And finally we can start the competitions…

blog
by Jan

I said it before, for me the competitions haven’t really started when everyone is still trying to sign or sell players… It’s so weird… You can’t expect players to commit fully when they know their clubs want to offload them or when you know you might be packing your bags for another country…

It definitely ruins my football pleasure. And in the meantime, some of the biggest games of the season are being played. Before September started, Feyenoord was already kicked out of the CL qualifications AND the Europa League. Theoretically, they could have signed Messi, Rooney, Van Persie and Pirlo on the last day of the transfer window but that wouldn’t have helped them in Europe… Weird.

I repeat (ad nauseum, I know and I apologise 🙂 ) please, either shorten the transfer window (less time to play games) or start the competitions at Sept 1.

So, to give you a brief overview of all relevant (as far as I’m concerned) transfers of this last transfer period.

Raf van der Vaart returns to HSV. The playmaker cost Spurs 3 Mio Euros if I’m not mistaken (or 5?) and is sold now for 12M. Dembele and Sigurdsson will compete for his spot.

Nigel de Jong is off to join AC Milan, like many Dutchies before him. The Man City destroyer looks happy when he visits the fashion capital of Italy.

Ibi Afellay joins Schalke 04 on loan, and is reunited with former PSV chief Huub Stevens.


Gertjan impressed with Hiddink’s work

Greg van der Wiel is off to Paris. Wealthy PSG will pay a healthy 6 Mio euros for the player who would have walked out of the Arena for free in a year’s time. Well done Ajax. Ajax makes more money this period, as they can claim 700k for Nigel de Jong’s and Raf van der Vaart’s moves.

Funnily enough, Feyenoord will not get any euro from Van Persie’s move from the Gunners to Man United. Only international moves count, which obviously is stupid. The multi million deal for Van Persie would have netted Feyenoord a cool million euros, which they would have gotten if Robin would have gone to Juventus, for instance.

Ajax has done very good business, as they will sign the transfer free Ryan Babel for one year, allowing him a opportunity to shine and make himself attractive again. Frank de Boer already lamented the physical frailty of Boerrigter and Sighthursson and with Babel has a powerhouse upfront. Ajax also signed a number of high potential talents from Denmark and Eastern Europe.

Feyenoord did a deal with FC Twente. Jerson Cabral was on his way to Swansea but decided against the EPL and goes to Twente instead. His mate Leroy Fer interfered. Twente has offered winger Wesley Verhoek to Feyenoord. The stockey ex ADO player could well become a cult hero in De Kuip. Former AZ striker Pelle will also join Feyenoord on a one year loan from Parma. The Italian striker could never impress at AZ but does have good memories of working with Ronald Koeman.

All this came too late for Feyenoord’s European return. No CL and no EL groups stage football for the former Giants. Despite a courageous game in Prague, Spartak simply was too strong and a cheap penalty signed Feyenoord’s fate. AZ was simply taken to the cleaners by Hiddink’ Anzhi in an open game in Alkmaar: 0-5.

Ronald Koeman: “We are simply not good enough. We play along nicely at this level and we do create opportunities but we lack quality and experience to kill off games like this. It is how it is. Small steps forward.”

Gertjan Verbeek: “Last week they gave us the impression we could maybe get something against them… But tonight they showed their real class. They are 3 levels better than us at any aspect of the game. Every opportunity is a goal with them, today. As opposed to us. We have nothing to expect against an opponent like them.”

Heerenveen was totally toothless at home against Molde. Not really highflyers, but Marco van Basten’s side could have used San Marco as a striker instead of a coach. And without the hosts scoring, the visitors decided to take the initiative and executed the Friese pride. Marco van Basten was livid. But not towards his players. Towards the club management. “I feel let down and screwed over. We sold our top forwards for quite some good fees and I was promised half of that money to invest. Instead I only got players on loan deals and free transfers. You can’t expect to maintain a sub top spot like this. I feel let down. I don’t blame the players. They did what they could. But I won’t throw the towel. We’ll simply do what we can, but a subtop spot in the Eredivisie is too much to ask for this season.”


Leroy impresses at Twente

PSV had no problem whatsoever. The second tier team (Engelaar, Manolev and youngster Depay, Wijnaldum and prospects Van Ooijen (scoring two) and Zanka) won 9-0 against Zeta, making it 14-0 on aggregate.

FC Twente had to dig really deep to get through, after losing 3-1 in Turkey. In the “Hell of Enschede” the game went into extra time and a very late goal by Leroy Fer, always important in big games scoring big goals, Twente was able to progress.

Oranje coach Louis van Gaal must have liked Fer’s development over the last weeks, as the Twente midfielder is in the Oranje squad for the Turkey game, along with Feyenoord debutants Clasie and right back Darryl Janmaat. Twente defender Douglas has been left out of the squad (although he was on the prelim list)… Van der Vaart, De Jong, Afellay and Gregory van der Wiel (all focused on getting to a new club) are off the definite list. Vurnon Anita, Khalid Boulahrouz, Ola John, Luuk de Jong, Siem de Jong, Adam Maher, Stijn Schaars and Ruben Schaken are also dropped.

This is Van Gaal’s elite:
Jordy Clasie (Feyenoord), Bas Dost (VfL Wolfsburg), Urby Emanuelson (AC Milan), Leroy Fer (FC Twente), John Heitinga (Everton), Klaas Jan Huntelaar (Schalke 04), Daryl Janmaat (Feyenoord), Tim Krul (Newcastle United), Dirk Kuyt (Fenerbahçe), Jeremain Lens (PSV), Bruno Martins Indi (Feyenoord), Joris Mathijsen (Feyenoord), Luciano Narsingh (PSV), Robin van Persie (Manchester United), Ricardo van Rhijn (Ajax), Arjen Robben (Bayern München), Wesley Sneijder (Internazionale), Maarten Stekelenburg (AS Roma), Kevin Strootman (PSV), Nick Viergever (AZ), Ron Vlaar (Aston Villa), Michel Vorm (Swansea City), Jetro Willems (PSV).

And lastly, some more positive news (….wink wink…). The CL draw.

Ajax is in the group of Death. Why not? After all the drama this summer at the Euros and the demise of AZ, Heerenveen and Feyenoord, why give Ajax a break, right?

Real Madrid, Man City and Borussia Dortmund. Three champions. Spain, England and Germany. And Holland of course. Can this draw get any tougher? Why didn’t they add Juventus too?

Poor Frank de Boer. Poor Ajax. Another anonymous season in Europe…

Or…?

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  2. I agree completely with the transfer window proposal. I bet it crossed many people´s mind that Abramovich would throw out a 60 or million Euro bid for Falcao, in the last hours of last night after the game between Athletico and Chelsea. Basically doing well in the qualification rounds of Europe during the transfer window is nothing less then putting your players into the showcase. Especially when your team is playing a financially powerful club to get into the group stages of EL or CL. Even when you beat them, you might lose, as they will go for the player in your team that would have made the difference during the rest of the whole season. This is horrible for fans. The reverse thing also happens. A talented kid is benched during this time to sell off the dead wood in the team. You spend money as a fan to buy tickets and the trainer puts in the players that made the team dysfunctional the previous year.

    However this transfer window space is frustrating me only to a certain degree. What frustrates me the most about the current transfer world is that the development of the youth is held back by the rule that under 18 year old’s can’t sign multiple year contracts or really contracts that bind them for after the age of 18. An example here is maybe Vilhena. Played last year a great match against Twente. Scores for the Dutch national youth teams. Was a huge rising star at a very young age and I have seen little to nothing about him so far this season. Why? Maybe he is going through a bad phase or maybe the new players like Singh and Immers are such good players. Or maybe he has not reached the age of 18 and when he is putting up a show that makes the fans proud of their club and their youth development, he can walk out for no money when he turns 18, because big foreign clubs are lining up for him and offer big contracts based on his performance at already a young age. So now we have arrived at the sad stage you have to be strategic with the rise of a star. Even when he is pushing and would make the fans and himself proud, he is frustrated in his attempts, as money dominates every fiber of the game. I remember the rise of van der Vaart. I don’t remember if he was under 18, but I do remember me looking forward every weekend (without being an Ajax fan) to the compilations on TV in the weekends. He was young, fresh, loaded with talent and brought a smile to people’s faces. I always find the process of talents standing up and making a name for themselves, one of the greatest things in football and it saddens me that there are processes in the game of today that make it staged and calculated.

    Talking about van der Vaart, I think his transfer is a bit weird. HSV is a struggling club. They were in relegation problems last season and they have lost their first game of the season against a mediocre team. I have picked up that they abandoned the women department of the club as it cost a few bucks (?), but then bought van der Vaart for all these millions. That’s desperation. A player prone to injury and bad fitness. Why not buy 2 or 3 promising younger players, strengthening the team on multiple positions. I have only seen such panic moves in the past work out. I remember Barca going after Beckham to change their misery at the time, but ending up with Ronaldinho. However Ronaldinho did not even turn the tides IMO. It was when Davids came to Barca when the team became a huge force all of the sudden again. Or maybe he brought a balance. HSV however is a team lacking in many ways and VdV is no Ronaldinho running past multiple opponents. I don’t see how van der Vaart with a more limited fitness level can help out a team in the Bundesliga that is on his way down. I also find it strange from him to join them ambition wise. Maybe he did not fit into AVB’s new system where pressing and hard work is demanded, but VDV is a rare commodity that would be an asset in most quality 4-2-3-1 playing teams in the world. As a 10 he just brings a level of creativity few players in the world can bring. What I am afraid off with HSV, is that the players behind him are not good enough to work for him, as they struggle to keep their selves above water and that the players left, right and in front of him are clueless what to do with his perfect distribution and are going to squander one opportunity after the other. How did Berg do at PSV? LOL. When VDV get’s into the struggling dimension of the game, because he is surrounded by players occupied with keeping themselves alive, he has a bigger drop down than many other quality players, as his fitness is not good and he can not cover the paces. This all gets magnified in the physical Bundesliga. Van der Vaart is enjoyed and served best, when he does not have to struggle, but is on the ball all the time, spraying his passes and showing his creativity.

    Nigel de Jong to AC Milan can become one of the better transfers of this window. For no money the Italians have themselves a new Gattuso. Nigel de Jong does not bring much in the offensive department. City was maybe looking for midfielders offering something both in attack and defense. If I look at Rodwell’s performances for City so far, I wish them luck. The guy is making one defensive mistake after the other. Dutch players at Milan are respected as they often do well. Even Huntelaar is acknowledged by many now as a player that is misused by them, rather than flopped as result of lack of quality. They played him on the wing being a box player, though he should have done better against United for them when he got a chance as a striker. I wish Nigel the best and many City fans will always remember him for his dedication, hard work and contribution to the club’s EPL title win last season.

    I have seen Afellay in an interview and I can’t say I like him. He comes across as arrogant. I do agree with his choice to go to Schalke. It was even my number 1 choice for him as I want Dutch couples to build chemistry. There were rumors he was off to Spurs but I was afraid he would end up at the right wing. At Schalke, Farfan is locked at right wing, the new rising star Draxler has played last year left wing and only recently played games in attacking center in pre season. The first game of the Bundesliga however Holtby played there with Draxler to the left again. I think Draxler is put on the left wing this year most of the time and Afellay is placed behind Huntelaar where I would also like to see him (in a more center position). Deeper on midfield is oke as well. If it works out, he can show van Gaal he could be played on midfield in an excellent manner for the Dutch NT. I picked up on a forum that van Gaal only sees Afellay as a left winger behind Robben. Can anybody confirm this? What the hell is this man thinking? Afellay would be great on midfield. If people like Fer with his energy, Afellay is further in his development and has the same work rate. Good pass completion rate and when RVP comes in, he would become even better as they have chemistry together.

    There were rumors of Gert Jan Verbeek being wanted by Russian clubs and maybe leaving Netherlands after this year, but after the 5-0 that is maybe put on hold. Which is a good thing. Maybe one of the best coaches in the Netherlands. He plays the best football with the limited sources at his disposal. Last year AZ would have become champs IMO, if they were not fighting so hard in Europe too. They lost everything in the last phase of the competition, due to energy loss from playing on multiple chess boards. However much of their success can be attributed to Gert Jan, both in result as in wonderful playing style.

    Ajax have a nice + after this transfer window:

    http://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/en/afc-ajax-amsterdam/transfers-alle/verein_610.html

    Then they also get all money from the CL, without having to split the sum with Feyenoord as that team did not make it to the group stages of the CL. On top of this, some little money from the transfers of de Jong, van der Vaart and I think also Zlatan and Buttner. Overmars in a recent interview told how he was more careful with the money of Ajax than with his own money. I believe him. He also said that not long ago they wanted to go for a huge talent but there was not enough money. His plan is to build up the war chest of Ajax and only splash it when one of those gems comes along.

    Too bad Feyenoord is getting nothing from the RVP transfer. I believe Wijnaldum has payed quite a sum of money from his own pocket to the youth development of Feyenoord when he went to PSV. Maybe RVP can do the same now he went to United.

    The only argument there is for the arrival of Pelle at Feyenoord, is that he can hold onto the ball. That way he allows his team members to move up and come out of the pressure they are getting. However you will find that most of the times happening in Europe, where they are no more. In Eredivisie we will see a more dominating Feyenoord, except against 2 or 3 other clubs. Pelle does not score goals and is frustrating the development of Achahbar. Also, there is no coach with a worse eye for adequate transfer targets as Koeman, making me even less comfortable with this transfer. I know Martin van Geel is the technical director, but he is Feyenoord’s only hope then. When you give Koeman a voice to express his preferences and get them for him, it will go wrong. That already started with his transfers at Vitesse …. Bob Peters for the win 🙂

    I don’t rate Carbral, but FC Twente have a history to pick up players going wrong and making the best of it. I have found that it is not so much that they make players better (look at Luuk de Jong struggling in Bundesliga, or Ruiz not going really well at Fulham), but that they are kings in facilitating their players the best they can. They are a club really looking at the strengths of their players (they also don’t get it right all the time of course) and then focus on that, rather than the player having to adapt to rigid systems or so. Munsterman has to replace every year a new team and many of his buys work out so well, that it can not be coincidence anymore. The man is the king of synergy. Now Tadic looks great again. I am not sure though, he has chosen the right coach for the job this time. Last season the magic looked over from what they had together in their championship year.

    I think that about the exit of Dutch teams in Europe enough is said already. When a Heerenveen loses it’s entire forward line, when Feyenoord is not able to buy a proper striker or give their youth a chance on that spot and when AZ is losing many of their key players, every team would get into trouble. A new cycle is needed to gel and buy smart reinforcements to compete again. Ajax has no chance in Europe this round as well, but maybe PSV can go places. I feel that when they would buy 1 or 2 proper defenders in the winter transfer window, they might stunt in EL, with a coach having won it already. Twente acted as cowards last time around against Schalke, so I see no reason why that would have changed. They didn’t push Schalke being 1 man up at home leading by a goal and they didn’t start with their strongest formation in the away game. CL money is more important for the leadership at the club and the money structures have not changed, so they will try to crash out later in the game again I suppose. I bet they have calculated the optimal point where progressing in EL is a good thing for receiving money from the full stadiums vs the risk of losing Eredivisie matches from two matches in the week and bringing the CL spot in danger.

    About the Dutch NT selection and the games against Turkey and Hungery I will post later.

    Cheers.

    2. DRB300, good analysis however I don’t think NDJ is a new Gattuso as he can’t even run at a quarter of the speed of Gattuso. Hamburg must have an idiot for president for shelling all that money for a half finishid player. Afellay is an arrogant cock who won’t be missed at NT.
      Even though dutch teams had lost a good chunk of players they could have shown a better performance in EL. To be humiliated by Anzhi and Molde is too much. Maybe it is time to accept that Eredivisie’s quality is not that good.

      2. There are half finished players everywhere, even those that will never even reach half their potential. The difference with VdV is that he has a really good standing at HSV, even half finished he’ll be able to boost everybody’s morale and the HSV fans have been eagerly waiting for his return. If there ever was a player to be liked and not just for the skills he still has plenty of, it would be Rafael van der Vaart.
        The only sorry club that didn’t appreciate him was Real Madrid.

        1. At least, Real Madrid still allowed him to stay when Sylvie Vdv still on recovery process of the cancer treatment. And van der Vaart even helped Real on a number of occasions, scoring vital goals (Kaka’s injury also paved the way).

          1. That’s true, they did show some class there. I guess money never was Real’s biggest problem, their problem was the sheer amount of choices they had to consider in compiling a team when they could literally buy any player they fancied. I once ran into a similar problem when ordering a beer in Antwerp. The beer list was sheer endless then the waiter came and asked if I wanted to see their specialty beer list. lol

      3. Thank you Balkan. I can’t help but to see the de Jong transfer as a buy to replace their one little pit bull for a new one. That he is slower than Gattuso, is probably right. I also agree with you that Dutch clubs despite transfers should be capable to perform well. After all, every club has to deal with transfer. However I can’t help but thinking that Dutch clubs have it more difficult than many clubs in other middle big competitions.

        I think that especially Heerenveen and also AZ where at a point last year where they had huge quality for their money. The transfer money they got from selling off that quality, is never going to buy back the same quality. Also Dutch clubs can’t buy established players. I see Turkish clubs being able to attract a Kuyt, while Feyenoord could have used him. Russian clubs can go very far as well. This means that whatever quality Dutch clubs buy, is often potential quality that must be given time to develop. Dutch transfers characterize themselves much more by their anticipation of player’s growth than at the other competitions we are competing with. Look at this table:

        http://i.imgur.com/JSFwY.png

        From this link:

        http://comparetheleagues.com/european-league-stats/top-20-by-uefa-ranking/

        Here we can see that Eredivisie has the lowest average age of all the major leagues in Europe. This means youth does get a chance in Eredivisie (which is a good thing), but that also means fickle permanences at times, as that is a characteristic from youth.

        More specific …. the players that left at Heerenveen and AZ, left such a big gap and used to pick up so much responsibility’s, that the teams were always going to need time for others to pick those up. The replacements also need time to develop. AZ have bought now a guy from Norway, big talent, but was not even in the squad yet for the Anzhi match. Heerenveen did not even really bought any quality and have to be happy that they crashed out of Europe, as they will have enough difficulty in Eredivisie. Feyenoord simply lost all their giants. KEA who is now one of the best at Aston Villa. Vlaar also one of the best at Aston Villa with the start of the season. Bakkal who scored many goals, contrary to Immers. Don’t get me started about the Swedish striker from City. For their transfer money and the financial problems Feyenoord was in, they were never getting the same quality back. AZ lost Elm, Poulsen, Moisander, Holman. Holman was singled out yesterday in Match of the Day on the BBC as the one working so hard and pressing an excellent team as Spurs into all kinds of trouble. Go figure. They also lost Wernbloom earlier. Too much quality loss. All those players were carrying the team of AZ and the new guys from free transfers or who were bought for small money, are simply not ready.

        It’s interesting to note that Platini just said that no Dutch club is under scrutiny by UEFA’s fair play committee. Dutch clubs are facing the financial reality’s of the world. In many other country’s they are not. We see what happens if governments do the same. It means the Dutch taxpayer can start bailing them all out. It’s really frustrating and dishonest how things are going. However with England and Germany the Dutch occupancy rate of stadiums is highest in the world and people in the Netherlands apparently love their club football.

        Cheers

  3. Unfortunately, I am not happy with Van Gaal’s selection. My issues are:

    A.why so few midfielers?

    B. Why leave rafa? (He busy transfer…what di hell, he transfered yesterday and di game is nxt week. Urby is sneijder’s back up. I really don’t like dat.

    Urby, Leroy, Jordy are all inexperince. 5 mid fielders with only onethat has any real experience.

    C.Why so many attackers? Is it dat he not sure who he wants to play where?

    D. Why di hell is Franco not selected? We are having serious problems with our defence and he leaves Douglas(guess Van gaal is waiting for Brazil to call him!)

    1. A: no comment. perhaps LvG wants to convert a defender to defensive midfielder. say, Heitinga? Martins Indi? Who knows… oh, and perhaps a-bit-withdrawn-striker still count for being a midfield? van persie’s case…

      B: well, for those players looking for finalizing their transfers… see, in a transfer, there’s medical exam, the presentation, etc, etc. takes pretty long time. I don’t know if it’s the same issue in other NT. and AGAIN, maybe van Persie can play as Sneijder’s backup.

      C: perhaps it’s for “if it goes A, then put on Kuyt. if B, put on Lens. if C, put on Van Persie” condition. we know that our NT have problem on finishing/breaking through defense on recent games.

      D: no idea. totally.

  4. Oh, didn’t remember to also mention that Van der wiel should have been selected. He has been in ok form lately and Van Rhijn and Janmaat are very inexperience. However, I really like Janmaat. I hope he gets the start over Van Rhijn. He has much more eredivisie experience than Van Rhijn and he shows great maturity in his play.

  5. I understand your concerns about inexperienced players but I remember an inexperienced Sneijder making his debut against Scotland and kicking their asses so I don’t mind if 1 or 2 players debut against Turkey.

    I’d debut Fer or Clasie (but I am not the coach) 😛

  6. Fer and Clasie combo are much better than Van Bommel and de Jong. The 5 midfielders that Van Gaal picked are enough since they can play in many positions. Perhaps they are not so experienced but again, why the hell BVM never used them? Anyway, they are hungry and will want to show everyone that they deserve their place in the team. Besides all that, Van Gaal is a Master working with young talent. He knows how to get the best of youths. And Sneijder will coach them in the field. I believe this revolution is needed…in order to recover our identity for good.

  7. Very good start for afellay today with Shalke . same with de jong and milan . calccio suits de jong perfectly 😀 .

    elia wasn’t bad . he gave his team a penalty kick but Aaron hunt missed it , but i expect a better performance from him honestly . vdv didn’t play with HSV today .

    Buttner is expected to start tomorrow for Man utd . I hope he impresses .

    btw guys , the psv young left winger ” depay ” is freakin’ gifted , does he deserve a call-up to Oranje?
    I just think he is better than Narsingh .

    1. Robben played with Oranje in EC 2004 and impressed and he was only 20 years old . Depay will have the same age by the WC .. so why not to give him a chance now ?

  8. I was very ashamed to see how the Dutch teams performed in Europe.

    As a life long Dutch football fan, I was most upset to see our top clubs performed so poorly in Europe. It is very reason that Holland is able to produce so many world class talents that made me into a Dutch fan in the first place, so to see our clubs blame the sale of top players for their poor showing is ridiculous. Aren’t we the kings of producing young talents? Why are Belgian, Greek, Ukrainian and Portuguese clubs continue to do significantly better than us?

  9. Anyone else monitoring the performance of De Guzman? He is doing quite well with swansea. I hope he gets a call up soon.

    Also, still disappointed with Douglas not being called up, does anyone know if he is injured?

  10. I hope all the Dutch players who are transferred can find their form again. They will be fit for the national team if ever called up, and brings better competition to the squad selection.
    If Ajax plays smartly, they can still have a small chance to make it, unless they opt for Europa League or give it up right now.

  11. Deguzman needs attention….thats for sure
    Afaleey wont be missed in national team agreed
    Vaart is half finished
    @Muhmmad if Depay is good he will get chance,now the coach is king luis not family business man BVM,so wait do nt worry…

    3. Don’t want to hear anything about Babel! We have so many talented players that need precious opportunities. He had enough chances to prove himself and was always the same story. Never showed any improvement year after year and kept doing the same mistakes over and over again!

  14. De Guzman had a great game today with Swansea!

    Great ball control, great free kicks, his crossing was great, as was his passing.

    He was MOTM IMO

    Really opened my eyes as to his talent.

    1. Agree . I think he can be chosen over vdv . very good player and still only 24 yo .
      played for mallorca and villareal and plays in the EPL now , so he has a good experience .

      fer , strootman , clasie , sneijder , de guzman & ” de jong ? maher ? Emanuelson ? ”

      Great midfield .

  16. I want to comment on Feyenoord,and its youth. Just watched the game against Vitesse and saw how Immers was playing very bad,missing some great chances. And what does Koeman do about it? Nothing! He lets him play the whole game. I am convinced Achahbar would not do any worse,nor would Tony Vilhena. But Vilhena is not even on the bench,and Koeman only sees Achahbar as an attacker,and he subbed the solid Fernandez for Achahbar instead of Immers. Achahbar is an attacker first,but he has a good pass,and great technique,so in a 0-0 game where you want to score,you could bring him instead the worst player today-midfielder Immers.
    DRB300 said something about dutch clubs not using the very young talented players recently.I agree. And I have to say that it is bothering me too for a while. You are famous for having some of the best youth in the world,so why not use it? Some of the biggest leagues in the world are using younger players than Eredivisie. Did the youth players become worse,do other countries suddenly develop better young players,or what happened?

    1. I watched second half of this game too. Open attacking football, a pleasant game to watch. Too many young players who did a lot of running, many mistakes and a lot of missed chances especially by Feyenoord. In the end Vitesse scored as mathijsen was too slow to cover his attacker. Mathijsen should quit football. He is a fossil. Strangely he still is in NT.

    2. But in Eredivisie you can see a lot of young players.

      in Feyenoord you have De Vrij, Clasie, BMI, etc.

      in others big teams you have Maher, Viergiver, Van Dijk, Glouweeleuw, Van Rhij (very youngs to play CB) Willems, Depay, Lukoki, etc.

      1. Yes,Eduardo,but there are also a lot of young players who do not play that deserve to play.I am not talking about players over 19 or 20 years.I am talking about those very young 17 and 18 years old.
        Why dont they play? Because the mentality of the trainers somehow tells them that the players under 19 are not mature enough. Well I say if you are good enough then you are mature enough. I would rather use an inexperienced, immature but hungry and talented 18 year old player than a mature,experienced but no quality player 26 year old.That goes of course for the league like the Eredivisie,that is supposed to raise such young players.
        Well,that is just my point of view…
        I remember Jol having problems with wingers at Ajax and talking about how if he got like 20 million euros,he could buy quality wingers. Later he got fired,and De Boer came with wingers from their own school and won the Eredivisie!

        1. Ajax had two off the crossbar in the first fifteen minutes. Then fell victim to the NT disease of lost confidence. Couldn’t put it away.

          Hard result for Frank to swallow.

  24. RVP scores a hat trick and saves Man Utd!
    It’s clear that he thrives when he is the focus of attack. Wenger built the whole offense around him last season and it worked great. He scored 37 goals and single-handedly salvaged Arsenal’s season with a 3rd place finish.

    Same situation today. With Rooney out, most of the passes were directed to him and he did well. He did miss a penalty trying to go for placement rather than his trademark power shot.

    LVG may have to devise a way where he can get something out of RVP. RVP had a bad WC 2010 and then again Euro 12. He can’t be the sole focus of our attack because of all the talent we have upfront. However, I think the other players should find a way to make him the main target for portions of the game. This guy still has enough to offer to Oranje and will buy us some time until the next generation are fully capable and ready to take over.

  25. Buttner not even on the bench. RVP is a monster of a footballer. Ugly PK, 3 beautiful goals scored. Somehow he can’t score for Holland. I still cheer for him though. He now is the only dutch player worth watching in Premier League.

  27. hehehehe’ I said it once and I’ll say it again, Van Gaal should focus on attacking. That’s where all our weapons are, let rivals attack us but we need to get in the goals first.

  28. This is getting interesting,Louis van gaal is on the way to a legendry dutch coach,I think he aims for the Gold in 2014 brazil..He wants to have the very best 23 players for that tournament, that is why he is experimenting this much, really love it,I was waiting for such a coach.Selection based on merits and form, very very interesting.Mathijenson and kuyt will be dropped eventually, I think he uses the experience of these two.A good breath after 4 dark years of selection,BVM never gave chances to youngsters, never thought about the future of the Dutch team.i don’t have to yell anymore.we will see an energetic team with plenty of skilled players in dutch national team,I think vangaal will have a pool of minmum 36 players.unlike BVM,I found that BVM used just 25 players from 2008 to 2010 for all matches during that period.
    Look at the competition for each spot
    Goal Keeper-For 3 spots
    Stekelen Vs Tim Krul Vs Vorm Vs Velthuizen
    Defenders
    Right wingback
    Ricardo Van Rhijn Vs Janmaat Vs Vanderweil
    Left wingback
    Brunomartinsindi Vs Williems Vs Eric peiters Vs Buttner
    Left central back.
    Mathijenson Vs Viergiver Vs Vlaar Vs bruma
    Right Centralback
    Heitinga Vs Douglas Vs De Vrij Vs Bruma
    Holding mids -4 spots
    Nijel Vs Leory fer Vs Strootman Vs Clasie Vs Anita Vs urby
    Right wingers
    Luciano Narsingh Vs Ola John Vs kuyt Vs Lens
    Left wingers
    Arjen roben Vs Afaleey Vs Maher Vs vanpersie Vs urby
    Playmakers
    Wesly Vs Vaart Vs Maher
    Strikers
    Robin vanpersie Vs Huntlaar Vs Basdost Vs kuyt
    Players like Persie,kuyt,maher and urby will play in multiple positons I think,he sees them as all rounders.or utility players.But I would love to see Ricky wolfs winkel ,luc castaginos,bruma and deguzman in to his selections.i know it will happen soon.

  29. Van Persie was great with Arsenal and now is great with Man U.

    If I am not wrong he had many opportunities to score during the EC 2012 but he seemed to lack focus, desire, love for the national team!!!.

    When you have a top scorer in your team like Robin and Huntelaar you should always build the team around them. That doesn’t mean Robben, Sneijder, Narsingh, etc..can’t score as well.

    1. I think the Arsenal fans always expect Robin Van Persie to score, so do the Manchester United fans.
      I think after the Worldcup when he was almost invisible at the scoresheet (made good runs but didn’t get enough balls) the Oranje supporters lost trust in him.
      This lack of trust reflects in his finishing (I think he plays really great in Oranje, but somehow doesn’t have this deadly finishing there).
      Just imagine the difference in your confidence when half of the stadium is singing “He scores when he wants….”..or half of the stadium is looking for every ball you shoot to say “you see, if Huntelaar played we would have scored already”…

      I agree about building the team around either Robin or Huntelaar.

  30. Maher scored a great goal!.

    Fer scored again!!! 🙂

    Douglas didn’t play so maybe he’s injured and that’s why LVG didn’t call him?

    Is Robben injured? because he didn’t play.

  31. You can be optimistic as you can be, and LVG still has Mathijsen, Heitinga as 2 of CB, if not starting. Did Heitinga play at all? What about Mathijsen’s performance? Up front and midfield we are good as we always are, never short of talent. When some young players fail, other young players rise up to the challenge. Defenders? well it is a different story.

  33. Mohammed, thanks for the info about Drenthe. To be honest I was really upset with Ajax today. We threw the game away. We were cruising for the first 30 min and then the horrendous mistake by Vermeer and suddenly it is a game. We should have been 4-0 up at half time. Oh well, at least we are playing high quality football. Moisander is top class and I also really like Boccara. He made a very good impression. Another one for the future.

  34. Great start of the season for Fer and Twente.

    I really like what Mclaren is doing there.

    @Tiju, I just think that Van gaal is being a little too risky with his selection seeing that this is a very important WC qualifying game. This is not a friendly that you can just sue to try out uncapped inexperienced youngsters. We cannot afford to. Test out young talents at the expense of 3 points. Van Rhijn, Janmaat, Virgiver, Willems, MI, Clasie, Fer are all selected together for the two big WC qualifiers? Not very impressive.
    I hope that van gaal proves me wrong, because I really want us to start our qualification off with a 6 points. However, the way our defense and midfeild looked with youngsters like maher, viergiver, van Rhijn, De vrij and BMI, I am very nervous. Add the fact that Clasie and Fer were not even seen and good enough to be selected for that friendly by Van gaal. So now just a few weeks later they are both ready to for a huge wc qualifiers?

    I hope van gaal is right. I really do.

    1. Hey Don,keep up the faith and feel relaxed.We will definately gonna beat the Thurkey.Our are playing in home soil and LVG is a brainy.He is a good thinker.real tactician and have the gut to take on anything.This is why i give him a big respect.Can you imagine he can just frozen PVR and to select on Hunterlaar.To withdraw VDF,De Jong,ects…..he really wanted to get the 3 wining points as much as we wished.So,my guess is we will win by 2 balls or more.By then you will started to sing and dance,mark my words,cheers 🙂
      Hup Holland Hup !!!

  37. Many of you are afraid of the young guns like Clasie or Fer but these two alongside Strootman are the best midfielders Holland has at the moment. They will prove that vs Turkey. Hup Holland!

  38. I am worried as all of you for our defence. Heitinga lost his place at Everton and we know the story with Mathijsen. I am not that worried with the full backs but with central defence I really don’t know what Van Gaal will do. Perhaps Vlaar and Martins Indi / Viergever pair? Or use the experienced Mathijsen knowing he is not the defender he used to be just to get by this first games praying he doesn’t collapse like at the Euros? Deploy either Strootman or even Fer as stoppers??? Rijkaard and Desailly that are players similar to Fer were used that way at their NT and were very succesful playing as defenders even though they were midfielders who liked to attack, just like Leroy Fer.. Central defence has been a pain. What bothers me more is how Van Marwijk knew this and never tried other options. He stayed loyal to the mediocre pair of Heitinga and Mathijsen and now that there is an urgency for a change at central defence there is not a decent cover or at least one that has real international experiencie. Just a bit Vlaar, but again, he did not have many chances under BVM.

  39. Id say lets all become belgian supporters for he next two years. Just as a planB :).

    Vertonghen , vermaelen, kompany, moussa dembele, fellaini, mertens, hazard, lukaku…
    We can only include robben, van persie and sneijder to that list. All 28 and aboveu unfortunately.
    The rest are sub par at the moment

  40. Strootman – Fer – Sneijder
    Robben – Van Persie – Afellay/Narsingh

    Should be our line up

    Defense – only Willems at LB makes sense.
    The rest are just a bunch of whatevers for now.

  41. Van Marwijk’s record
    Aug 2008-Jun 2012
    Played Won Draw Lost GF GA GD Win Rate
    52 34 10 8 111 42 +69 65.38
    An acceptable record by any standards,
    anyway
    What I wanted to point out was that during his 4 years he opted for a defensive style as opposed to an attacking one, well with the exception of playing against weaker teams. His reasoning, weak defenders = weak defense = better defend > attack.
    If you choose one method of play (defense) you would assume that at the very least and after 4 years great defenders would result from this. Was that the case? Van der Wiel, Heitinga, Mathjiesen, Willems (have all been slaughtered equally here). So how did he cover a weak defense? ok by playing defensive football. Did it work? I guess we all know the answer to that mystery.
    I say,
    Weak defenders (fine), weak defense (ok) but lets change the formula to attacking football and see what comes out of it.
    If I look at VM’s stats 111-42 (GD), I would assume his defensive system didn’t fail him (entirely) but it was the defenders (non defenders) who failed the system. 8 losses is oke, unfortunately 3 of them were the big ones and the “regime” came to an abrupt end.

    1. just wanted to add that my justification was based on the fact that all our ammunition are concentrated in midfield and beyond. If we still focus on defense then Holland is a lost cause, better wait 4 more years to have a balanced team..

  43. What I will like:

    ——–Stekelemburg———–

    Van Rhijn-Heitinga-Strootman-Willems

    —-Fer—-Clasie—-Sneijder–

    Narsingh–Huntelaar/RVP–Robben

    Viergiver played really well against PSV.
    Heitinga was on the bench the last 2 Everton games. he will play?

    I think LVG will play:

    ——–Stekelemburg———–

    Van Rhijn–Vlaar-Mathinsen-Willems

    —Fer—–Strootman—-Sneijder–

    Narsingh—Huntelaar—-Robben

  46. @Gio, we love Oranje because of it’s offensive minded players and total football style. So, yes, Oranje should deploy and concentrate on attacking the rivals but rebuilding the back four specially in central defence. Van Gaal was famous for his attacking lines at Ajax and by having very compact teams. Defence was not in his book but he knew that in order to be succesful you cant be so beatable in the counters so he will concentrate in having the ball and punishing when we have to. I am nervous but optimistic at the same time.

  47. @Gio
    I don’t have a problem with attacking style football.
    However, we need a balanced team approach.

    We have had inconsistent and unreliable defenders for a while now. Matijsen and Heitinga are prime examples. I’m actually more optimistic in our current up and coming defenders. After what we have seen in the Euros, I doubt they can be any worse.

    Bottomline, we need a real good defensive coach to work with Oranje. I don’t have much confidence in LVG’s defensive abilities fix the problems we have in defense. He is obsessed with offense. Let him focus on that aspect of the game!

  50. Well the call-up sheet isn’t 100% great but then again other than Pep Guardiola I’ve never 100% agreed with a manager’s decisions. I am looking forward to see my midfield of Sneijder – Fer – Strootman and hopefully Clasie gets a runout at some point. Why was Douglas not selected?

    Stekelenburg
    Janmaat – Heitinga (still?!?) – Martins Indi – Willems
    Sneijder – Fer – Strootman
    Narsingh – v.Persie – Robben

    Huntelaar is the better striker. But he is a #9 finisher. With the switch to a 4-3-3 we need a striker who will be more involved with the buildup. Why LvG didn’t do this against the Belgians I’ll never know. Huntelaar scored of course cause he is Klaas but seemed pretty amateur on LvG’s decision making.

  52. I know most of us want 4-3-3 (including me) and in that system it’s most likely that only one center forward can play but I hope LVG does something in order to play with 2 center forwards because it’s a waste to have Van Persie or Huntelaar on the bench!!!.

    What about this formation?

    —————–Stekelenburg—————–

    —-V.Rhijn—Douglas—-Pieters—Willems—-

    ——-Sneijder—Fer/Clasie—Strootman——

    ——————–Robben——————–

    ————–Persie——Huntelaar———–

  53. Van der Wiel’s move to PSG is risky because he’ll start as Christophe Jallet’s back up. Christophe has won his 1st cap for France.

    Ancelotti said: “He (Wiel) will start training with uh next week. Christophe was the only player at this position. THERE WILL BE COMPETITION BUT IT WON’T BE A PROBLEM FOR CHRISTOPHE”.

    …perhaps that’s just what he needed…competition for places.

  54. I wished that I had answer for CB as well as why Van Persie played much better for club than Oranje. For the Belgium friendly I still don’t understand why LVG played Mathijsen/Heitinga in the 1st half. Do they still need to be tested? He should have called these 2 and tell them that he would like to try others first as they have been tested and called up all new 4 CB. Instead he tried 2 new CB and no more friendly to try. Up front, I think both Arsenal and MU style of play feed their striker more than Oranje. Oranje depends more on the midfields to score as well. Having say that, Hunter’s records for Oranje is better than Van Persie and Van Persie messed up his chance in Euro 12 when he missed many chances terribly. I still think Van Persie is a better striker than Hunter and RVP still has a lot to offer. It is the coach’s job to mold the players into his system or pick a system that suites his players best.
    LVG picked many younger players and tried at this point so I thank him for that. However he has not won anything yet so on record Bert is still a better coach for Oranje. I really wish Oranje defeat Turkey to start and no disaster in qualification this time. At this point I do not wish for attractive style yet, as long as they win. I just hope the playes adapt to 4-3-3 faster as this is not a club where you have a long season to gel. These players only get together once in a while. They simply need to be at their best and I would like to see all of them play as a team, work hard like there is no tomorrow.

  55. why not to play 4-4-2 ? perhaps we need to play with persie and huntelaar upfrot
    sneijder on the left and robben or narsingh on the right ,
    fer and strootman or clasie as holding mids .
    perhaps sneijder as holding mid is a good idea , too .

  56. We do not have a typical number 10 like Zidane, Platini, Zico…anymore. Perhaps that’s why it is difficult to play 4-4-2. You put Sneijder on the wing and that wing will not have the same attack capability like the other wing where you have Robben. Now if Sneijder can play in the middle like a typical 10 and then one good defensive mid…. This is almost like Oranje in 88 in a manner of speaking.

    1. a 4-1-2-1-2 formation would be good for holland, but we have the issue of lazy players which puts pressure on our shitty defence. Like if you thnk about it have you seen sneijder (my fave player) watch while the team get the ball back. fair play he is small but i think we need on experienced cb with the most promising cb. Like either heitinga or douglas and play around them. By no means are we going to play the chode vlaar. Fair to him he can defend but football now needs players who cant just stand still and head or kick the ball away. He would be useful vs someone like Llorente or any striker who doesnt move

  57. I’m not too familiar with tactics but found the following an interesting read. Maybe old news to most but for me it provided an insight into Van Gaal’s qualities to make a bunch of stars play to the service of the team. I’m pretty sure that, in spite of perfecting their trade and (hopefully) learning from their own mistakes, each coach mainly sticks to his or her own way of doing things. The Van Gaal of 1995 will be pretty much the Van Gaal of today.

    http://timhi.wordpress.com/2010/09/14/ajax-1995/

    If he’s able to come up with a system that works with the current crop of players he might be able to pull off some positive surprises.

    1. Coming to think of Blind and Kluivert as assistants Van Gaal might be up to a similar scenario as these two will be well versed in these kinds of tactics and be able to track down those players that could either be up for the task or without too much effort get trained towards it. He might have a few varieties to the system depending on the opponent or not. Just reading that article made me feel good about Van Gaal and Oranje.

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