Feyenoord is too dour, because he lives in Rottendamn and supports the 5th best team in the N'lands. For those of us familiar with the Friendly North, we know that a young guy consistently getting the nod in the Ered, even on a crap team (esp in D) who has a "big club" pedigree (like say, MM or EPB) will not be written off. And then scoring a goal near the end of the season... kid knows how to bump his own thread, so to speak.
Dutch players with more than 1500 minutes of starts at centerback in the top-5 leagues of Europe-- '18-'19 Season Player Age Nathan Ake 24 Virgil van Dijk 27 Kongolo 25 Bram Nuytinck 28 Stefan de Vrij 27 Gouweleeuw 27
Seasons in which the players first broke through to 1500 minutes Nathan Ake ('15-'16) Virgil van Dijk ('15-'16) Kongolo ('17-'18) Bram Nuytinck (17-'18) Stefan de Vrij ('14-'15) Gouweleeuw ('16-'17)
The top Dutch CBs, by and large, are certainly not breaking through at a precocious age. I do wonder about his situation at ManCity, if the club are forced to sell. I'd hate to see him go to too competitive of a situation in which can't get minutes.
He can't play in ManCity because he won't qualify for a work permit. The whole signing was bizzare, but they will have to loan or transfer him.
Central defenders, as goalies, get better by playing more, so it's natural for the CD's to come full bloom later.
The moment we all go from - Plays regularly for regulation fodder, so he stinks to... Scored once in the Netherlands - WHY ISN'T HE STARTING FOR CITEH!! (Yes, I know this is strawman hyperbole, but it amuses me - and applies to me too...)
What might have been if Juventus had bought him for a million or if Porto's first team made a permanent transfer.
Well, as I said before, the big clubs of Europe keep a close eye on the Eredivisie and scout/watch the low flyers too. So for sure EPB has been watched by many big club scouts since he plays here. Proof of this is this: FC Groningen has been talking with Barcelona's about Ludovit Reis, an 18 yo midfielder. https://www.dvhn.nl/groningen/Barce...html?harvest_referrer=https://www.google.com/ It's hard to get for most, as people regard the Eredivisie as a Mickey Mouse league and the non top clubs as scrub teams not worthy to look at, but hey...The big guns of Europe think otherwise. They watch every Eredivisie club, so even NAC. Would love to read a report on a NAC match from that Barcelona scout.
In fairness I think we here are more upset by the in between years where he wasn’t sold up skc or getting regular first team minutes and had his development stagnate. Playing cb in the eredivisie is great and we just wish he were doing it starting two years ago (and maybe at Ajax now)
Schoten: Shots off Shots on target Blocked shots Reddingen: saves Match statistics: Hoekschoppen: Corners Kaarten: Yellow cards Red cards Overtredingen begaan: Offenses/fouls committed Buitenspel: Offside
How close would he be if he played in all the Gold Cup games? I doubt he even gets called up for those and if he did that he'd start all of them. However, I haven't heard the rules for EPL in a while. Anyway EPB in EPL is such a natural.
I doubt it too but the way he's playing I'd like to see him at least at a camp. We have a lot of big backs but he and Richards are the mobile type we need to partner with the bigger guys.
Maybe ManCity will loan him to Heerenveen. They sold Kik Pierie to Ajax next season, so they need a CD.
After today it's going to be very hard to argue that Ajax is not a Top 8 club in Europe. They're outplaying one of the faves to win it all. Ten Hag has them working like a well-oiled machine.
I am wondering with Nac Breda going down will they still be City's go to club in Holland when they are looking to loan players?