I like that midfield, but it's pretty under maned IMO. One DM and four AMs. Who plays DM if Clasie runs out of steam? We have two right wingers, one of whom is as old as the continent itself, one left winger, and four strikers, two of whom can supposedly play on the wing. as much as I like him, Dost isn't going to play unless we already have a big enough lead. He should have been dropped to add Anita to the midfield to back up Clasie. The depth Chart: Stekevan Rhijn (Janmaat) - Hietinga (Vlaar) - Viergever (Mathijsen) - Willems (BMI)Sneijder (Fer) - Clasie - Strootman (Urby)Narsingh (Kuyt/Lens) - Hunter (Dost) - Robben (van Persie)
This will be weird coming from me, but I think we need to separate the naturalization debate from the quality debate. I am despite my fierce resistance on him playing in the Dutch NT, perfectly capable to move on from the issue if he is allowed to play for Dutch NT in the first place and then treat him as all the others. So I don't think he has proving to do under current rules and him having to work himself up as there are no current rules that require this from him. What is perfectly possible is to be against current rules (as I am), but IMO we need to reason with how things are now. Now Douglas is Dutch and under current rules he should have nothing to prove other than his quality like all other. In this debate about quality we talk about player profiles being compatible with the vision of the coach. In this respect Douglas has a problem and we all see it. Even Neeskens. Douglas is a man killer, a great footballer he is not. Plus in these games it is also about automatism's in defense that are not yet there between him an the other defenders while the next game is clutch.
but does he not also play back there along side another holding mid? I think he was being sarcastic/joking
There is no either/or and we have to deal with player profile in fulfilling his initial position. ^Here you are right ^Here we see him in a more forward position ^Here we see an attacking 4-3-3 like Netherlands plays and Brama is played more in the holding position and Fer more up the field in midfield. These are just some recent games from Twente I picked from. Then the player. This is more important. Fer is a guy that is not the greatest footballer, but he is pretty good in all other departments. He has a through pass, a header, a good finishing, a penalty, leadership, confidence, stamina, duel power and so on. Many of those strengths add in power the more he is let free to run up and get close or into the box by "getting there" situations. In that way funny enough, he resembles a player like Wijnaldum who shows the same preference.
What I meant is clearly that like Stam said people "might" take time to welcome him. A lot of people will doubt if he is there for the publicity or does he have any emotional bond with the team. A player like Heitinga or Mathijsen. Douglas being garlanded & welcomed as soon as he is eligible is not going to be a great decision. I think it is smart to keep in the probables list & give a message that he is under consideration & give Heitinga/Mathijsen 1 last go & then take him. Already VDV/De Jong are dropped & who knows if Oranje loose they will start making statements against team selection. Last thing you want is say Heitinga to add in there about a Douglas & question his nationality & son. Furthur needless controversy. Besides I am not sure if Douglas on the long term is much better than Heitinga. Let Heitinga/Mathijsen gets a balls to the Walls chance. If they dont make it Douglas will get a call up. Douglas is defensively probably a bit better than the rest. But he is no Thiago Silva. People are acting as if he is some demi-god. At best he will end at a club like NewCastle or Fulham,some mid-table team where he will have to fight for his spot. That is what Anita is doing.
This is what I hope to see. Sneijder and Fer in advanced role, with Clasie slotted in the middle and a bit withdrawn. Strootman is not a bad choice in lieu of Clasie, but I think Clasie has more toughness in his game to break down opponent, and he deserves a try. Strooman in a forward position makes me worried. He will slow down the game, and he doesn't offer much goal-scoring threat.
Just saw the press conference with Van Gaal who's more or less saying that Douglas isn't even close to making the squad hehehe. I guess he went for a game of golf last night with Mr. S rather than watch Janmaat, Matthijsen, Clasie, De Vrij and all those other marvellous young defenders and midfielders play like shite in Europe last night. Sorry but I'm now officially cracking up over this. His excuse for leaving out Van der Wiel, Van der Vaart, De Jong & Afellay is pretty lame too considering that Heitinga who's barely played any football this season is probably going to start again. As for Fer, he's been the outstanding midfielder in the Dutch league this season so far, and yesterday he was just brilliant for a full 120 minutes. Still I find myself agreeing with DRB that he doesn't fit into this Dutch national team. At Twente he's got a free role, Brama does the dirty work and he can have fun as a highly modern box to box midfielder, with creative players around him running into space and giving him plenty of options. This Twente style is in complete contrast to the tactically rigid oldfashionedness that Mr van Gaal and some people on this board advocate. So Fer won't get playing time which is a good thing from a Twente perspective, at least we don't have to worry about injuries.
Nope, Siem de Jong. Fer has a great start I agree, but some have done even better like Tadic for instance.
Why bring Tadic into this? This isn't a Twente vs Ajax thread. Van Gaal's choices are baffling, that ought to be discussed here. Never mind Fer or Douglas. What with Van Gaal's tactical rigidness, what on earth is Lens doing in this squad, for example. I do rate Lens - as a striker. I would call him up as a third choice striker over Dost, in fact. But he's called up as a winger. WTF? Even PSV fans don't like him as a winger. Van Gaal hates players with a personality is what I'm concluding. He just can't deal with it. Oddly, Mr S was spot on when he talked about Van Gaal's dislike of Brazilians. This is typical of Van Gaal. It's always about him and his likes and dislikes, never about the greater good of Dutch football. My prediction: if Van Persie gets benched twice more, he'll retire from international football. If he retires, Sneijder will soon follow suit. We'll have a complete meltdown by christmas is what I'm predicting. Players walking out and the like. We won't qualify, Van Gaal gets sacked again, and hopefully we'll get a real fresh start. Meanwhile I feel more emotionally attached to Ajax performing in the CL than I feel emotionally attached to this national team. And I'm not even exaggerating there.
Because I genuinely mean it. Tadic has been a revelation and makes everybody around him play better including Fer.
Yes I have, thanks to Eredivisie Live online. I'll leave it up to you to argue that the performance of AZ's and Feyenoord's youngsters was very good.
Well yes, but like I said, Fer has a free role now at Twente, contrary to last season. And also like I said, he'll never have such a free role for Holland. Technically gifted players like Tadic and Gutierrez are allowing Fer that freedom. In Van Gaal's rigid tactical plan there's no room for a modern, pacey box to box player.
De Vrij was injured after 15 minutes. And Sparta hardly had a chance until that unfortunate penalty...
So you're going to blame it entirely on Feyenoord's lack of a decent striker that Feyenoord conceded 2 goals both home and away in Europe. And let's not even get into AZ?
I havent seen AZ so I will not comment. I responded to the names you mentioned. And AZ and Feyenoord were not as lucky with the draw as Twente was. And how many goals did you concede in those 2 games again...?
Feyenoord strikers aren't called up, Feyenoord defenders are. Do you seriously want to argue that Matthijssen is good enough for the Dutch national team right now. Come on JC, be honest. Douglas hasn't played in Europe for 3 games like the young Feyenoord players. He was outstanding against the likes of Olympique Marseille, Fenerbahce and Spurs over a period of five years. None of the young Feyenoord players can make that claim, or have even played against that type of opposition. AZ players have more of a pedigree where that's concerned. Douglas wasn't to blame for any of the goals we conceded in this round. Ironically, Fer was to blame for the only goal we conceded last night.