Probably one of the most bizarre transfer windows in England in recent memory.... record-breaking fee for Bale, Spurs' spending free, Chelsea's loading up midfielder, Liverpool's squad reconstruction, and now penny-count Wenger buying Ozil? Wow! Looking for some craziness happening today, especially response by M.U. Hopefully they get one or two players who can link up with RvP. My hope is a last ditch recruit of Sneijder... Won't happen, of course, but one can dream
Actually Gala has made known that United did put in a bid in, but that Sneijder rejected it. Both United and Gala (who rejected multiple bids from different clubs as well) apparently disagreed with you that he is washed up. Washed up.... Sneijder is a Dutch NT legend and is making a comeback at his current club. He is also selected by van Gaal who was positive about the improvements Sneijder was making.
Kagawa cant make a game as a sub @ MU. They play a 4-4-2 and there's no place for a No.10 who cant defend. They have a better player in Kagawa not making it. Sneijder is a Dutch NT Legend and will be. But whether or not MU put a bid Gala Pres said if there's a 10M+ bid he would probably be sold. Maybe MU tried a Loan bid, kind of like Kaka. Maybe that bid itself was an embarassement like Kaka. Sneijder I feel can still weave a bit of magic maybe once is 2-3 games but he is over if you expect him to play in the 2010 level time. He is past that level. He is @ Kaka level @ 2011.
I looked up the exact meaning of washed up and I did not like that label being attached to such a Dutch NT legend. Giving up on such a player is cheap in my eyes, opportunistic and a sign that a "fan" has never really invested deeply in the player or the Dutch NT. I hear a lot of "maybe", meaning you don't know. Other teams came knocking as well and Sneijder recently came out that he chose Gala over Liverpool as the first one is playing for trophy's and gets into the CL. Whether he bases his choice on the right parameters or not, it was his choice. Have you watched his recent Gala games? His trainer came out saying he was one of the fittest players. Sneijder worked all summer with ten Cate to get back to fitness. Inter did not play him for months to kick him out of the club, while he was willing to listen. They wanted to play it hard while that was not necessary. He was prepared to think with the club and come to a solution. The club cut off communication and side tracked him. Ugly way to treat a man who was part of a triple winning team. Now it's my turn to use "maybe". Maybe Sneijder was fed up with him being toyed with and being played all over the team (striker, left winger controlling midfield) after Mou left and started to perform and train less. Then he was sidetracked. Maybe in this new year and with the arrival of a promising winger (Bruma) Sneijder can lift his game again and do a Pirlo? Why would players that go through a bad period be written off so quickly? DDR at Roma also dipped last season. That can happen. We don't know if the coin falls towards the good side in this case. In his recent interview he looked eager to be there at the WC and in the last Euro despite his fitness still looked to me as the player caring the most. I don't like how fast Sneijder is written off.
Blah Blah lots of sugar coated words. Gala are in the CL. I did see Sneijder improving in the Leagues way more than what he was a few months back but its still not Sneijder Version 2010. Sneijder has to be near his 2010 form because he is a guy who does not give the team any balance. He is way too left sided for a No.10 and has little defensive discipline making the formation more of a 4-2-3-1 than a 4-3-3. When Maher played Oranje played a 4-3-3 where there were 3 Players who defended and attacked and not a trigger happy left sided 0 Defensive Mid-fielder. Sneijder has to have that much extra class to the young guys because regardless of how hard he tries his in-build style of current stamina will never match these young guys. Pirlo and Sneijder are different players. Sneijder is a No.10 Besides this whole concept of having a fast runner and Sneijder putting him through cant be a saving grace. You cant have such a limited No.10 where you are always looking for brilliant long balls. You need your No.10 to do everything and everything to work to his need. Players must adjust to the system. The entire system can't be tweaked and toyed to suit one player's need
Sneijder had a great pre-season and is slowly becoming the player he used to be. He can't play as a winger, and Terim doesn't understand that and plays him as a winger in several matches, while he is a pure AM. Give him a few months to prove himself and you'll be seeing a much better player. While he is playing in a weaker league, he plays every season CL football unlike Liverpool.
Against Portugal we missed finesse and creativity at the front. Robben was not a shadow of himself. The claim that Sneijder has to reach 2010 level to become a justified option (due to his weaknesses) must be held against the alternatives. The presumption that Maher can operate so well in a 4-3-3 with 2 half players and a controller is not panning out at the moment at PSV. Maher is one of the worst players for them in that system. Very pale. Schaars dominates too much. However last game he could not even perform good first touch on the edge of the box which resulted in missing his target. vdV, Sneijder and Maher all excel as a 10. Maher is not such a defensive force you might think, or he already might have lost his teeth in this department. In his first year at AZ I saw him battling much more. Against AC Milan away for example he went in very softly. Sneijder might not be a defensive force, but he does his part in chasing and pressing. Also when we talk about limited, we also have to look offensively. Is it too much to ask from Maher to make more goals and assists in Eredivisie that is not known for it's hard conditions to get on the scoreboard? Even your friend Jetro Willems has scored more goals than Maher in the Dutch league. What was Maher's output during the U21 Euro? To bash Sneijder for being limited, Maher better up his offensive contributions as that is what I also want from a 10. Despite being horrible against China, Sneijder did score a beauty of a goal. He also has a number of assists in qualification. The Pirlo, DDR examples were given for career rebound examples, not position equation reasons. Pirlo left AC Milan where he had dried up. New environment, new stimuli trigger people to reinvent themselves sometimes. DDR stayed with Roma, but his last game was very good again while he comes back from a bad season for the club. What bothered me is the way you write Sneijder off. That is not suger coating. It's the normal process after a player has done his utmost best to win a WC title for your NT and who shows he cares a lot when he loses. Despite everything, for me after we lost from Germany at the Euro I felt that Sneijder cared the most. However somebody who is occupied being outraged about Willems giving an elbow to his Muller would not notice such things. It's easy to point out Sneijder's weaknesses, but then we have to do the same for his competition.
The fall Sneijder has been through with him being compared to Maher shows he is a washed up player being compared to an upcoming rookie with loads of faults. Maher will improve in 2-3 years and he might never be as good as Sneijder 2010 but he will be lot better than Sneijder Washed up Version 2. Besides I dont want to get into Willems elbowing Muller , a player about who I could not give a shit. The problems is Willems is the Worst Defensive LB in the last 20 years of Football I have seen
It was really eerie to see Bayern dominate yesterday against Manchester City... I didn't watch the second half, couldn't accept it any longer.
^ The final 10 minutes were interesting as ManCity snatched a goal and then Boateng got rightly sent off by Kuipers. I'm not sure any of the English teams have enough quality to win the CL this year. Bayern, Madrid and Barca are probably the class teams.
Mourinho is always a guarantee for some magic and drama. Both Manchester clubs are without a chance and Arsenal, as usual, becomes rapidly overrated. In my opinion a too small squad and overall not good enough.
Very tight in the Eredivisie this year--9 clubs within 1 win on the top It seems every team has trouble winning away from home except Vitesse---this could be the difference maker
There is one thing I donot get. In the Jupiler League the teams Young Ajax, Young FC Twente and Young PSV play. As far as I know these are in fact the reserve teams. How is it they get beaten up by the second division clubs. Is the replacement players quality of those clubs that bad?
Those teams don't have a chance to play in a set formation for any amount of time. Sometimes it's a reserve team other days it's a glorified A1 depending on the needs of the first team. Most Jupiler League teams can easily physically dominate or outlast those youth players. International duties are also a problem as the Jupiler League has no break.
Ajax pretty much play with a youth team each week with only a couple of exceptions (Enoh & Castillion who are still with the team as nobody wants to purchase their contracts). As Antario2 notes, the physical domination is one key reason since most Jupiter teams average age is much higher. The only reason for the presence of the three teams is the bankruptcies of some longstanding clubs and the unwillingness of some 'amateur' sides to step up to a higher league.
How is the home support for these Jong sides? Do they get a nice crowd or pretty much play in front of friends & family (if that)?
Between 500 and a 1500 for most games. Jong PSV managed 8000 or so when they allowed free access two weeks ago.
Strootman with assist in Roma's 1-0 10-man win against Udinese(bradley the scorer). Strootman had a good game. What stood was was the intangibles, his game-reading ability, he knew when to pass, whom to pass, when to run, where to run, etc. He is showing good growth and has a good understanding with De Rossi. His passing from the back was good on the aspect that he had an eye for his team-mate's run. He is going to lock that CM Spot for Oranje. Clasie, De Guzman and others will have to fight for the DM Spot.
I doubt your assertion, the last match they lost at home 4-0 against Dordrecht if I'm correct had the following first team players: Vermeer,van der Hoorn, Enoh, Bazoer, Lobotka, Castillion, Sana. The others I am not familiar with:Martina, Riedewald, Kuipers,Vermey. So seven players that are ment to be the first team replacements. You cannot seriously claim that they are overpowered by Jupiler league players. Unless of course the Ajax management is totally incompetent.
Bazoer is 17 and Lobotka is 18, neither is a first team regular. Basically 7 youth players and 5 first team reserves who lost from the team that is top of the league. Not to mention they were down to 10 players for two thirds of the match.
@Feyenoordfan - If you look at the Jong Ajax teamsheets for the WHOLE season you will see that this past week's match was an exception. van der Hart is the usual keeper; he was not in the starting lineup Monday as FdB wanted him to play in the cup tie on Tuesday. The other four players that you were not familiar with are all youth players and other than Kuipers don't play much for Jong Ajax. Vermij is normally a striker who started on the left wing and picked up a Red card that at worst should have been a Yellow or a no call. If you put a team of teenagers against a group of players in the their mid-20s they will be overpowered.