that holland definatly need to be playing this is my line up
Stekelenberg, Van der Wiel, Heitinga, Mathijsen, Bouma if fit (Braafheid if not fit), Van Bommel, De Jong, Arjen Robben on the Right, Sneijder in the center, and Van Persie on the left, Kuyt up top. If we play with those front 4, they will all be able to interchange in the flow of the ggame cause they can all pay in any of those four spots. Unlike with Huntelaar up top who is very static. ALso with Elia, VdV, Babel, Huntelaar, De Guzman, etc we will be very deep so that injuries would not cost us. Also Heitinga is not a good, natural right back he is much better in the center of defense.

Posted from United States

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