Netherlands Brilliant Oranje - Euro Cup 2012 Thread

Insiders are saying that Bouhla will play LB with one of Bouma or Willems as his back-up. Seeing that they are back-ups it's highly likely that Bouma will be dropped. Expect Willems to make a few minutes and have the record of being the youngest player ever in the EC.

Kuyt has hardly played this season, even Bert won't go that far to give him an automatic starting spot, same reason why I don't think Afellay will start. I think he will start KJH and RVP together and see from there how it goes, if it doesn't work he can always fall back to his initial line-up with probably Afellay on the left.

KJH/RVP

RVP/Afellay - Sneijder - Robben

NDJ - MVB

Bouhla - Mathijssen - Heitinga - VDW

Stekelenburg

Nice find. Do you have something of a source?



Is right footed, but at least van Marwijk shows he understands we have a problem.

A couple of "ITK's" from Twitter. Their tweets are protected so I'm probably not allowed to post it. Anita is also right footed so it kind of makes sense that Bert is using both his most experienced backs left, no pun intended.

This was a trending topic a few hours ago. I feel sorry for him, but the show must go on I guess.

Urby Emanuelson

‏ @Urby28

Volgen

Gelezen.. Niks gehoord.. Erg verbaasd.. Grote domper..

Greetings from Canada!
Great posts everyone!
I too would also favor giving KJH and RVP a chance together as strikers and see how it goes!
GO NETHERLANDS GO!!

Posted this in the other thread a few hours ago. For some reason BS stopped alerting me when people post here so I had no idea that this discussion was even going on:

let's not kid ourselves about possible lineups at EC12 with newbies in them (John, Buttner, Maher, etc), or supper attacking lineups. The main XI will be:

Van der Wiel - Heitinga - Mathijsen - Schaars

van Bommel - De Jong

Robben - Sneijder - Kuyt/Afellay

van Persie

The back line and DMs are almost certain. BvM will want defensive security on the wings so it'll be Kuyt or Afellay (please be Afellay) there, not RvP with Huntelaar up top. RvP will probably be the main striker despite the fact that Huntelaar works better in that position (and please don't start a rage fest over this statement). The wingers will play on their reverse wings despite Robben being way more destructive when he's running towards goal rather than parallel to the 18yrd box. But we can hope that BvM liked the Robben of the England game and will be willing to play him there again

I think probably Kuyt will play at RW & Robben at LW. There is no chance of Afellay starting. If you want to comment on realistic line-ups then it will be the same as the England Line up. Afellay has not played a single 90 minutes game & Bert loves Kuyt especially with Nani/Ronaldo in the wings.


The other issue I see is Schaars is listed as a mid-fielder while Anita is listed as a Defender. I think there is a chance that Anita will play LB too. Regardless of that Bert is very thin on the mid-field with Bommel,De Jong,Strootman as the only 3 Holding Players. Again Clasie's exclusion stings.

Probably Rafa or Maher or even Afellay are being considered for the CM slot. And I have no idea for what position is Siem selected?? CM,CAM,ST as he has played in all those positions & he is being listed as a mid-fielder.

4 Drop Outs -

Lens
Narsingh
Siem/Luuk
Maher
(Possibly Willems if he is raped in a friendly & if Schaars or Anita impress at LB,then you can have the other as a possible back-up & bouma could be tried at both CB & LB although his lack of speed will be badly exposed)
There is no way Bert is going with CB's for such a high profile tournament. Bouma retains his slot. With Afellay,Kuyt & Robben there is only POSSIBLE vacant Wing Slot & who knows Siem or Luuk can play in a wide position. RVP at the wings can be tried as well. I dont think either of them will make it.

Maher I dont think has any chance. He is there to get a friendly appearance. Sneijder with VDV at his sub with Afellay as a possible 3rd Option.

Afellay is also one of Bert's favourites and the fact that he will be at the Euros speaks to how Bert rates him. If he plays well in the friendlies there is a very good chance that Bert puts him in the first XI

And Kuyt is not???

Kuyt is a Bert favourite too. And if Bert was not there Kuyt 90% would not be starting. This is probably Kuyt's last big tournament as a starter. There is no way he is starting in 2014 WC.

If Bert wants a Winger who will track down and defend against C. Ronaldo it will be Kuyt rather than Afellay(especially since Afellay is coming from an injury).

In a normal Footballing world ideally Huntelaar should have started & RVP should have played in a wider position. But then there is Bert..

Obviously Kuytis a favourite, if he wasn't I wouldnt have put him in the possible lineup as a toss up with Afellay. Afellay is way faster than Kuyt. If much rather have him chancing down Ronaldo than Kuyt. Also apparently Bert has suggested that Kuyt might not start but is more there because he's an important character. I imagine he'll be a sub in most games

When did Schaars become a proficient left fullback? Did I miss something?

I think we're all a little more obsessed with this team because we know it's pretty much a golden generation. Defence is shaky, but the midfield of NDJ, MVB and Sneijder are pure winners while the forwards are pretty much the best in the competition. Please Bert don't screw this up, I'm not sure if we will have resources this superb any time soon again.

The last few matches he wasn't there yes, but he still was picking minutes before that and wasn't so sure of his place in the starting line up any more. I think he will fight his way in again by sure willpower like he did in the beginning of the season, which he deserves respect for but if Milan gets some reinforcements as he is one of the weakest links. However why are you so convinced he had "Killer season" and that he deserves to start in the national team? I have read a lot of reports now saying similar things while they never really pushed him before, there was no "HE MUST BE IN THE TEAM!" months before or when he was on his top in Milan, only now there is an outcry.

That is good news. He is a very valuable player but not starting material. I atleast hope that huntelaar would play 30-35 minutes each to the very least. I would ideally drop anyone in any team for him because for me he is a complete goal-scorer. Atleast if Oranje is down say 0-1 & you want to cut in crosses then between Hunter & Van Persie you know who you would want to head those.


I hope he atleast gets a fair chance. I liked Robben at LW but pairing a guy like him with little defensive workrate with a shit LB is not going to work. Him & VDW have good chemistry. If I was Bert,I would actually for 1 match try & drop both the wings & allow Robben & RVP in a free role behind Hunter & play Sneijder deep & put up a strong defensive guy as LB.

I liked Robben roaming around in the England match & I feel Huntelaar shielding RVP who can like up with anyone would be a fantastic combination. IF we go 0-1 behind say germany,I hope this option is tried.

There's only now an outcry because everybody was sure that he would be in the team, now what does that say about how the country rates him?

RVP, Huntelaar, Robben & Sneijder are all top quality and represent the Netherlands best chances at scoring in the 2012 European Championships, i really think Bert should pair RVP & Huntelaar as strikers vs Denmark and see how they perform together see if they have chemistry.

Odds are high several goals will be required to defeat both the Germans and Portugal in the group stage. This is one reason i favor an attacking Netherlands lineup for EC12. We have got 2 of the top strikers in the tourny in RVP & Huntelaar lets use them and get them in the starting lineup. As we seen in the last friendly vs Germany they have a lot of scoring power. They are extremely talented and dangerous on the attack with Klose, Podolski, Muller, Gomez, Ozil & Cacau. If our backend can not hold off the German attack we will need goals from our best strikers in RVP & Huntelaar to avoid defeat in this match.

he's not, but it's not in BvM's character to try something new unless he plans on doing it again if it doesn't fail too badly. He played the second half of the England game and it seems to me that Bert thought he did alright. Bert will be satisfied with Schaars' "alright" performances at left back and stick with him. Just like he stuck with Pieters because he was alright

I think this is exactly the point. The team does NOT need a so-called "top-tier" left back to challenge the trophy. Obviously it's nice to have, but simply there isn't anybody. We can get by with a mediocre (skills-wise) left back (whether that's Schaars, Anita, Boulahrouz)-- but it's important that whoever takes up the field has unquestionable passion and commitment, along with a high level of discipline. Mistakes will bound to happen, no doubt. Hopefully no fatal mistakes that will lead to opponent's goal. And hopefully the rest of the team picks up the slacks and can cover. I am crossing fingers that the two DM's, i.e. MvB and NdJ, will be able to do all the 'clean up' job.

Well there was no hype surrounding him and a lack of typical chauvinist reporting about him like our press usually does. People weren't really talking about him much, aside from the occasional ajax fan who still follows him. Suddenly now people seem to care about him. Maybe it is because Bouma is in the squad and he isn't, which I can understand. That Bouma is in the squad should be blasted more than anything else when it comes to Van Marwijk's decisions with the squad.

I don't get enough access to the Eredevisie (largely due to laziness on my part) but I'm curious, how much better is de Jong than Strootman? From what I've seen I like Strootman. I don't like de Jong but no denying his effectiveness. How close is Kev to putting pressure on for the starting spot?

De Jong should play, Strootman has talent and had a fantastic first part of the season but was worse in the second part.

This is probably the best line-up we can hope. I think it's a bit too much asking Afellay to start knowing that he was out for so long, so I'd say put RVP on the left wing, theoretically. In practice, he'd probably wander just behind the target man Huntelaar. Same with Robben, who I think will get a free license to roam around and cut to the middle. The drawback, of course, is that the center of the field will get overly crowded, but this can be changed with the introduction of Afellay (or Narsingh) in the second half.

I don't think Afellay can play a full 90 minutes and is better coming on in the second half. he did not impress in his two appearances for Barcelona.

Strootman was very close to take over from de Jong. Against Germany he played the biggest part of the game before Nigel came on (and making a vital mistake). However Strootman had a bad second part of the season. That also has to do IMO with his knee. He can't move freely and will sooner or later have to take surgery to fix it again. Strootman in this condition has to sit down on the bench and Nigel can play. After the Euro's they will have to fear both for their spot as Clasie, Anita and Maher (DM or AM in the Dutch NT system?) are coming through. All those 3 players have probably higher handling speed than Strootman (with him having other quality's over them also of course). IMO Van Marwijk is developing a crush on Maher. Then again, van Bommel is probably stepping down creating a spot to fill up. Interesting times in DM.

What does everyone think about Spain & England's chances in EC12?

Are Spain still as good as they were in WC10?

Can England perform better under their new manager Roy Hodgson?

Thank you in advance.