This. Just look at the group we are in. We have a bunch of talent coming through but my guess is 2018 is too early for them.
[If thing are done right], the team that will play in the WCQ a year from now is supposed to be a very diffrent team than the current one, mostly in the mental area: Players just have to see this camapaign as a new begnning and like we have something to proove.
This somehow reminds of some certain qualifiction game in Rotterdam I went to with my oncle in the middle of the 90ies. It was rougher than today as seen by the owner of the hotel turning off the warm water supply for all of us. Really good times... I wish you guys all the best and cheers!
Another thing I didn't really like today: Bringing in Van Persie in the dying minutes of the game.. 10 years of national football, top scorer of all time and you bring him in the last minut, in Kazakhstan, on a terrible pitch for his 100th game. Very disrespectful. It should have in Holland, in de Kuip.
I agree. However we need to make change, starting with KNVB and coaching staff. If we don't, I don't see how we can qualify for WC 2018. Our WC group is pretty tough. For Euro, Iceland will rest players and Turkey will either win to seal the deal or at least draw to qualify. I don't see Turkey losing at home. I also agree with Laurent that we are not sure if this Euro is exciting. I feel that the Euro is losing its prestige of stronger competition than WC. With 16 teams, 4 groups of 4, there is not much room for error to qualify as top 2. Now you can play like Germany or Italy in 1982 and qualify as 1 of the 3rd place team. Understanding the irony that we cannot even qualify with expansion to 24, but the Euro is turning into a smaller version of WC which I do not like. Unless the teams qualify from 3rd place playoff can make a miracle run like Greek in 2004, I don't agree with expansion. Let WC be WC and Euro be Euro. Back to us, missing Euro will be a good wake up call to KNVB. If we barely make it, KNVB may still live in a cloud. Now they are falling off the cloud, perhaps they need to learn to walk again before they can run. Let's look at other countries that are able to turn around to evaluate and see what we can learn. I like what Belgium can do well now currently. I also like what Germany can do after 1998 WC. I know Eredivisie cannot be compared to Bundesliga, talent pool size and other factors, but there are intangible factors that we can learn. This is one of the article about Germany's lessons after 1998 WC (http://www.theguardian.com/football...-team-youth-development-to-world-cup-win-2014). I'm sure there are other articles out there about things that KNVB can do.
But there's the undeniable lack of quality behind. Consider we might lose Robben and Sneijder as well. Our two best players are getting seriously old. Maybe the youngsters will be hungry, but it won't be enough to beat France, I just watched them again against Armenia recently, they played great, France had a dark period but now they will rock for at least 5 years in my opinion. Many great youngsters. If we can finish above Sweden ? Probably. Especially if Zlatan retires this summer as he said. That would give us a 2nd place, and we don't know who we'll play against in the last round, things look so insecure. I guess we can hide the lack of individual quality in our youngsters by creating a great system and a new tactic but after long years of Ajax style back passing and useless possession it won't be easy. I've been mentionning the idea of hiring a foreign coach for years but most of people here don't want it. Hiddink ruined us just he like ruined Turkey a couple of years ago.
Name a good foreign manager who wants to handle the Dutch NT. I don't think there is one out there other than Morten Olsen (who has Ajax roots) but he's not about to walk out on Denmark.
And let's have Rijkaard as the assistant. That'd be fun to watch spitting contest on the sideline... Speaking of Rijkaard, in all seriousness, is he willing and available? He is an attacking-minded coach, and his appointment with Oranje wasn't all that terrible. I would think he'd accumulate knowledge over the years and be ready for a second stint. Incidentally, his Wikipedia page says that he rejects "the notion of a "star system" and promotes the idea that every one of his players is a valuable member of the team." Well.. isn't that just lovely? With the old guards presumably will retire (RVP, KJH, Sneijder, Robben), Oranje is left without a "star player" - so maybe cohesiveness over individuals maybe the way forward.
Having Voller and Rijkaard together sounds fun! I'm not sure Rijkaard second stint will be good. Look at Hiddink who had been somewhat successful the first time (same as Rijkaard). If Rijkaard failed the first time like LVG, maybe he is hungry to prove. Is Rijkaard an easy going, lay back guy like Hiddink or a disciplined military type like LVG? Look at our young players now, perhaps we need a well disciplined guy.
I'd like to see Steks called up, but I'm guessing Blind will go with Vermeer. Also, I know it was Zoet's debut and throwing him into a game that late without getting warmed up can lead to nerves, but has his distribution always been that bad? Most of his passes were really off.
"Lack of Individual quality". I'm sorry to say that, but the 1980-84 generation that everybody keeps orgasming about had only 2 world class players in it's entire exsitance, Robben and 2010's Sneijder. Kuyt, de Jong and Huntelaar were very nice players for the NT, but who the hell else we had? RvP and VdV, two talented players who never neached far enough. It wasn't that of a great team, not in 2010 and of course not in 2014. Bottom line: yes, there is a lack of quality in dutch football currently. But is it that bad that we can rule out the imregance of at least only two world class players? Hell No. My money is still of Klaassen if you ask me. I at least agree with you that even without world class players we can still do good if we get the team spirit and tactics right. I acutlly won't be sad with a team made of 11 Kuyt-like players, as in players who aren't especially talented but can get the job done. Maybe it's the Arsenal fan in me talking, but I think we need to try and ditch our morale highground, stop with the 4-4-3 and try and play like real men with real balls. If Iceland can do it (and don't you freaking tell me the Iceland has more quality players than us), why wouldn't we?
Guys, we have generations coming up that won U17 Euro's. We will have a hard time getting a good striker, but in many other departments, we will have proper replacements. All we need to do now is appointing brave forward footballing managers at the Dutch top clubs so that when they are integrated in a first team, they get to play proper football and are brought forward the proper way. Ajax for example need to kick out de Boer and promote coaches that are willing to play ball. The Dutch NT looks so mediocre these times. That midfield. Maybe the weakest ever. Blind senior needs to go. In what world is he allowed to concede another goal? How can we not have a clean sheet against Kazachstan? They scored 4 from corners, 1 from a penalty in qualification. Their first open play goal was against us. The lack of focus on how that is possible is a measure of lack of standards. Another lack of standards is that van der Wiel is called up again. This guy is just not playing for his team, bar 1 or 2 mid September games. Wiel messed up, keeps getting chances. That is also a bad sign. Top sport climate is a climate with high standards and few chances given to mess up. If you mess up, you have a problem. Not with us. You can kill our chances to go to a Euro and still be there. Everybody who has done this to the shirt needs to go. If you lose 6 points to Iceland, if you can not qualify from a formula that made qualification more easy, you are done. Blind and Oostveen need to go. Many players need to go. Narsingh and Wiel should not see the color Orange again. I don't care we won against Kazachstan, I care about concededing against them. This team just keeps conceding goals. Blind as an ex defender has not been able to tighten things up at the back. That is a major thing we have to fix if we want to stand a chance in the 2018 qualification campaign. Among many things, that needs to be fixed. So I am pissed off we won 2-1 and not 2-0. Turkey won, so expectations have dropped below 1% for me. No way Turkey is going to lose at home anymore to Iceland. As it really seems to be over, I really start to become angry. What a gigantic mess up. What a failure. Surely the biggest in NT history, with the new formula and all. They made it so easy to qualify, that even minnow nations could join the pee wee party. Who is not even able to go there? We did. This is an absolute disgrace and again, everybody with any responsibility needs to be cut away ASAP. Take no prisoners. If we let this slip, we will lower the bar even more. It is time to push back.
Why did Riedewald play left back. Is not playing there for club and we have Pieters, van Aanholt, Kongolo there who play there for club. I am not saying that he is a bad player or even that he did a bad job, though the goal we conceded might have to do do with his defending, I am just curious about the reasoning to pick him for that spot vs other options.
It really is a crime that Netherlands didn't manage to at least secure the third spot in such a mediocre group. I mean this is really shameful, we are not talking about Germany, Brazil, Argentina, etc, but about third or fourth rate football countries who somehow managed to get ahead of us. I can't remember of anything as bad and frustrating as this, regarding Dutch football. If Van Oosteven has a little bit of pride he should resign like now. And don't forget Hiddink and his "I don't care" attitude. It's clear to me, looking backwards, that his only motivation was the money since he's approaching retirement, the guy never transmitted any emotions to his team and at times he seemed f%^$% clueless sitting on the bench while the team was being destroyed... by Iceland.
van Bommel and van Bronkchorst are the remains of the 2002 team so they don't count. I already mentioned van der Vaart, which leads me to assume you have'nt read this comment fully. Heitinga and Matijsen? Two mediocre defenders, not very different from Vlaar.