Dutch players at home and abroad worthy to be tracked in connection with the Dutch NT - Part 2

Why is Robben here portrait as moody? RVP could be a bit moody back in the day. Sneijder, yes, could be moody. Davids. Kluivert. I could name many Dutch NT players, but what is this moody talk about Robben? He always has his Donald Duck face on and is a such a cool guy. The climate in Dutch dressing room is I think the best in 100 years. There were always problems. Now I always see Robben with a smile on his face. He wants to play football really bad and enjoys every minute he can. Boy what a difference with the years before him. We didn't qualify in 2002 because of this reason. People not charching up for the games. We did beat England and Germany in friendly's. There was enough quality. Just to much unmotivated players. Robben never has motivation problems. You know who puts on a moody face when Robben scores? Ribery. Even after the Schalke goal in half final of the Cup he was the one who didn't celebrate with him.

The biggest eyeopener for Bayern fans must have been his international game against England. Before that he was hopelessly out of form. Or you could say he was made so insecure that he passed when he should shoot and shoot when he should have passed. He was not allowed to be himself. Then he comes to NT and he single handily took out England with Maradonna 1986 like goals. You can't do that when you are out of form. So he is underachieving at Bayern and he has said himself that he felt trust in Dutch NT, indicating he didn't get that at Bayern.

Beckenbauer can be nullified here, but he provides quote's for journalists and those get in papers and ignite discussions and in the post match England interview Robben showed very clear it was getting under his skin. He said 2 papers were at war with him. There was a moment in a Bayern game before that international game where I saw how sad he was made, making a pass where he should have shot himself. Confidence: 0,0.

To extract a problem with Robben big match performances on the basis of 2 games is highly unscientific. First of all he scored big goals in knock out for NT and Club not only in group stage. Secondly I have read posters here on Bigsoccer that would put him in a world XI team, because he is a big match player. I agree with that. Of all players in NT, he and Sneijder are the big match players. Here I have a recent piece of one of the better journalist in worldfootball Article Jonathan Wilson before CL game against Madrid singleling Robben out again (big match player):

He also had the vital assist on Gomez for a 2-1 win against Augsburg. The difference between 3 and 1 point .. again.

The point is that in a competition you get 3 points for a win. Manchester United got trashed by City but who is on top in EPL? There have been countless moments where Bayern has blew it. If Bayern's analyses is we blew it against Dortmund then I have a little surprise for them: They will lose the title for a third time. Dortmund have Reus next year and that is another DYNAMIC player. Robben and Ribery give a false sense of dynamics. Against mediocre site's their class enables them to punish and Bayern becomes noob team bashers, but better site's need to be approached with more dynamic gameplay and that is not offered and that also has to do with Gomez.

Look at Gomez movement vs that of Lewandowski.



Gomez is the one who checks out at big matches, because his movement is not dynamic enough, making Bayern to predictable. It's always Robben and Ribery who need to initiate attack. That is easily to counter with double marking. On top level you need more dynamic strikers causing surprise. This is also the reason why Klose is or was (I don't know the current state) giving Gomez such a hard time for NT, despite he has now scored 2 times less goals or so in competition. In big matches he can't rely on his wingers so much, everybody has to carry his own weight, he needs to create something on his own. He can't. You will see the same against Madrid in CL. Mourinho will know exactly what to do. Shut down the wingers with double marking and Gomez becomes toothless. It's to simple and that has to do with a striker that is not dynamic enough among other things.

Same in Dutch NT RVP vs Huntelaar (Germany: Klose vs Gomez). Huntelaar is a statue on legs. Scores but if we would go with that model in big matches Dutch NT is to easily shut down. RVP brings dynamic play or enables the possibility to it (not used with Sneijder behind him).

We see the same discussion at United. Hernandez vs Welbeck.


Dortmund travel the right path to become top site. Such dynamic game-play. That's the future. Hope they can keep their team together and make Bundesliga more interesting.

Third, the reason why people were not mad at Robben after the WC in Netherlands, is because he was the only chance there could be a win. You can blame his miss, but who else would even get into that position? RVP? Huntelaar? LOL. Same with Bayern against Dortmund. At least he gets into those positions. He was the one getting the penalty (he caused it). He gets in front of goal to score.





Anyway, if Dutch NT gets into a final again, my first 2 names on the sheet are Sneijder and Robben. Those are the big game players. I don't have to reason or Youtube that with evidence. You feel that when you have seen all his games. Robben can decide games on his own on the biggest stage. I will never forget the expression on Henry's face when France came back 2-1 Euro 2008 and Robben bangs in a goal within a minute from an impossible angle. Priceless. Or just the most recent game for NT:


[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgW9bHJ88_w"]Arjen Robben Goal of the Year / Beast Mode vs England HD - YouTube[/ame]


[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UARwHb8II4Y"]Arjen Robben Goal vs England (3-2) 2012 - YouTube[/ame]


I think Neeskens nails it right on the head. Bayern knew what to got. Robben is Robben. They saw him at PSV, Chelsea, Madrid and Dutch NT. They exactly knew what he was. Want to mold him into a different kind of player? Not going to work. Then be honest and wrap the relationship up.

 

..... and at least another yellow for Puyol, meaning 10 vs 11.

 

If you mean you don't know how a ref would have acted, then that is always true. For me it was a second yellow and Robben did stay on his feet.


[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=po5TJSllge0"]Robben Feat Puyol - You Spin My Puyol - YouTube[/ame]

 

Also, I see a tendency to be offensive and non analytically and people feel offended at both sides. Let's have a cool discussion. Also there is enough about Robben to celebrate then his misses.


Cheers.

 

Let's forget Dutch / German nationality for a second. No one likes negative characteristics attributed to nationality. All discussions that road will lead in flame like discussions and are non productive.

Let's talk about Robben the player. Do you agree that Robben's bad form after his injury and before the England Holland game could be attributed to low confidence from him, created by the outside or even his own team members?