Again stop with the Ajax bashing. Of course Gravenberch had more playing time at the club as he was a starter in the beginning of the season. Schuurs was first choice CB and Mazraoui was first choice FB on the right side. Maz suffered and eye injury and Schuurs was inconsistent. Timber came into the squad in January as did Rensch. I found little fault with Timber's play during that time and he was a regular in the EL matches against Lille (French chamions), Young Boys, and Roma playing at both CB and FB. He had solid matches in all six games. Is the Euro a step to high? I don't know and neither do you. Yes, the Dutch were sloppy against Ukraine but solid against Austria and North Macedonia. Almost every single team in this competition is flawed in one way or another. I'm getting the impression that FdB has picked the formation that just might allow this team to succeed.
Koopmeiners is totally untested at this level. AZ laid a big egg in both the CL and EL this past season despite keeping all their talents. de Roon, whether you like it or not, played on an Atalanta team that for the past two years has competed at the highest level in both league and Europe. That being said, I would have liked to see him come in at the half in today's match and give Frenkie a break.
That big egg was the result of both Stengs and Boadu, among others being injured and without preparations being thrown in in the CL qualifiers and EL matches. that forced play because of the early start of those qualifications hampered the results AZ needed. Both Stengs and Boadu started playing without any preparations, probably even not being fit at all due to their injuries. Stop that AZ bashing.
????? the Eredivisie season was suspended and there were no matches at all until the qualifiers began for the CL at the end of August. Lots of time to rest and practice compared to other leagues that did play during the summer months. They won their first tie and then lost to Dinamo Kiev who were quite poor. They were decent against Napoli in their EL group but laid a big egg in Croatia against a team they handily beat in Alkmaar I'm not bashing, just stating that they under-performed.
I have different views to others. I thought De Ligt was very good in Half 2 & bad in Half 1 when De Vrij was better. As a matter of fact, I actually agreed Van Basten that De Ligt learned nothing in Italy. Apart from almost playing onside (for the goal), his build-up play was atrocious in the 1st half. All he could do was sideway pass to Blind. In the 2nd half he played more like a leader & was better. De Ligt's shots & headers were also great in the 2nd half. Maybe it is time & fatigue & he will get better with minutes Timber was good. He will be a star if he stays humble & @ a Ajax for a couple of years. The way he kept his composure was awesome. He was also helped by Berghius tracking back. People may criticize Berghius but I think his pass for the 2nd goal helped set it up. He is not an incredible attacking threat but a decent hand. Promes of the other hand was terrible & shouldn't get a game. That 4 vs 2 goof-up was unforgivable. Gakpo has too little time but way too raw & not ready but his touches were good. He needs another year & maybe could be a Super Sup option for the WC. And coming to the best player in defense. Blind - What a monster of a game. His tackle & passing/clearance when 3 attackers came against the 2 CBs was amazing. His distribution was downright incredible & the only reason why Orange could build up from the back. De Jong is an incredible player with amazing touches but had wrong positioning & was too further ahead. He should have dropped back. Gravenberch tried & in the future will surely be better than De Roon but needs time now & isn't probably ready. Wijnaldum despite scoring was just too far ahead, almost @ the level of Depay. That caused a hole in the mid-field & if this is not sorted out, people will meet the same fate as Portugal. Blind was incredible playing from the back. Virtually all the build-up & attacks originated from him. If Oranje go for a 4 man back, Blind should be tried as DM with De Jong & Wijnaldum ahead. I know it is tough to manage his speed & he will have to stay deep but his positioning is also fantastic & his build-up is incredible. Wijnaldum with 2 amazing goals. I guess he will play very far ahead where he can be a goal threat & given his goals & combination that is possibly justified. That means someone like De Roon or Gravenberch playing deep in mid-field & helping in build up play. Depay was much better but needs to not overdo it with his layoffs. He is a great player when he keeps it simple. And ofcourse MOM Malen. IMO, a shade better than Blind. His movement & passing is incredible. He needs to be more selfish & needs to take more shots. But he is a gem. The team only lacks 2 World Class Wingers to challenge for the WC given Malen's best position will be 2nd ST type of role. Gakpo is atleast 1 year away & then also we don't know if he will get there. But Malen is a gem with his movement, combination play, speed. There is no doubt that he will be starting with Depay for the next few matches.
Yes, I also agree Koop should have come in instead of Promes. By the way, it does not mean much but Oranje just set up a record of 10 straight matches of scoring 2 goals or more (the record of 9 games was set in 1935).
https://nos.nl/collectie/13781/arti...eed-bij-juventus-heeft-niemand-iets-te-klagen People see Italy as the masters of defending but in recent times the Italian league has become very leaky and open with a very high goals per game. Tempo and pace is also lower as in the other top leagues. Little wonder all those veteran players can play a full season there and Memphis didn't want to go to Italy after Man United, because he thought it wouldn't challenge him enough. French league not as good technically and even tactically, but defensively and physically it is a whole tier better. Italy very 'lucky' to get four automatic CL spots.
I am not a fan of him but Atalanta wants Koopmeiners, it is revealed today and confirmed by AZ: https://www.vi.nl/nieuws/az-bevestigt-gesprekken-met-atalanta-over-koopmeiners I am more charmed by Schouten to be honest. Can pass and has a strong tackle.
FC Twente won the title in 2010 and just before that AZ won it. Both were final match day victories IIRC. Since the Twente win, Ajax and PSV have won all the titles save the lone Feyenoord title in 2017.
I don't want to be misunderstood. I like Koopmeiners a lot. My worry is with his quickness. He's not nearly as good with the ball as Frenkie but given de Jong is one of the top five MFs in the world with the ball that is not surprising. I'm just not sure that Koopmeiners can reach that level in terms of ball control and I look at him more as a true DM. Right now he is not as experienced as de Roon. Yes, he was deserving of the call up to the NT but I think the U-21 team really suffered by his absence as we were expecting him to play in that tourney. Gravenberch is not a DM and won't do the kind of dirty work required. He is a true box to box MF. I was not surprised by his performance on Monday as his lack of experience at this level was on display. I think he will be an important player in the WC next year. those calling for Blind to move up to the MF are courting disaster. He really cannot play there and Ajax tried it this past season. For all his faults, FdB figured out exactly how to use him correctly. In the 5-3-2 formation he has a limited amount of space to defend and tactically he knows exactly how he can position himself. Since he gets coverage from the CB and DM, he can move up further towards the attacking zone and deliver killing passes. As I said in a post yesterday, FdB was pretty smart in figuring out this was the best formation for THIS group of players.
Italy produced many top defenders but currently many teams have many central midfielders & couple it with a 3 man backline & the CB gets all the protection in the world. Fast pacy wide players are less prevalent than say Germany or England or Spain. But De Ligt was good in the 2nd half. And then De Vrij was solid throughout & he plays in Seria A also, so difficult to judge. But I don't see the improvement expected from De Ligt in the last couple of years. VVD is in a different tier altogether comapared to De Ligt. But then VVD & De Vrij are 29 & De Ligt is 21. He is 8 years younger. Both VVD & De Vrij have got 4-5 decent years & can hang on till the 2026 WC. If not alteast 3-4 years till Euro 226 ! De Ligt will play for Oranje for the next 10-12 years ! Sometimes people forget how young he is. Timber is 20 btw & De Ligt is 21 (Will be 22 in a couple of months) ! Koopmeiners is 23, Malen is 22, Gakpo is 22, all older than De Ligt. Only Gravenberch is 19 !
That lots of time is irrelevant because both Stengs and Boadu were injured and without almost any training had to play in those matches. Before the CL qualifiers started it was still a question whether both were healthy enough again, let alone ready to have an impact. There was another one out too, I forgot his name. You can't go into a European campaign with your key players without any training preparation.
I always think of Koopmeiners as Strootman 2.0.... true leader, team player, solid passer, calming presence, sweet left foot, outstanding work ethics, and hopefully (!!) stronger/less injury-prone. Koopmeiners will never be at the level of Frenkie (who is a generational player - there aren't that many out there!). But Koopmeiners will at least a rotational player in Oranje in years to come. We have not seen Koopmeiners deployed alongside Frenkie.... I think a double-pivot would be an interesting experiment. Both players are willing passers and extremely active on the offensive end. The defense should not suffer a whole lot, as both players were disciplined and had played CB's at some point their club careers. De Roon is 30+ years old, so the time will come for sure! Not in this Euro tournament, unfortunately (because stubborn FdB keeps forgetting that he included Koopmeiners in the final squad).
U21 definitely should have had Koopmeiners and Gakpo playing based on their lack of time with Full Oranje squad. Having seen Jong Oranje they were missed, and the Midfield in particular was very poor. Regarding Blind he’s obviously comfortable on the ball and passes it very well, but where does he play? In each match I’ve seen him “trying” to run and it’s not pretty. De Boer MUST stress the need of defensive cover for Blind at all times, and restrict or condense the space near him so he’s not vulnerable. It’s a big ask that everyone is dialed in by shrinking the field to protect one guy who has zero pace. No margin for error now, and the team who is the most disciplined tactically will win the tournament I believe.
That may have been true for the CL and I think they were missing a CB as Koopmeiners played on the back line. However, all were healthy for the EL matches and they lost to a very poor Croatian club on the final match day. I think Slot had already left because of the Feyenoord contract and Pascal Jansen had no clue what he was doing. AZ lost to Ajax twice in January and I was not impressed by his tactics.
We have fans 12,000 kilometers away: https://www.rtlnieuws.nl/nieuws/video/video/5237782/oranje-molukken-ek-voetbal-nederlands-elftal
https://www.rtvdrenthe.nl/nieuws/17...euren-oranje-na-wedstrijden-Nederlands-elftal Ook Molukse eilanden kleuren oranje na wedstrijden Nederlands elftal Gedurende het Europees Kampioenschap voetbal kleurt ons land steeds meer oranje, maar die oranjekoorts is inmiddels ook overgeslagen naar de andere kant van de wereld. Ook op verschillende eilanden van de Molukken feesten inwoners rondom wedstrijden van het Nederlands elftal net zo hard als in onze straten. Filmpjes van in oranje uitgedoste Molukkers die massaal met hun scooters de straat op gaan om Nederlandse overwinningen te vieren, gaan het internet over. Juichen voor de nationale trots van de voormalige kolonisator lijkt op het eerste oog wat vreemd, maar er is een vrij logische verklaring voor. Spelers met Molukse roots Een verklaring waarom er op de eilanden van zijn voorouders zo'n feest losbarst, geeft geboren en getogen Assenaar Nino Solisa, die inmiddels advocaat is in Amsterdam. "In het verleden hebben meerdere spelers met Molukse roots voor het Nederlands elftal gespeeld. Denk aan Denny Landzaat en Giovanni van Bronckhorst. De Molukkers zijn daar ontzettend trots op", zegt hij. Sommige filmpjes die rondgaan, zoals deze video op de Kei-eilanden, zijn gemaakt tijdens het WK van 2014. Solisa bevestigt dat veel inwoners van de Molukken nu ook weer in oranjesferen verkeren. "Ik zie regelmatig filmpjes voorbijkomen op sociale media na de wedstrijden van het Nederlands elftal, ook al doen er volgens mij nu geen spelers mee met Molukse roots." Pele putus Hup hup Holland❤ Posted by Bu Nov on Monday, June 21, 2021 Politie verbiedt zwaaien met vlaggen Het oranjegevoel is dus gebleven, maar in Indonesië is niet iedereen blij met al die wapperende Nederlandse vlaggen. Op het eiland Saparua bijvoorbeeld heeft de politie het tonen van en zwaaien met vlaggen van deelnemers aan het EK verboden. Ook parades waarin deelnemers attributen of symbolen dragen van EK-deelnemers mogen niet. Wie dat toch doet, riskeert een gevangenisstraf van drie maanden. Officieel wijst de politie op een wet waarin staat dat het hijsen van buitenlandse vlaggen enkel is toegestaan bij internationale bijeenkomsten, maar volgens Solisa heeft het plotselinge verbod een andere reden. "Op beelden waar een kleine groep Molukkers met Duitse vlaggen de straat op ging, werd ook een vlag van de Molukse onafhankelijkheidsbeweging RMS getoond. Ik vermoed dat Indonesië bang is dat zulke parades nationalistische gevoelens opwekken en daarom zo streng optreedt."
Another good reason to put the development aid to zero. We're the ATM for the EU and the rest of the world. To this day an enormous amount of public and private charity is sent to Indonesia.
So apparently LdJ is out of the tournament due to a knee-injury after bumping into Gakpo in training. Tough luck.
I find it really stupid to not fill all squad spots. He should have named a replacement for Van de Beek.