Round of 16 - Ajax vs Real Madrid

Who will progress?

florentino perez. this kind of match up suits us, especially the first leg away. i believe ajax will try and go for the win, which may be their undoing, unless of course our defense decides to go on vacation. other than that, happy with the draw

The GOAT's of CL will progress.

Ajax all the way imo. Long live Cruyff and Long live Zigra.

Ay dios mio

Frenkie and De Ligt Auditioning

Refuses to participate in the transfer market because he feels it's inflated. Gives millions of euros to UEFA to draw Ajax.

#Florentino, you beauty

Collblanc wrote:Who will progress?

I think Ajax can do this. 50-50 IMO.

Ajax is a pretty good team.. I'm not happy with this draw.

madrid

Best and most even game in the last 16. We'll go YOLO and Ajax will have half the team auditioning. Can see a 5-5 draw with Ajax progressing on away goals

Madrid under Solari scoring 5 goals over 2 games? Please Hala, be serious.

Uff I forgot scratch that. I've still got CSKA nightmares

Kinda crazy considering Real are coming off winning the competition that I give Ajax a legit shot at progression

Real's quality should see them through but it wouldn't surprise me to see the upset

An early round elimination would probably force Flo and co to actually invest properly w.r.t squad building but I rather not have that. Not ready for the banter tbh.

I've watched a few sporadic Ajax games since the start of last season, and I've been paying particular attention to their star up and comers in De Ligt and Frenkie De Jong. Zigra, VanDEEZ, what does Frenkie do that sets him apart from other players? It's been quite easy for me to see that De Ligt is a very solid defender, but I honestly haven't noticed anything out of the ordinary in Frenkie. He moves similarly to Martin Ødegaard, but seems to be more limited in technique, and he plays as a defender!? I used to be under the impression that he was a midfielder, and I still think he looks like a midfielder playing in the wrong position.

His ability to spot a pass seems to be above average, again, I can't help but see similarities between him and Ødegaard in that respect. I just find it really odd that he's playing as a defender, when he has the qualities of an attacking midfielder. As a defender, from what I can tell, he's not particularly tall, not particularly strong, doesn't really stand out in any way that a defender should, but he's pretty good at shielding the ball, has decent pace, and seems to be a very good passer of the ball.. for a defender I won't be surprised if it turns out that he's Pep's love child. I'll pay extra attention to him when we face them in the next round of the CL. Thus far, I've had a hard time assessing what kinds of qualities he possesses that warrant the hype he's been getting. I assume it's his vision and passing ability, but I don't understand how he's expected to utilize that properly when he's playing as a center back.

Good draw should smash them easily, but if a certain 2 players get the start like against cska then its gonna be another unnecessary struggle

Thimmy wrote:I've watched a few sporadic Ajax games since the start of last season, and I've been paying particular attention to their star up and comers in De Ligt and Frenkie De Jong. Zigra, VanDEEZ, what does Frenkie do that sets him apart from other players? It's been quite easy for me to see that De Ligt is a very solid defender, but I honestly haven't noticed anything out of the ordinary in Frenkie. He moves similarly to Martin Ødegaard, but seems to be more limited in technique, and he plays as a defender!? I used to be under the impression that he was a midfielder, and I still think he looks like a midfielder playing in the wrong position.

His ability to spot a pass seems to be above average, again, I can't help but see similarities between him and Ødegaard in that respect. I just find it really odd that he's playing as a defender, when he has the qualities of an attacking midfielder. As a defender, from what I can tell, he's not particularly tall, not particularly strong, doesn't really stand out in any way that a defender should, but he's pretty good at shielding the ball, has decent pace, and seems to be a very good passer of the ball.. for a defender I won't be surprised if it turns out that he's Pep's love child. I'll pay extra attention to him when we face them in the next round of the CL. Thus far, I've had a hard time assessing what kinds of qualities he possesses that warrant the hype he's been getting. I assume it's his vision and passing ability, but I don't understand how he's expected to utilize that properly when he's playing as a center back.

i have been trying to figure out that De Jong lad as well, there is an unbelievable amount of fapping about him on social medias.

Maybe, it's me but i dont see all of what people see. He has remarkable mobility for a DM, in a way that reminds me of Kovacic actually but he is a bit overrated or overhyped imo

There's no easy game for us this season. Can see us easily lose this. Depends on whether Ajax sell during the winter... i actually like their midfield a lot.

De Jong has good technique and makes good/confident decisions with the ball. There's an ease about him that gives confidence to his teammates....

de Jong is nothing special.

Just like anyone else from the de Jong clan in football.

Dutch football has this uncanny ability to have the most pretentious corners of fandom just pleasure themselves to its talent and for reasons not to concealed once you really think about it.

de Ligt is the one to watch out for, not him.

On the other hand Ajax can beat this currently Cristiano-less Real Madrid who look utterly average. I like ten Tag's Utrecht and clearly he has a good hand in potential in this current Ajax squad.

One of those ties that can actually be a big surprise.

Looking forward to seeing David Neres to be honest. I was impressed by him during the group stage.

Having watched both de Ligt and de Jong for Ajax and Netherlands a few times, I'd say they are both meh.

de Ligt reminds me of John Stone except less athletic and not as experienced, prone to more errors than Stones was at his first year at City. He has potential to be very good but he ain't no Vincent Kompany or Van Dijk.

de Jong is certainly a massively overhyped midfielder at the moment and there is so much talk about him these days like he is the next Verratti. He even has more of a hype around him compared to Eriksen back when he played for Ajax, you could tell the Dane was going to be a good player because of his awareness and ball playing techniques even though I've never been a huge fan of him. While de Jong has good passing ability he doesn't seem to possess much of an intelligence in orchestrating the play like a deep lying midfielder would nor the technique of a box to box.

Arquitescu wrote:de Jong is nothing special.

Just like anyone else from the de Jong clan in football.

Dutch football has this uncanny ability to have the most pretentious corners of fandom just pleasure themselves to its talent and for reasons not to concealed once you really think about it.

The hype stems from Barca fanbois seeing the next Xavi or Busquets in every midfielder who is slightly above average in his passing and shielding of the ball or the next Guardiola in any coach who plays gung-ho football. Last year it was Sampaoli and Jean-Seri (next Xavi, lol), now it's Setien and De Jong.

Horribly uninformed fanbase.

Weird that Ajax's best player ( Ziyech ) isn't talked about that much compared to De Jong and De Ligt.

Goes to show that picking the "wrong" national team can really affect the way you're perceived in Europe.