4 - 1
Ajax are boss
Ajax are boss
CL other games
- Thread starter Dreambeliever
- Start date
- Latest activity Latest activity:
- Status
Considering their biggest problem at the moment is scoring goals.. yeh..
Still they are buying Danny Ings.. yay..
We should look a Tadic.. Ideal replacement for Frim
Relax, he hasnt goaled yet!!
Ajax showing the merits of bravery. They went to Madrid 1:2 down and set up with a super attacking 4-3-3 comprised of mostly young players – withstood some pressure and eventually blew Real away. Maybe Klopp can learn something; at some point you just have to go for it.
That Frenkie lad.. can become the best midfielder in the world soon. He’s simply incredible.
That's pretty disrespectful. Ajax needed to win to stay in the competition. Klopp did pretty well in that competition last year - maybe Ajax learned from him.
I only mean the last few games, where many people think we've been excessively cautious.
Nice call mate. I did out decent money on them. Added Spurs to the same. And trippel it with United. And then I went berserk with Rome as well.So now I am an awayvictory in Paris and Porto away from 4000 quid.
Madrid played pretty open. Acres of space for Ajax to exploit and counter. In the games against Leicester, West Ham and United there was not that space.
And in the one game there was, Everton, Salah missed 2 sitters and fucked up a 4 v 2 situation; our forward players simply didn't play well.
I'm not sure why you're having a dig at Klopp or calling into question our "bravery" here. I'm surprised. You're usually pretty levelled headed with these sort of things.
WWDD
There is no question that something changed with our approach in big games in particular compared to last season – we've made the best teams in Europe tremble at the thought of facing our front 3 and the relentless pressing, but now we've almost always opted for a more reactive approach and in some big games I have to say we were the ones who have displayed fear and caution – even against Everton towards the end. Consequently, our results against top teams this season are worse, but against everyone else we've been much more consistent.
What I'm not sure about is whether this change of approach comes from Klopp or whether he is forced to respond to what he is seeing from the players – like the drop offs in form of Firmino and Salah and lack of creativity from midfield without Ox and Coutinho. I think at this point of the season there have been a large enough sample of games to say that as far as big games, this change in team's core personality has not worked; you can go back to the early CL games like PSG away or Napoli or the Man City clashes or the recent series of 0:0 draws – in almost all of them we've been set up more to nullify the opponents' strengths than to impose ours and were almost always second-best – sure, we made it tough for the opponents, but never came close to dominating and destroying big teams like we did last season.
We've been waiting for Klopp to throw away the shackles all season, but there is no indication that he will do that anytime soon and once again the question is why – did his managing philosophy change (possibly having to do with the change of assistant manager) or is it simply a pragmatic response to the changing circumstances. Whatever it is, it's human nature that players are happier and more confident when attacking rather than defending (if you consider pressing to win the ball as a form of attack) and being proactive rather than reactive. That's why I said the manager of Ajax deserves credit for how he set up the team – he knew all these young talented players wanted to have fun with the ball at their feet and he designed the tactics to let them do that – even if it was against the mighty Real at the Bernabeu.
Yesterday I watched Bayer Leverkusen's game against Bayern Munich from a few weeks back – they beat Bayern 3:1 after conceding first and Peter Bosz set up the team with essentially 5 forwards and AMs: Volland, Bailey, Bellarabi, Havertz, & Brandt, they forced the opponent into an open game and came out on top. Sometimes, all-out attack is the pragmatic thing to do, particularly against an opponent whose main weakness is in the aging back-line or inadequate DM protection, as we the case for Real today, Bayern in that game against Leverkusen and United against us last Sunday. Ajax and Leverkusen played like they had nothing to lose and took advantage of those weaknesses. This is what I hope Klopp remembers, particularly when we play Bayern next Wednesday – our best chance of winning is to play without fear again.
Last edited:
In that case I find it a pointlessly manipulative comparison. Do you really need to cite a team who, by your own admission, had nothing to lose, in a knockout competition, in order to demand that LFC, who have a lot to lose and a lot to win, in a league competition, should play in the same way? Is that really a relevant inspiration? Why not just concentrate on the team in its own context? Or compare how Ajax play in their league to how we play in ours? Aside possibly from City, which other teams in contention for a Premier League title have played with abandon at this stage? Newcastle? Fans never beware of what they demand, until it's over. (If you can remember the old LFC teams who did win titles, they treated the run-ins with what many would regard as excessive caution bordering on neuroticism, and thanks to the old back pass rule that meant shutting up shop, even against middling teams, with about half an hour left.) So what's 'excessive caution'? Caution that doesn't result in a win? Or the same amount of caution regardless of the result? A bit more caution than Rodgers showed, or the same amount but with better coaching and/or better players? When is the damning judgment to be made - before, during or after a game? Personally I'll wait until the season is over to judge.
Is it really worse?
[xtable=skin1]
{tbody}
{tr}
{td}Team{/td}
{td}Location{/td}
{td}Last Season{/td}
{td}This Season{/td}
{/tr}
{tr}
{td}Arsenal{/td}
{td}Home{/td}
{td}4-0 Win{/td}
{td}5-1 Win{/td}
{/tr}
{tr}
{td}Arsenal{/td}
{td}Away{/td}
{td}3-3 Draw{/td}
{td}1-1 Draw{/td}
{/tr}
{tr}
{td}Chelsea{/td}
{td}Home{/td}
{td}1-1 Draw{/td}
{td}TBC{/td}
{/tr}
{tr}
{td}Chelsea{/td}
{td}Away{/td}
{td}1-0 Loss{/td}
{td}1-1 Draw{/td}
{/tr}
{tr}
{td}Spurs{/td}
{td}Home{/td}
{td}2-2 Draw{/td}
{td}TBC{/td}
{/tr}
{tr}
{td}Spurs{/td}
{td}Away{/td}
{td}4-1 Loss{/td}
{td}2-1 Win{/td}
{/tr}
{tr}
{td}United{/td}
{td}Home{/td}
{td}0-0 Draw{/td}
{td}3-1 Win{/td}
{/tr}
{tr}
{td}United{/td}
{td}Away{/td}
{td}2-1 Loss{/td}
{td}0-0 Draw{/td}
{/tr}
{tr}
{td}City{/td}
{td}Home{/td}
{td}4-3 Win{/td}
{td}0-0 Draw{/td}
{/tr}
{tr}
{td}City{/td}
{td}Away{/td}
{td}5-1 Loss{/td}
{td}2-1 Loss{/td}
{/tr}
{tr}
{td}Everton{/td}
{td}Home{/td}
{td}1-1 Draw{/td}
{td}1-0 Win{/td}
{/tr}
{tr}
{td}Everton{/td}
{td}Away{/td}
{td}0-0 Draw{/td}
{td}0-0 Draw{/td}
{/tr}
{/tbody}
[/xtable]
The only game we've got a worse result in this year, in the league, compared to last was City at Home. If anything we've stopped the "bleeding" away from home in the league.
Although we have still yet to sort out of away from in the CL... and "making the best teams in Europe" tremble was only a feature at Home. We beat City away in the CL (largely due to the fact they were chasing a deficit), and I won't classify Porto as a top team, and then we lost pretty much every other away game in the CL since, both this year and last, so that tells me it's not a style issue, but a mentality one.
I don't really agree that we've been set up to nullify strengths. It's true Jurgen has taken a more cautious approach in a few games (play Hendo and Fabinho, against Everton/United). But I think if anything, teams have set up to nullify our strengths. Napoli kept an extra man back to stop our transition football, United had Lukaku and Sanchez playing as full backs, Bayern did the same with Koman/Gnabry, PSG switched formations and played a tight 4-4-2 to stop our central attacks, Man City came to Anfield to defend and play a tight back 4 at the Etihad with 3 CBs (+Danilo makeshift CB) to stop us. Ultimately, what i'm seeing this year is teams doing everything to stop our main source of goals: Salah and Mane. Denying them space in behind to exploit and giving us more of the ball in front of them. This is an inevitable consequence of becoming a top respected team. Our main issue has been that we haven't shown the guile or clinical finishing to force our opponents into a different strategy.
Double lol: "Real Madrid's stunning defeat to Ajax was particularly sour as he had chosen the evening to record scenes for an Amazon documentary about his career."
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019...csWZZhy9hFBgYEWI4z1HkWgysmKl16iF5BbT250Tu1ET0
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019...csWZZhy9hFBgYEWI4z1HkWgysmKl16iF5BbT250Tu1ET0
I'm sure he'll be on the shortlist along with Mourinho and Pochettino. They look like a team in dire need of a huge overhaul and a huge spending spree.
I doubt Mourinho will be anywhere near that club ever again.
Who gives a fuck? Long may they continue to slide.
Looks like Mourinho is Perez preferred option..
https://www.skysports.com/football/...-of-managerial-candidates-says-ramon-calderon
There's been Mourinho chants from the crowd too, and not just after last night's debacle.
Exactly what I thought when I saw that team sheet, I've barely heard of about half of their starting eleven
Oh, deffo!
It is poetic to see how much they need.
Yeah I watched the extended highlights and was impressed by the speed of Ajaxs passing and counter attacks. Real couldn't deal with it. I think we have it in is to play like that but only when our attacks go through the flanks of they have to go down the middle then we aren't as fast on the break. Definitely need a top class playmaker next season or ox to come good.
- Status
Similar threads
-
- Locked
