Euro 2016 Qualification Thread.

What Orange14 says. How is Nouri ready for Euro 2016? It is possible maybe. Sneijder was 19 against Scotland IIRC. You think he can pull off a Sneijder?

I think that is a stretch. People are very easy in ditching players that are out of the eye for a while, but I will tell you that a fit and playing Afellay will make a comeback in the NT. How Sneijder played at the WC will turn the 10 position into a free for all.

Promes I agree. I want him on the central play maker position. I think he is better there than the wing. Look at his assist and key pass rate for FC Twente. What I like about Promes is the fact that he has been consistent for 2 seasons now. I rate that. I am not discounting that he became the best player in a lesser league. He still had to recharge himself every week and be consistent there as well and he did just that. Then, the next season at Twente, he was great again and what stopped him was not a natural dip but having to come back from a nasty injury. Many players have 1 good season a then their dip. Not Promes and when fully fit he played vs France and was very good again with U21 against Scotland. Many players look deflated at the end of a season, Promes was stoked. His silly dances after he scores come across as childish, but there is nothing negative about it. Let him do his dances, it might even lift the spirit of some other players maybe. He is a happy goat.

Ziyech's pass accuracy is horrible. Yes he can play wonderful balls deep or give weighted passes, but he loses the ball all the time. He is extremely wasteful. Apart from being able to paint with that left foot of his, he has a lot of improving to do.

Finally I also look forward to Boëtius. There was a flash of him with U21 that gave me an impression of class again. He is a good footballer on top of being a fast winger. He can really combine and connect with fellow players.

It's wonderful we have wingers at the left jockeying for a spot while Robben is still up and running on the right. Short term we need wingers at the left and Depay and Boëtius are developing there, so good stuff.

 

Well Serero is no giant either and performs exactly where Nouri could play. I am looking forward to this. Generation 1997 can not come soon enough.

 

Don't underestimate the role Frank might play in that. I have seen Nouri now in quite some full games and whenever he is not in the attacking third, he always back passes as well. It annoyed me to see a gifted player like him never turning around and just give a splitting pass. Quite maddening actually.

The contradiction of the Cruyff revolution at Ajax IMO is that while Cruyff is friends with Frank, the biggest influence on Frank has been van Gaal. If you look at how Ajax plays it is a collective effort over individual brilliance one. That is van Gaal. If Nouri plays like he does in the U17, I can not escape the thought that he has been soaked in a way of playing that fits a collective effort of individual flair one. I feel that the way he plays suffocates what he could do, was he not brainwashed to play it save.

I think Nouri would play differently if Cruyff's vision was followed.

 

That being said, I think Nouri will click with Depay. Depay is an inverted winger, coming inside to get his shot off. Nouri is a player who when playing as a left half midfield players likes to milk the left wing with another winger. Every time Depay threatens to come inside I can see Nouri going outside of him dragging players away from Depay. Then Depay has more room for his shot, or if defenders prefer to block his shot, there should be space for Nouri. Nouri, there and in that position I have seen beating players time and again. He is then able to give an excellent track ball or when he does not beat his man, a good cross.

In theory this is all correct

 

Not a big Klaassen fan.

Where is his vision? His through pass? Where is his dribble? He had a small hype at one point this last season, but for me he is back to being Siem de Jong 2.0. His mentality is good though and he scores goals. Especially that make him a guy to keep an eye on. Goals matter a lot at the top.

 

Going to answer shortly this time.

Cruyff recently said in a column that wants to build up through midfield and reach midfield ASAP to then let them do the job. Recently I heard Ronald de Boer saying that the DM should never be involved in build up other than maybe the third or fourth phase when the they have no clue at the sides what to do anymore and then pass it to the 6. With Ajax I see endless passing between the CB's and backs being involved in build up. Serero always wall passes it back, not passing to the front and Klaassen stands very far, often in the attacking third even. Those 2 half midfielders in the system of the Boer (Serero and Klaassen) are not involved enough in build, no, they are not even positioned well for a good build up as de Boer has his own ideas. Other ideas than Cruyff.

Nouri does already the same as what Serero does. If Nouri receives the ball half way the field with his nose to his own goal, 9 of the 10 times he just pings it back. If there is one player that could actually out maneuver any pressure in his back, it is Nouri. He is our own Iniesta in the making, except he is not if he is already not allowed to practice shaking off pressure in his back every game. In that case he does not become our own Iniesta, but somebody that just follows safety rules and does not become that key asset to win precious space and time for his team. That high reward comes with risk taking and that must be practiced a lot as otherwise when the stakes are high a player will never take that risk later in his career.

Notice at the WC how Netherlands was a glorified hoofing team, skipping midfield often. Midfield is a scary place these days for Dutch teams. It's a spooky area where the turnover ghost rules that can result in conceding goals. It has come this far as our current midfielders are not raised in a way anymore that they can manage the pressure it brings to play on midfield. Or not to international standards in any case. If total control over the ball is not any longer part of the skill set of Dutch players, then yes there is maybe a case to better skip midfield. That of course results in not practicing it and we arrive in the downward spiral. As always, trying to evade your fear leads to a worse state all together. We must face this and go back to raising midfielders that can function perfectly fine with some pressure exercised at them.

The risk evading ideas of de Boer do not get the best out of a Nouri. A player that is made to deal with the pressure that de Boer wants to circumvent. High pressure breads high quality, but what if that high pressure is constantly evaded to guarantee safety? That is why Ajax play the ball all the time between the CB's in the save zone, not higher up.

De Boer is not Cruyff. He is much more van Gaal.

I skip the Fey/PSV question for now. Maybe their fans want to take this one.

 

For the point to the front fans, with a City twist in 2 BtoB players behind a play maker. Our own Toure, Fernandinho, Silva set up.


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@ Promes: I want to test the water with him in center. I thought he was not that impressive vs France on the wing. He is actually pretty creative, has some vision, speed and finishing ability. Not sure on handling speed but his technique is actually pretty decent. He also brings a different flavor to that position. A player that also has an individual action. With Sneijder we need speed in front of him so that he can ping balls to those type of players. The more speed Sneijder has in front of him, the better Sneijder is. With Promes we have an attacking player that can also go on an adventure with the ball himself.

@ Clasie. Yes Clasie as play maker is and idea that more people on this forum are toying with. At least I have seen this suggestion floating around in some threads in the past. Why not test this in a friendly? Had we tested Kuyt as left back before 2012, we might not have played an 18 year old Willems on that position after Pieters got injured. On this forum JC14 suggested this I think as far back in 2010. Van Marwijk did not have any imagination in this regard.

@ de Vrij: I wanted to make some screen shots from de Vrij in for example the Mexico match and how he comes diving into an intervention to then get burned. This is a repetitive thing with him. In also was the basis for the Costa flop and penalty. That combined with no corrective ability due to his slow turning around his own axis makes me unsure about his future for the NT if we go back to a 4-3-3. His attacking heading has improved, but defensive heading is still not good enough either. The reason I have chosen for other CB's is because with more space in their back and space to defend I have less faith in him than in Kongolo in 1 vs 1's. I think that Kongolo is faster than de Vrij, I think he is a better defender as de Vrij and as good on ball as de Vrij. In short, Kongolo might be more complete. De Vrij did get this WC experience, so we have to see how he takes it from here. He can play football and that is big + in the Dutch NT. Vlaar and BMI less so.

@ Stroot. I think as important is the development of van Ginkel. I remember well how Stroot was subbed off with U21 against Russia IIRC while van Ginkel stayed on. Clasie, but also Stroot in the end had to make room for van Ginkel and Marco did well that U21 Euro. His injury and rustiness in coming back combined with jump in development of Strootman at Roma make people forget that van Ginkel was growing into maybe our best midfielder. At least IMO. He is very complete bar pass accuracy and pass imagination. Stroot might be back in October by the way.