A couple of dicey moments on defense but generally a nice half of football. See what happens when you pass up the field!!! Keep up the good work.
Janssen, good movement good decisionmaking, man how good is it to have a striker who isnt robin van offside. Tete great tackler, hope his ability isnt tied to his youthfullness. Berghuis great assist and effort for someone who has been warming the bench this year. Promes, good things too but im so sick of seeing counterattacks fail because of delayment or hesitation, he should have done alot better on a few important moments. Willems, poor on setpieces for a guy who kinda specializes on crossing the ball am i right? Havent watched much PSV this season though so I could be wrong. Overall not as bad a first half I envisioned for a friendly, keep this up in the second half and we might even see some cards too
I actually enjoyed that 45 minutes. There was movement, a bit surprise and some desire here and there. Man, why was it so bad against Ireland then. However a game is 90 minutes+. If they take the foot off the gas or start conceding, I am still going to rant. This Poland is beatable and wished we would have scored 2-0. It was there. So Cillessen had 1 bad long ball, but was otherwise oke. Tete looked iffy with his actions at the start. His passing was not good even longer. Had later on a few good tackles. The one whistled for was a bad call from the ref. Bruma had a slip up, that could have resulted in a goal. Dijk pointed to the back at 4:47 which set the wrong tone. The ball in ball possession was put on 2 thoughts and that resulted I think in that dangerous attack. He must point to the front. Attack. Otherwise some good interventions. Willems some danger from his crosses. His free kick was too much bend like a cross. Must be placed more direct. I don't think he pushed that Polish player too much. Was a schwalbe to me. Nice little action getting past a man earlier in the game. Bazoer has so many notes from me. His passing is behind the man too much. His passing is too soft at times. He did have some good interventions. Mixed bag. Berghuis is too weak and too slow. 1 time he got a foot race with a Polish defender and was just brushed off. His run on the ball that would lead to the cross for the goal was too slow. Had 1 good defensive action, but when he was nutmegged earlier he had no response. So weird. Just let it happen and ran away, rather than chasing the guy doing it. happened with another action as well. No response. He is too slow. Good cross though. Ginkel. Hard worker, not the best passer. He brings mobility though. Vertical. In front of goal his first touch should have been better. Wijnaldum. I don't know. Some good, some bad, still pretty silent in this far more active game Promes is more lively. Still no world beater, should have passed when shot on goal. Janssen takes his shots. Wished he looked for the second man with that ball low on the Polish keeper. He is slow and he must look for being off side in a better way. Ok. Some quick notes. Off to the second half.
It's ridiculous all these coaches on our bench with their serious faces . Looks like the country priests . They infuse any passion .
Interesting is that Wijnaldum got Willems back a couple of times. Would rather see Wijnaldum more upfront to set up an attack when we recover the ball. Willems is out of position too many times.
Well they beat Poland who lost for only the 2nd time in their last 19 matches. The team played much better than against Ireland but I don't think there were any real stand outs in the match. Poland had one great chance early on but Milik hit the frame (maybe he was being kind to his club teammate Cillessen). Both starting wingers caused great problems when they totally missed their markers when they tracked back but fortunately the defense held. Everyone other than van Ginkel on the goal did a good job on set pieces and Cillessen wasn't troubled at all. It has to go down as a good win for Blind but I'm not sure he can draw much other than to notice the mistakes. FWIW, here are my player ratings: Cillessen (6) - really had little to do other than kicking and making outlet passes as he didn't have to make a single difficult save (in fact I can't remember any shots on frame other than the goal) Willens (5.5) - still slows the game down which is puzzling because he has a lot of speed but seldom uses it van Dijk (6.5) - best player on defense, really strong on all the crosses into the box Bruma (5.5) - some really bad decisions when passing but OK on defense, has anyone else noticed how really slow he is? Tete (5) - some good interventions but on at least one occasion it was a last gasp effort when he was well beaten but recovered, did go forward and had a good cross that was blocked for a corner Bazoer (4.5) - really, did he do anything to warrant any kind of praise at all? van Ginkel (5) - gets a charitable '5' for some nice passes and ball handling in the first half but was beaten badly on the goal and made some major goofs passing in the second half Wijanldum (6.5) - had a nice goal and played some decent defense but is still a player without a position; he's good around the goal but not a forward and not much of a passer in the midfield Promes (5.5) - some good play mixed with some really bad play, well beaten at least twice when he was supposed to cover for the left back but was lucky that van Dijk bailed him out Janssen (5.5) - nice goal that any center forward in the world would score on and had a couple of good passes from hold up play but that was about it; still there is no other competition for #9 right now Berguis (5) - gets a point for a couple of really nice crosses but the rest of his game was stinky Narsingh (6) - kept the ball moving over the Wijnaldum who got the match winner and did an acceptable job tracking back Strootman (5.5) - no major impact either good or bad Dost (5) - looks like he and Luukinho will battle it out for the number two striker van Aanholt (4.5) - good demonstration of why we have a problem at left back as he's an even worse defender than Willens
Apart from the goal, not a highlight for me. Yes, I saw him tracking back at times. Just misses presence.
If Willems was more of a LB that knows to defend & when to overlap it would have been much easier for Wijnaldum. Instead Willems has the tendacy to be out of position so Wijnaldum had to cover a lot of space. He was a box to box midfielder today, put in effort and scored. That is good enough for me.