Anyone else think that Ihattaren is a bit of a headless chicken player? After watching him some more you can see he is clearly talented, and I know he's highly regarded, but I feel like he's too in love with his dribbling and will end up getting in trouble as he moves up if he doesn't adapt his game. I don't see him on the same tier as Gravenberch tbh.
FC Barcelona have set their sights on signing Groningen midfielder Ludovit Reis.The Spanish club have already held talks over the 18-year-old, who is a Netherlands U19 international. (Dagblad van het Noorden)— Dutch Football 🇳🇱 (@FootballOranje_) April 8, 2019 Any idea how good he is? Never seen him in action.
This is the u17 squad... https://www.onsoranje.nl/nieuws/jeu...e-selectie-onder-17-voor-ek-eindronde-ierland I recognized the much-hype Ki-Jana Hoever, Brian Brobbey and Nuci Unuvar. Seems like there could be other bright talents that could or should have been included, namely Xavi Simmons, Ryan Gravenberch and Mo Ihattaren. Maybe they are not eligible, age-wise. Too lazy to look up.
The Netherlands could have won that game 5 - 0. They completely dominated Sweden. The standouts for the Dutch team were Kenneth Taylor, Devyne Rensch and Anass Salah-Eddine (for me). Ian Maatsen was quite good in his DM role as well, and Unuvar was great in the first half. The young Lions ended up winning 2 - 0 with goals from Brobbey (great turn and ball from Unuvar to slide him in 1v1 on the keeper), and Maatsen (nice shot from outside the box after some measured build-up). I also watched the England/France game and the English team was very poor outside of Madueke (who went off injured, he plays for PSV youth actually). The French team though has a few really strong players...Lucien Agoume and Georginio Rutter were the best two. I think the Netherlands can beat them both though.
Netherlands play today against England at 10 am EST. This is a pretty big game since England managed to draw France. England didn't look good at all in that game though and the only player I thought that looked dangerous on their team plays for PSV (Madueke). I don't think they should be able to hang with us...our team looks much better, but youth games can be funny.
Looked like a pretty straight-forward "W" for the U17. Final score 5-2. Through to QF with a game to spare (vs. France next). Found this from the UEFA.com match info... Full-time verdict: A dominant Dutch display from the moment they took the lead, creating chances for a sixth too. The holders were simply too hot for England to handle here.
Highlight from the match vs. Sweden.... Brobbey could have had a couple more goals. He looks like a man among boys with his wide body. Strong and fast. Lukaku is the first one came to mind when I saw him. Nice talent! He can't be that far away from Ajax senior... hopefully he's getting plenty of lessons by The Hunter how to put the ball in the net.
Netherlands U17's lost 2-0 to France today in their final European Championship group game. Looks like it was the "B" team. No Brobbey, Unuvar, Maatsen, Hoever, etc. Will face Belgium in the QF on Sunday.
Brobbey and Unuvar have played a lot of matches in the last month; it was probably a good idea to rest them for the QF.
Absolutely amazing goals from Salah Eddine and Hoever, Netherlands have also qualified for the world cup later in the year, I would imagine Gravenberch and Inhattaren would be available for that tournament also. 2002 is an amazing group for dutch football.
https://www.vi.nl/nieuws/europese-topclubs-zitten-achter-mvv-talent-mbuyamba-aan Where has he being hiding all this time.
After having watched almost all of the U17 Euro matches I am fairly confident the final will be France vs. Netherlands. They are by far the two best teams I've seen (though obviously anything can happen). That will be an incredible game if it happens though with some very bright prospects for the future.
U-17s defeat Spain in a rather ugly match 1-0. Taabouni with the goal in the 89th minute. There was no flow to the game as there was persistent fouling from both sides and a number of Yellow Cards. Dutch seemed only to want to play long balls to Brobbey rather than show any creativity with the ball. Brobbey was in on goal but fluffed his chance. Unuvar hit the post with about 20 minutes to go.
From what I've seen, Italy will be strong favourites in a final, they're heads and shoulders ahead of everyone during this tournament, not to mention they defeated Spain badly earlier during group stage. But that's one game and an additional pressure of a final, so I believe Dutch squad can pull it out. Yet it's important to mention that Italy have really good team of pretty experience players, Sebasstian Esposito made his professional debut in Inter few weeks ago in Europa League. My hot takes based on this tournament (but I saw only three games without a game against France and England which was not transmitted) - while Brobbey is so physically gifted and so useful with his style of play for this team, I have huge concerns if he's technically enough gifted to make it to the next level, he's subpar technically what makes his decision process with a ball rather slow what's striking to my eyes. So while he has made few records of goalscoring in Ajax youthteams, he also looks a bit like this old style of a striker like Mario Gomez with his limitations but without height Mario Gomez and those strikers have had. - while Hoever has been as good as he's advertised, Salah-Eddine seems to be hell of a prospect for left back spot. He's so strong on ball, that's ridicoulus what he's capable of in offensive system of Dutch team. If you don't follow this tournament, please check out their goals against Belgium in quater final, I can't say which one was prettier, especially considering they're not offensive players. Hoever is De Ligt-esque type of prospect, no doubt about that. - Maatsen who plays more often as a left back in Chelsea (regular member of U23 team), is truly amazing as central midfielder, basically a complete MF: good in tachkling, strong on ball, calm and versatile in defensive and offensive tasks. Kenneth Taylor is very good, but I'm quite a bit disappointed with his control of the game, the frequency of him playing high balls or ''panic balls nowhere'' isn't a thing I expected from him. But he's been very good for this team, and he's great prospect, I can't deny that. - Hansen is pretty irregular (still very good stats with few goals and few assists) but these comparisons to Justin Kluivert are pretty legitimate in my opinion, similar type of player, and outside of what is happening to Kluivert in Rome right now, I think being similar type of prospect is a good thing in general considering Kluivert was regular Ajax first team player in age of 18. - considering how good AZ have been recently with developing their young players, I'm thrilled with what can happen to Taabouni, he looks like Ziyech with disparity between veeeerry good and very bad plays, yet these good plays he make are a showcase of real talent. - it's hard for me to say anything about Raatsie because the games I watched are games where Netherlands didn't concede a single a goal. He's considered as very good prospect for goalkeeper spot in Ajax, isn't he? - as far as I know, Rensch made few mistakes against England, but he's an underager and from what I've seen, he seems to be really talented. Melayro Bogarde is perhaps the best player of Dutch team out there (but again, I didn't watch all games) - so strong in duels, so strong on ball, basically a complete center back in this age category, easily meets his hype in this tournament, he's been really amazing. - Naoufal Bannis recently came back after bad injury, so while he shows versatility he's famous for in Rotterdam, I don't think he plays his best here. - Unuvar is very good in any moment he steps into a pitch but I think he's not in his best physical shape (he had injury ishues before Futures Cup) and considering depth of Dutch offensive talent, he's more a joker in this team right now. But every time he plays, there's a sense of danger in defense of Netherland's opponents I think that Netherlands is a bit disappointing in their offensive execution (the semifinal against Spain was dull), but their general control of a game and level of play is as good as I thought it will be with this strong group of players. It's even more impressive considering a fact that two best players in this age group (Gravenberch and Ihattaren) are out, and few players have had injury issues before tournament. Second final in a row, and I think the next year Netherlands will have again very strong team if they decide to send their best crop of players, with Unuvar, Simons, Rensch, Sankoh, Hoogewerf, strong core of AZ's young players (especially Fedde De Jong), Regeer. There are fourteen '03 players in this tournament and while Dutch have three (Rensch, Unuvar, Sankoh) - Italy or Spain for example don't have any. And that was a case as well last year with Brobbey, Ihattaren and Gravenberch playing in Netherlands XI. What's your opinion?
@PiTo - good analysis. I only watched the second half today and was disappointed in all the balls over the top. When they got technical they really threatened Spain. Didn't see the Italian match. You might be right about Brobbey. He's dominant in this age group but who knows whether he makes it. Ajax have an 18 year old stroke Traore who looks good
Well, I think against Sweden and Belgium, and from what I read against England, it looked much better in terms of control of a game. With Taylor, Maatsen, Taabouni and Unuvar on a bench, they have technical capabilites to control a game like they did against Spain in last 20-30 minutes, so that will be neccessary against Italy considering how stacked they are as a team. It seems it's more about mindset, self-confidence and calmness than technical abilities. I really wonder what can happen to Bogarde in Germany, he looks like a real deal here. Here are highlights of NED vs BEL from quaterfinal and those mentioned goals of Hoever and Salah-Eddine. Taabouni lacks proper execution to become really elite talent in my opinion, he missed multiple great occasions during this tournament what can be seen even in this short video from one game. But he's good, don't get me wrong.
The Azzurrini say Ciao well done to you guys for making the finals along with us. I hope to never again see a day where Italy and Netherlands both miss a world cup again.