Pre-match: Oranje vs Sweden & Moldova Euro Qualifying

Van Marwijk is so biased towards Twente!

 

Can't wait for October 12th...should be a great game!

 

Yeh calling up TWO players from the reigning Dutch champions. It is bloody outrageous.

 

I personally think it's going to be boring as hell but there you go.

 

Fair selection, all in all. The only thing that popped out was Boulahrouz. Stuttgart is at the bottom of the table and Boulah has been no more than a bench-warmer. Surely this shows the lack of depth on the back line. Wonder why Ronnie Stam wasn't given a chance, maybe because Wigan hasn't exactly been on the map, either. Or maybe because Stam plays further up in midfield.

I think the starting lineup will pick on itself. Finger crossed, no more injuries this weekend. There is a pretty clear line on the sand dividing those on form (Vaart, De Jong, Huntelaar, for instance) versus those who have been marginal (e.g De Zeeuw, Schaars, Lens). Glad to see Ruud kept his place!

 

I'm glad you agree. Before you know it he will even call up players like Brama. He even wants to call up Twente foreigners for Gods sake.

 

vdv 3 goals for spurs this week while huntelaar scored a goal in 5 consecutive games for schalke.

huntelaar

elia - sneijder - vdv*

afellay - mvb

de jong** - mathijsen - wisgerhof*** - vdw

st maarten​

you know it makes sense bert!

*vdv plays on the right for spurs in a 442
**debuted for ajax as a lb under koeman
***heitinga doesn't start most games for everton lately.

 

Wisgerhof is hardly a world class defender but he's no worse than Vlaar, who's injured anyway. With Vlaar and Maduro injured and Heitinga not getting any playing time at his club Wisgerhof is a logical choice really. He won't do anything spectacular but he never does anything really stupid either. Seeing the competition in this qualifying group he'll be fine.

Based on this season there's a better case to be made for Brama than for De Zeeuw!

 

It's the same old same old problems with the defence really. It's hardly surprising that Van Marwijk continues to play with the two defensive mids. I would like to see him try Janssen instead of Nigel de Jong to bring in some more creative input in that position as well as the extra weapon Janssen has with his set pieces but then again I'm a Twente fan and biased.

On that note if Nicky Kuiper keeps his place this season he's got a real chance of getting a call-up for the left back position I reckon.

Potential issue: Van der Vaart is getting bigged up a lot in England right now but he has no chance of a starting place with Holland. Will he get stroppy?

 

You're a month late. It came out after the last round of qualifiers. I feel bad for Rafa, but it's virtually impossible to fit both he and Sneijder into the starting 11 together. It's much like England trying to play Lampard and Gerrard.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/sep/08/rafael-van-der-vaart-despondent

 

I am not too sure. Both Lampard and Gerrard are ball-hugging midfielders, i.e. they demand the ball on their feet to be really effective. That's why they can't play together, simply just not ball enough to share.

Vaart and Sneijder don't have to operate on the same space (like they did in W.C matches). Vaart is technically brilliant to play further upfront as a shadow striker. I think this is where he should be. I can envision a scenario where Sneijder is a deep-lying playmaker, controlling possessions and distributing the ball. Vaart is a link-up player, stretching the opponent's defense and opening up the space for the main spearhead (KJH, RVP and RVN) while on occasions sneaking in the box to poke goals.

 

Agreed on Janssen to get a nod, but would love to see him partnering with De Jong instead. Though, probably it won't happen anytime soon, unless Van Bommel sidelined for injuries. I am biased, too-- towards De Jong, perhaps since I've watched one too many Man City games. As good as he is now, I just think we haven't seen him the best of him yet. He is entering his prime ages and his full potential hasn't been unleashed yet. Last week's match against Chelsea was a fine display, De Jong reminded me of Makalele on his best day. While on the same note, Van Bommel starts declining and losing steam.

 

huntelaar and rvn are the perfect strikers to implement both vdv and sneijder.

spurs have shown with modric and vdv that 2 playmakers can play together, even though modric is not on the same level as both dutchies obviously. he's more of a tikkie terug kind of player while the others are a lot better going forward in the essence of a true playmaker.

i think with rvp we often miss a target man upfront because like our midfielders he likes to roam the pitch. with kjh or rvn upfront we will always have someone in the box whenever there's a cross (unlike at the wc at times).

kjh scored a goal each in schalke's last 5 games and has 10 goals in 9 for both club and country so far this season, so deserves to start ahead of rvn. all 3 of elia, kuyt and lens are far from their best and kuyt's form with liverpool is starting to worry me. from what i've seen from them i don't think they will come out of that relegation battle any time soon.

kjh

afellay - sneijder - vdv

de jong - janssen​

is probably the best we have to offer for now bar another set of injuries. as you all know i like to visit the bayern forums from time to time and they are anything but happy about mvb lately, while de jong is being hailed by city fans at the moment (especially after the chelsea game).

janssen is probably our most in form cm/dm, even though another (female) poster on here famously claimed there's plenty of other theo's out there..

 

LOL. Just when I finished writing this, De Jong once again managed himself to get in the midst of controversy with his crunching tackle to Ben Arfa... It did seem that he got the ball, though.

 

It's more of a 4-5-1 with Van der Vaart as the centre attacking mid. We used to be a 4-4-2 but we changed once he came along because he's Dutch which means he can play any position (it's a compliment don't worry ).

 

Kinda OT, but Felipo Melo thought about quitting after the Brazil game and said the following:

 

i know you're trying to work into a 451, but from what i've seen so far i think your team needs some more games to fully adopt this system.

your coach starts out with a 442 and then take out either pav or crouch for lennon in the 2nd half as of late while in vdv's first 2 games you indeed started out with a 451.

the only problem i think you will encounter in the future is that i don't think modric is suitable as a cm in a 451, will work better with sandro/jj and huddlestone imo.

for now

pav - crouch

bale - modric - huddlestone - vdv​

will do.. but in the future

crouch

bale - vdv - lennon

sandro/jj - hudd​

is perhaps the way to go in both epl and cl.

i know leaving modric is out is hard to swallow for most of the yid faithful, but you can always bring him in when needed. with the amount of cb's injured all the time, i think a more reinforced dm partnership is needed a la oranje (mvb, de jong) and spain (xabi alonso, busquets).

 

He's a disgrace and a liability. Never mind that he got the ball. To go into a tackle like that is absurd. The man is clearly an idiot. If Van Marwijk has balls he'll put him on the bench.

And I'm not saying that because of Janssen - Janssen pulled out as his knee is bothering him.

 

I agree. What did Huub Stevens do to him? He used to be a footballer.

I think you're discrediting Modric a bit too much. He's an excellent player, good technique and vision and also has the ability to penetrate. Just doesn't score enough goals. And in the match Spurs played against Twente, Van der Vaart was playing central attacking midfielder with the freedom to swerve to the left and right. In the match it looked like this:

---------------Pav-----Crouch
--Bale------------Vdv-------------------
-----------Modric---------Huddlestone


I'd like to see this though:

-Bale---------Crouch----------Lennon
----------VdV---------Modric-----
-------------Huddlestone------------

Looks more balanced to me.

 

Let´s hope Holland underestimates my tiny Sweden so we can grab a shocking point.

 

Who could have predicted that Brama would make the scout?! Such extreme bias towards Twente from our manager. It's ridiculous.

Finally Emanuelson isn't ignored anymore though. Which is better news. He's been the best Dutch left back in 6 or so years.

 

My guess is that now that De Jong has been dropped, he will put either VdV or Sneijder there. I think Sneijder would actually make the most sense, because he's always running back to pick up the ball anyway.

Emanuelsen has been one of the best left wingers, not left backs.