Orange, the rebuild starts now

We lost due to coaching and one major error by De Ligt which Portugal took advantage. We couldn’t attack much of the game. Portugal was better. We will not win the next Euro or WC with the forwards that we have now. Very disappointed with another 2nd place.

 

Having Robben for just 30 min a game will give us much better chance...

 

I kinda agree about Robben given the current situation. We just have to wait until we know where he will go next season and whether he gets enough playing time.
If this is the case, I don't see anyone better filling the striker position currently. I think him aside with Promes and Depay will definitely be better than Babel and Bergwijn.

 

A "little"?...

Rewatch the game, Netherlands coming out of their defense was almost embarassing. They really didn't know what to do from that point onwards, it was so obvious from their body language.

Don't be a hard sport, Portugal lack effectiveness as usual and the midfield wasn't really that high geared, but there is no shadow of a doubt which was the better team. Netherland have better CBs, they really saved the team from a higher score. Whether it was well played or not. Whether Netherlands had bad coaching or didn't play to their potential.

But if we're really touching on the latter, then what makes you think that our midfield played to its full potential too?

It's easy to correlate Portugal to 2016 version and granted, F. Santos is still highly criticized here because the team without Ronaldo somehow plays much more fluid and creative football, we all hated the 1st game against Switzerland. Today was better but still has some margin to go.

The key point is that Portugal has the team to overcome Netherlands and Switzerland at EASE. Don't get Ajax campaign and a strong collective a la Switzerland get over your heads, you still have the likes of de Roon in the team. So what is this great attacking team you speak of?

Ryan Babbel, Depay and this unknown kid?
Seriously?

 

Well, no wonder the man who said "sadness will last forever" was Dutch .

Anyway, I'll try to keep my hopes high for the future. I think by 2022 we'll have a great team.

 

Whooooah ....

What did De Ligt do wrong for their goal or even all night !?

He got touch tight to a forward and a ball flashed through his legs or just passed him .. nobody in the world could have stopped that pass .. I’m not even convinced the guy meant or even knew what he’d done in the first place tbh

 

But that's how teams play finals. Great defence and pounce on errors? 2018 wc aside this game today is how finals always go, both teams are always very careful and dont take chances or risks. Portugal played a great game in my opinion for the first 60 minutes, they say back after the ly scored and I would have went for it but that's not this coaches style. They are extremely hard to score on if they get the lead and then organize themselves the way Santos wants. They got the goal which they wanted and then stuck to santis tactics, that was "The Gameplan"? They stuck to it. How many teams through different eras can pull off the same approach, I Credit my team with extremely different personnel than 2016 to be able to lock down like that when the game calls for it. Difference is this team can actually attack with world class players other than Ronaldo like Fernandes and Bernardo. Not sure why some of you are hurt and saying we played like shit? Honestly the way the swiss played I said to everyone who I was watching with that if the swiss win all credit to them the way they played. Same thing today, Portugal played better because and it's not a bad thing, as of right now this current moment Portugal is the better team, more rounded all around better. Dutch are on the way up, Dutch were a better team than Portugal in 2010 to 2014, I'm not afraid to admit that. Abs and flows, Portugal between 2010 and 2014 was a bad era, how we even got to the semi final and outplayed Spain in that game only to lose is beyond me.

 

Kluivert, Groeneveld and Malen need to become a starter and get more playing time at their respective clubs, as simple as that... until this happens, any conversation of bringing them to the fold is pretty irrelevant. Same can be said for Promes. He needs consistency, he is a victim of being in and out of rotation. 2 goals in all competitions last season is pathetic.

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I think Stengs will be a good asset. He can't be worse than Babel. I am almost certain Stengs will get a call-up after the summer break.

Depay and Bergwijn is a keeper. Bergwijn needs European experience badly, and he needs to not being a third option behind Luuk and Lozano. He simply has to become an alpha-forward and become a focal point of offense. That's the only thing that will make him sharp and deadly. Right now he is so tentative in everything he does. Depay needs to focus, stay out of trouble and controversies.

 

He just returned from injury towards the end of the season. No game time plus is struggling on fitness. After the pre season he should be ready and back in action.he also has a stiff competition from florenzi.

Imo he is in the same boat as dumfries and hateboer. Defensively he is also average.

 

Two days rest is simply too little. If you have to believe physiologists three days is necessary and two means you are only back at 80% of your powers. Let alone after playing extra time. The long time fitness coach for Guardiola even said this:
https://books.google.nl/books?id=HJ68BQAAQBAJ&lpg=PT10&dq=perarnau guardiola&hl=nl&pg=PT78#v=snippet&q=Days rest&f=false

Sadly after 2016 another tournament tailor made for Portugal and another tournament where Netherlands had a tough route.

 

Im repeating this again. Bergwijn doesnt have a cutting edge to become a top winger.at best he is an upgrade to narsingh. Any big team investing in him will regret big time. How can you say he needs european experience badly when danjuma who never played in eredivisie but live up to expectation in CL. Also malens technical ability is what gives hm the edge over beegwijn. Malen played full 90 in the last five games for PSV and this was evident big time in those games. Lets just hope this will be break out season for him.

The issue with danjuma was he wasnt fit after recovering from his ankle injury which he sustained in the nation league or was it vs belguim.He will be starter in NT once he start playing regularly for Club brugge.

Stengs, I can also see him getting the call up.

Also keep an eye on adekanye, his technical abilities is also another level. He could end up like jordan sancho.

 

Incredibly frustrating game to watch - had me yelling at the television in the last 15 minutes or so. All seem to do with our possession is play it between midfield and defence - just incredible really, constantly passing it around to no actual effect at all....no one in the team can cross the damn ball, it's incredible.....I honestly have no idea what the fuss about de Jong is, ok he is very comfortable on the ball and doesn't panic but I can not recall him playing one pass that led to anything dangerous, he just constantly plays it sideways or hangs on to it and then gives it back to van Dijk - just unbelievably boring to watch. Portugal get it and players start running and trying to make space - we get it and off we go on one of these damn 15 pass going nowhere moves again.....pointless crap.

 

I can only think that FDJ was instructed to play that way ..

He was magnificent the other night against England .... he looked as though he was playing a different game than anyone else

 

4 Dutch players picked for allstar team (deRoon a bit of a surprise)

 

How can VVD not be included?! If it wasn't for his goal against Germany, Oranje wouldn't have qualified to this stage.

 

Future is bright for the Oranje, but we (Portugal) had it this time. I definitely could see our two teams both going deep into the next tournaments, so much young talent.

As a big fan of the late 80s/early 90s Netherlands teams, it would be great to see our infamous "mini-rivalry" from the 00s develop into a more healthy rivalry as contenders going forward. Hope to see you in 2020!

 

Difficult match to predict. Nice moments of Dutch development. Portugal creates usually many chances, they don't use them often. Talented last generations. With Guedes, they have a new great attacker after Pauleta, Joao Pinto. Portugal has recent title holding experience. Somehow I expected that Netherlands might lose. Too many bad finals are vibrant in memories of all current players. Netherlands should play at least in quarterfinals of EURO 2020, after that anything can happen. I expected more from Koeman.

 

Did you see the scramble that others had to do after De Ligt's miss? The game was tight (as most finals) where it came down to one or two mistakes that make the differences.

Van Dijk was a solid. His position was incredible. He is in the right place to block shot effortless. In my book he was much better than De Ligt in this Nations League.

I'm not really sure why but I saw the Hiddink/Blind team again that passed the ball around in the back and simply could not find a way to go forward. De Jong is good, but he needs support. How many times you see him thinking of dribble but could not because there is no blue shirt around (and/or sometimes behind him). I hold Koeman for this. The ball stops at the coach for preparation, planning and strategy, reading the game and adapts.

The 1974, 1978, 1998, 2010 and 2014 teams may be some people's favourites, arguably the best teams but none of that can be compared to the 1988 team. That team is a well balanced team, 2 of the best central defenders, a goalie who is solid and good at PK, a lethal striker, a dynamic forward with leadership and a very good working hard supporting role players.

It was painful for me to see losing another final. Time to look forward to Euro qualification. I don't think we can beat Germany to win the group but we need to take care of business against the other teams to get 2nd place. I hope Koeman takes risk by bringing more young players into the squad, especially at forwards. It is time to say good bye to Babel.

 

I don’t think the guy meant to nutmeg anyone .. just feed the ball into the area ..

 

That’s why being bringing Robben back till a youngster emerges may work imho

 

Mixing old and young talents did not seem to work well, as Blind/Hiddink/Advocaat could testify. I would rather see a commitment of wholesale rebuilding with a group of players of the same age group... there will be growing pain along the way, but the upside is that they are getting more time together. No ego in the system. No hiding (excuses) behind a superstar. Arguably the fast rising of Frenkie could be partly attributed to Sneijder stepping aside. So please, Babel, if you read this message, do everybody a solid favor and hand in your resignation...

 

Robben will never unretire. He is done with Oranje