Research: Oranje fitness below par; Bert responds

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by Jan

Oranje went to Poland and the Ukraine as favorites. Maybe not The Favorites… But surely as potential winners. With names like Van Persie, Van Bommel, Heitinga, Stekelenburg, Sneijder, Robben, Afellay, Huntelaar… What could go wrong? The lads won silver in 2010, so….

But it went horribly wrong. And I still have the images in my head. Of Heitinga tracking back when Sneijder yelled him to push up. Of Stekelenburg going to ground before Gomes had pulled the trigger. Of Van Persie hitting air instead of the ball, of Robben shouting at Van Marwijk, of Van der Wiel having a sook…

We fell hard on our face.

There was an evaluation after the tournament. To establish whether the players and the federation should move forward with Bert. But the evaluation became less relevant when the most successful coach in Oranje’s history decided to resign.

Now, almost 6 months after the – repressed – Euros, KNVB manager Bert van Oostveen states in the VI magazine that the “players didn’t appear to be fit”. He claims that tests have shown that the elaborate flights from Poland to the Ukraine (to play the matches) has taken its toll on the players.

They lacked fitness.


Bert van Oostveen with the fittest of them all…

And Bert decided to share that news, which is seen as a horrible kick in the nuts by former coach Van Marwijk who reponded as if bitten by a snake.

“What? Did he say that? Bullocks! We were not the only ones with this program. One of the finalists did the same as us. We constantly checked fitness levels and as far as I am aware, the players were fit.”

Van Marwijk is getting ready to make a return to coaching, expressed his disappointment with this sudden announcement.

“Why would you bring this news suddenly? I had daily contact with Van Oostveen during the campaign. During our valuation, this never came up. It basically never came up. This is the first time I hear about. Is that strange, or what? It does feel like a back stab, but I won’t let this ruin my christmas.”

In all honesty, many on this blog felt the team looked slow and lacklustre but to come out with this news after 6 months is very suspect. If the KNVB is serious about fitness tests, they should find a lab that can process results a bit quicker.

In the meantime, AZ coach Gertjan Verbeek has supported Van Marwijk publically.

“The KNVB has recently published new rules of conduct to the coaches. We are not allowed to be emotional with our responses to what is happening. We need to be respectful to the referees etc etc. Great! And in the month this is published, the chairman attacks Sparta coach Michel Vonk and the general manager stabs Bert van Marwijk in the back. Don’t the rules apply to them??”

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0 comments

  1. Seriously? Van Der Vaart is the fittest? 😀

    I could never understand the way KNVB think. Robben, Van Marwijk, etc… so many strange cases, mostly unsolved…

    by the way, found this on FB, 10 Best Netherlands NT goal:
    http://youtu.be/SjKpnH1H7Es
    don’t know if someone already posted it before.

  2. Past is past and orange must forget it completely.also should stop believing in some of the senior players.who WE and THEY think that they can lift a trophy for orange.it will never happen.common guys there is life after Joris,kuyt,bauma,bommel,Afaleey,Narsingh,Van derweil,williams and Lenz.
    Its clear that their travelling would have affected their stamina.
    BUT THERE IS NO EXCUSES FOR TAKING maNY 32/35/33 PLAYERS WITH SOME 29S.THEY WILL NOT RUN LIKE 18S.you cannot expect that from them.it was a biased and coward selection.BVM paid for it.end of the story.
    Lenz was not a part of the squad williams wasnot matured,afaleey was/is always a useless dribbler with zero footballing brain.kuyt didnt played,so cannot be blamed directly.but maher should have been slected infront of him.So maher would have done better.both Wesly and vaart are 29s and should have played as Subs.ITS 100 PERCENT FAULT OF BVM coz he selected the wrong players.
    recently roben also lost a bit,i think urby gives better hardwork than him with some good skills.Urby looks better in terms of team balance like kuyt did in the past.i think lenz is of less work rate and ok skills.i think lenz fluke goalscoring streak has come to an end.So let urby and start and replace roben with him on left.
    right wing is more pathetic and we dont have intelligent players there Afaleey,Schaken,and Narsing lacks the intellignce of the game.Sure they are a miss match for Wesly and persie in attack.Ola John???could be the answer???wait and see

    Dutch must find some better wingers in right wings..

    1. Tiju, I really don’t understand why you continue to disrespect Afellay. He is one of the most talented mid fielder that we have. And instead of writing a paragraph on why i think you are wrong to speak of him in such a bad manner, i will just say this; Barcelona is doesn’t buy brainless players.

      1. @Don i was just showing my frustration about afaleey.He is pretty comfort on ball and talented too.no dispute or disagreement.But if he was clever he would still be in barca,instead he got loaned.Agree and i know that barca always looks for brilliant talents.but at times they can fail too.Look at Sanchez is also hugley talented but barca has better clever players than him,so he is a sub now.Mistake can happen with everyone.but your response towards mistakes is also very crucial.sorry for my bad spelling.i have nothing against Afaleey and i want orange to be the best in the world or at they get a WC soon.Afaleey and some players are not th real missing puzzles for a complete balanced team.thats what i am pointing out.i just wish afaleey had the intellignce of kuyt and kuyt had the skills of afaleey.then i wouldnt have never yelled to drop them unless the play lazy.

  3. Luckily for other national teams i am not the coach for dutch national team other wise this team would beat any team in the world and they have what it takes to win a WC or at least they can stand against Brazil,Arjentina,Germany,Spain and portugal.
    Van persie
    Bas dost for Huntlaar
    Ricky wolfswinkel for kuyt
    Ola john for Narsingh
    Adam maher for Ibrahim afaleey
    Arjen Roben
    Urby emmanuelson for Lenz
    Leory Fer
    Kevin strootman
    Marco Van ginkel
    Vurnon anita for Nijel dejong
    Jordie Claise
    Wesly Sneijder
    Patrick Van annholt for Jetro williams
    Bruno Martins indi
    Stefan De vrij
    Douglas texiera for Ron Vlaar
    Johny Heitinga
    Ricardo Van rhijn
    Daryl Janmaat
    Tim krul
    Piet Velthuizen for Michel vorm
    stekelenburg???
    stand byes
    Jerome zoet
    Van der vaart
    Jefry Bruma doing well with hsv as sus apearence.
    Anas achabar
    Jermain lenz

    1. Just renewed his deal with Man City for another 5 years

      Great player. Elegant, good vision, mentally strong.

      Former Feyenoord youth academy player. Same generation as Boetius, Vilhena, Castaignos

  6. @Sonnie
    He is developing there fast,last season he had some chances…i am opttimistic about this guys.Can be hummels of dutch if he develops further.left footed footballing back with good physique.

  8. what happened to Vitesse/ they go to lose again and again in Eredisive after they beat us (PSV). 🙁 vitesse dominant Eredisive team of the season, and they cannot win a single game for 3weeks in a row.

  15. I wanted to see Van Ginkel for myself so I watched Vitesse in their last few games and I can see what all the fuss is about him,he is a pretty complete midfielder.
    But I do not see anything special about him,like some potential that could make him a world class player. He is not a flashy AMF like for example Maher. Maybe it would be better to compare him with Strootman. Because for AMF behind the strikers position I think Maher has more potential.
    Speaking of Maher,has anyone seen him against Twente. Brilliant! Amazing potential. He needs to play for a better team in Eredivisie,I feel sorry for him at AZ now.

    Vilhena is great for a 17 year old,playing as good as Clasie sometimes,and now with him Clasie also plays better.

    1. Yes,I saw that! He has a great touch on the ball. Better than Strootman. What I like the most about him is his touch and elegance. But I did not see many passes like that from him in the games I watched,he keeps it simple and maybe too simple sometimes.
      Maybe PSV can sell Strootman and buy Van Ginkel.If Bony goes away I am affraid Vitesse will fall a bit,and for Van Ginkel to develop more he should play for a club at the top of Eredivisie.
      And Ajax can sell Eriksen and buy Maher. I do not like so many foreign talents in Ajax,with not enough Dutch talents.

      2. Petrovic you are spot on. Van Ginkel has class written all over him and yet there is something underwhelming about him. This is what I tried to vocalize by saying that he dissapears from matches and is in periods in the game quite “flat”.

        The greatest thing about van Ginkel is his mentality. He is the perfect pro. He has Dirk Kuyt mentality combined with RVP technical ability and Strootman’s resilience (not necessarily in the same amount in all 3 cases, but I exaggerate to make a point and paint his completeness). That first touch from that high ball in the video where he creates space and time for himself is also something RVP does and probably even better, but keep in mind, RVP is also 10 years older. Marco has still a long road to travel. I only think his short passing is not developed well enough yet. I think he is able to reach the top and will end up at Arsenal. Arsenal is not top now, but when they have payed off their stadium and FFP will start to rule, they will be a force again as during the invincibles. Marco would be a typical Wenger player IMO. If he fails to reach the top, I would be very disappointed.

        Cheers

  19. After 18 weeks.
    Beste speler Eredivisie 2012/2013
    1.
    Cijfer: 7.00
    Kevin Strootman (PSV Eindhoven)
    2.
    Cijfer: 6.71
    Nacer Chadli (FC Twente)
    3.
    Cijfer: 6.70
    Bruno Martins Indi (Feyenoord)
    Dusan Tadic (FC Twente)
    Wilfried Bony (Vitesse)
    Piet Velthuizen (Vitesse)
    7.
    Cijfer: 6.67
    Adam Maher (AZ Alkmaar)
    Graziano Pellè (Feyenoord)
    Ben Rienstra (Heracles Almelo)
    10.
    Cijfer: 6.60
    Kenneth Vermeer (Ajax)
    Jordy Clasie (Feyenoord)
    Teddy Chevalier (RKC Waalwijk)
    Robbin Ruiter (FC Utrecht)
    14.
    Cijfer: 6.57
    Ninos Gouriye (Heracles Almelo)
    Mark van Bommel (PSV Eindhoven)
    16. t/m 18.
    Cijfer: 6.56
    Ruben Schaken (Feyenoord)
    Douglas (FC Twente)

  29. Some rumors say Sneijder to Tottenham.
    I wonder where Maher will go(if he goes),I am affraid he will go somewhere outside of Eredivisie,would not be good for him,but rumors are going around every day about Chalsea,City,Tottenham,Newcastle…

    Merry Christmas everyone!

  34. just watched MU-Newcastle, 7-goal thriller. Bad news: Anita got injured by Valencia, caught him on the ankle. Not looking good, carried on stretcher and got his body restrained.

    Good news is, Van Gaal doesn’t look like he want to call him up…

      1. don’t get me wrong. I mean, Anita rarely played (or even called up) under LvG’s reign. so it’s not really a significant loss.

        unless LvG intend to call him on next game…

  36. no one mentioned anything about my post regarding McClaren. We are always quick to criticize Dutch players and coaches yet when I post a genuinely positive remark from a foreign coach about our squad no one even stops to take notice.

    2. Interesting article. I find this one thing he says rather odd though:

      “I’ve come back here and I think that no matter what – and it might end badly – you can’t take away the first, probably the only championship, this club will ever win was in 2010 and I was the trainer.”

      Surely he realizes that he will be expected to lead the team to the title this summer?

      I’m not the biggest fan of Steve McClaren and I think Twente would be totally lost without Tadic/Chadli. The team plays terrible football and I don’t think he will finish the season, which is too bad for him because if he gets sacked from Twente now it really will be the end of his career.

  38. @Bitterballen Yes, i read the article you shared and i found it bit intriguing. Seems to me McClaren did eventually learn a lot in the Netherlands. People all over the world admire the youth academies in Holland, for example:- The KNVB is helping the Indian Football Federation develop football at the grass roots. However, of late the German youth development model looks better. I vividly remember post Euro 2000 where England and Germany failed miserably, the Brits didn’t blame their players and just changed their manager. However the Germans completely overhauled their system after some detailed introspection and invested in youth development dramatically.

    Having said that I am optimistic the future of Dutch football is bright 🙂

  39. Vurnon anita was playeing very well for NU for last couple of matches.he has showed that he clearly deserves a call as holding mid.Padrew was in full praise for him,thought he started not well with Nu in the begining of the season.what i feel about van gaal is he seems partial to this guy or he belives anita is less intelligent or LVG has a personal rivalry with him.i dont know.what ever the reason is ,this is not really nice for the NT.

  40. @karan….
    Fucking Cricket has spoiled everything in india,everyone are behind cricket and they consider it as an ultimate thing.coz they have never seen what real beauty is.on top of it they call tendulkar like God.this is another fucking humiliation to almighty.football will have a very hard way to blossom in india.
    India need icons in football then they will drastically develop.Indian team selections(Grooming of youngsters) are jus joke whether it is is cricket or not.they go for physical players over intelligent players.sachin had a god father in sunil gavaskar and mumabi politics so he survived the idiotic slectors.

  41. Well we will never be totally happy with LVG’s decisions but he has done a good job and he didn’t call Anita because he wasn’t doing well. Anita has just started to adapt to the EPL and if he keeps playing well he’ll get called but we’ve to remember there’s a hard competition with Fer, Strootman, Van Ginkel, Clasie, Nigel….

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