Qualification for the intermediate round is no longer in danger, but Ajax suffered its second consecutive defeat in the Europa League on Thursday evening in its own Johan Cruijff Arena. SS Lazio was too strong with 1-3. VoetbalPrimeur gives report marks to the people of Amsterdam.
Remko Pasveer – 5.5: For the fifth game in a row, Pasveer scored at least two goals. Once the ball went through his legs, once the goal-line technology was unfavorable to him and once Pedro was simply too good. With the ball at his feet it was again below par.
Devyne Rensch – 6: AS Roma is still after him and so Rensch could have made himself popular against the arch-rival of perhaps his future club. That didn’t work, although there was little to criticize about his game. Sometimes he acted as an extra attacker.
Josip Sutalo – 6: the start was difficult for Sutalo, who was not given time to build up quietly from the chasing Lazio attacker. Let that be his weakness. The Croat was then able to show what he does excel in: winning one-on-one duels.
Youri Baas – 5: 2024 seems to be a bit too long for Baas. The defender is increasingly unable to camouflage his lack of experience as a center defender, including in the first half against Lazio. He messed up several times.
Jorrel Hato – 5.5: he received a yellow card in the first half. It was expensive, because Hato was on edge. And so he will not be there on January 21 against RFS from Latvia. All in all it wasn’t his night.
Jordan Henderson – 5: with a hospital ball to Taylor, Henderson led to the first Lazio goal. Afterwards, the Ajax captain recovered somewhat, but it was not enough to erase his very expensive mistake.
Kenneth Taylor – 6: After Godts’ substitution, the midfielder with the most drive had to play hanging on the left side. It was not what Taylor deserved, because the midfielder did well, without really breaking free.
Steven Berghuis – 4.5: After his lingering injury, Berghuis is not yet a shadow of the player he was in the European preliminaries. At 10 he didn’t seem to be progressing. At the moment, Berghuis does not justify his upcoming contract extension.
Bertrand Traoré – 6: there is something non-binding about Traoré’s playing. He showed nice things with the ball, but just as often things went wrong. With a devastating swipe he put Ajax (briefly) next to Lazio. There was nothing optional about that.
Brian Brobbey – 5: Brobbey should have scored at least once with his head, but the striker – according to Farioli ‘in the fittest phase of his Ajax career’ – was once again unhappy in the finish. Frustration also begins to mount within himself.
Mika Godts – 6: according to Wesley Sneijder he is ‘perhaps the only Ajax player from the outside category’. Godts still has to prove whether that is the case. It is clear that something always happens when he gets the ball. After about an hour the tank was empty.
Substitutes
Kian Fitz-Jim – 6: came on for Godts after 56 minutes and tried to make the best of it, but regularly lost out in the personal duels with the physical Italians.
Wout Weghorst – x: came on for Brobbey after 72 minutes and played too short for an assessment.
Chuba Akpom – x: came on for Berghuis after 72 minutes and played too short for an assessment.
Anton Gaaei – x: came on for Rensch after 78 minutes and played too short for an assessment.
Christian Rasmussen – x: came on for Taylor after 78 minutes and played too short for a review.
Trainer
Francesco Farioli – 5.5: In Amsterdam the word ‘fatigue’ has been banned. In any case, Ajax’s supporters will not have received an energy boost from the match against Lazio. Farioli can’t get it right at the moment.
