Maybe. If you really know what you're doing then it's effective, but many midfielders get by without playing like Carrick defensively, he's just got a more 'cultured' approach. We'll just have to see what happens really. I think the defensive side of a midfielders game will be fine tuned with time and experience.
Christian Eriksen
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Maybe. If you really know what you're doing then it's effective, but many midfielders get by without playing like Carrick defensively, he's just got a more 'cultured' approach. We'll just have to see what happens really. I think the defensive side of a midfielders game will be fine tuned with time and experience.
It all depends on what's going to happen in the next few months. Fletch may end up having to call it a day (or else linger on in Hargreaves way) while Scholes may retire. Giggs will be kept as backup. The class is still there but you cant rely on a player of his age. That leaves us to just 1 DM (Carrick), Clev, Ando and Pogba.
Considering that Ando haven't been producing at a regular rate and that SAF tend to loan kids for at least a year then it wont be too far fetched if he decides to bring in 2 midfielders.
Not to forget that we may still sell Berba and revert to the same 4-2-3-1 system which was the formation used when we won our last CL.
We have been playing in a 4-2-3-1 for some time now.
It's close to a 4-4-2 than it is to a 4-5-1. That's probably the meaning. If Rooney isn't on we won't be playing 4-2-3-1 like we do normally.
However after 95 the mentality had changed. Prior to the Bosman ruling Ajax and the other Dutch teams could afford building a great side, win a couple of honors and then sell the players on their own terms (usually when another promising crop was mature enough to take their place). The Bosman ruling changed that. Clubs like AC Milan (possibly helped by former legends) could convince players to sign short term contracts and leave on peanuts. Under such circumstances the Dutch clubs had to sell players ahead of their time, which meant reducing the quality of Dutch football and making it difficult for the next crop to find enough quality opposition to compete with and improve.
this.
What you are still overlooking is the fact that the youth were groomed well, period. It wasn't the competition that made them great. It was the grooming. That is why long after 95, Ajax were still winning titles and nurturing and producing Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Sneidjer type players. The fact is they abandoned their youth vision and have since been paying for it.
I think that after 95 many Dutch clubs took a cautious approach in selling players in the middle of their contracts even when they didn't had quality replacement for them.Such thing contributing in a dip of quality in the entire league, making it difficult for the next crop to find the quality competition needed to improve.Its basically what happening in the EPL reserve football where the quality is so low, that the only way a manager has to improve kids is to loan them out somewhere else.
I disagree simply because the quality of Dutch football has never ever got as bad as EPL Reserve football. Dutch football is about the same level as the Portugeese league. Yet the Portugeese still churn out new talent every year due to theri sound youth policies. The decline of Ajax was all down to abandoning youth football. Not drop in quality of competition. That is why the Ajax board and old boys like Cruyff are involved in a fight whilst tryna bring the old ways back. They all know what the problem is.
What did everyone think of him last night?
I was very impressed, good on the ball and really was the main man for Ajax, looks like he will be a good signing for someone. Looked the best player on the park last night
I was very impressed, good on the ball and really was the main man for Ajax, looks like he will be a good signing for someone. Looked the best player on the park last night
Much better last night than the previous week.
He ran the game pretty much. Thankfully Ajax have problems in the league and he was told before the game that he'd only play 45-60min.
I think he would improve in a better side.
Fergie, sign him up
Fergie, sign him up
It helped having a functioning holding player.
He gave the ball away a few times. Made pretty simple passes and that, but we have plenty of midfielders already capable of that. If we are to spend big money then it should be on a player that will make a difference. Although it's not something that I'm particularly bothered about, he didn't look creative at all, which is something everyone has been banging on about for a long time.
That's so wrong. Made simple passes. What kind of critique is that. Movement makes the passing simple.
Ajax barely had a striker on the pitch. 1st leg they had some Ukrainian meatball who did little. I'm not sure who was their main forward last night. Didn't seem to be any specific. They mostly try to go down the wings after advancing easily through our middle the whole 1st half. They were actually missing a lot of players. Including some first choice strikers.
There's nothing wrong with making simple passes, but I thought you all wanted creativity? I thought the number 23 with the Turkish name was their best player last night. We should be looking at him if this game was anything to go by.
EDIT: Aras Özbiliz is his name.
I was once again impressed. Movement is good, awareness, touch, vision and has a bit of fight. I don't think he'd come in and play central midfield though as I think his whole game is based upon being able to drift, but I'm sure we could find a position for him if we got him.
Turkish guy had a nice finish and put a ball in for a cross. He managed a goal and an assist, fair play to him, but his overall game wasn't any good. Eriksen is the reason they were domination the midfield. He makes Ajax look better than they are. Don't think he can grow much more there. Needs to play with better players.
He makes Ajax look better than they are? They looked shit to me.
The part in bold is bollocks too. Our defenders couldn't get the ball off him at times with his dribbling in and around the box. He's only young too. I don't see what Eriksen brings that you couldn't find in plenty of other players. I think what is happening is people have hyped him up and got excited and now they are looking for a way to praise him. If we'd never of heard of him before then nobody would be talking about him after those two performances.
We won't sign him, I'm confident of that.
Young, extremely talented and would probably available near 20m. It fits the recent signings profile we've made. Why are you so confident?
Because I don't agree with the part in bold. Though, having said that, we don't often compete for the top bracket youngsters, so maybe it's not as unlikely as I make out.
De Gea, Jones, Smalling all signed in last 2 transfer windows. Which one of them isn't in top bracket youngsters?
It's irrelevant if we sign him or not.
Well, you've never heard of Eriksen. That's your problem. He was the youngest player at the last World Cup. He control's the play and is constantly moving. He's better than Cleverley yet he's 3 years younger. Yes, he only became 20, 10 days ago yet he controlled the match against Manchester Untied at Old Trafford and there's nothing special about him at all?
Ajax looked shit? They had almost 60% possession at Old Trafford! When has that happened ever?
Not to forget his performance against England in the international match, where he made Jack "World Class" Wilshere look like an amateur. He's a world class talent, I don't know why he's rated as highly as Goetze etc but I don't think there would be much difference between these two players when both of them reach their peaks.
I didn't say we never compete. But we've watched the far superior Ozil leave Dortmund for peanuts without putting up a fight. Eriksen isn't in the same league, which is why I said we might go in.
At the same time, we competed hard for Alexis Sanchez(were prepared to 37m, according to Bob Cass who was spot on usually in the summer).
Anyways let's not take this thread off topic,
You're talking out of your arse.
Özil left Werder Bremen, and even though he left for "peanuts"(£12 million I believe), his wages are surely ridicilous.
As for Eriksen, well..
I think Fergie summed up both him and Ajax yesterday. He echoed the exact thoughts I had watching the game. A lot of neat possession, not much penetration at all. But for a handball and a set-piece which should have been given offside, they wouldn't have scored.
Eriksen is neat tidy, and moves around a lot, but he doesn't seem to find the killer pass very often.. which sort of defeats the purpose of playing a pure attacking midfielder in the side.
If we signed him, we would need to play him in behind the striker, which means either drop Welbeck or Rooney.
Holy crap balls. Dominated midfield? I've seen many quality players dominate us in midfield, that was not one of them. Besides, we had Ji-Sung Park in midifeld and 3 players returning from injury. I don't think he had shown anything that Cleverley hasn't already in his short time here. Eriksen may be younger, but Cleverley is only just starting out here. Eriksen has played over 60 games for Ajax. Imagine how good Cleverley will be after 60 games
They were utter shite though. We only conceded two because they bored us into obvlivion then hit us. We could have very, very easily dispatched them if we tried 100% as they did and didn't get complacent.
So I'm talking out of my arse, yet you agree that he left for peanuts and then say 'surely' he must be on massive wages. Clearly you have no proof of this so how am I talking out of my arse? Especially when you go on to sum up Eriksen in agreement in how I saw it.
We lost 3-0 to Fulham with Carrick at center back and a poor midfield but it wasn't dominated like ours was yesterday. Again, when was the last time a team had around 60% possession at Old Trafford?
Ajax weren't shit. They had the majority of the ball, created some chances and scored two goals and beat us. You give them absolutely no credit at all. No wonder you don't give Eriksen credit after having only seen him for less than two games.
Cleverley hasn't shown anything that Eriksen has done on a regular basis. And he's been here since he was 11. Plenty of time to proof himself.
Ajax weren't shit. They had the majority of the ball, created some chances and scored two goals and beat us. You give them absolutely no credit at all. No wonder you don't give Eriksen credit after having only seen him for less than two games.
Cleverley hasn't shown anything that Eriksen has done on a regular basis. And he's been here since he was 11. Plenty of time to proof himself.
Your comment on our ability to compete for the best youngsters in the game is mental. We've arguably signed more of the best young players in the game these last couple of years than anyone. Smalling, De Gea, Jones and Hernandez are all top, top talents, two of them signed only this summer.
SAF needs to brush up on the offside rule. Alderweireld wasn't offside.
I think you need to brush up on the rule - Vertonghen went for the ball, which flied just over his head - that's interfering with play. And he was well offside.
What was Cleverley reasonably meant to prove to the supporters at 11 years old? He can only prove himself in the first team, where he has played a few games. To be honest though, I don't really care what Eriksen has proved in the Eredivisie, it's known to be a poor league now and this showed over two legs if Ajax are all it has to offer.
I can't be arsed arguing about Eriksen anyway, we will just have to see how his career pans out. I'm guessing he won't end up here and he'll never be considered one of the worlds top players. Just my opinion, but we will see.
Vertongthen was clearly interfering, he should've been given offside.
Were Smalling, Jones, Hernandez considered top world talents before we signed them? Were they feck. We are making them into top talents. It's what we do and what we will continue to do.
I don't think so. He didn't stop anyone from marking those three Ajax player that were closest to where the ball landed. It was exceptionally poor marking that conceded that goal. Nothing that Verthongen did made any difference.
Correct. Might have wanted to rephrased it at the beginning but you're right in saying so in a sense.
Ronaldo, Nani and Anderson are in the same bracket as Hernandez and Jones. Well, Ronaldo was known by teams, not so much by fans in general. Anderson was considered a talent. Can't remember Nani's reputation when we bought him.
Rooney was obviously a talent when we bought him.
I don't think we're never in those signings at all. We might need some update on our scouting network in Germany and Spain though. Don't think we'd have bought Nani or Anderson or Bebe (yes, and Bebe) if it weren't for Quieroz.
Jones was coveted by all of the top premier league sides. According to me that does constitute a top world talent.
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