Well well well.. this is gonna be a long post boys.
Blame other factors - part
As any fan of any team that just lost big in an important game, I will start this post by blaming anyone, but my team. Although I must admit Werder Bremen was the better team, as expected, there is no way anyone on the pitch could have been sure about that header that was counted as the second goal. Vernon Anita's toes are on the line, and he gets the ball away with his leg. The ball just could not have passed the line. Ajax got its fair share of yellow cards, but there were some instances in which Werder would have deserved a few themselves. The diving actions of Klose (just one or two) and especially Diego (just twenty or thirty) were just sickening. One yellow card for diving in the entire game is by far not enough.
The more realistic view
Although there is a core of truth in what I said above, it wouldn't have mattered very much. Werder Bremen were better in 11 vs 11, and they were better in 11 vs 10. They were not as good as I imagined though. Most of the first half, Werder did not really get any good chances. Most they got were shots from 2nd line, which were usually 3-4 meters wide. The free kick on the post in the 3rd minute by, I think, Nando, was probably the biggest chance. The second half was a different picture. A fast goal from a corner, which was a combination of incompatible decissions of defender and goalkeeper, and a goal that might not have been one. The third one was obvious, and I actually have to credit Heitinga for even being able to touch that ball. Ajax had this coming..and I will now explain why:
The bigger picture
The bigger picture. For this game Ajax could not use almost its entire defence. Emanuelson has a knee injury, Vermaelen is out for a few weeks, Grygera has some trouble as well and won't be back for another week or two either, and Ogararu was suspended if I remember correctly. Davids played about 20 minutes for Tottenham earlier this season, so he couldn't play either.
Left with very few options, Ten Cate decided to do one of the most stupid things I have ever seen him do. He decided to change the system... to 3-5-2. With only Stam and Heitinga left for defence, he decided to put Spanish midfielder Roger as the left central defender. A ridiculous choice, until you remember that Ajax did not have any defenders left. He might have put Maduro a line back, but all acceptable youth players (Schilder, Vertonghen) are on loan at small teams in the Dutch league.
On the midfield he played Sneijder, who is the best man at the moment, and Gabri with a whole bunch of mediocre players. Hedwiges Maduro hasn't played a good game for one year and a half, Olaf Lindenbergh I can't remember ever playing a good game, and Donald.. well.. Ajax had to ask his mother to pick him up from the day-care center. The boy has never even played a game on a higher level than the A1 youth squad. This was supposed to be the mighty midfield that would secure Werder Bremen. The only one who did his job, was Gabri. Diego wasn't able to do much.
The attack was shaped by Babel and De Mul. This is not even an unlogical choice, if you take 3-5-2 in mind. De Mul is fast and is able to create danger, Babel seems to be in a bit better shape than Huntelaar and at least passes ok. I would have prefered the couple Leonardo Huntelaar though. Huntelaar the killer who's at the right spot, Leonardo the one drawing 3 defenders while dribbling.
Now the problems. 3-5-2? The defence with only two real defenders, and a midfield with Lindenbergh. The man has very limited capacities and is pissed off because everyone is better than him, which causes him to be a regular..on the bench. He gets his chance, and then makes two stupid fouls and gets his second yellow about 20 minutes into the game. How stupid is that? Up until that moment, the Ajax defence had survived, but the ball never passed midfield. Both Babel and De Mul were nowhere to be found, Sneijder was covered. Ajax obviously could not rely on any automatisms, since the entire tactical sheme had been reworked to something I have never seen at Ajax before. Not to mention A1 player Donald, who has never played any other system but 4-3-3 in his entire life.
Down one man, Ajax started to defend more and more. Werder Bremen actually became less dangerous after the red card. Most shots were wide, and there were no direct confrontations between goalkeeper and striker. Werder Bremen played pretty bad as well actually. There wasn't really a system, passes were somewhat ineffective.. but still they were way better than Ajax. Ajax was lost, didn't really know what it was doing, and seemed to accept that they would never get a chance to make a goal.
The second half continued like this..though very shortly. The 1-0 didn't have a chance to break open the game, because the 2-0 followed so fast after it. At this stage Ten Cate could have done what he did only after the 3-0; take a chance. He put in Perez and Leonardo for Donald and Maduro (eg. attacking midfielder and winger for defensive midfielders), but of course it did not matter anymore. Only at this stage Werder started to creat really big chances. I can't remember how many times they hit the bar, the post, or the goalkeeper. In the end, 3-0 seems to be a very small score for the number of chances Werder had in the last 20 minutes.
Blessings
Any blessings from this game? Maybe one. 17 year old midfielder Vernon Anita came in for De Mul to take over Lindenbergh's place after the red card. The positive side is that he did not play bad. Of course he wasn't really good either, and he certainly could not make the difference, but in a Ajax playing this bad (worst under Ten Cate so far in my opinion) no one could expect such a thing from a boy this age. Also Stekelenburg, the Ajax goalie, wasn't all that bad.
Conclusion
In the end it was a case of Ten Cate not responding well to a long list of injured players. The tactical solutions he came up with, were just rubish. In theory, with the first 11 of Ajax, it could have worked. The first 11 of Ajax isn't even that much worse than the first 11 of Werder.. but with these players.. Maduro, Lindenbergh and a boy from the A1 playing on key positions that should master Werder's midfield... not a chance.
