Luuk de Jong, Huntelaar and Dost represent the evolution of the Dutch number 9

Luuk de Jong, Huntelaar and Dost are handicapped players that can only get a spot with a NT when the educational system is broken. When Netherlands U 21 won from Germany and Russia U21 I expected to post more than I did, but on some level I did not want too. I am happy in some respects and with some players, but feel ashamed also. I have barely seen a player with such poor control and passing skills as Luuk de Jong in the Russia game. The balls simply went into all kinds of directions. I also still feel ashamed by Huntelaar's performance against Belgium. More then an end result. Every day of them wearing the Orange shirt makes clear to us that we have failed to educate a proper striker.

The Dutch 9 must ooze class and command respect with all the things he is able to do as a footballer. In more recent time, Kluivert was for me close to what it must be. Nistelrooy was already a step down. Huntelaar was painful. RvP is nice but is always used in a wrong way limiting his total game for us.

Normally the writer produces pretty good content, but in this piece he uses far too much elegant words for players like Huntelaar, de Jong and Dost. The are the Brussels sprout in the world of food. They are good for you as they win you games, but damn they taste bad.

 

Also Luuk is everything except a killer. I remember him against England in a friendly. The ball came from a corner IIRC and the guy is watching to the other side. I have never seen something dumb as that.


Ruud was a killer and these strikers can't even tie his shoes if we start to look at pure striker ability.

 

Defenses have definitely improved--the game changed-- and attacking midfielders and outside strikers who used to just service the middle have as many opportunities as your main striker these days

but

Although De Jong has not been a big star in the U-21 but I wouldn't say he's been horrible either-

-there are still 2 significant games--semi and final, to judge where he fits--winning smoothes everything

I also believe that most great players are not fully developed until about 24-25. There are of course exceptions who have it all together at 21 -

-but for DeJong, I think he is maturing and 4-6 years from now will be a striker for Oranje

he is the best we have right now as a prime striker for this team

 

I'd expect Hoesen and Locadia to overtake De Jong and poachers like Dost or Wolfswinkel fairly soon.

 

Hoesen and Locadia are both not really good enough for Oranje. Just like those other 3.

 

Not yet, but at least they have some potential and ability, instead of very limited players like Hunterlaar, Wolfwinkel or Dost. De Jong seems to have regressed in Germany if his current form anything to go by. I'd currently take his older brother over him.

 

How can you put the word evolution in the same sentence with players like Luuk De Jong, Dost and Van Wolfswinkel?

 

It should be "de jong, Dost and Huntelaar represent the decline of the Dutch 9"

 

The best joke of the day was a quote from Luuk de Jong saying he was angry over the final result between Italy U21 and Netherlands U21, because the Italians could not even string 3 passes together. That is coming from a guy that had balls jumping out of the stadium in the Russia game every time he touched one. On that note, this is van Basten with his buddy when they heard that these clowns represent the evolution of the Dutch nr 9:

 

The only sole comfort that we have is that all of the other countries have more or less the same problem. The Striker is dying out, people who enjoy the likes of Van Persie should cherish every match as there will be no type of striker like that for a long time.

 

Why is that?

 

RVP was a winger and only became striker for club and country after Adebayor left Arsenal. I seriously think that Depay can become one years from now. Our closest thing to Suarez. However PSV has Locadia, so in the near future we won't see him acting like one.

I don't see much problems, as long as we have a club who is prepared to convert a winger to a striker. With Depay, Boëtius, Ola John and Kishna we have some attackers with skill on the way and at least one of them should be able to make a RVP move to center forward. I bet on Depay.

Come to think about it. Lens is seen by van Gaal as the main competitor for Huntelaar and there is my point. Not sure he was a winger from the early days on, but that is another player that used to play a lot on the wing and is now a serious option for van Gaal as a striker. A pretty skillful and fast player becoming a threat for the box wonders. He is at least ahead of Dost and Luuk de Jong.

 

Yes and with those 3 players you get exactly what I am trying to tell as they are all (semi) wingers. The evolution of the Dutch 9 is an elegant word for players that can't play football and only know where the goal is. They can't create chances on their own or bring team members in an interesting way into lethal positions. In the future we will just solve this problem the same way as we currently do and convert wingers into strikers. IMO people are too boxed with these things.

 

RVP actually played as a striker before that. When he was still in the academy he covered multiple positions, including as a striker. IIRC, he actually played most of his games as a 10 and not as a winger or a Striker. He was used as a winger at Feyenoord by van Marwijk because of dribbling skills and his pace. People forget that van Persie had great speed before all thoese injuries.

You bring him up a lot.. Do you really think he is that good? He is still a youth player and it doesn't look like de Boer going to promote him to the first team anytime soon.



Speaking of youth players, this is a good goal by an Ajax striker from C1 in a recent international youth tournament.

 

That's actually true, but also enforces the point I try to make, as I will explain in the second paragraph. He called himself a gypsy in a video I saw when he was around 17 years old. Being everywhere behind the striker doing a bit of magic stuff. On a side note, in that video he also showed awesome free kicks going in left and right and IMO he never developed that ability to what I expected it to become. I mean at Arsenal even an Artetta took them more often than RvP and he was not that impressive either. He scored of course against City this season, but that was after a deflection. It's a bit of a shame that it almost looks like that ability has rather regressed then developed. His set piece delivery's are wonderful though.

Coming back to this issue though as I want to get my point across. The RVP striker move in the Dutch NT was after a shift in spot at Arsenal. NT followed club (though Marco might have used him as striker a few times, Romania game Euro 2008? but nothing permanent) not the other way around. IMO we can be more loose in putting wingers into striker roles even if that is not their primary role for club. Not every winger is a good candidate, but some are or have been misused to a certain level during their professional club career on the wing ... like RvP was. All the time he was stuck at the side spots, only sporadically he got a central role. When I spoke about RvP being a winger, I spoke about his time as a first team player at Feyenoord and Arsenal, while his instincts and nature would actually make him a perfect fit for a more central role, like people in the youth of Feyenoord did acknowledge. People who resist this and say that is not possible have in my opinion an boxed kind of thinking. The box wonders (no pun intended) like Dost and Huntelaar will have these people at their side as they actually play the striker role at their club. However they limit our football ceiling IMO. They will score more against weak opposition, get people behind them who then can not believe their box wonder was cut off and isolated so easily against serious opposition, teams you usually meet in the knock out phase of a tournament. But then it's too late and we will have to wait for another 2 years during which we can easily make the same mistake again. Therefor I think we should not always wait for a club to change a players position, but just act on our own and go for technical good and fast players at the 3 forward positions. Maybe even the 4 forward positions.

Yeah this is where we disagree. I have never found RvP that quick. When RvP makes a sprint like in the City game away this season, where Toure tries to hack him down in order to keep up with him, he still shows proper speed. However for the wing I never warmed up to RvP as he did have the trickery but not the insane speed. He had/has Afellay speed at best, but that is another player who lacks just that extra bit of speed to operate optimal on the wing.

After JC14 mentioned him, I started to read on him and I like the profile of the player. He also made it to the Dutch youth NT before his injury from which I saw a video. I'm a big skeptic of players getting to their best level after cartilage injuries, but it's these kind of players I want at the front. If he is of the level of Depay, Boëtius, Ola John after all his problems is probably a question every Ajax fan is asking himself. We will have to wait this one out.

His opponent did not like it though. Kicked him to the ground when he saw the ball going in. Nice goal.

 

it is still something I want to dive deeper into and have to do more research. But my lazy answer now is: They aren't really needed anymore. The last few years has seen a massive reliance on the midfield, a lot of the matches are decided on the midfield. Forwards who score a lot replace the striker of old more and more, because why need a striker when you have forwards like Messi who can score just as well? Forwards who now and then play striker who are way more worth it. They fit better in the overall link-up play and make better combinations with the rest of the midfield.

 

I was talking about his speed before all the injuries, so before his second season at Feyenoord. At young Oranje he was also conceded as one of the fastes players.

I also saw him play a few times before his Injuries and to be honest, I didn't really notice him. I thought maybe you saw something I didn't.

I should mention he is part of a (imo) poor generation of Ajax players. Other then Kenny Tete and maybe Danzell Gravenberch it not up to Ajax standarts. But the new Ajax A (for next season) is actially really good, with the adition of a lot of players from the Tallented Ajax B like, Riechedly Bazoer, Damian Van Bruggen, James Efmorfidis, Jordy Bruijn, Anouar El Ghazi and Pelle Clement.

Here is the full list Ajax A players for 2013-2014:
Voorlopige Selectie A1/A2

Keepers

Groothuizen, Indy - 1996
Mous, Xavier - 1995
Grim, Mike - 1996
Vermolen, Jan - 1996

Verdedigers:

Noordhoff, Tom - 1995 - rechts - contract
Tete, Kenny - 1995 - rechts - contract
Van Koesveld, Robert - 1995 - links - contract
Vissie, Milan - 1995 - rechts
Bazoer, Riechedly - 1996 - rechts - contract
Lartey Sanniez, Terry - 1996 - rechts
Mirani, Damon - 1996 - rechts - contract
Owusu, Leeroy - 1996 - rechts - contract
Riedewald, Jairo - 1996 - links - contract
Sno, Shaquill - 1996 - rechts
Van Bruggen, Damian - 1996 - rechts - contract
Verburg, Jari - 1996 - links

Middenvelders:

Anderson, Djavan - 1995 - rechts - contract
Bakker, Danny - 1995 - links
Van Den Boomen, Branco - 1995 - rechts - contract
Warmerdam, Django - 1995 - links
Bruijn, Jordy - 1996 - tweebenig (voorkeur rechts) - contract
Custovic, Alen - 1996 - links
Efmorfidis, James - 1996 - tweebenig (voorkeur links) - contract
El Mahdioui, Aschraf - 1996 - rechts
Vissers, Melvin - 1996 - rechts - contract

Aanvallers:

Acolatse, Elton - 1995 - links - contract
Becker, Sheraldo - 1995 - rechts - contract
Bousibiba, Daoud - 1995 - rechts
Cakmak, Serhat - 1995 - tweebenig (voorkeur rechts)
El Ghazi, Anouar - 1995 - rechts - contract
Kishna, Ricardo - 1995 - links - contract
Menig, Queensy - 1995 - rechts - contract
Simon, Moses - 1995 - rechts - contract
Bulut, Samet - 1996 - rechts
Clement, Pelle - 1996 - rechts
Dankerlui, Damil - 1996 - rechts
El Azzouzi, Zakaria - 1996 - rechts

One noticeable player missing in this group is Abdelhak Nouri. Who in my opinion is the most talented player in the Ajax youth academy right now (I'm talking about Bergkamp, van der Vaart level of tallent). I guess his hight and his build is turning out to be a problem after all.

 

I saw Riedewald on Eredivisie Live in the Ajax future Cup IIRC and I liked him. Not sure why he is not getting much rep, but there was definitely something in his game I liked. However I could not see every player clear all the time and worry that I might have associated some actions with the wrong players. What do think about that player?

 

Riedewald has good technical abilities, I think thats importent for any Dutch player regardless of his position. He is aslo capable of playing football under pressure, and he often tries to find a footballing solution first, but he can also use brute force to get the job done since he has the physical abilities as well. Promising player.

And since we were talking about modern "RVP type" strikers earlyer, this is a player we should keep an eye on: Matthijs de Ligt. He is only 13 years old (will playing with with 17 year olds next season). And he is a midfielder right now, but I think he has the technique, the brain and the physic you need for a RVP type striker.



I could only find two of his games on the internet:

1. http://www.ajaxshowtime.com/bijzaken-en-geruchten/68917/ajax-c2-wint-ruim-van-feyenoord.html
2. www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzJybqf9Jd4

 

What's the early verdict on Anass Anchahbar? Seems like a pretty fast and skillful player from a handful time I've watched him. Not sure if he's a deadly finisher.

 

He is not fast, that is the problem. I saw a headline somewhere that he might be off to Goa Ahead Eagles that just promoted to Eredivisie. The problem is that he needs to play in a team that dominates and likes to play on the half of the opponent as he is a magical player in the tight spaces. The irony is that he probably would do quite well at a club like Ajax, but that is out of the question looking at the rivalry between the clubs and the fact that Anass is a true Feyenoord youth product.

Let's see how he does this season at Go Ahead Eagles, but I fear that the player will go through a long learning curve in understand what he is and what kind of players he needs around him. He needs a lot of movement around him and in counter teams it's often more a case of being the runner yourself when being put in striker position. I always get sad to see players struggle as a result of not understanding what they are and waste half or even a whole career as a result of it, while with other choices they could shine like a bright star.