As a breekijzer yes. Not as an alround footballer. And if he's called up Lens as a striker, he's called up four strikers... yes that'd make sense.
It's quite funny that you think you're insulting me with this. Luuk is just a passer by to me, and a bit of a judas too the way he treated us. We sold him for 15 million (rather a lot for a player who has nothing to offer at all hehehe), what he does in the rest his career is irrelevant to me. I do care about Ola but he's a real Tukker so that's different.
Has anyone ever considered that LVG might used a modified version of the 4-4-2,say a 4-4-1-1. DEFENSE Sneijder/VDV De Jong/Maher/Strootman Narsing/Kuyt Robben/Afellay RVP/Lens Hunter/Dost There's too many Strikers in there for 1 Friendly. Especially the Lens & Dost Selection with guys like Kuyt who can play St as well. The whole Maher/Strootman/De Jong type players with a VDV or Sneijder,an all-round midfielder with a No.10,maybe a 4-4-2 is coming????
That was a backhanded compliment to Twente then. For selling a worthless player for that much. Thanks!
If he wants to play a 4-3-3 then his squad is ridiulous, sorry. Mr. S. has a point. There's one winger in there, five strikers, and one defensive mid. It makes no bloody sense whatsoever.
I'm trying to explain to you how it makes sense that Dost is there and Luuk is not. But whatever, take it any way you like.
He did. Muller was basically a 2nd ST. People like to call it a 4-2-3-1 but it was a form of a 4-4-1-1. Muller neither dropped deep like a playmaker is sometimes required nor he had the vision or technical ability. He was a FREE Roaming 2nd ST who made intelligent runs and doubled with the ST or Wingers & made space for other people. That was his role. People would like to call it a 4-2-3-1. For me it was more of a 4-4-1-1. And to be honest his selection shows a 4-4-2. Dost,Hunter Target Man shielding a RVP or a Lens. That is what it looks like. De Jong-Strootman-Maher/Sneijder/VDV in a 4-3-3?? Because VDV & Sneijder can co-exist as they are both piss poor in defending. That leaves no alternatives. What if De Jong has an injury after 20 minutes or if Strootman has a cold on the day of the match??? The whole selection -> 4 ST,two technical,2 Targetmen, 4 Medio,1 DM,1 CM, 3 No.10's just smells a 4-4-2?? If 1 ST was to be played,Clasie or Anita would have made it instead of Lens. Why select 4-5 ST's for 1 position for 1 Friendly???
kuyt is still in? what will he be in 2014? 34? Im all for helping with transition but surely his time and the likes of mathijsen is up. looking forward to this!
this is a very transitional squad. LvG inserted some of the best young players ready for the NT (with the exception of Clasie and Anita) as well as the most established old guard players. The full transition won't happen in one game, but I'm sure that soon enough the likes of Kuijt, van der Vaart, and Mathijsen, and probably one of van Persie or Huntelaar (since I really don't think that the two can co-exist)will be dropped in favour of the likes of Narsingh, John, Clasie, BMI, Viergever, middle age mediocre players such as Afellay, Emanuelson, Pieters, L. de Jong, Lens (possibly), will be dropped in favour of players with much higher ceilings such as Anita, Willems, Maher, van Rhijn, ect. this lineup has way more depth than any squad that van Marwijk called up ever did. I Imagine something like this: Stekevan Rhijn (de Vrij) - Heitinga - Mathijsen (Viergever) - Willems (BMI)de JongSneijder (VdV) - - - - - - - - - Maher (Strootman)Narsingh (Lens) - - - Huntelaar (Dost) - - - Robben (Afellay) obviously some more midfield depth would be nice, but for the first game, I'll take it
He also played there for Ajax at times. Heitinga has played last season 5 times in center midfield for Everton in EPL, 1 time in DM and 23 times in center defense. His role in midfield the year before that was far bigger, but it was last season he was named Everton player of the year. I only see 2 CD with a right foot. Heitinga and de Vrij. That is what you at least need in a normal selection, so though many players have secondary spots where they can operate, Heitinga is called up for defense. Van Gaal already said Clasie probably deserved a call up, but U21 need just 1 point for qualification. He was pretty sure himself in the near future he would get a call up. Physically dominated is something else than stamina to play 90 minutes. Clasie has a drop off in quality in the last phase of the game time often, but that does not mean that he can't handle himself against stronger guys in the biggest part of the game by positioning smarter, being better at football and applying intelligent pressure. Dost is no Gomez quality, neither Huntelaar quality at this moment and it is as JC 14 says. Dost is brought in as van Gaal wants a "breekijzer". He fits into this model, certainly not in the Gomez role as that was a primary striker. Van marwijk waved away the traditional role players like Dost used to have in Dutch NT. From Piere to Vennegoor (also called up by van Gaal remember?). When we have to force something in the final stage of the game, Dost will be brought in. From that point of view Dost makes far more sense than de Jong and we have even discussed this before the Euro, how van Marwijk deviated from logic in this regard. On another note, mind you that at last Euro Huntelaar played more minutes in pure striker position than RVP. Huntelaar was also used in a lot of qualification games. On top of that van Marwijk has played VDV in quite some games in DM. So the picture you like to draw from van Marwijk is not that one sided. I am interested what system van Gaal will play. In the press conference he clearly said that he wants to talk with the players about it. That's smart. He wants to make it their WC. He wants ownership to put with the players. I have posted the formations from his previous spell at Orange and what should be noted is that he does not feel bounded by 1 system. Now it is interesting if he thinks he made a mistake with all that experimentation. Van Marwijk did the opposite by sticking exclusively with 1 system as he thought you already had few games with NT and so had to use every opportunity to build familiarity with the system and automate patterns, players learn to recognize by repeating. The fact he has selected Lens could indicate he likes to try some things again. Lens is the opposite of Dost. Lens in striker position would be great on the counter in counter attacking team. In his time with AZ he later used to let his team retreat at times and then come out with lightning speed on the counter.
We also need to remember that Van Gaal was brought in as Bondscoach just recently and he's just going to try to get something from the first to qualifying fixtures. I think that the team will be quite different as time goes by and they get further into the qualification campaign.
What's the point of selecting Bas Dost when you still have Huntelaar!? This is a too soon for Dost. Huntelaar does everything that Dost does and he does it 10x better.. Really, what's the fc*ing point of this? And Good to see Maher, de Vrij and van Rhijn are selected! Finally some new blood to bring life in our defense!! And we still have Gouweleeuw and Nuytinck And we also have Ake and Rekik in the younger divisions who are developing phenomenally. I very excited about this! Even if only 2 or 3 make it to the top or sub-top, I'll be happy. As for the rest of the selection.. mheee.. whatever.. And I understand Clasie's situation. With him and van Ginkel young Oranje should be fine.
why not? Huntelaar and van Persie won't be around forever, and when they get too old, we'll need someone new to lead the line. Bas Dost was the top scorer of the Eredivisie. IMO that makes him deserving of at least one call up. van Marwijk's biggest problem was that there was nothing that any player could change in their game to change his opinion of them and either call them up, or increase their role in the team. It's what drove Huntelaar and van der Vaart to rebellion at the Euro. Any player who scores as many goals as Dost did at least deserves a shot in Oranje. Friendlies are for testing. If in a year from now no new players are getting a shot because LvG has picked his squad and wont waiver, then you can whine. But as it is this is a pretty sensible lineup for a game that doesn't count for anything My guess is that the abundance of strikers has to do with the fact that our entire attack is getting up there in years and the right replacements must be found. Be glad that he's not doing it the BvM way of picking one replacement and sticking with it through think and thin (and complete destruction at the Euro)
This is not accurate. We did advance from the group, but because we didn't manage a point in our final group game vs. Saudi Arabia, you guys were the group winners. Which meant we had to play Germany in the 1/8 finals.
Out for Belgium: Lombaerts, Fellaini unsure: Kompany Fellaini and Kompany are our most important players, they are important for creating some dominance in midfield and defence. Now Defour has to replace him and instead of dominant football we have to play quick passing which defour can. Since Lombaerts who can play at LB too is also out Van Buyten will replace Kompany (if he's out for sure) And Verthongen on lb
Was already mentioned and I handled it with a rep as i could not edit my post anymore . I switched 1994 with 1998, which is totally the fault of a Belgium by the way . The story is that in that time we went with family a lot on vacation in the French part of Belgium in summer and a guy I hung out with over there was teasing me with a scoreline in the nineties, while thinking to myself "dude, you did not advance". I saw we lost in 1994 and concluded that must have been the tournament that Belgium didn't advance despite winning from us, but turned out this kid was celebrating a draw against the Netherlands in 1998 when not making it out of the group. I mean who the hell is celebrating a draw as a victory to rival and show a great sense of achievement while not advancing? This Belgium kid apparently. I think that passes a bit for a calimero mindset . Must say team 1998 was probably better than team 2010, so can understand a bit what was going in that time. Baiano has admitted we deserved a penalty in extra time. That team deserved more than a half final, but crashed out. Too bad. We probably would have given France a better run for their money than the Brazilians did losing 3-0.
Dude, have you taken a look at the '98 Belgium squad? I hate Leekens as much as the next guy (which is unfortunate seeing as he is currently my Club manager ) but had he played Holland in a real open game in 98, we would have lost by at least three goals. See the two defeats in qualifying.