Oranje needs monster score

blog Euro 2020 Euro 2021
by Jan

Oranje is on the hunt against Gibraltar. It needs goals! “We need to make 5 at least, but if we can: as much as possible” says Frank de Boer. One big potential problem: players trying to force their way into the goal all by themselves. The last time Oranje was ruthless, was against San Marino: 11-0.

That match in 2011 was played exactly like it was supposed to: three goals in 20 minutes. The Oranje players got extra energy, while San Marino lost their last thread of confidence. Bert van Marwijk’s team wrote history that day.

Frank de Boer: “If we can play like we did vs Latvia I am sure we will score way more times than two. We need to score quick goals and we don’t want the opponent to be able to take a breath.”

The team manager used today’s practice session purely for finishing. Big goals and a match 11 v 11 and finishing. Players love that.

Gibraltar is the youngest member of the UEFA football family. They became a member in 2013. Their first international match ended in 0-0 vs Slovakia. They joined FIFA in 2016 and suffered a record loss v Belgium: 0-9. Gibraltar is the 195th nation in the ranking, in between Samoa and Bahamas. It’s the third match for them too after a loss vs Norway (0-3) and Montenegro (4-1). They might well be spent, mentally and physically.

De Boer: “They did rotate. I do expect a fresh team. They will want to show themselves against us, we’re considered a big opponent.”

De Boer will most likely play the same team as against Latvia, with Luuk de Jong as the deepest striker. With enough goals in the team, like Memphis, Wijnaldum, Klaassen and Berghuis. Even Frenkie de Jong is scoring more at Barca than ever. “Ronald Koeman has been working on this with me. Scoring is a mindset. I was never focused on it, I was always trying to find the assist, but now I do get more in front of goal. But in Oranje, it’s different, I’m not in that role. When I chase goals in Oranje, it will not be beneficial for the team,” Frenkie said.

De Jong mentions a potential pitfall. Memphis in particular, like Berghuis can have the tendency to want to score every time he has the ball. “It’s important to find a balance, but I’m not concerned. Attackers want to score. That is natural.”

De Jing was far from pleased with his own performance. “I wasn’t great vs Turkey. It was not good. I wasn’t present, not dominant and sloppy. I don’t think I added anything. But against Latvia it was ok. Maybe not outstanding, but good enough, at least.”

Ruud van Nistelrooy was added to the technical staff in this international break and the former super striker of PSV, Man United and Oranje has his hands full. Frank de Boer: “Ruud is a natural. And he has been working with the lads after Latvia, to go through all these missed opportunities. Ruud has a unique way of approaching things and he sees situations a certain way. He’s enthusiastic and highly committed. He can teach the forwards a lot.”

During the last training session, the Oranje internationals had a lot of fun. Matthijs de Ligt copped a ball right in the crown jewels and amongst footballers, that is reason for a big laugh. Frenkie got the question: “How is Matthijs?”. He first said something like “I don’t know, why?” And then… “Ah, yes yes, he got a ball on the balls, so to speak, hahaha. He will be fine, I’m sure.”

There is a clip where Stekelenburg and Bergwijn are having a lot of fun when the Juve defender is clutching his manhood.

I think the Gibraltar team won’t be a rock and Holland will score 8 times, this match. I can see Luuk get a hat trick, Memphis 2 goals, Berghuis 1, Klaassen 1 and Dumfries one.

Overall, a one-sided match. 3 point, mucho goals and no injuries would be the maximum result!

Young Oranje will beat Hungary and Germany will win their game. Oranje to progress.

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40 comments

  1. My question to the group would be that if Frank de Boer is this abomination of a coach, when was the last dutch coach that you would say was quality?

    Guus Hiddink had his struggles with Holland in the past. Dropping points to Norway and Belarus is 1996 qualies, and only picking up 1 point against Czech Republic among a string of friendly losses. He then only picked up 1 point home and away to Turkey in 1998 qualies before leading one of the best Dutch performances in recent history at the final tournament.

    Frank Rijkaard went the entire 1999 year without winning a single match, 9 draws and 2 losses to start his tenure.

    Van Gaal famously dropped points to Turkey, Ireland and Portugal in WC Qualifying to bounce Holland from the tournament.

    Dick Advocaat only picked up 1 point against Czech in the 2004 qualies. I can only imagine how this group would have reacted when Holland lost in Scotland for the 2004 playoff.

    van Basten would have been a favourite around here. Got rid of van Nistelrooij, Seedorf and van Bommel to throw in some kids, and only managed an 8-2-2 record with 15 goals in 12 games against what could have been the weakest European qualifying group in history. 0 goals against Romania in 2 games, 2 against Luxembourg in 2 games.

    I suppose van Marwijk’s results were successful, but after that Blind and Hiddink again.

    Even the famous Rinus Michels. He guided Holland to a world cup final, revolutionized the sport. Then took a talented team with van Basten and the lot and failed to qualify for the 1986 world cup, before leading them to Euro 88. In that 1984-85 period would we have been blasting Michels for his work with the National team?

    So would anyone on here say that any of Holland’s managers in the past 25 years have been good besides van Marwijk?

    1. On top of that, lets imagine that all of these managers started their campaigns without their star player. So no Robben, no Bergkamp, no van Basten etc.

      This is the weakest Holland generation in a long time, and that’s just something we need to accept. I’m personally going to give Frank a lot more time to deal with this before I start asking for his head.

      1. @Derek…LVG didnt dropped points to turkey for WCQ2002…please get the fact right….Ireland was stunning team so was protugal both teams wiped out Germany and england etc…Loosing to a stronger team is diagestable…
        Hiddink was wrong choice for 2016EC..then Blind ..both were eaqually crap…yes i do agree FDB is not worse than them…But only if FDB could take us to WC qatar…(thats still a dream)
        LAst 2 best coaches were koeman and LVG…they build and got the best out of NT….
        Peter bosz WILL DO BETTER than FDb,Blind,Hiddink,Fart van etc…
        Ten haag will bring us WC and EC….
        i will fear a sheep team who is lead by lion..not the other way arround…
        FDB is about apprecaition…if yopu get apreciation you might also get va call..

        1. Fart van was most biased coach ever…he was lucky he got prime time Roben and Co…team build by san mark was handed over to darkest era of dutch football…Even cryuff didnt support dutch…we got name thugs…..however he was schoooled at EC2012 for his stupidity….that was awesome..
          IDIOT DANNY BLIND AND HIDDNSKI COST US ec2016 AND wc2018,,.
          ANOTHER IDIOT FDB is going to send us to play off fire…

          1. See, Emmanual is clearly relishing the fact that Bert and Oranje “were schooled” in 2012. You are not an Oranje supporter mate.

    2. Hiddink 1998 was good. They top the group with huge goal difference https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998_FIFA_World_Cup_qualification_%E2%80%93_UEFA_Group_7

      Bert was good. RK was good also. Van Gaal 2014 was good.

      Frank Rijkaard, Dick Advocaat and Van Basten was ok, not good, not bad. Dick was in extremely bad situation because the old generation is phasing out and they were knocked out of WC 2012. It is quite different from FDB’s situation. Ronald Koeman already cleaned up the mess for him. Frank Rijkaard’s situation is complicated, his team is already qualified, all he has is friendly games. It was a risky choice, it was not bad in the end but we could have won the whole thing also if we have the right coach. I don’t think Van Basten was successful but his term was also not a disaster.

      That leaves us with recent Hiddink, Blind and Van Gaal 2002 as bad. Hiddink and Van Gaal was shocking result as they are actually good coach and the fans gave them benefit of the doubt until it is too late.

      1. Right, but Hiddink in 1995 was bad. Frank has had this post for a few months. Imagine if Hiddink was only given a few months to prove his merit, he would have been out before ever reaching steam.

        All I’m saying is that other coaches in the past have had bad results and moved on to have good results later.

        1. Hiddink’s record was better so he get some benefit of the doubt. But I don’t get your point, do we aim to replicate Euro 1996 where we have many talents and failed badly? So FDB is on par with some worst record in our history and that is the justification to let him continue? Should we just pretend that he never managed Inter Milan, Crystal Palace and Atalanta and give him benefit of the doubt that he can turn around?

    3. Excellent post! I will respond to this too :-). But very astute. Even Bert van Marwijk was criticised here for using Kuyt, for not being adventurous, for not using young players etc etc. It’s the toughest gig in the country.

      1. Van Marwijk was considered an absolute hack, responsible for the destruction of Dutch football by many on this blog (even when we were winning).

        There’s also been a constant theme of ‘worst generation ever’ which oddly conflicts with the idea that there are all these young stars that the manger is too stupid to play.

          1. I had two comments in a row there—
            If you’re asking about the van Marwijk comment, I did no think he was total crap. I thought he played a system and a style that fit with the tools/players that he had. Personally I think that’s what a manager has to do— not adhere to a fixed idea of what Dutch football is. As in, the answer can’t always be 4-3-3. This is another of the running contradictions on comment sections here and in the media— a Manager` is expected to both play the traditional ‘style’ but also will get reamed if they’re system is ‘too old and predictable’

            As for the “good day for Dutch football”, if that’s what you were asking, I do feel that it was. The truth is that teams like NL shouldn’t play teams from places like Gibraltar, if that were possible. It will never be a real game, it will always be a bit of a mess. In my playing days, I was more often on the Gibraltar side of this, determined to do whatever it took to keep an obviously better team from beating us on a given day. So it doesn’t surprise me that the first half was rough. I wish we’d scored more beautiful goals with flowing, precise football, but that’s not possible in a game like this. Whether it was four goals or seven or twelve, it was a good day for Oranje in that they stuck with it and ended up with a dominant score line— with lots of players in the scoresheet, lots of players who went to bed with a smile because they have a stat on the scoresheet.

            The Jong Oranje game was even better, because that was more of a real game (two teams competing on the whole pitch) and Oranje was really loving the ball around, scoring real goals not scrum-style goals as the senior team was reduced to due to eleven in the box for Gibraltar.

            It’s all good to combat the narratives (bad coaching, bad finishing, players aren’t motivated, player selection is wrong, players have no motivation, etc) and it keeps both teams competitive in their respective competitions.

  2. Dick advocate lost top czec ,,whom was top team…so please get ur brain in to right comparison…with 1 spot direct vand 1 spot for play off…

  3. how many teams played at WC1986????…take that in to account for micheal…the quality of opponent they faced…your stupid comparison is endless…

  5. 6-1 thrashing of hungary watched full game…
    wonderful game by Boaudu,Gakpo,harroui,kadioglu,botman,shuurs were stunninly good..
    Teze was not bad either….
    ONLY CRAP WAS mitchell bakker,He was subbed for Tyrell malacia..Who looked head and shoulder above bakker…Tyrell reminds me partice evra….Can run with ball,so strong like pitbull,can dribble…(None can be done by Bakker)…
    kluivert was bad too, De wit too not promising…

  8. My hope is we stay at 1-0. I do not think scoring a few more goals make any difference here. This football is so bad. Hopefully 1-0 will force FDB to resign.

  17. Good night for the Dutch. As I said, Turkey would drop points along the way. The NT still has to do the hard work of beating Turkey and Norway and taking care of business in other matches. (Montenegro won’t win the group, but they will be tricky for everyone, especially at home.) Plus Turkey still has two against Gibraltar to make up goal difference, but…the NT has their fate back in their own hands. A very good night.

  18. i didnt liked Bert van for playing too conservative ,even in frindly HE KEPT same playing 11..When Giovani retired ,this ASh%%5ole got stuck…He had to take a rookie 18 years old Jetro williams…thats how pathetic he was…Jetro was dragged in euro without much playing time in NT…like De ligt Vs Bulgaria…
    Kevin strootman was one hell of a player those times…he was in euro2012 sqaud but fart van played van bommel…bommel was walking in pitch like early morning jogging and midfield ran over by denmark,germany and portugal..
    Daley Blind was playing for Ajax and easily he could have taken Daley for LB …He didint…
    25 players in campaign and thats tells a lot…
    hE WASTED bABEL AND VAART AT their prime by playing kuyt as forward…Roanld koeman would not do that…EVn FDB will not do that..
    SAME TEAM HANDED OVER to LVG and LVG added Devrij,Blind,played kuyt AS rb/lb ETC..2014 wC WAS AMAzing…
    FART VAN WOULD ONLY DREAM ABOUT BEATING SPAIN AT 5-1….

  19. How serious Blind injury is????
    Botman is not a bad choice,shuurs and Timber is another option..
    De boer is eyeng Cody gakpo for NT… i hope he takes him..they guy is on fire…i think real difference was made by kadiglu and harroui….shuurs and botman stand stood..
    Tyrell malacaia came in for Bakker..tyrell lokked 1000 times better than winjdal and annholt…
    Boadu was pretty good as well..
    Players who are not lesser to current NT players are ..Gakpo,Malacia,Geetruida,koopmeiners,boadu,Shuurs,botman,harroui and kadiglu…
    De wit is the new kuyt type…Bakker was the worst..Poor touches on ball like DUMBFRY..No wonder ajax got rid of Bakker..

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