Van Gaal makes so much sense with that choice, it's almost frightening to have so much common sense at the helm. Too bad Lens was injured. Would have loved him in striker position today as Kuyt was unable to create danger on his own. Too slow.
Janmaat and Vermeer were the only two decent players tonight as far as I'm concerned. Van Gaal was lucky the Germans weren't particularly bothered. I hope BMI gets a chance as a central defender soon, he deserves it. Vlaar is a totally nondescript defender who brings nothing. Heitinga and BMI would be a nice defensive duo. I think we'll just have to come to terms with the fact that we have no decent left back, let's not let the rest of defence bleed for it.
Schaken did oke. Hes is in many ways a 1trickpony, he runs past his man and gets a good cross in. Narsingh is more talented and overal better, but we all know that. Schaken can be usefull in games where he can play to his strength, but he never was going to be a starter. Only highlight of the match for me was to see Janmaats 1-2 with the striker and getting a good shot on goal. He's done that many times for Feyenoord this season and is an important part of Feyenoords attack. Janmaat is very different than vnRhijn/vdWiel, I hope to see more of him in the NT.
Completely agree with everything here. I don't know how BMI ended up as a left back, but he's clearly a CB. He's good defensively (although he didn't really get tested in this game) and he passes the ball well, but he lacks the qualities to help out the winger. I came to terms with the fact that we don't have a perfect LB quite a while ago. The question then becomes, what qualities do you want the LB to have? It's why I didn't have as much of a problem with Willems playing at the Euro as many people did. Willems has the skills to help out the winger, and is good on the ball. Or you can put Emanuelson there, who won't do too much defensive work, but will help out and can provide a lot of support to the winger. Left back is, however, much more stable now than it was under BvM who accepted that we didn't have a good LB and played Pieters there who can't defend (he just stays far enough away from his man that he can't get turned inside out) or attack, or pass the ball.
GYYAHHHH!!! He's still a LB with serious deficiencies, and so you must choose what qualities you want from the LB. My point isn't that Urby is a good LB, my point is that he has things to offer there that others don't, and things he lacks that others don't
My take aways: 1) boring game... 2) Vermeer was quick off the line and responsive. Scared me with his kicking but that is to be expected. Nice call up for him but its hard to think he is anything but 3rd string right now 3) Vlaar is a true CB. I think a lot of you guys are completely against him due to his lack of creativity/passing(and rightly so) but at least he is consisent and does his job as a CB well. He adds the strength at the back too. Personally, he is growing on me. With a shaky defense (at best), he adds the strong, consisent stopper that our team needs. Let's be honest, Heitinga is no true 'stopper'. I want to see BMI get a string of starts in this position to see which is better for this position. 4) BMI has awesome through balls, is good defneisivly but you can tell he is somewaht inexperienced. One for the future... as a CB, not a LB. 5) De Jong/another holding midfielder capable of strong defending is necessary with our above noted shaky defense. His backpassesd are infuriating at time but at least he keeps posession with them. he always wins a lot of balls in the midfield which we want with our counter attacking team. 6) I was really happy to see Afellay in the midfield. He didn't have a particularly good game but the speed, energy and creativity will be awesome. I would love to see him paired with Sneijder for a good run. They would make a good pair (i think) 7) Shacken, just no. Please. Being rewarded is one thing, but he is just not the caliber. 8) Robben seemed like he didn't care and was afriad to do much. Maybe afraid of another injury? Maybe didn't want to compete against his teammates? Zero effort 9) Kuyt is over the hill. He (probably) wont start in the WC so why start him now? give younger and future starters the chance? I do love his effort though I would love to see a: Elia-Hunter/RVP-Robben Sneijder-Afellay De Jong LB(Willems Pieters whatever)-BMI-Heitinga-VDW(atleast a chance again) Krul
sorry, but that's a pretty shitty ending since that's not what the story was about in the first place.
After hearing one starter after another drop from this game. I knew it was going to turn into a "injury free/let's get this game over with" type of game... And infortunetly I was right... At least no injuries.. We have the same feelings on our board about this game.. It was a major snooze fest! I feel sorry for the fans that paid money to watch this.. It seemed like the NT coaches were asked to lay low, because of the heavy domestic and CL campaign still ahead.. We had in total; piggy, Khedira, boetang, badstuber, Ozil, Klose, Gomez, schmelzer missing that game. It was interesting to see a new lineup and formation used with muller/gotze/reus.. 2 very young players debut, holtby, neustader and then there was draxler..