The victory over Poland doesn’t get us to the Euros… It doesn’t get us three points. But it will lift the pressure of Danny Blind and his staff. It will boost confidence going forward. And it gives us all a good feeling.
Poland is not France or Germany, of course. And they are simply prepping for the Euros. But it is a good win still.
Holland played better than against Ireland. The dynamics Blind wants to see worked out better. Crisper passing, better mobility and more courageous balls forward.
Vincent Janssen showed how useful he can be when used right. Against Ireland, he moved well but was never found. Against Poland, he still moved well and was given opportunities to score a couple. He is the real deal. Played at second pro level last year for FC Almere. And seems to make the steps up without too much issues. A glorious left foot, great positioning awareness and cool as ice.
Poland didn’t play bad but failed to register some real opportunities for themselves. A slip in the back (Bruma, Tete) was the lead in to their opportunities. And a perfectly hit corner kick from Milik’s glorious left foot and Van Ginkel zoning out got them their goal.
One has to say: conceding from set pieces is a worry. Van Dijk vs Ireland not awake. Now Van Ginkel… But at least we don’t concede from open play, which is good (always focus on the good too!).
Steven Berghuis was a bit hot and cold but for a young player without rhythm, it wasn’t bad at all. You can see why Watford wanted him and why Blind relies on him. His type is rare. He’s fast, has a decent dribble and a tremendous left foot and vision.
We need all sorts of players. The power and brilliance of Memphis (when in form), the length and leadership of Luuk de Jong, the speed of Narsingh, the vision and passing of Berghuis, the aerial threat of Dost and hopefully soon the experience and skills of Van Persie and Sneijder. Add to that the world class talent of Robben and we can look hopeful towards the future.
Kevin Strootman looks strong and confident and it will be a matter of time before he will be his own self. Wijnaldum, Propper, Van Ginkel, Blind… all decent utility players and if we can cement our back four a bit better (Vlaar, De Vrij, Bruma, Van Dijk, Willems, Riedewald, Kongolo, Van Aanholt, Veltman, Janmaat), we should be able to sort ourselves out.
Danny Blind is keen to use this period to cement his ideal September line up. I don’t expect too many changes in the line up vs Austria. Blind: “I think Austria is the strongest of the three opponents. They had a tremendous qualifications campaign and with Janko and Arnautovic up front and a player like Alaba at the back, they could well be the surprise team this Euros.”
Keving Strootman will come in again to start, as skipper, after his 20 mins sub turn vs Poland. This might go at the expense of Van Ginkel. “I don’t want to change too much anymore. We need to start solidify a team.”
Dick Advocaat spent his first week with this Oranje. It is not hard to see what kind of coach he is. The perfect field trainer. Like Blind he has a whistle around his neck, like Blind, but unlike Van Basten. The first days he observed. “That is key. Take a step back and watch them do their thing. Some of them had a disappointing season, some are not 100% fit, some are worried about their future… It was a long season.” When the players do an 11 v 11 game, Dick coaches one team, San Marco the other. Marco coaches with his normal voice. Talks a lot. Dick is more quiet but when he does say something, he uses the deep and hoarse yelling voice. “Bazoer! They’re moving away from you behind you. Pay attention!” or “Bruma, if you tackle, do it for a full 100%!!”.
Dick Advocaat took over from Van Gaal in 2002. The former Man U coach wasn’t able to coach Oranje to the World Cup and Dick needed to mend things. Jeffrey Bruma: “Yes, we spoke about that. We need this to happen again. Immediately back to the big stage.” Advocaat was given the job back then on the advice of the failing Van Gaal. “Louis felt I was the right man to take the older players and get them to perform again. We needed to squeeze all out of them and I did it. Back then, people wrote that that generation was done for. Like they do now. But I will never write off any player. They usually do that themselves by not performing. If a player is good enough at 18 or 38 years old, all fine by me.”
You sometimes need an old sly fox to come up with a tactical decision that can change things. Like Van Gaal demonstrated at the World Cup when he brought Krul for Cillesen at penalty time vs Costa Rica. Some people think Oranje should use the PSV core, as they have the dynamics in place already. Put another player for Arias, another defender for Moreno and Strootman in place of Guardado and Robben for Narsingh. Dick: “Really? So Bazoer and and Memphis and Janssen? That would be a shame.”
Dick Advocaat likes to taunt his players and the vibe in the group has changed with the former FC Den Haag icon. Van Aanholt worked with him at Sunderland. During the training game, Advocaat yells at Patrick: “Hey Van Aanholt, you’re up against Promes. Peace of cake, yes?” Danny Blind: “It is important to have someone like him in the group. I think Marco and I are more detached. We keep our distance a bit. Dick really is very open and warm with the players.” Jeffrey Bruma: “Dick is a very warm and friendly guy with great anecdotes, but watch out: he is also very direct and tough.”
Memphis is doing sprint training. Advocaat observes. Memphis steals a yard the first time. And the second time. And the third time. It’s not rare. Rafael van der Vaart used to do this. Willem van Hanegem and Johan Cruyff would hide in the bushes during running training to smoke a quick cigarette. Advocaat: “I see it. But I don’t say anything in the group. I walk over to Memphis after training and say “I saw you making short cuts. Fine with me. But show me in the match that you deserve it.”
Advocaat: “Normally, a group selects itself. Perform at club level, work hard during Oranje sessions and deliver. Usually, the right options present themselves. But this is a very hungry group. They love being here and we have some guys who love to laugh and we also have some odd types… I like that. There is a mix. I want them to give everything for themselves. And I leave them space to do so in their own way. But, it is quite simple: if you don’t perform, you’re out.”
NT has also move three places up ranking now. A win vs Austria might move them further up again
Sneijder- Janssen – Robben
Van Ginkel- Strootman
Ake
Buttner- van Dijk- Bruma – Janmaat
Krul.
Give me this team,first WC in the bag.
Buttner and Janmaat are still weak(not physically,i mean far from perfect)..Virgil still has issue so is Bruma.agree u can bag WC but u need more Roboust Defensive line…WC is won by 23 players As you expect injuries,redcards and yellow cards…
Willems—–Janssen—–Roben
———-Propper————
——Bazoer—–Strootman—-
Mensah——————–Kevin diks
———Ronvlaar—-Bruma———–
————-krul———————
i doubt the fitness of Roben,sneijder,and Vlaar though…i will bag a WC too
With second line
Annholt——Dost/Luuk——Berghuis/Vanrhijn
————–Sneidjer—————-
——-Wijnaldum——Ake————–
Kongolo————————-Tete
———-Raidwald—Devrij—————
———–zoet/Vermeer——————
i wont use more than 2 senior players at playing 11 on same time.it affects the work balance of the team.
stand bye
Hendrix
Veltman
Maher
Dost
Nuri
Don’t you ever EVER wonder how it is that coaches like Mourinho, Advocaat, Allardyce, Hiddink, Blind and others use some of these players on other positions in the team? Does it ever cross your mind?
HAhahah
i was thinking about chelsea in 2015-16 under Jose…was thinking about hungary playing EC and dutch watching it from under Hidinnk and BLind..So never wondered…
Huh?
Koeman apparently close to signing with Everton.
Seems like a strange move to me, not much of a step up if it is at all. Bums me out for 2 reasons.. 1. because I liked the effect he would have on Clasie and van Dijk. 2. because that means he was available to move from managing Southampton..
A step down Imo. Southampton actually have a very good squad filled with attacking players such as Tadic, Mane, Pelle, Austin, and Long. Not to mention one of the better CB pairings in the league with Fonte and Van Dijk. I suppose you could say Everton is a bit of a “bigger” club in term of resources and history but right now they have a pretty barren squad other than Barkley and Lukaku. I’m sure Koeman will be looking to making a big splash in the transfer market will all the money he’ll receive for Lukaku and Stones. Hopefully (likely) he’ll buy some good young Dutch talents that he can mentor. Perhaps someone like Janssen might interest him with his team likely to be in need of a striker?
Netherlands 11 v Austria
Zoet
Tete – Bruma – van Dijk – van Aanholt
Wijnaldum – Bazoer – Strootman
Berghuis – Janssen – Promes
This Netherlands starting 11 vs. Austria have amassed 113 caps, their second-fewest going into a game this century.
The last four friendly games between The Netherlands and Austria have seen 21 goals, average of 5.3 per game.
Let’s make sure we score them!
And let’s see if we see an improvement on set pieces while continuing to keep our opponents from scoring open play goals against us.
Right now the best team for me is:
Cillesen
VDWiel-DeVrij-VanDijk-VanAanholt
Bazoer-Strootman
Sneijder
Robben-VanPersie-Memphis
This is the team that should start for the WC qualifiers, imo.
they sarted in many games ecq2018 bar Roben+vandijk+annholt…now hungary is playing EC,we will watch from home..
1-0 up, again Berghuis cross to Janssen!
My take on the first half … sloppy start but the team controlled the play for most of the time, after the goal. Still Austria created more chances. Definitely the team is not yet ready to play without the star players (Robben et al). However one can see the high technical ability of certain players – they still lack the tactical discipline due to lack of experience, and lack of playing together.
Looking good so far against a very good team. Another win would boost our confidence.
Lets keep this up boys!
Austria – Netherlands 0:1
So far, in this game the weakest spot of Oranje is midfield. Strootman made two mistakes and Bazoer one. Both could not prevent sharp passes from Austrian side which led to very dangerous situation in Dutch defense. Defense plays alright: Tete has had hard time with Arnautovic but has not given away a lot and Janco is invisible meaning that van Aanholt carries out his task.
In attack, Promes is very wasteful. Berghuis and Janssen looks like developing good chemistry.
Jeroen Zoet looks very confident.
Overall, stable performance so far.
2-0 great combination, Wijnaldum scores.
Dang it Van Ginkel
2nd half much better … solid defense, could have scored a couple more. Still a lot to do, but on the right track.
Several positives:
1. We won
2. We did not concede any goals for the first time within 7 or 8 games
3. Looks like Blind has found a core team that played quite a decent game today
4. Defense, especially central one, played very solidly
Opportunities for the development:
1. Midfield is still inert. I believe Wijnaldum played at attacking midfield position. However, I did not see any creativity from his site. Yes, he scored but he did not fulfill his major task to feed Janssen.
2. Promes was very active but his passing needs improvement and he missed one golden opportunity. He did not feed Janssen sufficiently either
3. Berghuis was good first half, but in the second got a bit tired. However, even with that he was much better than his substitute, Narsingh.
4. van Ginkel was disappointing
Finally, I did not understand what happened to Zoet. In the replay I did not see any collision that would lead to such a theatric fall….
Overall, this game gave me a lot of optimism that Blind has finally came up with a core team.
Last but not least, looks like the format of 24 teams in Euro will result in many dull and boring games. I understand that these were friendly games but both Poland and Austria were very boring teams, and Hungary even worse.
well, guys, I gave credits to Blind but may be it is Little General advises that resulted in such an improvement?!
The last two matches looks better than the whole cycle of qualification for EC 2016…….especially this match against Austria.Collectively and individually, and balance in the match(balance was problem against Republic Ireland)….
When we failed to qualify at euro ’84 we beat the great Denmark 6-0 in a friendly like this. Who cares? These matches are garbage.
Road to world WC
The positives about these Friendlys.Janssen,CB Partnership,Joet vs Cillessen and above all Berhguis.
This should help the team in WC qualifiers.
I want to say something here especially looking at Berghuis.though he hasn’t played much at Watford and is still bit rusty but if you think about it,One opportunity he has shown its about quality and not where you play. Just like others he also took the gamble by switching to Watford.why? Simply because you have to come in pecking order when playing in eredivisie. Well I think Blind should learn from this as jus like Van Dijk,Berghuis gamble has also paid off.I also think his next season at Watford will start with a bang given his outings for NT.
I will say this again,jus like van Dijk and Berghuis there are others who have the quality and have made the same kind of move.
Tjaronn Chery,Alex Buttner,Ruud Vormeer,Stefano Denswil,Marvin Zeegelar.I jus hope next season this guys will have more in store to give Blind more options for selection.
If you look at the AM. Wijnaldum and De Vilhnea. One position that lacked craft and has gone wasted in these friendlys in terms of testing players who can execute the job description there.
Jus like Berhguis and Van Dijk,Tjaronn Chery is also quality but compared to both Van Dijk and Berghuis his move to QPR didn’t work out but this doesn’t mean he has become a mediocre. If it is the age than Sneijder also should not be considered. I mean Galatasaray has qualified for either CL or EL and above all this season was one of their worst season finishing 7-8.if they still think that the quality is there,than Chery definitely fits the bill.
Sorry my bet quality is not the right word,maybe consistent is more applicable here. But again their quality will be on showcase when they play in CL next season.should be interesting.
Excluding Tjaronn Chery.
This is the same scenario as for Wijnaldum, if he stays at Newcastle and plays in the championship. Will they still select him?
Wijnaldum bring a lot of positive traits to the #10 role such as power, pace, goal scoring ability, and workrate. Unfortunately play-making is not his strongest attribute. None of the current players in the squad have shown that they possess the ability to consistently beat the defence with one killer pass. It’s a Wesley Sneijder sized hole in our squad at the moment. That being said very happy with the results. Two wins against decent teams. The road to recovery starts here. Hup Holland!
Nope,he can scorce no doubt apart from that nothing special. I think he can be more useful when playing with two strikers.
4-4-2.
The problem with him is he never plays at one position and keeps being rotated. Well it will be silly to write him of but he needs to play at particular position to become more sharp.
Agree dwherwey.sorry didn’t fully read your post.
Propper
Yes, please.
I also liked Promes. Hopes he moves to a better league. He proved his worth in Russian league with 18 goals and 2nd best scorer overall. He is ready for something better.
I also hope that the coaches find a way of playing all 3 together (Robben, Memphis and Promes). Possibly forward line of Robben, Jannsen and Promes with Memphis playmaker replacing the ageing Sneijder?
Alistair Memphis is so full of himself..he plays like a shit..He played many games for NT in ECQ2016 couldnt do a shit like Afellay,RVP,Hunter,Narsingh,weil and BMI…Weil and BMI made sure that we concede goal or Redcard…and u still want Memphis who has no conectivity with team mates with poor workrate???
Re defense, Van Dijk superb. Not sure about Bruma yet. Tete has potential but for now Van d Wiel should play. Van Aanholt not sure. Best line I would say – Blind, DeVrij, VanDijk, VDWiel.
I cant get his Propper at #10. Seriously? I don’t see any difference between him and Klaassen.
For No 10
Tjaronn Chery
Daley Sinkgraven
Marco Asensio
Good 2-0 win.
First clean sheet for us with Blind, just took 10 games!
Well done, again we were really good at times. Another small improvement to Poland but I still want more. Also I expected better from Austria, they seem pretty poor to me.. just highlighting how shitty it is that we are not at the euros.
Zoet was great until injured, 3 or 4 outstanding saves. Hopefully ok from that knock. Cillessen fine, but why not give Vermeer a chance? Maybe he didn’t have gloves, Cillessen did not even have his shoes on.
PVA not noticed except for a couple sloppy giveaways first half and a great pass for Promes building up to Wijnaldums goal.
Not really tested, which is maybe good on him!
van Dijk very tidy again.
Bruma good defensively, seems apprehensive on the ball and so forward decisions not always the best.
Tete winner of a great competition v annoying Arnautovic.
Strootman Bazoer a bit sloppy to start, esp Strootman, and lucky a great Zoet save bailed them out. I think they got better though, and again not scored against. Bazoer I think was a little bit better each game, not 100% convincing yet for me but doesn’t give the ball away much at least and let’s remember his age.
Hopefully our midfield lineup is Strootman – van Ginkel – Sneijder/ Pröpper anyway and Blind just takes the opportunity to give his depth some minutes.
Wijnaldum more or less anonymous in a 10 until the great shot for his goal. van Ginkel came on for Strootman and finally Vilhena comes on for Bazoer, but not much time to judge to me more or less pointless subs although maybe an agreement with Roma.
Berghuis on RW did not really test Fuchs. He was not bad and I really don’t understand the praise on him, but happy for another assist, if that one counts as an assist, which probably keeps him above Memphis. Good attitude, and he told Fox Sports that he will not give up on Watford despite his lack of game time last season so I wish him well.
Promes on LW should work on his finish, should have had at least one goal, but lively and always making the RB work. Should have had an assist for that van Ginkel chance as well. Still completed more dribbles and crosses than any player in the match.
Currently the best of our wingers, if Robben is out.
Janssen great, tough header to make although unmarked always working hard and making runs. Hopefully not injured bad. He is the first player with 3 goals in his first 5 Netherlands games since van Hooijdonk in 1997. And that’s 25 goals in 24 games for him in 2016.
Also after the match he admits he wants a transfer: “I want to make a step up, that is clear. England? We will see.”
And so begins a miserable euros without Oranje … hopefully a summer of vacation during serves to motivate and strengthen their resolve to be ready for Sweden.
Really need to hit the ground running with only Greece friendly Sept 1 between us and that first WCQ v Sweden on Sept 6.
I do appreciate that we used a pretty consistent lineup style.
I imagine we will line up the same as we saw today and thankfully/hopefully with an attacking intent, even if it is counter attacking rather than possession football, and maybe with just a few minor personnel changes:
Robben>Berghuis
Willems>van Aanholt
Sneijder>Wijnaldum
depending on fitness of the older players
thats the line up blind goin to have vs Sweden if everyone fit….
What if blind calls back BMI,Weil,RVP,hunter,afellay again and play them in starting 11?
What happens to his son Daley Blind???.
i think Daley will take bazoer spot as DM with Strootman..
Can Sneijder produce the same workrate of wijnaldum??.I agree Wijnaldum doesnt have the class of sneijder..its question over balanced game…
i liked the wickedly intelligent pass of Luuk Dejong to wijnaldum to score..What a quick thinker is Luuk…these kind of thoughts are prettey absent with Narsingh,promes,etc..
Berghius is smart player,he may not have flashy dribbles of Memphis/Afellay..But he knows when to give pass when to dribble,how acurately it should be,i mean his head is faster than Memphis,PRomes,wijnaldum etc…
We need players with intelligence and fitness not headlesschickens or Bodybuilders…
with out Memphis we won it again..Not just memphis it adds Afellay,BMI,Weil,RVP,Hunter,{{Snejijder & Blind}} Vs good team…Thats says a lot..
above all, without the connected and superoverrated Blind Jr.
team is getting better and better with out Memphis,Afellay,klassen,RVP,Hunter(possible comeback players)…
like Man united..
We are improving this games really helped I am confident about our future. I really like the partnership of Bruma and Van Dijk, Van Aanholt did great, Tete didn’t start so well but improved.
Bazoer is finally showing his class, Strootman is a huge leader we really need him fit, Wijnaldum scored 2 goals in 2 games which is good but he needs to give more assists.
Berghuis might not be playing too much for Watford but he is really good and he can play with Janssen which is great, Promes was a constant threat and last but not least Janssen is an amazing player he did what Huntelaar hasn’t been able to do.
Janssen is a very focused and hard working player, he can shoot from distance, he is a huge threat with his headers, he can play the ball to the wings and give assists. I like him a lot I hope he keeps improving. The best for him is to play for PSV in the UCL.
@Miguel….i hope people now understand that we better with out less moving players like RVP,Afellay,hunter,Memphis upfront and leakage weaklinks like nWeil and BMI at back with Headless chickens like Narsingh.
Annholt could do more than what he did yesterday.but he did nt he was more concentrated in defense which he did really well,i didnt see a trouble from left side.Offcourse his extra speed and strength has helped him in that part.
Tete had to face huge Arnatovic,i think Tete struggled and eventually got better.
Wijnaldum is working horse,he doesnt have the elegance of Sneijder and clasie and Vaart..He balances like kuyt did in yester years.
All have said it 1000 times when u have better players on ground we will win it.RVP,Hunter,snijder are past their prime.its not their fault or else San marco could still play as striker.
There is time for everything…Only sneijder and Roben from last generation looks at least half fit..Rest have lost it to age.
Blind and hidhave wasted several games with Afellay,Memphis,Weil,BMI..and finally Blind is getting a balanced team..
my points are
We have no one to take good corner or freekick..no one..None are are close to RVP<sneijder,vaart and Roben.i really miss that twistingly in swiniging freekicks of vaart.
Luckily austria also does nt had any good set pice taker..or else we would have conceded yesterday too.
its still a problem for us..
———————-Zoet—————————-
——-Tete—–Bruma—–V.Dijk——Aanholt———
——Wijnaldum—–Strootman—–Bazoer————–
——–Berghuis—–Janssen—–Robben—————
*I’d pick Zoet over Cillessen. He had an amazing year with PSV, also last night he was amazing.
Zoet>Cillessen
Propper>wijnaldum…then its perfect….but still we would miss the workrate of Promes..
My revised best eleven after the match 🙂
Zoet
VDWiel–DeVrij–VanDijk–Blind
Sneijder–Strootman
Memphis
Robben–Jannsen–Promes
This is very creative and offensive team, good for qualifiers.
some news
Quincy Promes told De Telegraaf last night that he is open to leaving Spartak Moscow this summer after talks over a new deal broke down.
Fosu-Mensah admits switching allegiance and playing for Ghana is still an option for him. Bummer, but we dont need mercenaries. Maybe he should go if he is not 100%.
Fosu Mensah has never stated it..thats a bull shit media cooked up story,here goes what he said…he just said if he performs well for club NT will call him thats it either Ghana or dutch.he needs week to week performance to cement his place in NT…
http://thepeoplesperson.com/2016/06/06/timothy-fosu-mensah-prioritising-manchester-united-over-netherlands-duty-151743/?
he looks like typical jose mourihno player like Essien,John obi mikel,Kurt Zouma type….i think he will excel there and defintly Depay will be thrown out,Blind will get time as a Midefeilder or else he has to leave..End of the story…
The peoples person? right
What about the end of the interview, here it is in another site which you share links to:
http://www.football-oranje.com/fosu-mensah-focused-manchester-united/
i think journalist made a mockery of it..if you are star u will also will be questioned like that by a moro$%%ic reporter…then normally guys reply that wih diplomatic method..he was forced to say such kind of anwser if so.
I really hope that Memphis play for Ghana and Afellay plays for Morroco instead Hakim zych…but thats still dream though..
cant get his Propper at #10. Seriously? I don’t see any difference between him and Klaassen.
For No 10
Tjaronn Chery
Daley Sinkgraven
Marco Asensio
Chery – I could see understand the call, but 28 now so would need to be in good form which he was for a few weeks this season. Being on QPR in the championship does not help him.
Singkraven – only 20 so maybe one day, but has never scored since moving to Ajax and only 2 assists in 24 games this season.
Asensio – Spanish.
Sinkgraven hasn’t played much either.if klaassen stays back at Ajax he should move. Maybe loan back to heerenveen.
Chery,if age is a issue here then I don’t see why Sneijder should be selected. As for playing in championship,again it should not be about where you play but what you can bring to the team jus like Berghuis.
Asensio,he can still represent nerthlands if he not selected for Spain the euros. Friendlys doesn’t count here. Diego Costa???
These are the names in front of Ascensio now,Isco,Alcantara,Inestia,Fabregas.so if he misses out in the euros then the time frame would till the first qualifiers to convince him to join NT.
Apparently Elvis Manu wants to return back to eredivisie after an unsuccessful season in the championship. I will say he had a stellar season with Feyenoord before making that move to Brighton& Hove Albion.
Transfers news:
– Arsenal and Leicester after Janssen (depends on whether Vardy joins). Seems that AZ are resigned to lose him.
– Di Matteo’s Aston Villa show interest in El Ghazi.