Janssen was off side quite some times. He is too slow. He needs to play on the edge to reach the goal when having to bridge some space and we play more retreated now. Not optimal.
The passing of Bazoer is atrocious. So often also behind the man, not in front of him. So much build in safety, that translates in just bad passing. Also too soft. Challenged a few times well though.
I think Berghuis is a disaster. He is slow and lacks power. Had a good cross, but apart from that I thought he was a defensive liability and there is no perspective with him long term against better teams to give us any punch.
So, yes we conceded again from a set piece/corner. Van Ginkel is a good header. Dijk as well. Both made what it looks like personal mistakes, right? Not for me. I blame that on Blind. It is a pattern now and since the so called personal mistakes happen by the best headers we have, it means to me we need to reorganize. Before the game they showed another clip where we conceded from a short corner against the Czech at home I think? Again we let that happen without people properly preventing that. A good coach discusses that scenario with his players. Knows that the Czech do that short corner and decides a reaction to it with his players. Blind obviously does not pay attention to detail or he does not get it implemented. Either way Blind is at fault as well. I wanted to not concede and we failed in that objective.
Another point is the loser instructions of Blind at 87:45. Take your time, take your time to Tete with a throw in. I jump on this as I wondered where the push for the 3-1 and 4-1 came. It never came. This Poland was beatable with at least 4-1. We did not take what we deserve. Why? Well we have a coach with low standards and lack of desire to destroy your opponent. I heard Waterreus saying that the Stroot sub for van Ginkel was already a consolidation for the 1-1. If that is true, then that is another clear signal that we have a manager in charge with low desire. It is also such an Advocaat move, but I can not prove that. I would have let van Ginkel stay in though. He is a bigger danger with the counter than almost any other midfielder we have. Let Bazoer go out an Stroot be DM. Better passer as well.
Van Aanholt was bad. If we can better put balls on Willems that he can whip in, we have a bit of a weapon. Certainly with a Dost at the other end of it. We know this, but we have to do it more if we play Willems. Bring him in position.
He's not great, but I am relieved we have a newcomer who doesn't seem to feel pressure and actually has the 'feel' of a 9 compared to other options.
He's been poor for months. Still see lots of potential in him. He tries to be nonchalant as Pirlo but doesn't have the swag.
Much improve performance from the R of Ireland game. There were some joy moments to watch during the game. If this team can improve game after game, brings the urgency to win and consistency then I will be very happy. Still a lot of work needed to defend corner (hire a specialist or consultant if needed). I am looking forward to the next friendly. Surprised that Vermeer or Zoet did not get a chance but it looks like Blind already has an idea of starting 11 (more like 6-7) and he just try to find the final pieces.
Decent win. After a rocky start I thought our concentration was up and we were energetic, generally a bit quicker on the ball (that can still improve please), and played with much more heart and grit than that boring and uninspired Ireland match. We seemed organized defensively (besides the series of gaffs leading to the miss for Milik) and put a few really nice attacking moves together as well, I think we deserved it. Cillessen was fine but don't remember any tests besides Miliks miss and the header goal (on another corner) which somehow van Aanholt misses. Anyway, why not try Zoet or Vermeer? Tete had some nervy moments but usually made up for it or wasn't costly thanks to Milik. I like him on RB if we do not have a great winger in front. Bruma was solid defensively and had that crucial block on Lewandowski but a little wasteful on the ball for me. Seems to be making a good partnership with van Dijk though, who was pretty much flawless (and didn't notice any big clearances into the upper decks!). 2 matches in a row with no goals against from open play, probably best to stick with this CB partnership and maybe they improve more together. Interested to see what happens when de Vrij is back fit. I thought Willems was good, but really needs to do better on set pieces. van Aanholt was a little out of place, didn't offer much going forward or much defensively but maybe some more time would help. We know Willems game, I hope van Aanholt plays Saturday. Bazoer is still much too slow on the ball for DM to me. I hope he learns soon to speed it up. I did appreciate that he completed all his passes in the first half and didn't lose the ball, and also liked to see a little bite in his game. Strootman on for 20 mins was good. Great passer and so good at reading and breaking up plays. My god how we have missed him, what a big presence. I didn't think Wijnaldum was great technically besides being fantastic on his goal, but he was fired up and appreciated that spark in the team compared to vs Ireland. van Ginkel had some ok moments in the first half but was poor in the second, was really weak on the goal against. I thought Berghuis on RW was pretty poor besides his assist. Strange work ethic off ball, one minute he won't run 5 yards to close an angle and the next he is tracking back at our own goal line. Seems like the 3rd winger spot is still up for grabs. Janssen also provided a much needed spark. Not the fastest or purest in technique but is always working and moving and is a handful for CBs. A goal any striker should score but also made Sczcesny work on a few other occasions as well. I thought Promes at LW had some ok moments and made the cross that led to Wijnaldum goal via Narsingh, who for me was like Berghuis - strangely, wasteful or anonymous besides their assists. But if Promes is our best wing option when Robben is out then we still need him to improve a lot yet! Dost came on too and ran around for a bit.. Really need to end this chaos we break into during set pieces ASAP. 7 of the last 9 goals we have conceded came from set pieces, including four corners. There are strong players there so what is the problem - is it random personal executional errors, or is the tactic not working? I'll have to go back and check on the previous 5 sometime, but these last 2 corner goals had the same general set up. 2 players next to the keeper and everyone else man marking. Some interesting possession stats from opta Johan: 44.2% - The Dutch national team had less possession than their opponents for the 3rd time since the World Cup, winning all 3 games. (winning only two of the last seven games which they had more than 50% possession) Looking forward to seeing how we lineup against Austria on Saturday. I hope either Zoet or Vermeer and Vilhena get chances. Let's go 4 games undefeated for the first time since the WC! (wtf)
He played like this all season at Ajax. I'm not sure it is a result of FdB's tactics but rather he is just too slow on the ball. Of course we need to remember that he is still a very young player and capable of some great plays (he had a couple of wonder goals during the season). I really don't know whether he will be able to play at a high level and with the three youth midfielders coming up at Ajax along with Sinkgraven, Bosz has an interesting decision to make regarding Bazoer.
We move up 3 spots from 17 to 14. And if we beat Austria we might move up another spot or two: http://www.fifa.com/fifa-world-ranking/ranking-table/men/
For people defending Blind, can you explain this bit: I was reading on another forum and somebody remarks that with the conceded goal v. Aanholt with his left leg was posted at the left pole, while Janssen with his right leg was posted at the right pole. Violation of junior level principal. The natural tendency of a player is to then slide more into the goal space, I think as you have less natural maneuverability and reflex with your wrong leg. You build in more security. However we saw how we payed the price for not having the basics right. It went it between the pole and van Aanholt. One step to the left and the ball would have bounced off the body from van Aanholt. He was not positioned right as he was defending all the space to his right with his wrong leg. A good coach, no, a normal coach has this in order. Blind does not. Blind does not have the basics right. And on top of that, can anybody defending Blind explain to me why we had 2 men with the poles in 1 situation, then 1 in another and even 0 in another? Why is there no consistency in defending the poles? Is there no plan whatsoever? One more thing. Why is the NT after conceding all these goals in standard situations, continuing to man mark players? Also why is there no free man that has to task to just focus on the incoming ball and gets no responsibility to mark a man? Why after all this conceding from dead balls does Blind not respond with such a solution? So yeah, a ton of mistakes and possible mistakes from Blind. Explain away please.
We get that you hate Blind but this whole thing is getting quite tiresome. He has the NT for short periods of time and has to cover lots of different things. Other than the van Ginkel screw up on the corner, the remaining free kicks were dealt with just fine and Cillessen was never troubled. Also get it out of your head that there are any of us who are defending Blind. to the contrary, we think it was the wrong choice but in reality who would you bring in? the young club team coaches are not going to take this job so you are left with the older coaches who have all had their chance managing the NT. Maybe Leo Beenhaker is still available! For the most part the team played a rather nice style of attacking football given the personnel and I don't think you can deny that. If you want to continue to pick at all the scabs of this team and berate Blind go ahead; I'm just not going to read the posts. Life is too short!!!!
Hate has an irrational connotation. I think he has failed immensely and I hold him responsible for mistakes they don't even make at junior level. It is a reaction of me, based on facts. However my post was well intended. Maybe I pointed something out people did not see before and now you can judge better for yourself.
But even you have to acknowledge that he has the worse set of players since period after the WC loss in Argentina and 1986 when the next set of good players came along. That's a fact and I don't f******g care if you have Pep Guardiola managing this bunch, the results would likely not be much different at all.