Maher scarily reminded me more of Immers than anyone else. (but perhaps thats just some unresolved issues acting up) Not sure if Maher is at his best playing so close to the striker. I expected de Guzman to play there in the second half tbh. Robben - RvP - Lens for the next game I hope.
No he blamed the lack of control in the game after Italy switched to 4-4-2 on Janmaat. Janmaat was not on the pitch when the goal was scored. Stop drinking whatever you are drinking, or does it correlate a bit too much with the entrance of van Rhijn?
PS, IMO de Vrij was to blame with the goal. His usual lack of killer instinct and letting his man at one point have all the freedom-syndrome.
Don't blame the messenger, blame LVG for saying whatever he did in that article. I think he meant it as Oranje were losing the midfield when Italy played 442 so the goal was sort of inevitable?
I haven't watched the game yet (will on the weekend), but if Oranje lost control when Italy went 4-4-2, than LvG should have subbed off Janmaat for an actual defender and gone 3-4-3 with Blind up higher to better control the midfield.
Pretty pleased overall with the result, considering Italy was by far ahead in terms of personnel experience (with Buffon, DDR, Pirlo, Montolivo, etc.) I really liked De Vrij and BMI-- these two got tons of potential. Very comfortable on the ball, confident in bringing the ball forward and sending long passes. These are the kind of things we didn't see from Heitinga, Mathijsen, or Vlaar. Defensively, I would have liked to see them attacking the ball more aggressively, especially in the air. But all in all, I thought they did good enough to earn a B/B+. Janmaat and Blind were average. Good fillers, nothing more. Strootman did well. Nice all-around game. Definitely need to cut off those unnecessary (read: stupid) fouls outside the box that gave the opposing team opportunities from set pieces. If he could develop "killer" long passes to penalty box, a la Alex Song or Carrick, I could see him becoming a solid building block in Oranje, if he isn't already. I didn't see a whole lot of Clasie today. De Guzman wasn't a whole lot better, either. Maher did okay, maybe a C+/B- in my grade book. Played confidently, got lots of touches but his finishing evidently was a lot to be desired. I liked the fact that he pushed forward, and supported the central forward.. thus the CF wasn't isolated in no man's land. To me, this in and itself is an improvement over Van Marwijk's system that had a huge black hole in midfield (especially with Sneijder's tendency to drop deep and pick up the ball). Ola John didn't have the best debut, but still, it's a nice luxury to have an electric two-footed player as an option. Need to do better in decision making, especially when double-teamed. Working in progress. Lens continued his fine form with Oranje. MoTM for me. Starting to develop understanding with RvP. The two must automatic starters for next qualifying matches. Robben has his case too, he looked sharp in spite of a quiet this season with Bayern.
I am the first one ready with a hammer for Janmaat and he did mess up the answer for Italy's 4-4-2 switch plus some usual bone head clearances, however he was pretty good offensive wise and with pressuring. Blind was also nice outside that cross he allowed and maybe a thing here and there. Don't think van Rhijn, Willems, Pieters, BMI would have done much better. That's the entire point for me with the backs. They are all pretty close to each other. I am just generally pretty pleased with the game play, but I just know that de Vrij will never become that killer defender. These mistakes keep happening to him and he will become a "good is the enemy of best" case. He brings the football we want from the back, but then he will cost us with a moment like today. Hope he proves me wrong.
Happy too with the result and general display but a question mark is how serious the Italians took the encounter. Many players had plenty of time on the ball, in my opinion. Also dubious how the players were tactically outclassed by a simple switch. That used to be a main strength of the Dutch.
Lens scored another goal for Oranje in his home town. A'dam Maher 19, Daniele De Rossi 29 #Family (Daley 22, Danny 51 )