If it giet aon, they most likely will have to find a country in which all matches to play and where they can put the players in bubble.
Should definitely be looked at to join Dumfries for that RB position for Oranje. Hopefully means the end of Hateboer.
Dumfries taken out with a nasty-looking injury today. Obviously too early to tell, but seeing how he fell and the aftermath, this could be a knee (ACL) related. Hopefully I am way wrong on this (and it's just a knock)
Dutch u21 right back Jeremie Frimpong is heading to Leverkusen, joining Peter Bosz and Daley Sinkgraven. Frimpong is apparently making good noise with Celtic, and has been a target of a bigger club/league for some time. It would definitely take at least a couple years for him to develop and unseat the current RB (veteran Lars Bender, who happen to captain the team). But Bosz has been doing magic with Sinkgraven, so hopefully Frimpong will turn out good as well. Will be one to watch for Oranje going forward. Need a backup/competition RB for Dumfries, ideally in the the 21 to 25 years of age window. Jong Oranje also has Zeefuik... whom I don't rate much. He's been struggling to get minutes in Hertha Berlin.
Sepp Van Den Berg (liverpool) might be loaned out to a club in Belgium or Germany. man, I had high hopes he'd get a chance to play in the sr squad given all of Liverpool's injuries... oh well being loaned must be better than in the u-23 squads...
Any one has any latest update on armando obispo of PSV. Last I checked he had started light training. Has been out for quiet a while now.
I just realized that Fosu-Mensah moved to Bayern Leverkusen this transfer window as well. So now there are two Dutch RB’s competing in the same spot TFM started today.
With fesu mensah its easier for bosz to transition to 3-4-3 like he did today vs Leipzig. Frimgpong is more a wingback and thats where I think Bosz will dominantly use him. Being said this frimgpong needs to work on his defensive game as well. he is kown to be very average in that department. Also would add here TFM was really good vs Leipzig, shame they lost but I really think Bosz needs to invest in a top striker.
Belgium NT boss is reportedly making a move for Pascal Struijk, who was born in Belgium though grew up in the Netherlands. I don't have much confidence.... as usual, Oranje will be a step or two behind when it comes to recognizing and calling up future NT talents.
Why is the KNVB so inept when it comes to this? I know we have some good CB’s at the moment but surely Struijk is at least as good as Ake and better than Schuurs. He’s getting more starts than Ake and has been doing good. De Vrij is getting older and van Dijk is nearing 30 as well. I have a feeling Ake won’t turn out the player we need him to be. So we’re left with Botman and Struijk as back-ups to de Ligt and van Dijk. Ffs.
Xavier Mbuyamba is a big talent to watch out for. Just returned from foot injury for chelsea and will feature for chelsea u23s. What about Danilio Doekhi at Vitesse.has been a regular for almost three seasons now and has been considered to be in the same frame as schuurs. Van drongelen- harmburg (ACL injury) and Philippe sandler - Man city could blossom late as well.
Doekhi is a good one to keep track... looks like he's riding high with Vitesse (surprise 3rd on Eredivisie table). Part of Jong Oranje defense setup. His partner in Vitesse center half, Bazoer, might be an interesting option as well after a pretty successful transition from midfield. Already capped 6 times by Oranje back in his Ajax days. Still only 24 years old. Statistically, the two are pretty close this season. Doekhi seems to be defensively sturdier (tackle, interception, clearances, aerial won, etc.) Bazoer does have three goals in the bag. I believe the trio of De Ligt, Botman and Schuurs (all in the early 20's) are three pillars of Oranje CD in many years. They are just scratching the surface, and have a long runway to grow. Will only get better with time. Add the three "veterans" (Virgil, De Vrij and Ake) - who I think will still be relevant for a while. Then, I am guessing there will be 1 or 2 who will surprise... there always be late bloomers, fast risers, injury comeback, etc. So that's about anywhere between 7 to 8 options for the foreseeable future, say 3-4 years. That's plenty to work with. You only need 2 CD's in a game. The central defense is the least of the Oranje coaching staff worry, if you ask me. There's more headache in the attacking department
This is an ideal world scenario though. Hoping that Schuurs will make steps cause he’s just not there yet, that seems to be the general consenus as well among Ajax fans. Doekhi and Bazoer are doing good enough for the Eredivisie, how will they perform on a higher level? As far as the veterans go, Ake seems to be a jack of all trades, but master of none. I honestly don’t see him having much of a future at either City or Oranje. The only defenders that are true added values for Oranje and are proving it week in week out are de Vrij, van Dijk, de Ligt, and Botman. So while I agree that it’s not the most cocerning department for us I do think we need to prepare for the future as well starting with Struijk.
https://sportmagazine.knack.be/spor...le-belga-1696459.html?cookie_check=1612379995 Pascal Struijk decided to apply for the Belgian nationality and thus to play for Belgium.
Probably a good decision for him if he's looking for a quick glory and trophy. Belgium's golden generation is officially still alive and kicking... though it does have an expiration date. I honestly don't know what Belgium's pipeline looking like, but I would suspect that Oranje future is as bright as anybody else. Upward and onward.
I don’t follow Belgian talents at all except when they show something on a grand stage. With that being said, other than Thielemans who is another top U23 Belgian talent atm? Maybe Doku, but he hasn’t shown much yet afaik. As already mentioned maybe short-term glory for Struijk but not the smartest move long-term as I think the Dutch have the better (near) future. At the end of the day the golden Belgian generation underachieved for the amount of talent they had. Never even contested an international tournament final. This Euro is probably their last shot of exploiting this generation. Otherwise it’s over for the foreseeable future.
We are increasingly becoming a failed state really, at all levels. With a hostility to everything with a dual nationality as well.
Yep... I forgot about Pierie, another decent option for the future. I just checked his stats throughout this season - looks like he's been getting solid constant minutes at Twente. Which is really good for his development. If he comes back to Ajax next season, maybe he can split minutes with Blind at LCB (Ajax will play in the European games - so there are plenty of minutes to go around!). In couple years, or sooner, given the steady growth, Pierie might have a chance to have starter minutes at Ajax and challenge for a spot in Oranje. There's also Jan Paul van Hecke of Heerenveen. I have been reading good things about him. He is on loan from Brighton & Hove Albion. If he moves to EPL next season and gets regular playing time, that could accelerate his development. I haven't got a chance to see him playing (except for some YouTube highlights, which everybody looks like a world-beater there ) Maybe somebody can shed some lights on him. And then there's Jordan Teze. He's more of a long shot IMO (I rate him just okay, not too highly). But it won't be fair to count him out yet. After all, he is only 21, plays weeks in and weeks out. Also his pretty smooth transition from RB to CD gives some credibility to his defensive aptitude and work rate.
I think it was a huge error of judgement by Ajax to put him in the Young Ajax squad, a player with over 60 appearances in the Eredivisie with several team of the week spots. In Young Ajax it seemed like he was desinterested to perform with a majority of bad performances. It was clear the Ajax staff had no clue what it ment for this player to be demoted to a Young team and the second tier, while he has been starring with SC Heerenveen. On top of that they didnot provide Kik with an upscaling of challenges in the first team, thus putting his development on hold at the best, but given his play with YAjax more like putting deterioration in him. In his first few matches with Twente he was bad, elongating his second tier form. However at a given moment his mojo kicked in again and he started to perform like the player he was at Heerenveen. He simply made the bad choice with Ajax. At PSV or Feyenoord he would be further in his development now, instead of picking up where he left 1.5 season ago.