Taking over the world with young players - The Ajax story

[ikke]

thx to everyone for the great feedback. It's always nice if your work is appreciated <)

---------- Post added at 10:20 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:11 PM ----------

Quality layout, particularly liked the picture of your tactics

Glad you like the layout! I was actually looking for a serious tactical picture, but I stumbled upon this one and I just had to post it <)

Pompey Dan's Training is twice as good as Tugs. Sorry Tug

Good story, I will be following ^^

Thanks mate. I used Tugs one 3 or 4 times before and it always gave a great boost to my playing staff, both senior and youth players. But i haven't used Dan's schedule yet, perhaps I can give it a go next season and see if there's any difference...

 

[ikke]

Transfer update
View attachment 31184

During a press conference this afternoon, Amsterdam Football Club Ajax announced their new signings for the upcoming season. Also, a couple of players were sold by the club because they didn’t fit into the teams plans according to manager Nuyts.


An overview of all the players sold and bought can be found here:
View attachment 31185

The most promising new players are thought to be Romelu Lukaku, Jonathan dos Santos and Daniel Opare.


- Romélu Lukaku
View attachment 31186

Name: Romélu Lukaku
Nationality: Belgian
Position: Striker (Target man)
Length: 1.92m
Weight: 94kg
Former club(s): Rupel Boom FC, Lierse SK, RSC Anderlecht
Birth Date: 13-5-1993
Age: 16
Birth place: Brussels
International Appearances: Three for Belgium –21


Romelu Lukaku was born on May 13, 1993 in Brussels, Belgium. It’s generally well known that talent doesn’t come from strangers and Romelu is no exception. His father Roger was a meritorious player at the highest level of the Belgian league in the 1990’s. For many it therefore wasn’t a big surprise when Romelu appeared to be able to handle the ball pretty well.
It was no coincidence that he made his first steps into football at the Belgian club Rupel Boom FC. Rupel was also the first club his father played at. FC Boom was soon too small for the big and strong striker and he eventually ended up at Lierse SK. In 2006 he decided to make the next step, along with his slightly younger brother Jordan he went on to play in the Anderlecht youth squad.
In Brussels he quickly impressed as well. With his great stature and great physical strength, he had an important weapon, and therefore was one of the best players of his class. Even the national youth teams from Belgium benefited from his services. At Anderlecht he went through all the youth teams with ease, and scored 120(!) goals in 90 games, an unprecedented number. It is therefore not surprising that he was quickly selected for Anderlecht’s first team. And again he showed his vast potential. Despite him being one of the youngest players in the squad he scored a staggering 26 goals, and personally led his team to the third spot in the league. These impressive figures naturally did not go unnoticed in Europe.
View attachment 31187
Of course Romelu still has a long way to go, but Manager Nuyts and the entire Ajax scouting staff are confident that he will develop into a quality player. Leading Ajax scout Bierhoff stated that Lukaku even has the potential to far exceed top striker Luis Suarez’ current abilities.


- Jonathan dos Santos
View attachment 31188


Name: Jonathan dos Santos
Nationality: Mexican
Position: (Attacking) Midfielder
Length: 1.80m
Weight: 74kg
Former club(s): CF Monterrey, Barcelona FC
Birth Date: 11-5-1989
Age: 20
Birth place: Monterrey
International Appearances: Mexico -17 (Winner WK -17 in 2005), Mexico -20 (participation WK -20 in 2007), Mexican National team (2007-present)


Jonathan dos Santos was born on May 11, 1989 as the son of former professional footballer Gerardo dos Santos, better known as Zizinho. He made his first steps onto the pitch for the Mexican football club Monterrey. It didn’t take long for people to take notice of the young talented player. He was scouted by Spanish powerhouse club Barcelona FC in 2001 during an international tournament in his birthplace Monterrey. Soon after being scouted, he moved to Spain with his entire family, to play in the youth teams of Barcelona together with his younger brother (Tottenham Hotspurs revelation Giovanni dos Santos). At the beginning of his career, Jonathan was already compared with the likes of Ronaldinho and Messi. Until 2004 he played in the Juvenil A together with Messi. After Messi’s promotion to Barca’s first team, dos Santos and striker Bojan became the stars of the Juvenile A and won almost everything there was to win with the Juvenil A squad. Since 2005 Jonathan was selected for the Mexican -17 squad and later the Mexican -20 squad. At present he has even become a valuable member of the Mexican National team, playing together with players like Vela, Salcido and Márquez.
View attachment 31189
With a lot of world-class players in the Barcelona squad, Jonathan wasn’t deemed good enough to succeed in Barca’s first team and found himself on the transfer list. With interest from a lot of quality clubs it was Ajax who finally succeeded in signing the Mexican prospect. They managed to sign the player for a real bargain, and the entire Ajax staff has told the media that there can be no doubt that he will become a valuable addition to the squad.


-Daniel Opare
View attachment 31190


Name: Daniel Opare
Nationality: Ghanaian
Position: Right Back
Length: 1.73m
Weight: 68kg
Former club(s): Adelaide SC, Ashanti Gold SC, Real Madrid CF
Birth Date: 18-10-1990
Age: 18
Birth place: Accra
International Appearances: Ghana -17, Ghana National team (2007-present)

There is still a lot to discover about Daniel Opare. Ajax was able to sign the right back from that other spanish power house Real Madrid CF for the cut-rate transfer price of 300k. Opare never really made it to Real Madrid's senior team, but is an established team member of the Ghanaian national team since 2007 however. Together with his first team place in the Ghana squad at the tender age of 18, one of the best criteria to conclude that he has vast potential is the fact that World Soccer Magazine included him in their "50 Most Exciting Teenagers on the Planet" article.
View attachment 31191
Opare's strongest points are without doubt his surging runs and the pin-point accuracy of his crosses and Nuyts stated that he was certain that Daniel's speed and crossing ability are going to fit perfect into his tactical plan for the squad.



In the next post I will (finally) start with my match reports. I will give a monthly overview of the matches and I will add some extra information at the end of each month, like the best young Ajax player of that month and events like goals/players of the month when an ajax player is selected for it. I also tend to post screenshots of my promising players' stats at the end of each season. I will post the stats they had at the beginning of the season as well as their stats of the end of the season so you guys can see how my young players are developing...

 

[ikke]

By the way I still haven't decided yet if am going assign Suarez to an advanced forward role or a poacher role. He gets roughly the same amount of chances at both roles. Although his chances are usually bigger when he's playing as a poacher, he also get's a lot of offsides with the poacher role. Anyone got any ideas?

 

[Frank]

Very good layout you got going here, will check back from time to time.

 

[*Paul*]

Great layout and I will be following. Good luck.

 

[ikke]

August results​

Pre-season:

Ajax 1 - 1 Dinamo Kiev​

Roeselare 1 - 3 Ajax​

Germinal Beerschot 0 - 2 Ajax​

Sandhausen 1 - 3 Ajax​

Ajax 2 - 1 Unirea Urziceni
(Friendly Cup semi final)​

Ajax (pen) 1 - 1 Rangers
(Friendly Cup final)​

Ajax 3 - 0 Ajax CT​

Winning all of my pre-season matches except for the draw against Dinamo Kiev, I feel confident to begin the battle for victory in the Eredivisie this season.





Sunday, 2 August:

Eredivisie, 1st match (TV)​

FC Groningen 0 - 1 Ajax
Vertonghen (56)​

Didn’t create a lot of chances, but overall a good team performance​

Þ Man of the match: Jan Vertonghen (8.0)
Þ Average rating: 7.3
Þ Goal Difference: +1
Þ Cards: none



Saturday, 8 August:

Eredivisie, 2nd match (TV)​

Ajax 2 - 1 RKC
Suarez (23, 86) – Vink (90)​

The RKC goalkeeper will have bad dreams about Suarez tonight. The striker was a constant threat in front of his goal. Despite a good performance from my squad, I am a bit disappointed about the late goal for RKC. ​

Þ Man of the match: Luis Suarez (8.4)
Þ Average rating: 7.1
Þ Goal Difference: +2
Þ Cards: dos Santos



Sunday, 16 August:

Eredivisie, 3rd match (TV)​

PSV 0 - 1 Ajax
de Jong (34)​

We were a bit fortunate to win this one. PSV created a lot more chances and the only reason we didn’t concede a goal was because of a real solid performance of my defensive players. ​

Þ Man of the match: Siem de Jong (7.7)
(GK Maarten Stekelenburg had the same rating)
Þ Average rating: 7.3
Þ Goal Difference: +3
Þ Cards: Van der Wiel, Anita



Thursday, 20 August:

EURO Cup 4th qual. Rnd Leg 1 (TV)​

Ajax 3 - 0 Maribor
Cvitanich (8, 54), Eduardo (79) ​

I played a lot of my hot prospects against this unknown Slovenian team. As you can see they had a good performance. I was particularly impressed with Jonathan dos Santos who got a rating of 7.9​

Þ Man of the match: Dario Cvitanich (8.5)
Þ Average rating: 7.4
Þ Goal Difference: /
Þ Cards: Enoh



Sunday, 23 August:

Eredivisie, 4th match (TV)​

Ajax 2 - 0 Sparta
Suarez (57), Touzani O.G. (62)​

Decent performance from my squad but a dull match. Three of my players were injured, the worst injury being right back Van der Wiel’s groin strain. He’ll be out for 2-3 weeks​

Þ Man of the match: Jeffrey Sarpong (7.5)
(Substitute Ismail Aissati had the same rating)
Þ Average rating: 7.1
Þ Goal Difference: +5
Þ Cards: Wielaert



Thursday, 27 August:

EURO Cup 4th qual. Rnd Leg 2​

Maribor 1(1) - (4) 1 Ajax
Ceh (33) - Emanuelson (54)​

My Ajax squad had a lousy and uninspiring first half. Emanuelson even missed a penalty in the 39th minute. After I gave them some inspirational words during half-time the team raised their performance in the 2nd half. Emanuelson made up for his penalty error by scoring in the 54th minute. Happy with the 4-1 aggregate result though. ​

Þ Man of the match: Maribor’s Dejan Bezjak (7.5)
Þ Average rating: 7.0
Þ Goal Difference: /
Þ Cards: none



Sunday, 30 August:

Eredivisie, 5th match (TV)​

Heracles 3 - 2 Ajax
Everton (2), Douglas (12, 15) – Suarez (22), de Zeeuw (27​

I’ve been playing fm ever since fm 07 came out, but I’ve never seen a game quite like this one. The passes were connecting well, the crosses were going good and every player was doing a decent job, but somehow I found my side 3-0 behind after only 15 minutes of play. We then scored 2 goals in 5 minutes and after that all of our chances in front of the opponent’s goal were simply erased by a brilliant Heracles keeper. Of course I’m not happy with this result, because we were touted as favourites for this game. ​

Þ Man of the match: Heracles’ goalkeeper Martin Pieckenhagen (8.9)
Þ Average rating: 6.9
Þ Goal Difference: +4
Þ Cards: none



Pro’s: My team had a good average rating in most of the matches. I’m very happy that we are through in the EURO Cup with a good performance of my youngsters in the first leg with a 3-0 win at home.

Con’s: The defeat against Heracles. Still haven’t figured out yet what went wrong.

Best youth player of the month: Without doubt the best young player this month is Jonathan dos Santos. I showed I had faith in him by already letting him start in 3 of the 7 games we had to play and he thanked me for it by giving 4 assists to his teammates and scoring an average rating of 7.57!
View attachment 31374

League Table:
View attachment 31375

 

[Dan]

Not a bad start mate Keep it Up

 

[tiraths]

I will keep an eye on this story, I like people doing Stories outside of the England, good luck, hopefully replicate the Ajax side of 98 in 4-5 years

Well we can dream.

I'm doing a story outside of England?!

Good luck mate and great start. Areola takes agessssss to become a decent standard so I chose Lukaku

 

[ikke]

I'm doing a story outside of England?!

Good luck mate and great start. Areola takes agessssss to become a decent standard so I chose Lukaku

Thanks mate. You're not the first one to tell me Aureola takes a long time to improve. From what i've heard it takes at least 1 year for him to even improve 1 lousy stat, but once he begins to improve he becomes great in no time.
And it seems everyone thinks Lukaku is going to be great. As far as I'm concerned I think he's already a beast and one of the best Belgian strikers, and he's going to be a world-class striker. But then again I may be a bit biased because I'm belgian too oO)

 

[tiraths]

Haha
But he will be world-class. In second season for me he had 18 finishing, dribbling etc

 

[ikke]

Events update

- EURO Cup: Dutch pro team AFC Ajax have been drawn in Group H of The EURO Cup group stage together with Italian serie A team Lazio, Israelian team M. Haifa and FC Timisoara from Romania.
With the top two teams qualifying for the knockout round, I seems Ajax have a good chance to go through.

- Man Management: According to one of his backroom staffmembers, Rik Nuyts gave some players feedback regarding their footballplay. For instance, he told Anita to take more chances in his game and get forward whenever possible. He also told defensive midfielder de Zeeuw to slow down the play from time to time, because the manager believes it will benefit the teams performance if de Zeeuw sometimes holds the ball. Doing so, de Zeeuw can ***** the situation and give the right pass to a teammate. It is believed the two players responded to their manager in a positive manner.
The Ajax manager also touted centre-back Jan Vertonghen as the ideal rolemodel for young defender Xandro Schenk. Nuyts told Schenk to follow Vertonghen closely for the next few months so he can learn from him. Both players seem happy with the arrangement.

 

[ikke]

September results​

Sunday, 13 September:

Eredivisie, 6st match (TV)​

Ajax 2 - 0 NAC Breda
Emanuelson (46), Suarez (67)​

With both sides having an equal amount of shots at goal, it was the quality of finishing from Ajax that decided the game. ​

Þ Man of the match: Urby Emanuelson (8.1)
Þ Average rating: 7.3
Þ Goal Difference: +6
Þ Cards: Opare, dos Santos, Suarez



Thursday, 17 september:

EURO Cup match against Lazio Roma. Details following later



Saturday, 20 September:

Eredivisie, 7th match (TV)​

VVV 0 - 2 Ajax
de Jong (15), Rommedahl (29)​

Ajax started the match with a very attacking play. This resultated in 2 goals before the 30th minute. Fans saw a good overall performance from the Ajax team and they were never in danger of loosing this game.​

Þ Man of the match: Siem de Jong (7.9)
Þ Average rating: 7.3
Þ Goal Difference: +8
Þ Cards: dos Santos



Thursday, 24 September:

Dutch Cup 2nd round​

Ajax 3 (p) - 3 Helmond Sport
dos Santos (36), Aissati (90+1), Pantelic (110) - Veldmate (18), Velasco (52), van Leerdam (119)​

Nuyts decided to play a lot of youngsters for this match against lower division team Helmond sport and it almost came back at him to bite him in the ***. After Pantelic scored the 3rd goal for Ajax in the 110 minute during extra time, Nuyts decided to involve 16 yo Gk Areola to give him some first team playtime. 9 minutes later Areola was unable to stop Leerdam and it came to penalties. Areola then astonished everyone by stoping 2 penalties and thus securing victory for Ajax.​

Þ Man of the match: Jonathan dos Santos (8.2)
Þ Average rating: 6.9
Þ Goal Difference: /
Þ Cards: Opare, Eriksen, Eduardo



Sunday, 27 September:

Eredivisie, 8th match (TV)​

Ajax 2 - 2 ADO Den Haag
Aissati (37), Suarez (79) - Resodihardjo (39), Milic (42)​

Today we saw an overconfident Ajax playing negligent football. They didn't seem to think ADO Den Haag could pose a real threat and were punished for it. Fortunately Luis Suarez played a good match as usual and saved Ajax from a total embarresement by scoring the equaliser in the 79th minute.​

Þ Man of the match: Luis Suarez (7.7)
Þ Average rating: 6.8
Þ Goal Difference: +8
Þ Cards: none


League Table:
View attachment 31987

 

[ikke]

Thursday, 17 september:

EURO Cup details​

View attachment 31988​

Þ Man of the match: Jan Vertonghen (7.9)
Þ Average rating: 7.2
Þ Goal Scorer: Jan Vertonghen (30th minute from a free kick)
Þ Cards: none​

End of month conclusion:​

Pro’s: The EURO Cup win against difficult opponent Lazio. The team showed great determination in this match​

Con’s: The draw against ADO Den Haag in the Eredivisie. We were touted as comfortable favourites and because of this the team played very nonchalant.​

Best youth player of the month: For the second time Jonathan dos Santos. This kid has really impressed me already. He always had a rating of more than 7 in every september match he played in and was voted man of the match in the game against Helmond sport with a rating of 8.2 . He also scored a goal and improved eight of his stats.

View attachment 31993​

 

[GrizzlyReaper]

Going well mate. KIU

 

[ikke]

Oktober update​

Thursday, 1 Oktober:

EURO Cup, Group H (TV)​

FC Timisoara 1 - 2 Ajax
Karamyan (76) - Pantelic (17), Anita (87)​

Im glad with this result because Timisoara played a real solid home game. It took a lot of effort to beat them and im pleased with the team because they didn't gave up and finally scored a late winning goal.​

Þ Man of the match: Timisoara goalkeeper Pantilimon (8.0)
Þ Average rating: 7.2
Þ Goal Difference: /
Þ Cards: Vertonghen, Emanuelson



Sunday, 4 oktober:

Eredivisie, 9th match (TV)​

Roda JC 0 - 1 Ajax
Suarez (34)​

We didn't bring our most attractive football in this match, but the team did play efficient. Roda JC never brought anything dangerous in front of our goal and one goal from suarez was sufficient to take the 3 points. ​

Þ Man of the match: Gregory van der Wiel (7.5)
Þ Average rating: 7.2
Þ Goal Difference: +9
Þ Cards: none



Saturday, 17 oktober:

Eredivisie, 10th match (TV)​

Ajax 3 - 1 Willem II
Sulejmani (36), dos Santos (53, 90+4) - Akgun (56)​

Lovely performance from the Ajax boys in this match. They dominated the game from start to finish and the nice freekick from akgun in the 56th minute didn't affect their confidence. Jonathan dos Santos played one **** of a game, giving nothing but key passes and scoring 2 goals himself.​

Þ Man of the match: Jonathan dos Santos (8.7)
Þ Average rating: 7.4
Þ Goal Difference: +11
Þ Cards: Opare



Sunday, 22 oktober:

EURO Cup, Group H (TV)​

M. Haifa 1 - 1 Ajax
Katan (38) - Aissati (54)​

I thought we were going to overpower Haifa in this match. But they turned out to be a good opponent when playing at home. Israelian M. Haifa's goalkeeper Sun Israel (rofl) played a good match and stopped a lot of Ajax's chances. The Ajax players gave a decent performance, but i still would have liked to see better finishing in front of the goal. ​

Þ Man of the match: Aissati (7.6)
Þ Average rating: 7.0
Þ Goal Difference: /
Þ Cards: van der Wiel, Donald, Suarez

EURO Cup summary:​

View attachment 32276​

Wednesday, 28 oktober:

Dutch Cup, 3rd round​

Ajax 4 - 1 SC Cambuur
Suarez (21), Rommedahl (45+2, 82), Sulejmani (46) - Huymans (16)​

I told my players i expected them to win the match against lower league team Cambuur and they did their job. Cambuur made the first goal when Huymans scored a very nice freekick, but at the end Cambuur was overpowered by my players.​

Þ Man of the match: Rommedahl (8.7)
Þ Average rating: 7.6
Þ Goal Difference: /
Þ Cards: Sulejmani



End of month conclusion:

Pro’s: The players are blending well together, resulting in some very attractive football at times.

Con’s: The draw against M. Haifa although my players didn't play a bad match.

Best youth player of the month: Today one of manager Nuyts' close friends revealed that the Ajax manager is starting to fall in love with his mexican semi-wonderkid dos Santos. Together with Nuyts, a lot of fans are also falling for the 19 year old Mexican. He was named man of the match once in oktober, scored 2 senior goals and improved a lot of his stats again. Mark my words, this kid is absolutely gonna become great.

View attachment 32277


League Table:
View attachment 32278

 

[ikke]

Player promotion
View attachment 33011
Young Sneijder in action


Today Ajax announced the promotion of Rodney Sneijder to the first team. Although Sneijder has long been seen as one of the next Dutch superstars, he wasn't appreciated by former manager Martin Jol.
Current Ajax manager Nuyts stated that he is very impressed by Sneijders current ability, but noted that not all youth wonders have what it takes to get the most out of their potential. As far as world-class scouts are concerned, Sneijder does have the potential to become one of the best. It is rumored that only 5 days after his promotion, already more than 10 top clubs have scouted him and are interested in the youngster.
One reason of this large interest might also be because the name Sneijder already has quite the reputation in Europe. For the one's who haven't figured it out yet, Rodney is the little brother of Inter Milaan's famous winger Wesley Sneijder.

View attachment 33012

 

[crusho79]

GOOD LUCK MATE

THE BEST REPLACEMENT FOR SUAREZ IS MARIO MANDZUKIC FROM DINAMO , HE`S A KILLA` IN FRONT OF GOAL.

View attachment 33042
Follow my story - Steaua Bucharest
http://www.fm-base.co.uk/forum/f81/fc-steaua-bucharest-story-t29231.html#post317531

​

 

[ikke]

November update​

Gonna try a new layout starting this month. Giving a nicer layout, better overview... and a bit less work for me so i can update faster.

View attachment 33084​

Sunday, 1 november:

View attachment 33088

A good match. I'm pleased we won from our direct rivals and the fans are deighted.. A lot of offsides though, something I need to adjust if it keeps happening. Blanco played an excellent match as the right winger.


Þ Man of the match: Sebastian blanco (8.7)





Sunday, 8 november:

View attachment 33087

We played better on the pitch than Twente, but didn't finish our chances. To make things worse, Twente's Janssen scored an amzing freekick from 30 yards out and made Ajax lose for the first time in 6 Eredivisie matches.


Þ Man of the match: Twente's Theo Janssen (7.8)





Wednesday, 11 november:

View attachment 33086

A very exciting match, with many chances on both sides. At the end it was Ajax who snatched te win. Suarez was in excellent form today, tearing apart the opposition defence and scoring two goals.


Þ Man of the match: Luis Suarez (8.5)





Sunday, 22 november:

View attachment 33089

I thought I would have some difficulties beating Heerenveen in this match, but we got a fairly easy win. We created a lot more chances and roughly 50% of our shots were on target. The scoreline reflects this well. Rodney Sneijder gave a superb first appearance in the senior team, bagging a goal and being the man of the match.


Þ Man of the match: Rodney Sneijder (8.2)





Sunday, 29 november:

View attachment 33091

In some aspects a really even game, but Suarez showed again why he is the star player of this Ajax team by scoring all the goals. Still a lot of offseides though. Wondering how I can change this...


Þ Man of the match: Luis Suarez (8.5)

View attachment 33124
Qualifying group H​

Thursday, 5 november:

View attachment 33090

Ajax were much more efficient than Haifa in this match. Ajax manager Nuyts keeps the math simple: more chances = more goals. He also keeps the squad well disciplined, having fined Rob Wielaert 1 weeks wages for his violent behaviour on the pitch. Wielaert accepted his fine and tempered his aggression a bit. Ajax are now leading in Group H with 10 points from 4 games. With the win against Haifa they secured their qualification for the next Europa League round.


Þ Man of the match: Mitchell Donald (7.9)





End of month conclusion:

Pro’s: We dominated quite some matches with a wealth of chances.

Con’s: The loss against Twente, although we had the upper hand. Also the facts we get a lot of offsides in most of the matches worries me a bit.

Best youth player of the month: After dos Santos dominated this category for the first 3 months, this month Sebastian Blanco was the best performer. He made all the goals in the important match against fierce rivals Feyenoord and was voted man of the match along the way. He gave a good performance in his other matches this month as well. After having to settle in and learn the language in the first months, he now has come out of his shell and I expect a lot more excellent performances from him. He also improved some stats that are important for his duty as a winger.

View attachment 33092


League Table:

View attachment 33093

 

[ikke]

btw, does anyone know how i can change the poll? Cause I want to include Sneijder in the poll and fix the big typing mistake: it's Areola instead of Aureola

 

[ikke]

December update​

View attachment 33523​

Sunday, 6 December:​

View attachment 33521​

The Ajax squad had a hard time on the pitch in this away game. At the end it was the quality of key player Suarez that made the difference. Suarez is still top goalscorer in the Eredivisie and it is thought that there will be a lot of interest by big clubs for Suarez during the next transfer window in January.​

Þ Man of the match: Luis Suarez (8.4)​

Friday, 11 December:​

View attachment 33519​

A balanced match with only one goal scored. It was Ajax who showed just a tad more determination and composure in front of the goal to secure the win. ​

Þ Man of the match: Vurnon Anita (7.6)​

Wednesday, 30 December:​

View attachment 33518​

Again a difficult away match for the Ajax side. They didn't play a good first half, but improved a bit after some encouraging words from manager Nuyts during half-time. With the draw Ajax are now still on a 6 match unbeaten run.​

Þ Man of the match: NAC Breda's Donny Gorter (8.0)​

************​

View attachment 33524​

Thursday, 3 December:​

View attachment 33517​

A difficult away match at stadium Olimpico and we were lucky to ****** a draw. Ajax goalkeeper Steekelenburg was fantastic and he is the reason why Lazio scored only one goal.​

Þ Man of the match: Maarten Stekelenburg (9.4)​

Thursday, 17 December:​

View attachment 33520​

The result isn't pleasing, but I'm not too disappointed. I chose a lot of young of young players in this match, since we were already qualified for the next round. Also Timisoara's goalkeeper Pantilimon played an excellent match​

Þ Man of the match: Costel Pantilimon (7.8)​

Final results EURO Cup group stage:
View attachment 33505​

************​

View attachment 33522
Dutch Cup 4th Round​

Tuesday, 22 December:​

View attachment 33516​

We struggled for possession against fierce rival Feyenoord in their stadium De Kuip. Because of this the Ajax players had to go into more tackles, resulting in to much faults too. But luckily Ajax can always rely on their captain Luis Suarez to lead them to victory. After the match the Ajax fans were delighted with the win and stated Suarez was the only reason their club has qualified for the Dutch Cup quarter final.​

Þ Man of the match: Luis Suarez (7.7)​

************​

End of month conclusion:​

Pro’s: Let's see...positive points...hmm...euh...well...hmmm...​

Con’s: December wasn't the best of months. A lot of draws/losses. Maybe the only positive point is the win in the Dutch Cup. Alright, so I did find a positive point (H)​

Best youth player of the month: Daniel Opare, please stand up to come an get your award. He played very mature in his december matches and developed quite a lot as a football player.
And I'm not the only one that thinks this:
View attachment 33526​

Finally a screenshot of the latest employee of the month:
View attachment 33525​

League Table:​

Forgot to take a screenie of the table :S
But I can tell you Ajax is still in 1st place in the Eredivsie.
2nd placed team FC Twente is getting closer slowly though.​