68642 "Is that the son?", wonders national coach Ronald Koeman. "Then I won't say anything..." Henry Bonello is most likely under the bar/in goal tonight at Malta. That last name rings alarm bells, especially in the Netherlands, although he can't do anything about it himself. Henry is the son of John Bonello, the goalkeeper of Malta who lost 12-1 to Spain on December 21, 1983 and caused the Netherlands a trauma. Father John does not like to be reminded of that infamous and bizarre evening in Seville and son Henry also prefers to skip the subject. The 36-year-old Bonello is therefore not available for an interview on the eve of the World Cup qualifying duel with the Orange.
Gakpo vs lang. the debate is over. Lang I have said this. Hopefully the more they play the more better grip they can have in the team and sharpen the team. gravenberch again no impact. That spot is up for grabs. I mean somebody who can hold the ball and slice through in the middle
Maybe it is the manager that does not bring out the best of the players. I think both Gakpo and Gravenberch are fine where they are. I am more concerned about the striker position (where some already suggested to try with false 9). I am curious to see if Liverpool deploy Frimpong as the right back rather than right winger where Salah automatically starts; if that is the case then it will be tough for Frimpong to switch his mind set every time he is called up (RB we have Dumfries, Frimpong, Timber which is nice to have). Koeman seems to reward/be loyal to players who contributed in he past (perhaps to gel the starting 11) and very reluctant to try new strikers. He only try when forced to (say his picked players are not available). Both Netherlands and Portugal took Spain to PK and all three have very good midfields. Due to coaching I will put Netherlands behind Spain, Portugal, France and maybe with Germany and England in Europe now as heading to the World Cup.
I remember this very well. Sickening still to this day. Missed opportunity to see youngsters Gullit Van Basten Rijkaard and Koeman. Then of course we followed this up with a failure to qualify for World Cup 86 going out on a late Georges Grun Away goal that sent Belgium through. Bad times in my early days of Oranje fandom.
There is saying buy the blanket before the cold starts, if you gonna wait for the cold to start and then decide to go and buy. You know what’s gonna happen. I have long long long said on how competition is the best way to get best out of players and you could see today how Lang showed the cutting edge and quality to that of gakpo. Gakpo is a good player, I’m not disputing that but when it matter the most he simply becomes cold. No cutting edge and neither able to make any impact. This is nothing new. You close him down he gets neutralized. Lang is an artist, he takes on defenders turning them inside out. gravenberch same story, Malta found a lot of space behind him. Lucky they were not competitive enough and take those chances when it came. watching vitinha, pedri, zubimendi, and other midfielders in nation league final, neither Frenkie or Gravenberch come near to what’s needed to win a final. Frenkie some exception but still has limitations to his overall game. Not balanced covering to right. More to the left.
Turned out to be a very good night for Oranje who piled it on Malta 8 nil in Groningen, which celebrated their heroes Koeman and Captain Virgil Before some comments on the performances we can also say thanks to Finland for beating Poland 2-1 which is good news. As for my thoughts. Flekken had a relatively easy night and solidified his backup status to Bart Verbruggen Dumfries had Xavi in front of him tonight from the start had the assist on Memphis’ second goal, but nothing spectacular tonight from the Inter Milan man who displayed his typical hard running work rate. De Vrij in for Van Hecke had one sloppy ball in the first half but wasn’t all that bothered by the minnows of Malta. Captain Virgil with a nice match returning to Groningen scored a nice goal after winning a strong challenge and then playing to Frenkie who teed up the big man who finished with a fantastic drive. Van de Ven is just a freak athlete who runs like a locomotive. Great finish to cap off the match which marked his first Oranje goal. Gravenberch got the first half tonight, and was his smooth self, but I feel like he can provide more depth in attack. Excellent season for him at Liverpool. Frenkie is such a class player what more can be said? His turns, dummies, dribbles, and confidence against every team no matter who or what is just a joy to watch. Kluivert got the start tonight as the 10, and provided some good movement, and pressing that was kind of missing at times on Saturday, but was a little off the boil at times with some touches. Great season at Bournemouth got him back into the Oranje side, and I’ll be very interested to see if he moves on in the summer with his name being linked elsewhere in the EPL. Gakpo was trying to make things happen as always, and completed the most successful dribbles tonight, but was kind of hit and miss as the attacking side in the first half was not always fluid enough. Xavi starting on the right, and finished as the 10 likes to tuck in as we know, and make things happen with his playmaking ability creating 5 chances according to FotMob scored a beautiful goal after some nice work. Let’s see what the summer transfer market does for little Xavi who is a feisty character. Memphis scored 2 goals tonight which equals RVP at 50 atop the All Time Goalscoring list for Oranje which obviously is a tremendous accomplishment. The first was a PK after a foul on Kluivert, and the second a beauty after a cross by DD that was dummied by Xavi and met expertly by Memphis. It’s not hard to criticize Memphis who had some bad decisions, and occasional sloppy play despite his achievement, and I was particularly pissed off when he saw some time as the playmaking 10 when useless Wout Weghorst came on. Why Ronald? Why? Memphis was now out and Malen came on and scored 2 beautiful goals and had an assist while Noa Lang also scored but the football just improved again with the nice touches and combination football coming back even though the opponent was poor and pretty open defensively. Wieffer came on for RG to start the second half and was solid but nothing special. Geertruida came on late for DD, and I’m guessing he played because Timber was not available due to injury, and Frimpong is a Right Forward now in Koeman’s eyes. Unfortunately for me the game after 3 nil got a little sloppy around the 25 minute mark, but the second half was an improvement especially the last 15 minutes. Great start to this World Cup Qualifying campaign, and let’s face it Oranje are on their way to the big event as they should be. Simply put they’re very talented with lots of depth and quality. The Nations League QF matches with Spain should prove that Oranje can be very dangerous, and will always be taken seriously by every team they face. It’s not always easy, and we (Me) Oranje supporters can be overly critical, but this group under Koeman gets along well, which has been reported, and spoken about by the players themselves, and that’s very important, but simply because of the quality football they can play.
Two wins out of two, with no goals conceded. Great start of this qualifying cycle. As a bonus… the (supposedly) second-best team in the group, Poland, are in self-destruct mode. Their aging captain Lewandonski quit the NT abruptly last week after a rift with the manager, and they just lost to Finland (whom Oranje had beaten away from home!) Oranje v. Poland next match could be decisive. A home win means Oranje is nearly there. Hopefully this qualification campaign can be wrapped up quickly, so Koeman can use the latter games to tinker with his best player combination, or even better, ushering new players for back-ups (which he’s been reluctant to do!)
This team only needs Arne Slot as a manager that’s all. Praying to get a quality striker in the near future, Emegha, Zirkzee or even Piroe should get chances.
68838 Well, if Liverpool keeps on adding Orange Squad players to their selection, Arne might do the job as a side job.
I'm of the opinion the selection of Memphis is wasting time to incorporate real scorers. He simply isnot good enough anymore and his injury prone situation has led us with a striker problem because our imbecil coach selected him anyway in the last tournement. I seldom agree with van Hanegem, but when he wrote Depay annoyed him in the Finland match, I had to agree with him. Stupid Koeman, stop playing him and select the young and better alternatives.
Would it hurt Memphis' and Weghorst's pride if Koeman told them that he knows what these 2 players can do and would like to try other players vs Lithuania or Poland? There are 6 games left. Other players can score as well not just the striker. How long Memphis and Weghorst have been with the national team that you have to worry about their chemistry with the rest of the squad? It does not hurt to try and see at this point. It would hurt when suddenly players are not available at the last minute and then you have to select a new player who have not had any experiences with the rest of the team. I just don't get it. It is not like a club where you have to buy another player, it is more like you call up a player from the U18 of the same club. The manager has the ability to call but he is not using it.
Well, Koeman decided to select and play Hato, while everybody else already knew Dean Huijsen was superior. So he missed the opportunity to cap the REAL deal (pun, pun, pun) long before Spain had the chance to approach him. If he keeps on ignoring revelations and stay within his own stupid comfort zone of selecting whom he has been selecting for years, FA's like that Nigerian one could tempt a certain young player with a 2026 WC debut.
I was watching the same thing as you watched but this is not reality. We have seen this all. But when it matters the most, the result is the same. You have to break that cycle. The difference between us is exactly what I mentioned above about the blanket and cold. If you can’t see it, another tournament is on the brink of another disappointment.
Emegha would be a huge miss for the KNVB if he chooses Nigeria. Hopefully he stays patient, I think he would have been called up by either Koeman or Reiziger (JO) if he was injury-free. IMHO, Koeman should experiment with a striker-less format. Shift Gakpo to the center to accommodate more creative players (like Xavi, Lang or Koopmeiners). I believe the “return of investment” on having Memphis as ST has been maxed out. You know what you get, Memphis won’t give you more what he’s already contributing. Why not trying something different, and see if there’s a bit of room to improve there. One thing that’s definitely not on Koeman… Brobbey and Zirkzee have been a massive disappointment!!
69008 Dean was playing as an 18yo for the U19Orange squad! He already showed his class, but dodgy Koeman and the young Orange team coaches donot understand that when a Dutch top talent has the right to play for another national team and that is a team with big status, you can't dawdle with capping them. Years ago he did the same thing with Dutch/German defender Gosens. I was for months on end messaging that the imbecil should cap him, but no...So Löw took the opportunity and capped him. So what did imbecil Koeman do with Dean Huijsen? He selected Hato in november 2023 and played him against Gibraltar, thus ignoring the top prospect and thus giving the Spanish FA the opening to move in.
One thing is definitevily on Koeman and that's ignoring Mexx Meerdink. Selecting and playing Depay, while not even selecting Mexx is another a symptom of ignorance of Koeman. Reiziger being a petty person to put Mexx out of the Dutch Juniors at the European Championship-21, because ....he withdrew due to an injury for an U21 match and played an AZ friendly game a few days later. That will teach him for sure....teach him what? that in the KNVB staff, people are active who don't belong there.
I’m not writing off Brobbey or Zirkzee yet. Let’s be fair regarding Brobbey who certainly has not played well this season, but Ajax under Farioli Calcio serves little quality for Brobbey with pathetically slow football, and no creativity while facing constantly congested low block defensive sides. Letting their best creative attacking player leave in Steven Bergwijn who had a good understanding with Brobbey did not help. Playing with Taylor Klaassen Godts Traore will NOT do anyone any favors. As for Zirkzee he’s more of a 9.5 or 10, but the Manchester United side he performs for is rather pathetic themselves. His team creates very little as well so the chance for success is quite small. Change of scenery will help both of them who are both quite young, and still in need of development. I’m all for a False 9 system and moving guys around across the attack for Oranje as they certainly possess plenty of depth and quality in my opinion. Speed of play is key. Fast possession with lots of movement on and off the ball, and immediate pressing of the ball when out of possession is the winning formula in today’s football.
Koeman needs to really think about what’s best for the entire Team. Weghorst is not International Player material Memphis though he’s going to continue to be selected as long as he’s healthy enough.
Piroe, Steijn and Emegha are all deserved to be capped. Not sure if any of them are up to the task but why not try them out? Depay and Weghorst are 31 and 32 years old. Depay is injury prone. And Koeman thinks that it is ok to rely on them both at next World Cup.
Emegha could be the guy. Piroe just nothing special from him, but if he was to start banging in goals playing in EPL then you never know, but he has limited talent compared to the others. Steijn will have show himself at Feyenoord and despite his goals he has limitations himself having watched him play quite a bit as well. As a # 10 there’s just much more talent ahead of him in the pecking order.