VDV almost singlehandedly won them the Bundesliga, but they failed to do so in the end due to his injuries. Why do you think Madrid came in for him specifically, if not for his obvious quality? You have put the quality of the EPL on a pedestal, but fail to grasp that both VDV and RVP are absolute superstars in England? The likes of Vorm, Krul, VDV and RVP are in almost everyone's fantasy team.
Bit too daring? maybe, but let me enjoy it. 3 runners, a striker that can create space for them and if he gets the ball can score. This is my way to build the team around van Persie. VDV and Sneijder take away from him somehow. I put brain footballing players that hold their own in DM. Replaced the left back farts with a proven pitbull. If Bruma continues this form, I am going to replace one of the CB on basis of their club (non) performance at Malaga or Everton. I hear people suggesting Douglas, but I don't know who that is, so I keep it with these guys. This is a cool set up IMO. The speed Clasie and Sneijder can give to the game will be immense, the penetration of the front 3 or even 4 will be to much to handle. Every opponent will walk back with this line up. If they pressure us, they will be scared all the time Sneijder or Clasie gets the ball and gives one perfectly deep to a runner that's faster than their defender.
Don't get me wrong, but despite of how good we do at the Euro I think it's time for new blood. We need to build a new team that will be able to peak in 2016 - 2020, v. Marwijk isn't the right guy for that task since he's far too conservative. He'll go into the World Cup 2014 as Dick Advocaat did in 2004.
It will be interesting to see what the make up of the final Euro squad would be. If BvM thinks ahead (knowing that he will be at the helmet for WC2014), he should not pick the old guards for his back-ups... Boulahrouz, Braafheid, Vlaar, Maduro, Schaars, etc. These players in all likelihood will fade out by 2014 rolls around. Gamble on the newbies: Bruma, Strootman, Wijnaldum, L.de Jong, V.Wolfswinkel, Marcellis, even maybe Maher.
Clasie is better than Maher imo. Elm carries Maher. Maybe the whole AZ team carries him. Clasie is carrying Feyenoord and even revitalized a player like El Ahmadi. In the U21 squad he was the only player hat was good. Maher defends, but nothing like Clasie. Clasie can defend, pass, speed up game play and lets his fellow players play better. It's like everybody wants to overlook this guy, because he was not a prodigy, but he actually was a bit. First of all I heard he has been captain of all the youth squads he played in. That's a sign. Then there is this from a year ago: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqiRElaL4bk"]Wilfred en Johan over Excelsior talent Jordy Clasie - YouTube[/ame] He was the man against Ajax. Vital in Feyenoords good run till now. He was by far the best man in the U21 squad and yesterday fantastic again in delivering Vitesse the biggest defeat at home by a Feyenoord squad, while Vitesse is a strong team this year. Maybe he is ironing out consistency this year, but he is pretty consistent already. Start to love that guy. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5miZxF4trvE"]Jordy Clasie. Part One - YouTube[/ame]
Really? The same Dick Advocaat who took out Arjen Robben in that game against the Czech? You're being very unfair to our second most successful Oranje coach ever.
I am not denying his obvious talent. For me Rafa is somewhat of a failure considering how massively talented he is. The fact remains this is not 2005. Times change. Rafa plays almost as a striker for Spurs & even there is not a 90 minute player usually. We have to make a choice,a choice between Sneijder,Vaart or some other guy like Afellay & I would not choose VDV in my Starting 11. With RVP I am clear,Arsenal builds their whole game around him. That will not be the case for Oranje as we have even better players than RVP & RVP never works half as good for Oranje as for Arsenal. I think there is a clear gulf in quality between what he does for his club & country. Besides physically he is not very strong,is not a very good header & drops down way too often. I personally want to see a proper 9,RVP is a 9.5 someone who would thrive in a 2 striker formation behind someone like Huntelaar.
Has De Jong ever played LB in his life. Add to the fact tactically LB in an important position. Offside trap,communication with other players,surging up the flanks & the ability to cross are important nowadays. Offensively De Jong is a big zero & I am sceptical how good defensively he will be. Personally I think he will make a better RCB maybe. I actually watched the 1st half of Hamburg's game & Bruma was truly in GOD mode. Their RB was way too offensive minded & westerman was horrible. Bad tackler,horrible positioning & he was standing near the touchline. Bruma kind of at such a young age was kind of a like a leader as well as brought a calming influence to the side. I checked out some Hamburg forums & they said Bruma won 96% of his challenges yesterday & they are comparing him to Kompany who also did well for Hamburg. Bruma had a couple of beautiful long passes too. I think it's time to give him 3-4 matches ahead of out 2 horrible CB's. About Sneijder-Clasie,we will be steamrolled by a team like Germany,the defense is still way too weak. Sneijder barely defends. I would rather have Afellay as CM. This is essentially going to become a 4-1-4-1 with all the load on Clasie's young shoulders & I am afraid could be a major set-back for him. That & I watched Babel in the Hamburg & his form has taken a sharp decline in the last 2-3 games. I could barely find him in the pitch. I would rather move Afellay in that wing or play Elia or maybe even Drenthe.
Imagine WC 2014. If Bruma continous his fine form & if Douglas turns out to be half as good as people say he is then our defensive woes will be solved. I hope VDW keeps on his fine form & develops & Pieters becomes magically better. Pieters-Douglas-Bruma-VDW STEKE/KRUL/VORM That is a Solid Back 4,maybe we can play both Strootman & Claisie,2 young CM/DM's who can pass & build up along with defending. I still think RVP,Sneijder,Robben might be able to maintain their form & can hang around(Sneijder's seems to be having a bad form for Inter too). There are plenty of young strikers coming. Dont forget Castagnois, 15/17 goals in 34 games in a cluster**** Feyenoord last year. Dude can score & is a very good talent. I saw him get play 10-15 minutes for Inter & he was good,did not look to be a misfit. He made a BLUNDER going to Inter who have 6/7 strikers already. He needs playing time. Add him to Luk & Ricky & Hunter-RVP will have to play seriously well to play in WC 2014.
Didn't Germany just steamroll us even though Van Bommel and Strootman/De Jong were sitting in front of the back 4?
You can have this opinion, but the last sentence more or less takes away from it. Being able to cross, communicating and executing the off side trap are things very much in play at CB. So if you think he can play there than we can erase those points as a cause of concern. Leaves us with surging up the flanks. I always have to laugh when I see those stats at the end of the game of Pieters vs van der Wiel. vd Wiel surging up over 10 or 15 times and Pieters a whopping 3 times and delivering 0 good passes. Finally against Sweden we then had the epic assist on KJH but you know why. Sweden deemd him so weak that he ewas the only player they left open and allowed to build up. It was a tactic if you ask me. Pieters was totally free and still was able to scew up with the goal where Mathijsen and van Bommel went wrong also (goal 3). So the whole surging thing in the Dutch team (not so much at PSV) is not something what Pieters does in overwhelming fashion. Quite the contrary. De Jong can do those 3 rushes up front also and maybe even delivering one good cross. The point is that Pieters is over his head against top opposition. This time Braafheid got owned by Mueller, next time it will be Pieters. Pieters is a very mediocre back. de Jong is a pitbull with a lot of pride that will not allow anybody to get past him, as he does not allow that in DM. He is an excellent tackler. Defending is still task nr 1 for a back. Also to your question if he has ever played back, well at Ajax he played in CD I think, maybe on more positions in defense. I don't know how van Bronckhorst played a good WC. He got owned by Platje. But I am not going to bet on another miracle for the left back position. 3 goals where Braafheid was the blame or part of the blame. Braafheid is level Pieters and we will get owned on that spot against the heavy opponents. Bruma is definitely evolving and I can't remember when the Dutch NT was seriously considering a 20 year old as first choice. For defenders that is very young. My line ups are mental exercises. Sometimes a fantasy. Sometimes a wish. Sometimes the best thing to do. I don't know if this line up is Germany/Spain/Italy proof, but against 90% of the teams in the world this line up would blow them out of the water. I might add that Babel as second striker (not as 10) can be a totally different story (remember his action against the Swiss more in center close to the goal) than on the wing. So he and Afellay can switch from me. We can put Drenthe also behind the striker. This line up is to accommodate RVP, trying to copy Arsenal and get his brilliance working for us with more running players around him. We both agree he is a waste of space in the Dutch NT. However the boy is in reach to break the EPL all time record of most goals in one calender year. That and he makes assists and improves the game of players around him and is carrying Arsenal on his back. Huntelaar will never be able to do that because he can't play football. Huntelaar is in the 16 and finishing. Effective but one dimensional and not enough to win Euro 2012. To win that tournament we have to figure out how to get RVP working for us. We have only 6 months left, after that it's plan B (Huntelaar). If Babel does not come through with his actions people get frustrated but having seen a part of the game I didn't think he was that bad. His game against the Swiss was oke and against Germany not good but also not very bad. I like maximum speed on the wings, so Babel, Elia or Boer for me vs an Afellay who is fast but has no booster. When you play a football lightweight (but who can cut through) more in center like Babel then I want a more "full"player like Afellay on the wing to balance it out.
For me the big mystery is how van Bommel gets 0% of the blame (except from van Halst (who is at least somebody who looks in a Pierro)) for the third goal vs Sweden and the first and third goal against Germany. Especially the third goal. Ozil just walks away from him and he just looks at him going for an easy combination. He was like: "Im oke with that, just do your thing Ozil". He is actually not doing that well at Milan either. A starter, but just going with the team. Nothing special.
JC, you often talk about missed players by Ajax like Narsingh, Assaidi and Maher who grew up around or in Amsterdam. You checked where Clasie is from and grew up?
v. Bommel isn't a secure starter anymore, was on the bench vs Fiorentina for example. Many don't even know that v. Bommel used to be an attacking midfielder before he went abroad. Somehow he got the reputation of marker, while he's in fact not great at it. "Ambrossini!....Het doek valt, het doek is gevallen"
And then Cocu still believing in it and making another goal. That was epic on it's own, but what a sad end to it. So sure that PSV would have won the final.
Fair enough DRB,I would personally give Pieters a couple of more chances. Young kids need to be given adequate chances before being given the boot. De Jong is not really a bad idea but how many friendlies do we have before EUROS?? 4-5??? Who knows if De Jong will have an injury in the meantime,if any of the regular defenders will have an injury in the meantime or if De Jong is comfortable with the idea. It's no use if De Jong has 0 co-ordinating with CB's or if he is not comfortable. I believe there is not enough time for such a HUGE change. He's playing CDM for quite a few years & its generally slightly tough for a naturally right footed player to adjust very quickly into the LB slot. Realistically with only 6 months left & very few friendlies in the meantime,the experiment if it occurs is very likely to fail pretty badly.
What else is new? Same goes for Kuijt. No I haven't. Thanks for the info. He's made a good impression in the times that I've seen him. I'll pay some extra attention to him knowing how you rate him. Gouweleeuw is from around the corner as well. He was born and raised in Heemskerk as far as I know. But we prefer to scout the countryside (platteland), Belgium and Denmark if you don't mind.
Agreed to most what you said here. The only part I am unsure is Castaignos. He may need to get loaned out so he can start clocking playing times. My biggest disappointment has been Heitinga. He would be at his prime age at EC'12 and WC'14, but looking at the current situation, it doesn't seem it will be the case. I had a lot of hope when he made a move to Everton. His first few months were really promising, and I thought we'd finally see a top-tier defender (maybe not 'world-class' but definitely a reliable and intimidating defender). Gutted that he's been very disappointing as of late. Looks like the pace and physicality of the English League have got the best of him, and by the look of it, his career is unfortunately plateaued out. Maybe a change of scenery would be a wise move post-season.
He's been starting for Everton recently though last year he seemed to be moving between defense and mid-field. I think his problem is more mental than physical since the errors he has made for the NT have been positional in open play as opposed to set pieces. We'll see if he keeps his starting position at Everton for the remainder of the season.
Oranje should just give up on defending all together. Take out centre backs and put in even more attackers.
Johnny lost his starting place because he was linked with a transfer to Bayern when van Gaal was still there. Moyes wasn't happy with how he handled the situation and even the fans had turned their backs on him. It's best for him to move since he can do no good anymore over there. Royston however has proven to be a smarter cookie by showing appreciation to their fans in interviews making him more loved.
Completely Untrue. Heitinga was benched for half the season after the WC & did nothing. Basically he was rotting in the bench & jumped at the possibility of joining bayern in the winter or the following summer. But he was benched for the Jagielka-Distin combo & he made MULTIPLE statements saying he would not accept a bench role. TO be fair he has had a couple of chances at CB & sucked,let in an own goal against somebody & so far has done nothing to warrant a starting post. He is mostly played at CDM.
Heitinga was definitely a starter, it was his many injuries that kept him sidelined and the Bayern saga made it worse.