Ew.... Janmaat? but, why? Schaken? If BMI is the 'future' then shouldn't he be starting in that position?
^I think the choices are predicated on the opponent. Andorra pose no issues for the team and it's likely that LVG is saving the top players for the Romania tie which will be far more difficult.
Schaken is particularly laughable. Just stick Van Persie on the left wing, Huntelaar striker, Narsingh right wing, job done.
understandable lineup vs a team with a total of two points in the FIFA ranking. I hope that playing Lens at LW for this game means that he's going to play Urby there in the next one
Strootman is the captain. Didn't see that coming..... I guess it's good that LvG picks a young fella and thinks for the future, but that also means Strooman needs to elevate his game to the next level.
AD claims Douglas will start, left of Heitinga, BMI left back. Which is strange in a great many ways: just a couple of weeks ago Van Gaal said he doesn't particularly rate Douglas, just last week he said he'd rather have Viergever than Douglas but the former is too important for jong oranje now. and he's always said he wants a left footer for left footed positions. And Douglas is right-footed. In summary, either Douglas has made one hell of an impression on Van Gaal in training, or Van Gaal is losing his marbles.
Not surprised on Heitinga, he was pretty woeful last weekend with Everton... mentally zoned out in the first goal conceded, and shamefully beaten by the speed of Kone in the second goal. Was substituted after 45 mins, not sure if it was because injuries or bad performance. Vlaar hasn't been that stellar, either, as he and the entire Aston Villa defense has been leaking goals lately. I think Douglas has a pretty decent chance suiting up.
Vlaar as an automatic starter is lunacy as well. Did Van Gaal watch how Portugal ran circles around him at Euro 2012? He has not looked good at Villa either.
van Gaal is giving everyone a chance to show what they can do in his system. If they don't play well enough he'll try someone out. People need to chill the f*ck out about van Gaal calling up players who "don't deserve it". This isn't Bert "my lineup never changes" van Marwijk. Van Gaal has to find the best group of players available and in order to do that he has to give lots of players a chance. That means playing players that people don't like, and if they don't do well someone else will take there place
Match against Romania looks to be a tough one now that they had little trouble beating Turkey away, 1-0
Embarrassing performance by Oranje only scoring 3 against these minnows. The blame goes to VG who is lost at sea. Joke! I guess goal difference means nothing to this idiot. I am sick.
Hard to find anything positive out of the match. What a joke. Squad selection is laughable. Van Gaal should be highly criticized. Janmaat and Schaken were crap. De Jong wasn't needed. The build up from the back was terribly slow and painful to watch. Heitinga and Vlaar had no clue what-so-ever going forward.
people are overreacting. LvG played a reserve team and got a score that reflects that lineup. Big deal? We got a win, and our main players will be ready for Romania. Narsingh and van Persie will be super fresh, Afellay and Urby will be pretty fresh as well, VdV got taken out early enough that he'll be himself again for the next game. van Rhjin will be in for Janmaat and maybe Douglas for Vlaar. Points are much more important that goal differential so I couldn't care less about that. GD doesn't matter if they do their job and win games.
TFC has it just right. Van Gaal was not going to risk any of the top players in this match realizing that the away fixture with Romania will be very difficult and might even decide who wins the group (I caught the final 15 minutes of their match with Turkey and they were in full control). It will be better to judge him. Unfortunately Robben is not fit and I think Van Gaal is wise to bring Clasie and Elia into the squad. Clearly both Lens and Schaken were wanting yesterday and I wouldn't be surprised to see Narsingh and Elia start. The handling speed of the midfield is really compromised with de Jong and Strootman out there and maybe Clasie gets a start as well. We'll see.
Yeah TFC was right. LVG stated that he rested the likes of van Rhijn, Narsingh, RVP etc. This is how I think they will line-up against Romania. Douglas is right footed so he might see some minutes in the 2nd half coming in for Heitinga. Elia I can't see starting when he has just returned to the squad. Clasie is an obvious sub for VDV since the latter hardly ever plays full matches for Oranje. Stekelenburg van Rhijn - Heitinga - Vlaar - BMI Strootman - VDV - NDJ Narsingh - RVP - Lens
What a bad game yesterday. Stek: Oke Janmaat: Noob Heitinga: so-so Vlaar: Incident at the corner flag giving away a corner reminded how clumsy he is. He also had stupid openings going out rather than reaching a fellow player. Low ball circulation. BMI: Where were the through passes I saw against Belgium? Did try to head in ball, was off side. Intention was there. Way too quiet and not really attacking Strootman: Has long ball distribution, but low handling speed and poor short passing. At the end he lost a ball and the apathetically watched the guy walk away rather then fixing his mistake. Is that what you do as a captain? Thanks for the insight. He makes fouls on players I see from miles away and takes out the speed from the game. Also responsible for low ball distribution. NdJ: 0 creativity. Just like Kevin backpass likes to play the ball around in a low tempo. Won't skip a player next to him to pass too. God forbid you create speed for the team. His header was wide over. De Jong has no business against a team where creativity is asked from to outplay them. VDV: Good goal. First goal against these country's are vital. Was not very lucky in his individual actions. Lost the ball plenty. Missed really good through passes from him. Very happy with him being honored before the game. Guy is a Dutch NT legend. Schaken: Like his personality and speed. He is lightweight and demonstrated he is lightweight. His cross is meh and is a bit one dimensional. What else is new. Nice for him to make his debut and debut goal. Congrats. Huntelaar: Classy finish, for the rest sloppy with the chances. He was not able to pull off a first touch Schaken passed back to him and he slipped. There was an easy finish he rammed over. For Schalke he also has missed these weeks giant chances that even have costed points. He is off. His football was beyond poor even against Andorra. There were Andorra players better than him in football, that while it being their hobby. For example the kid outplaying him near our goal at the end of the game. Huntelaar later dispossessed him with a firm body check, but was played with for a little second there by a carpenter. Lens: I love this guy. Has everything. Speed, overview, a cross, a finish, a through pass, able to let others play better, self confidence and we even saw him head the ball in against Hungary. Lens at PSV is also a beast. Totally owned Napoli in last EL match. At this moment Lens is a better overall striker than Huntelaar. What is Huntelaar going to do when we are away from our goal and we are in trouble? Disappear like against Portugal? Or like against the whole Euro's actually? Lens can also hold up the ball better than Huntelaar. Huntelaar first of all has a first touch of the ball that makes it jump away to Uzbekistan. Balls hate Huntelaar's foot. Then he is pushed over all the time, despite being a strong guy. Lens on the other hand is small, but very strong. There was a moment at the start of the game where Lens won back to back duels against 2 Andorra players. I see stats on side kick like: most won duels -Strootman 2-van Bommel 2- Lens 8. Guy is not easily dispossessed and can quickly turn away or even comeback after being beaten for the first time. He had 2 assists this game and I like him. Afellay: Added nothing. Created a free kick in a lucky almost clumsy way. Holtby, Draxler and Farfan are all better players than him so far at Schalke. Before the game he showed not being happy with the reasons van Gaal gave to get him with the group. He was always with the group he said. He thinks he has a subscription to the NT. Good luck with that mentality. Kuyt: Maybe had 1 good cross, but he lacks the speed to operate well on the wing. Lens is much better. On the wing and in striker position. Urby Emanuelson: Added nothing. Stupid free kick. Did not give the game any punch. Van Gaal: Bad post match interview. Made a scene. Was not optimal in his communication to me the fan and that is what he gets payed for. Not only to put a team on the field that can beat mighty Andorra. When it's bad, I want to see responsibility, not screaming like a little girl how unfair people treat him or people from his team. He was not able to enforce a high ball circulation from his players, while the drop already started after 10 or 20 minutes according to him. Had a break to communicate and change this, did not use it. Bad performance from him overall. It was a poor game. Romania next.
I'm going to add that the midfield was way out of shape in this game. It looked like this: VdV was playing centrally, slightly to the left among the Andorra defenders and occasionally moving back into midfield to distribute. Strootman was playing like a left DM and NdJ was playing central DM. Because of this imbalance Janmaat ended up playing like a RM, and due to the congestion on the left side BMI didn't have space to go forward down the wing. I was disgusted to see Kevin "backpass" Strootman's shitty backpass get picked off while he just stands there almost as if he was ticked off at someone else for screwing up the play and watches the play go the other way. I hate to have to say this, but VdV can't play in this system. I think he would be more useful if we played a counter attacking style where he could launch longballs directly into the path of a full speed Robben, but in this system he just sits way too high and doesn't get involved enough
^Pretty much in accord with how I saw the match. Now maybe they were coasting because they knew at the end of the day they would win the match and keep a clean sheet. The fact that there were so many errors and poor play indicates that they need to get mentally into EVERY match. If you take a day off here, what's to say you can amp it up for the next match? Making Strootman captain was a big error in my mind. It more or less forces Van Gaal's hand going forward. I would have rather seen Van der Vaart get the armband since he was starting the match. I just don't think much of Strootman's ability.
Your comments really make little sense. We are in an obvious state of transition here and players need to play as much as possible to develop much needed chemistry, trust, understanding, etc., so trying players who have little value and quality clearly makes no sense. After this putrid result I think you could see the need to eliminate players of lower quality that were on display against the minnows of Andorra. This is after all Oranje and quality is needed and expected.
Nobody's overreacting. This is the worst quality Holland side since the early 1980s. Van Gaal isn't entirely to blame for it, we're in a transitional phase, but we'll get murdered vs a decent opponent not because of a lack of quality but because of Van Gaal's outdated tactics and ideas. I hope that Germany in the friendly will be our first decent opponent but I fear this lot will struggle badly even against Romania to be honest. The group of people Van Gaal's called up do not have the quality or creativity to execute his game plan. And Van Gaal being the type of person he is, he'll never change his game plan.