Wanted: brave, strong coach for Oranje

blog Euro 2020 Euro 2021
by Jan

Belgium actually had an open vacancy call for coaches, and Roberto Martinez wrote a nice letter. And got the job.

Why not find out if there is someone out there, with a soft spot for the Dutch? Wenger, Klopp, Martinez, Zidane, they all have expressed their huge admiration for the Dutch school of football. I know we can’t pay the salary Zidane would get with France or any club, but he might enjoy it. Why not try.

The national team manager’s role is a fun one, I can imagine. You don’t have the daily pressure and stress. Hell, you can sleep in most days. You get to watch all these games on the credit card of the KNVB. Travel to Paris, to Barcelona, Milan, Torino, Liverpool, Moscow, Amsterdam… What’s not to like?

Arsene Wenger and Andries Jonker

You can’t fail worse than de Boer. That is also a tick! And then around World Cup time, you enter the pressure cooker which must also be good fun when you love football!

The debate is raging in The Netherlands, and some people come up with some interesting names and combinations.

Below my comments. But before I start, let me know your ideas.

Also, the debate Dutch vs Foreign… I used to be very firm on this: only Dutch coaches please! And why? Communication (I can’t see a coach like Bielsa inspire our lads, mainly due to his weak skills in English (and Dutch). But also understanding of the football culture. But, by now, we can safely say that the long list of Dutch options is really not that long a list… Let’s face it. Koeman, Bosz and Ten Hag (ideal candidates) are stuck with their (new) clubs and happy to be in that situation.

Then there are the Van Gaal’s, Advocaats, the Van Marwijks and Ten Cates… They are getting old a bit. You don’t want them push a walking trolly onto the pitch, in 1,5 years. But, I do have a weak spot for Ten Cate. I will explain why below.

Yes, I would go for Ten Cate. Because he has demonstrated in his illustrious career to follow the rule book on Dutch attacking football. Ten Cate has balls, swagger and authority. An Amsterdam street kid, who put the fear of the football Gods in a guy like Wesley Sneijder. That says something! He would be the perfect figure head. He’s smart, he won’t get bullied by the media and he’s not afraid to tell Memphis to shape up or ship out. In combination with Gullit and field trainer Marcel Keizer, it will be a solid combi.

I would not mind a foreign coach, but it needs to be a big name and a guy who has expressed admiration for the Dutch school of football. So, in other words: NOT MOURINHO.

I personally like Zidane, the Danish coach Hjulmand, Rudy Garcia and Wenger.

I’m not a fan of Joachim Low and also not a big fan of Martinez.

The KNVB have put themselves in further turmoil. Nico Jan Hoogma was a good defender (many years in the Bundesliga) and a decent technical director at Heracles Almelo (!!). But he is way too light for the KNVB role.

Henk “The Don” Ten Cate

He was happy with Koeman. Then, when Koeman left, he went after “Koeman 2.0”. That is never a smart thing! Frank de Boer felt it as a yoke and obviously, De Boer is NOT Koeman. I mean, even Erwin Koeman is not Ronald Koeman. Koeman is history, move on man!

And now, with De Boer gone, Hoogma again stumbles and stutters in his first interview post De Boer: “eh… yes….we now will eh… dust off the requirements and…eh… have a good think…because eh… we need a strong man. Like Koeman, Koeman was the chef. The boss. That is needed…”

The interviewer: “So you want another type Koeman?”

Hoogma: “Well… I guess now, if I have to say this, my feeling now, is…yes I am leaning that way.”

WTF. Weaklings.

Time for these bozos to go too.

Kasper Hjulmand

Van Gaal will probably smile and lick his lips. When Koeman left, the nation suggested Van Gaal. But some of the players (Memphis? Van Dijk?) voted against him and the KNVB themselves were happy with that, as Van Gaal bulldozers into any organisation and demands wholesale changes. Of the trainings grounds, the media people, the assistant coaches, the medical staff, etc etc.

The KNVB wanted a weak coach who would be happy with the current staff. And they got what they wanted.

If they now do come to decide for Van Gaal again, he will probably blast Hoogma and Co away and dominate proceedings as per usual.

For the record: I would not pick Van Gaal yet again. I think his tricks have worked in the past (with the aforementioned Memphis) but most players are sick of him now.

Lets open up de debate!

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218 comments

  3. It’s not an easy one. I love LVG, but I think he’s now well past his best and too much of a risk. Probably Ten Cate would be a wiser choice. I would also love Rijkaard to be considered.

    Best Dutch coaches right now, in my opinion, are Ten Hag, Van Bommel and Bosz but all are out of reach for KNVB.

  5. Ten Hag will never leave Ajax to coach the national team. Why would he? If he leaves Ajax, it will be to coach a team of Bayern’s caliber not the Dutch national team. Let’s be real everyone, as I said MANY TIMES, international football has become a past time and a source of easy income for coaches who don’t want to work too hard. Nothing like coaching a club. That is the biggest problem.

  6. LVG or Henk Ten Gate….Both would be awesome…These players need a kick in their A@SSs ..a bold manger who can bench Wijnaldum,Depay …even drop….But LVG has earned animosity from Virgil and Depay…lets see How KNVB turns according to Depay and Virgil….i can understand He might have overlooked Virgil at 2014 for Blind…But thats okay Virgil was just stepping in those times and Blind was already established..We had Vlaar as well…..

  7. kasper Hjulmand would be a good choice and also Zidane both have their ways of getting things done. KNVB can search for other coaches also.

  8. As I said before, I would not like any Dutch coach to lead Oranje. I prefer a foreign coach and preference is Rudy Garcia. Zidane is another great option too but I am afraid he is too expensive. Oranje needs a coach with strong personality who can hit Memphis right in between his eye brows if he starts his swagger again so the he would not need to stick his fingers into his ears anymore (can not stand that gesture).

  9. Ten Hag will not leave Ajax this season which is going to be very interesting for Ajax with a number of very promising stars planned for first team experience: Taylor, Rensch, Unuvar and Hansen. Remember these 4 players as they will soon become Holland team stars as well. They are coming from teams with winning mentality having won a lot at club and international level U17/U18.

    Taylor is very De Jong like, but with stronger personality and character in my opinion. Unuvar is a great play maker who dominated midfield in U17 when Ajax played Barca or Bayern or Juventus. Hansen is a once every 10 years attacking talent – I like his style very Mpabbe like, obviously he still has to grow a lot to match Mpabbe!

  11. I think Deschamps would be a great replacement. He has a WC in his resume and against all odds also came very close to eliminating a spectacular Swiss team. Most importantly he has an amazing set of teeth that would instill fear into any rebel player including Depay’s tattoo lion.

  12. I think we need someone with a track record of success as a coach, preferably with both club and international experience. Ideally someone who played as a midfielder or an an attacking role so that they truly understand how to structure an attacking side. Someone the KNVB is familiar with. Someone who’s won the Euros already with the Netherlands, and who has also led us to a runner-up finish at the World Cup. I know that Rinus Michels is no longer available, so the obvious candidate is … Sarina Wiegman!

  13. Here is the way I see it. Koeman will be avaliable after he gets sacked from Barce next season. In the meam time some body should see the team out till then. Dick is avaliable and given his recent outings with Utretch and Feyenoored, he should be given another chance. I know there was drama when he took over from Danny but he has a proven record. Well if he is available

    https://youtu.be/uVbWYDyHTdI

    Maybe one last throw at the dice before its truly an end of era for him.Dwight Lodeweges should continue because he will defintely be # 1 on koeman’s list.

  14. I’d say Zidane is the best option but ofcourse he would never take the job and like everyone said I don’t think we can pay his salary.

    I disagree with the Ten Cate choice. What makes him so qualified to coach the national team? Apart from Ajax he never coached a big club in the past not to mention him working in the Emirates for the past 10 years. I would stay far away from him if I was the KNVB.

  15. Alistair, I am glad you seem to be one of us die hard Ajax fans but I need to make a few corrections about your assessment of players: Taylor is nothing like Frenkie. He does not have his speed, vision or technical ability but I do think he has potential. I see him more as a typical central midfielder, not especially fast or technical but hard working and able to organize the midfield through generally good passing. The jury is still out as to whether he will make it. I still have doubts unfortunately. Hansen is more the Aguero type than Mbappe. He is short, strong and excellent in tight spaces very much like Aguero or possibly Suarez. Again we will see how he does this year. He has lots of injuries last year. Finally, Unuvar has been playing out of position by the Ajax coaches which is very annoying. They have put him on the wing which is not his position. My hope is that he becomes the new Pedri and settles in a midfield position where he belongs. He neither has the speed or dribbling ability to play on the wing. So here too, the jury is still out as to whether he will make it. This is the year when he has to make significant progress. Let’s hope.

    1. Hi Jeff, yes I am an Ajacied allright 🙂

      Re Taylor I don’t mean he has the skills and vision De Jong has obviously. But his style is similar in the sense of finding space to run with the ball and reading the game. He does have something better though … his personality and character look stronger, you can see it even simply by his way he reacts to what is happening and to his own goals. Re Unuvar I agree with you … one of a kind, and yes I think he suits Pedri’s role … he would be a classic number 10 like Messi for Oranje if he makes it. Again he is particularly intelligent in reading the game … having both him and De Jong in the same team, would be great.

  16. It’s hard to imagine how LvG could connect to the current and upcoming group of players. Besides, it seems that another trip back to the same well just shows the weakness of thought and leadership in Dutch football. The weakness is real, so why not just suck it up and get a foreign coach— as long as you can find one that plays high-energy, attacking football that fits the Dutch style??

    I was reading recently about Ralf Rangnick from RB Leipzig— seems like the kind of strategist that could do a lot with a talented group of players like the ones we currently have in the team (and in the pipeline).

  17. Spain – Swiss. The referee flashes a red and screws the swiss for a yellow card incident at best. What a pos. Swiss are playing like lions again. Much respect.

  19. Sorry Guillaume! I guess the Swiss couldn’t keep their penalty shoot out perfection going. They had a really good run in this tournament though. That red card I thought was unduly harsh, And it was given by by the referee who Buffon stated had a “dustbin for a heart “.

    I’d love to see FIFA take another look at how cards are awarded, and penalties as well for that matter. There are far too many scenarios were a team is given a tremendous advantage from a situation that was not violent and did not destroy a clear goal scoring opportunity. I’m not advocating for a change in the rules but just the manner in which they are enforced

    1. It wasn’t the case in the Switzerland game, but I’m particularly puzzled by penalties and red cards given in a situation where a player, normally a defender, clears a ball away from danger and the natural follow-through of his kicking motion carries his foot forward into an onrushing attacking player. There was obviously no attempt by the player kicking the ball to strike his opponent. In fact, he had already played the ball and was just completing the natural follow-through of his kick, and yet he is given a red card or, if it occurs in the box, the other team is given a penalty kick! I’m just stunned that this has seemingly become a recognized part of the game. It happened in the women’s World Cup repeatedly, and I’ve actually seen it in these euros as well, although I don’t remember which match

  20. That was definitely not a Red Card

    This was a perfect opportunity for the ref to do what was done with the de Ligt handball— start with a yellow and use the VAR as your opportunity to upgrade if warranted. The standard for reversing a red is far higher, so starting with the lower card (in the VAR era) just seems to make much more sense.

  21. And spanish keeper kept moving in his line while swiss players were about to kick their penalty. Swiss coach should have made some noise and try to affect spanish concentration. Swiss were a breath of fresh air. They played like giants.

  22. Well, it’s not the first time the Swiss miss so many PKs, unfortunately… Also Xhaka’s absence was really felt.

    Really bummed by the red card, I feel cheated.

    1. Martinez fault.Veermelen’s time had already finished from the in the y blows he suffered at Arsenal and Barce. Thats why he is playing in japan.

  24. Spain and italy go through and again two teams who heavily built the team around rotation. Well justification for those who always oppose this. You see this is why depth in important and this is the stage where every thing comes into play and matters.

    Well looking at the injuries and should England win vs Ukriane, I think this could be Englands tournament and also given home advantage.

    From the spain game, one guy that caught my attention was pedri. He is the heir to Inestia given his quick feet and dribbling style.he is just 18 but you can already see the flashes of inestia in him. Their next generation is already on roll looking at Fati who is injuired, pedri,Rodri, simon, torres,Garcia.
    Again you can look at how rotation in the Gk area has prompt to De Gea now being on bench and simon taking over his reins playing out of Atheltic club and being 24.

    This is what I bloody want to see in NT but given the the level of competition in eredivisie, the progression for players are at stake and this is why they are lagging compared to other nations.

    I dont think NT will go far next summer again even with Van Dijk. The KNVB should sacrifice the next tournament for the sake of injecting new faces and building the team around them and not as to what we are seeing now around few key players. This window will give the new players the opportunity to build their confidence better at international level. Im not saying throw them at ones but gradually over the qualifiers, Nations league and friendlys. Thats alot of football.Drommel,Bijlow,Gakpo,Danjuma,Brobbery,Lang,Dilrosun,Kluivert,El Ghazi, lammers,Sinkgraven,Malacia, Bakker,Harroui,Ihattaren and those in NT now.If KNVB does this starting from the qualifers in september, I can gurantee , come 2024,NT will be like Italy now. At most this guys will be around 25 -29 and hitting their prime.

    I also think that KNVB should fast track the development of Xavi sioms by calling him up for JO, atleast to train and mix around and give him the opportunity to play of the bench vs minor teams where they end up thrashing them. Thid will build his confidence more leading to NT.

  25. @Guillame, sorry about that. The Swiss team deserved better. Agree with the others, not a red card.

    @JB, I’d go further with VAR. Use it for calls involving lines, including offsides. Everything else forget it. Too much discretion. And…btw…been meaning to say this, but I keep forgetting: Happy Birthday!

    1. Haha! Thanks Andrew! I do think that the VAR can be useful, particularly in the situations you describe. But I agree that a lot of the decisions are ultimately in the ref’s discretion, and like it or not, probably should remain that way. The referees have developed judgment over the years of officiating as to what really should be considered a penalty and what should not, and VAR really seems to take a lot of that judgment and experience away.

      Italy continues to impress me in this tournament. Not so much for their style of play, although they do seem to attack in numbers with much greater frequency than some prior Italian teams. For me, what’s been so impressive is just the skill and understanding of their players, how well they work together, and how deep they are (and how willing the coaches are to use all of them)!

  26. I’ve tried to tune in and watch the Copa América from time to time over the last few weeks, but I just haven’t really been able to get into it. Brazil and Chile are playing in a quarterfinal right now so we’ll see if this picks up in entertainment value

    1. 0-0 at the half. Both teams had a number of scoring chances but there’s been a general sloppiness about their play. Neymar to Gabriel Jesus was probably the best chance I saw.

      It’s amazing how much talent both of these teams have, but neither of them is playing very well together at the moment

  27. Wow! Brazil scores on an aerial 1-2 between Neymar and Paqueta, who just subbed on!

    Wow again! Gabriel Jesus just got a straight red for doing to a Chile player what Nigel de Jong supposedly did to Xavi Alonso…

  29. Neymar with a great “short-handed” scoring chance but Bravo denies him! Another run — he’s just repeatedly running by Chile’s right back…

  33. Spinazzola’s injury will have huge toll on italy. He was such a driving factor going forward, especially with Insigne on that left. Emerson is no where up to his level.

    Mourinho will have the luxury of two outstanding attacking fullback to him next season including karsdorp who is no better than him.

    Just to add on to my previous post.
    We can continue to hype about upcoming players but the Dutch youngesters will never be able to reach the same feet, say as the english contingent or others who have hit the ground rolling in euros given the competitive level they play at.they will continue to be one step ahead with better transition in their respective national teams.

    The fact of the matter is the decline of eredivisie was ever cushioned by the presence of the last golden generation leading to NT dominance . Once they left the stage, the curtains was raised and it had been a roller coaster ride since then. This will continue unless:

    1) there is more transfers like to that of De ligt and Frenkie and more importantly they are able to perform at competitive level and not fade out.

    2) call up on potential players who are playing in competitive league regardless of which club. The merit being how well they play. Stats,goals, performance should speak for themselves.

    The good thing is there will be some good movement after the euros and hopefully they can hit the ground rolling at their new clubs.

    Meanwhile,Ajax,PSV,AZ and feyenoord shoulld take charge in the european competition and try to go as far as they can.

    Only with this things can change for NT or if not like I said sacrifice next year tournament for a better and stronger 2024. Another plus for this would be, it could become a good marketing ground for dutch youngesters whom may not get attention while playing at eredivisie. Look at dumfries on how his stakes went up after his performance at euros. Teams are linning up for him.

  34. List of players playing abroad.throw in a GK, you can have starting 11.

    Karsdorp
    Bobbery
    Danjuma
    Lang
    El Ghazi
    Lammers
    Eiting
    Riedewald
    Bakker
    Sinkgraven
    Frimpong
    Botman
    Van drongelen
    Sandler
    Kluivert
    Schouten
    Dilrosun
    Bograde
    St juste

    1. Like I said. Koeman’s contract is till 2022 and I dont think his contract will be renewed. Xavi will be the next coach.

      Dick had been active since 2017 with Utrecht and Feyenoord. Him and Dwight Lodeweges should lead until next summer when Koeman is avaliable.

      Dick will also be more preferable by the the players than LVG. I hope good sense prevail and KNVB doesnt mess up again.

      On top of this the dutch is in a tricky situation coming up for the WC qualifers. Norway,Turkey and Montenegro. It wont be easy for any incoming coach.

  36. Any idea ahout who is the front runner for next bondescoach??.. I would love to see LVG back.. He has the balls to show the bench to Gini and Depay.. Pathetic way of thoughts are we cannot win without Depay, Gini, klassen etc.. That must change.. I would love to see quality players get called.. Such as Sinkgraven, Malacia, karsdorp, Danjuma, Carl eiting, Bazoer, Propper, Van ginkel, Rensch, Gakpo, koopmeiners, Timber and botman..
    @wilson.. You are fan of meaning ful rotation as per all yiur comments.. I do agree on that.. But how can you back up Fart van marwijk who has raraely changed any one even during friendly.. Supporting Fart van and rotation it’s self is an oxymoron..

    1. That was another era and the golden generations were all in good shape.Spain went through the same phase in 2014. The only problem with coaches was they never saw/ use hunterlaar and vaart to the same extent as van persie and senijder. They were seen more as their backup which was a waste.

      1. In this case, nepotism might well have been the case.

        But we don’t know.

        What we do know, is that Hans van Breukelen had the task to select a NT manager. He selected Ten Cate, but someone in the board decided that Ten Cate was a trouble maker and blocked the appointment. Some say it was to do with Advocaat’s agent being a close friend of the KNVB board member and Advocaat used his agent to push for the job. This is all hearsay though.

  39. I personally don’t want Ten Cate as our manager so I guess that’s good news. This Hoogma guy is so useless though which clearly shows how worthless the KNVB is by putting him in charge. I have absolutely zero faith in him and who he is going to appoint as our new manager since he was the one appointing De Boer!!! Van Gaal, Cocu or Van Bronkhorst all not the best options for me at this point.

    Van Gaal is a genius of a coach but you don’t know what you get with him. He might take you to a final or fail to qualify!

    Van Bronckhorst or Cocu, I don’t think they’re ready yet!

  42. I certainly have a soft spot for Denmark, and I would love to see them do well today. I really hope that this particular match is an exciting one. Both teams really have nothing to lose since they’ve exceeded expectations, but you could see them approaching this game either way — “let’s go all out and try to score and win,” or “let’s play it safe and get to penalties where we can’t be blamed if we lose.”

  43. DELANEY! Completely unmarked. That should open this game up!

    I also love the Hummel brand. I have a number of Hummel items dating back to when I was in high school. So glad to see Denmark still represent in the brand!

  44. Dolberg with a very nice turn. He does have talent and can certainly be effective when playing with confidence. He’s just been so disappointing recently

  45. Schick with a nice run and decent chance for the Czechs! I imagine he’s gonna have a big payday in his future somewhere.

    As is Damsgaard, who just had a great opportunity for Denmark! You can just see the skill and the quality with some of these players — he looks like he could be a major star in the future!

  46. The Danes have obviously been united and galvanized by the Eriksen situation. The further they go, the more faith and belief they’ll have and view themselves as a team of destiny. As many of you have already noted, it’s amazing what can be accomplished with courage, faith and fighting spirit! They are playing without their best player and doing great! I wish that we could do the same.

  47. My son’s favorite club teams are Arsenal and Dortmund. He obviously has some masochistic tendencies with those choices. He’s an Atlanta sports fan as well so he’s already had his share of crushing heartbreak brought about by his sports teams (and thus is well suited to be an Oranje fan as well). So every time an Arsenal or Dortmund player in this tournament does something ridiculous, he looks over at me with this knowing expression. He’s at his grandmother’s house today, but I’m sure when Delaney scored he kicked his head back and rolled his eyes dramatically…

  48. The Danes look completely unfazed by the defensive pressure the Czechs are bringing. How can they look so thoroughly confident and in command, particularly without their best midfielder in possession, whereas we looked completely disconcerted and out of sorts against the same system and tactics?

    1. I’m being completely serious. Is it system/formation? Is it tactics? Is it workrate? There is still plenty of time for the Czechs to rally, but Denmark looking good at the moment

      1. What a nice run in transition by Denmark! But who on this team would start for a combined Netherlands Denmark national team? Delaney possibly over de Roon? Damsgaard over Malen? Kjaer over one of our center backs? Schmiechel is probably an upgrade over Stekelenberg. But overall, we have a much more talented side than Denmark does. But for Denmark, the sum is greater than the parts, while in our case, the parts are much greater than the sum…

  50. Maehle had an amazing outside of the cross on that second goal. He’s limping off now just before halftime. That would be a huge loss if he can’t continue.

  51. Such a pity that these 2 teams and their fans had to travel all the way to Asia for a quarter final game to be played in an almost empty stadium, bad surface and terrible heat/humidity. Denmark very lucky with that non existent corner for the 1st goal, 2nd one was amazing. Czechs could have scored with a little more precision. Denmark is going to play England and could be a good match but it will be played in Wembley which is huge advantage for the english. It seems like everything is going England’s way including Spinazzola’s injury. Not to exclude a potential Covid outbreak in the Italian team when they hugged and kissed with the fans after the game. I hope they won’t regret that.

  52. And honestly this whole hoopla about how Eriksen episode galvanized Denmark I find it ridiculous. A good team is a good team. All good and experienced teams are galvanized enough when playing in such major tournament. They’re trying to make a legend out of nothing.

    1. Balkan: I actually disagree with your take on this. These Denmark players went through a life or death experience with a good friend and teammate who is their talisman and was expected to be the key to their success. He survived against all odds, and they have too (in a footballing sense). That type of are heightened emotional situation with such a positive outcome seems to have given them a feeling of invulnerability. Keep in mind that they actually lost their first two matches of this tournament and now are on the verge of making it to the semi finals. Our players play like a bunch of professionals gathered together to play in a tournament wearing orange jerseys. These Danish players are playing for their teammates, their friends and their country. It’s at an entirely different level for them

      1. I am not saying it is not a motivational factor but it has been overly exaggerated. Their lost games were understandable but they didn’t turn from a mediocre team into an excellent one just because of that episode.

        1. That’s my point though. They still are a mediocre team. They are just playing excellently right now, primarily because they are highly motivated. These players are not players who are accustomed to having worldwide acknowledgment or acclaim. They are not international superstars. When you name the hundred best footballers in the world, most Denmark players would not even be considered for the list. But right now, they are a focal point for world soccer, and especially for their country. This tournament is their “shining moment,” and their legacy. And their coach has done a good job keeping them focused on the task at hand and prepared for each opponent.

  53. LVG is just LVG, saying his piece with no pretense. I would think KNVB will not want to have to work with a difficult character, judging from the decision they made with Danny Blind, Dick Advocaat and FDB.
    I now really fear who will the coach be appointed.
    Honestly, the players just never gel as a team; they played with no conviction and confidence and courage. And that I attribute to the coach failure.
    Our players though not world class, but surely no inferior to many teams in this euros. I would think if Koeman has stayed on, and given the lucky draw, would have gone far. Really just a big miss of opportunity here.

  57. Hate 11 dutch players. Look at Swiss, Czech, Denmark.they play with their life. Look at Italian player. Their love their country. U really think wijnaldum live his country??
    I really hate this Dutch team. I hope Norway fuc* this team.

  58. Ukraine playing with much ore rhythm and urgency near the end of the first half, and England less so. Ukraine looks more dangerous at the moment

  63. Harry Kane with a bullet volley that just misses! And now Jordan Henderson finishes!

    Look at what happens when you pair the white jersey with dark shorts!

  65. A well deserved @.ss whooping for Ukraine. What a terrible team that was so lucky to get this far without showing much. Probably the worst team coming out of group games. Sweden would have made this game so much more interesting. I hope England get to the final without conceding a goal and lose the game 1-0 🙂 That would be AMAZING. I just can’t stand them.

    1. Balkan:

      I’m not a fan of England either, but I think this English team is actually pretty good. They’ve got a good mixture of youth and experience. Harry Kane is probably the best striker they’ve produced in quite a while, and their young players are all capable of producing quality moments. I wonder how the people of Ireland feel with Grealish and Rice both choosing to play for England. Both have been pretty pivotal during this run.

  66. @ JB

    What if NT would have met Denmark.whats you take on, would have been the outcome .I only managed to catch the 2H of England vs Ukraine.

    1. Wilson:

      I think Denmark has more versatility than the Czechs and I think they are on a motivational high right now. I think we certainly have more talent across-the-board than they do, but had we ended up playing them in a knockout match, I think it would’ve been a stern test for us. Perhaps it might’ve worked out better for us though, because I think we would’ve taken the Danes more seriously than we took the Czech Republic.

      I’m sort of down on our team and our coaches’ tactics right now, so it’s hard for me to give a fair assessment, but prior to our final match, I still would’ve expected us to beat Denmark head to head.

  67. Another thought occurred to me while watching both matches today. I didn’t really object at the time to FdB‘s choice to play a 532, because I did feel that it probably best fit our current group of players. But in watching both Denmark and England play, I really began to wonder how a team playing only two forwards really can press effectively, maintain possession, and be creative in attack. It requires so much energy and movement to generate any width and you can never effectively pressure the other team’s back line because you’re so outnumbered up front, meaning you end up ceding a lot of unnecessary possession to your opponent. Even in the first round matches, we never really generated dominant possession statistics against three teams who we should have easily been able to keep the ball against.

    1. I’ve noticed something similar in my own coaching, and it’s one reason why I’ve generally played with three up front for many years. But I primarily do so from an attacking standpoint rather than a defensive one.

      Other tactical concepts that you would expect coaches to pursue and exploit are quantitative and qualitative advantages. Quantitative meaning numerical — overloading certain areas of the field with players so that you can more easily advance the ball and create dangerous opportunities, and qualitative meaning talent —getting the ball to your best players in dangerous positions — Think Arjen Robben on the right wing near the penalty box.

      I feel like our Oranje team in this Euros was not able to effectively create many quantitative or qualitative advantages during the tournament. If Memphis, Gini and Frenkie are our best attacking talent, it seems like we should try to get them the ball in some space near the goal where they can do damage. But instead, we continually played the ball to Memphis’ feet with his back to the goal in front of the center backs, never really found a consistent way to get the ball to Wijnaldum other than on the break, and left de Jong to try to dribble through four defenders at a time from deep positions. We did generally do a decent job at getting Dumfries the ball wide and he was dangerous as a result, but I don’t think we went into the tournament with Denzel as the focal point of the attack, and there was no balancing threat from the other side, which made us even more predictable and easier to defend.

      I’ve traditionally coached teenagers, and don’t purport to know anywhere near as much about high level football tactics as Frank de Boer does, but again, when things seem obvious to me it makes me wonder sometimes what these professional coaches are thinking about…

      Football is a simple game but sometimes the hardest thing to do is play simply

  68. I would think LVG is the best candidate atm to coach the team. I feel he can instill organization and structure to the team and bring in the young players to the NT fold. He is tactically astute.
    Hopefully the KNVB not take the easy way out and appoint some puppet coach, else I guessed we all can stop following the team for a while.

    1. The players need to be in it too. If there is a rift between the two, it could get messy.

      Plus like what others have said, it has to be a long term project, not just a short come and go.

  70. @Balkan
    You will see more and more as you call the “Asian” country holding important European games. Unlike many poor European capitals, Baku, Azerbaijan, has all infrastructure developed to host Summer as well as Winter Olympic games.

  72. What about the other “Pep”? Pep Lijnders. Could he be a viable candidate for the coaching position? I guess he hasn’t really had success as the head man, but he might be a good tactician to consider. At this point, the available Dutch coaches seem pretty bleak, assuming Ten Hag and Bosz are not interested. I think van Gaal is too far removed at this point to be a legitimate option. I wonder if we shouldn’t look, dare I say it, to Germany or Italy for options.

    I do think we have talent currently, and the next generation should be fairly strong as well. We just need to find the right person to mold, shape and develop it and to establish a tactical system to maximize our effectiveness

    1. Its not about tatic and neither its about system. Its about investing in the right players given the status of team. The history wont repeat itself for the Dutch and I have said on top why. The golden Dutch generation was born at time when Eredivisie was thriving competitively and was considered to be a top league. you can forget about this happening again , if it does somehow, well and good. The production line is ever intact for the dutch and will always be but like I said earlier they will always lag and be one step behind because of the competition level of eredivisie. You can again look at the young english contingent at euros (upcoming golden generation)and and compare them to the dutch as to what level they are now atm. Just an example.

      The problem with the Dutch football is that they simply dont wanna except that are no more a powerhouse like before and will have dig deep going foward to sustain the current status/ level.(Max) You Look at when koeman came on board, he had the luxury of players who were in good form for their clubs and the team clicked but it never lasted long because of the drop in consistency level and club form of his starting 11.to add to this he failed to address this issues by persisting with them and within six months the team was back to square 1. Now if you look at the roll out period between Koeman and FDB,If koeman would have injected some new faces after the NL or even built a good backup, the continunity would have been better and there under FDB. You see this is where its all going wrong and with changing coaches comes their own preference of madness and mediocrity. They need to sit down strategize new ideas to solve this situation of short falls and dragging on with changing coaches. Again if this means to sacrifice a tournment, why not. It has to be the right players and a good roll out peroid including rotation for backup. Regardless if it takes 2 -3 years. Again Italy is a good example here after they failed to qualify in 2018 and what Mancini has done since taking over.

      Even Van Gaal wont be able to do much with the current squad. He had the luxury of the golden generation in 2014 and we all have seen what happened to him at Man United. You look at the comments he made about the dutch team after the euros. He fcukan forgot how he failed with the greatest of the the golden generation. Thats his ego right there and if it was me,I ‘d never call this old cnut.

      Another good example I will give here. That Denmark guy, Mikkel Damsgaard.He plays for Samporida in Serie A where he was unkown and probably if not for these euros he wouldnt have come into spot light. Now household clubs including Barce liverpool are tracking him down. Now if you look at NT there is no doubt there are some good young talents who are knocking on the door and if they get injected in the team, this will also be a good opportunity for them get scouted as well and which wouldnt happen in normal circumstances playing at their current clubs or in average leagues like eredivisie. I have been tracking Joey Veermans transfer as well and heerenveen has made it complicated with a hefty price tag while he needs to play at a more comptitive level to even get scouted or get selected for NT. He is virtually unkown atm except in nertherlands but imagine what a call in NT based on his current form, lets say vs Lativa could do for his future. These are the lines which KNVB with coaches should move along and like I said if it takes time, so be it, atleast the future will be bright.
      Once again you look at manuel locatelli here. He was a flop at Milan and sold to saussalo. He got selected by Mancini and he set the stage blazing at euros. Just like damsgaard his stakes has also sky rocketed with alot host of big clubs lining after him.

      Shifting attention to the WC qualifers, its gonna be an acid test for NT with three big games within a space of 7-8 days. That group could well be decided in that sept qualifers. Turkey after their dismal perfoemance at euros will all but be fired up to prove critics wrong. Norway are on a surge with their golden generations on the rise while Montenegro is unkown

    2. Lijnders had NEC under his wing, some time back and it was a mess. He left NEC to return to Liverpool and the new coach(es) managed NEC back to the Eredivisie. I think Lijnders is the ideal assistant.

  73. Happy 4th to all my American Compatriots who are not offended by it! 🙂
    I am not as well versed in terms of tactics or analyzing of situations on and off the field as some fellow bloggers but I will say:
    – We have no more talent than majority of countries in Europe. Even the real ones like De Beek and many others whose names have been forgotten ruin their career by warming the bench somewhere until no one has any interest in them anymore. It’s all about the money. Italy, Portugal, France, England, Belgium, Spain have much more talent than we do, face it. I bet Dumfries will get a lucrative offer somewhere in England and will disappear too, I hope not though.
    – As Eredivisie keeps being the starting point of career for south americans and afrikans and its value keeps going down the good coaches are also rare to find. We have no more coaches. The fact that we keep going back to LVG, Advocaat and other fossils shows how desperate we are. Young coaches are focused in their careers and $$$ understandably. Money moves things forward nowadays. No foreign coach will come close either because of those cheap guys at KNVB.
    – France, England, Italy have very successful former players coaching them, somehow we can’t get a former player do the same for us. I wish Gullit, Rijkaard, Van Basten, Bergkamp, Van Bommel and so many former great players would have pursued a serious career in coaching so we now wouldn’t be in such sad situation.
    In short, we’re becoming a mid tier country in europe floating in the 15-25 range in FIFA rankings and better get used to it. I still think we have enough to beat Turkey and Norway and qualify to WC.

  74. I think we’re being too pessimistic … the current and next generations are quite good and definitely can compete with the best. Holland U17 won the two recent Euros for the 4th time (nation with the most Euro wins at U17 level), and U21 had a very good team, knocked out only in the SF this year against Germany. The Eredivisie will remain a very good breeding ground and normally good players move to other leagues so it’s not really a problem … look at the best teams we had in 1998, 2000, 2010 etc. most of the players were playing abroad, where is the issue ? Even in the current team, most of the players are already playing abroad, and we can soon add Malen, Dumfries and Gapko to that list.

    Ajax will continue to be one of the best nurseries on the planet. Just look at their U14 and U17 teams – they are STILL the envy of the best clubs in the world.

    The real problem lies with Dutch mentality – we lack the fighting spirit that Italy and Germany have. It’s not about talent, we have enough of that. Look at France, they had enough talent obviously, but there was no fighting spirit, cohesion and kill mentality. So you get knocked out by Switzerland, or Czech or Denmark … that’s how it works. Talent is not really the point here. This time, we also had a tactical issue in my opinion, we could have done much better with a good tactically astute coach.

    1. Alistair, the big difference is that players of 98, 2000, 2010 were main stalwarts at their clubs not water boys like our “talents” of today. Mentality is part of the culture. I have never met someone who says “I am proud of being dutch” 🙂 Yet we have enough to make a good, solid team with the right manager in place. There was no reason we couldn’t make it quarter finals or even semis in Euro 2020.

  75. Another thing that’s great about this site is it acts as a group therapy session for all of us. You can see different posters working through the seven stages of grief — shock and denial, pain and guilt, anger and bargaining, depression, the upward turn, reconstruction and working through, and acceptance and hope! I’m not sure where I am on that spectrum, but it does seem like each of us is at one of these stages.

    Wilson and Balkan both have hit on some natural topics of discussion at this point in time. Are we really as good as we think we are, and how do we improve and/or return to a position of strength? From my perspective, the two most pressing questions they raise are (1) how to introduce and develop young Dutch talent, and (2) how to improve the environment in which Dutch players are playing?

    These question truly are challenges from a KNVB management perspective, and it’s very difficult to deal with them at the macro level. Each player is different (including their physical characteristics, their skill set, their mentality, their economic background, their preferred position), and each club is different (including size, location, quality, competitiveness, financial support). And so it is virtually impossible to provide for a path to stardom that fits each circumstance. I would say that our three top players, at least those who are most recognized internationally, would be Memphis (PSV), Wijnaldum (Feyenoord) and de Jong (Ajax). They have each taken very different paths to their success, just like many other Dutch players. Some may have gone abroad early, some may have bounced around from one club to another until they found the right fit, some may have been recognized at a very early age and given an opportunity to compete for a role at a big club right away. It’s going to be different for every player, but the keys to development seem to be recognizing a talent early, providing quality coaching both from a technical and tactical perspective, and finding the right opportunity for the player where they are forced to compete and develop their game at a top level but also given a fair shot at becoming a significant contributor to their club. But this really cannot be managed at the FA level — the players and clubs are free to contract with whomever they choose and for the players, the allure of money and fame drive so much of the decision making.

    I think we can all agree that the Eredivisie is not nearly at the same level it once was, but that’s been the case for many many years now. But this is the case for most European leagues too. Yet, still Dutch clubs are producing high-quality, skilled players, some of whom have done well in this tournament for other nations.

    I don’t know that I buy into the “golden generation” concept in reality either. It does appear that certain nations have coincidentally developed a core group of players that powers their national teams to prominence, but I don’t know that an FA can really dictate how and when that happens. Spain came into prominence in part through the La Masia-developed players at Barcelona. Germany revamped their entire youth development system and began to consider players of more recent German heritage. France has obviously branched out in its recruiting efforts as well and has probably some of the best young talent around at the moment. Both Belgium and Croatia recently have assembled very talented core groups. Is it something specific that’s being done to assemble and develop this talent? Is it divine intervention? Is it merely random?

    We’ve actually had several iterations of what we might refer to as a “golden generation” — The early 70s Ajax and Feyenoord total football teams, the late 80s / early 90s AC Milan and Barcelona teams, the late 90s teams comprised of all of the players that we are currently considering as coaching candidates, and the 2008 to 2010 stretch where we had a ton of creative attacking talent. But not all these teams were equal in terms of talent and some had some glaring weaknesses. Imagine if the 2010 attack had been supported by the back line we have today.

    I don’t think that the Eredivisie or many of the other European leagues will ever return to prominence. At this point, they are merely developmental stages for young players. This is particularly the case in the era of the “Super League”. From a player development standpoint, I think our best course of action is to do what we’ve been doing, which is continue to develop good young high-quality players and hopefully place them at clubs in bigger leagues at the right time and allow them to hone and refine their skills at higher levels there. But again, there’s only so much that we can dictate at the KNVB level, and based on what we’ve seen to date, I don’t really know that we want the KNVB dictating too much about player development 🙂

    As I’ve said in earlier posts, I do think we have enough talent. And I think that there’s seems to be another strong current of talent arriving soon. But look at the final four of this Euros — Italy, Spain, England and Denmark. One of these obviously is not like the others particularly in terms of overall talent, but each of those countries has taken a different path to reaching this level of success. Each of them has a different type of manager with a different tactical focus that has worked out for their team. It takes a lot of different conditions coming together to have success in world football, and hopefully we can start to put together the right set of conditions for ourselves again very soon!

  76. If it depended on the strength of the league, then England would have won everything at international level last 15 years, but they never do well – except for this time. There’s nothing wrong with talent development, on the other hand it’s one of the best in the world when you also consider the population size!

    I still believe it is wrong mentality and I always compare with Italy as I know their football very well, living in Malta which is very close both geographically and in terms of football support. If you look at the past 50 years there is no doubt that Holland, in spite of the much smaller population, produced better talent than Italy. Yet, they seem to do much better than us and they always exceed their own expectations, while we many times fail to meet our expectations. Classical case in point is the match in 2000 when we totally outclassed them but they still managed to scrape through. But there are many other cases. This time they were in trouble against Austria but still manage to scrape through. What is the reason behind this Italian or German mentality ? If the KNVB can answer that question, we have a bright future.

    And finally don’t forget the role of luck or chance whatever you want to call it. If Malen scored that keeper facing chance it would have been different. If Muller scored that keeper facing chance it would have been different. If Robben scored in 2010 etc etc etc. Those are matters that no national association can handle. It is what it is. Just a game with many many possible split second events that can change the course of a match.

  77. Guys…clock is ticking in everyone’s life…i have been in this blog for 14 years since 2007…i had high hopes for NT at EC 08,WC2010..EC2012 i didn’t had any hope. again WC2014 i had hope and We were unlucky to shootouts….offcourse casillas Toe of 2010Wc was also unlucky,But We should have burried Spain before 90 minutes even after missing any sitter as We should have used prime time Babel and Vaart…it was a coaching blunder,spain would have been SHI#$$ting with pace and power of Babel and Mercurious vaart…That Dimwit coach faced only two good teams Brazil and Spain …shortest man Wesly sneijder won the header(Luck) and stek saved the day…Then vs spain Roben missed as chance we lost..and he is entitiled to miss…We should have created more and he kept Babel and Vaart in his A@@s….Ditto went with San marco at WC2006…RVN was brutally denied by San mark ego…..
    LVG took team from shambles of EC2012…fab4 were getting aged,babel disappeared,Joris and ooijer also lost to age…LVG did a stunning Job by calling out wijnaldum,Depay,Stefan de vrij,leroy fer,Lenz,terence kongolo…when he mixed that with fab4,Nijel and cillessen+ vlaar…
    that was one hell Job…
    So i want LVG to be back,He can do it again….We need to axe some players for ever Those are
    1-Annholt
    2-Winjdal
    3-De roon
    4-Promes
    5-klassen
    6-Luuk
    Then on immediately to bench
    Gini wijnaldum
    Memphis Depay
    We lost this euro due to a POOR COACH..He should not be anywhere near
    NT…As Nepolian said you dont have to worry about a team of lions lead by sheep…we should fear team of sheeps lead by lion…FDB was a clueless idiot,we paid penalty…I dont know how many more EC/WC will see ,years are passing,we are loosing,and loosing badly,cluelessly…i am from remote village of kerala where peopel only think about cricket SH%%it…they dont have another world,though internet is changing a bit…i am became fan of dutch because of their supperior and elegant play.
    not by trophies…i feel pitty when i see hateboer type palyers at NT….
    We need
    1-Tacticall astute and clever coach..
    2-Selection of quality players over below average ones..
    3-Sacrfice,fighting spirit..
    Evferything will follow us…
    Note…Turkey conceded 8 gaols at EC2021…We should have identified the FDB at that day(4-2) itself..Yes malen can miss a sitter,Czec is not team of maldinis..How many chances we created till that moment???thats key to sucees…had De ligt didnt made that blunder we could have still beaten czec…but i am glad that clown has gone..@KNVB..no more clowns please

  78. Eredivisie lost its prestige and strength not because NED stopped producing talents. It gradually happened when limit on foreign players was lifted by UEFA. This led to a gradual stratification of the football society. Rich clubs have been able to buy talents all over the world and field 11 foreigners. Dutch clubs have never been rich but prior to that change they were able to compete with Italian, English, and German clubs because both teams could field only three foreign starts and the quality of the remaining 8 were comparable. That was the reason why suddenly Russian, Turkish, and Ukrainian leagues became stronger than Eredivisie. It happened not because their local players are better than Dutch but because mobs bought those clubs and increased their transfer budgets exponentially. Year by year rich clubs get richer and poor club get poorer. The same situation happens at microlevel in Eredivisie itself where Ajax gets richer year by year whereas other clubs struggle. That is of course is not the only reason why Eredivise struggles but this was a starting point when we stopped seeing clubs such as Dinamo Kiev, Dinamo Tbilisi, Crvena Zvezda, Staua, and of course Dutch clubs winning major European Club trophies.

  79. We can add this to the Title of this article. Wanted Brave, strong coach who is also willing to learn from the likes of Italy, England, Denmark, Czech and Spain.

  80. @ Alistair

    You are about wrong about the England contingent. Its just in the last two season that that players like Foden,Grealish,Sancho,Mings,Philips,James, Mount, sako have come in to spot light having break through seasons with their respective club. This wasnt the case before and even in 2018 if you look at their squad for the world cup. They were still dragging with Dier, young,Welbeck,Jones Delph etc This is another level shit and they are highly skillfull. for the next 10 years England will be the heavy weights in any tournment they play Not sure about southgate as a coach though.

    If you are saying its a menatality issue thing then it just comes down the people at the helm, isnt it but then it all comes back to the choices, preference, ball squeezing and so forth.

    You are also wrong comparing the italians to nerthlands as well. I think Italy has produced all round better team than the dutch winning two WCs to the Dutch 1 euros. The Italians are also 5-4 in Balloon d Or winners as well. There were many italian players who simply couldnt make to the team because of the fiercest competition in the 90s. I dont know if people over here remember Paolo Di Canio. Was a character but a pure animal with ball at feet. I have never come across a player like him dating back to 90s. unfortunately for him he just kept clashing with coaches for game time and ended up becoming unpopular.

    I agree with AZ forever on what he said about rich getting richer and poor getting poorer but more than that its just the competition itself. You can also look at the recent u21 euros and I remember picking this up. France and JO were the strongest team on the paper. JO had mostly eredivisie players and few playing abroad like botman , kluivert and Dilrosun but yet germany won the tournament with only one regular starter in bundaliga which was Florian Wirtz of Leverkusen and the rest were mainly playing in bundalsiga 2 and some from abroad in championship, juplier league etc. You see where this is going. The same happened in the 2019 euros. Qualification stage, High profile eredivisie players were beaten in both legs by an unkown scotland and they didnt make to the finals. The u17s who won the Euros by the time they reach the Jong orange stage will go through the same faith as what we are seeing now. Itis not the dutch that are producing talents, all other nations are doing it and its gonna down to how competitively they are playing that will set the bench mark.

    This would a good contigent to look out for though

    Simons
    Brobbery
    Maatssen
    Mbuyamba
    Hoogewerf
    Frimpong
    Ki jana
    Braaf
    Bograde
    and with ajax contingent maybe. Hansen,Talyor, unuvar,

    1. Yes I agree Wilson that it is not only the Dutch who are producing talent. But we do produce at least as much as them (maybe except France / Brazil / Argentina). And when you compare population sizes, you have to be proud about Dutch talent.

      But again it boils down to much more than talent. I say again that talent is not the issue here. It is Dutch personality / mentality … and luck sometimes. I can mention 4 or 5 semi final places in the last 30 years in WC or Euro, where we had the talent, we had the right mentality but we lost the penalties!! Imagine we could easily have won 2 World Cups and another 2 Euros with what we had! That’s why I dont’ take it seriously after all these years 🙂

  81. People tend to think that LVG tried 532 and why not FDB..those people has no clue How elegant the wing backs at WC2014…Only weak link was BMI…
    it was..
    Blind–BMI-Vlaar-Devrij–Janmaat

    now its
    Annholt–blind–Deligt–De vrij-Dumfries….
    Difference between Janmaat and ADumfries are day and night…so was blind Vs annholt…that was the difference…Midfeild You had Nijel the king with Work horse De guzman….Both were physically strong and had tremendous lungs….when we moved to 433 we got better…
    There is absolutley no need to go 532
    —Malen————Danjuma—–
    ———-Gakpo———–
    –Frenkie——–Van de beek—–
    ———koopmeiners———–
    Malacia–Virgil–De vrij—Karsdorp
    ———-Bijlow—————-
    =======================================================
    on bench
    –Depay————-Boadu—
    ———-Van ginkel———-
    –Gravenberch——Propper——–
    ———–Bazoer————–
    Williams–Botman–Deligt—Rensch
    ———-Cillessen——————
    stand bye
    Timber
    Kongolo
    Veerman
    Berjwin
    sinkgraven
    Brobbery

  84. AZ is close to sign bothers Vangelis Pavlidis from Willem II and his younger brother Vanilios Pavlidis (back up for Wijndal’s position)

    1. The Greeks also produce a lot of Vans, from the look of it like us. We had Van Bommel, Van der Vaart, Van Nistelrooy… They have Van Gelis, Van Ilios, really cool!

  85. @ Jan
    Linders did a good Job at NEC tjat sesson finishing 3rd.they narrowly missed out on the direct qualification to Fortuna Sittard who finished one point above them and Jong Ajax who won the title that season but were in eligible to qualfy. I remember following them that season. He had a good squad with groeneveld hitting 11 goals, 16 assists, Anass Archahbar 15 goals and kadioglu 7 goals and 11 assists. Groeneveld would go on too miss the plsyoffs due to injury where they lost the fist leg 4-0 to Emmen and then won 4-1 in second leg. Lost on agg and the following season would see Groeveneld depart for club brugge. Cant recall if kadioglu departed for ferenbache the same season. With the player movements and also with Zeljko Buvac resigning as assistant manager to klopp at liverpool, he decided to return to liverpool to reunite with klopp again.

    Also NEC regained promotion to eredivisie last season coming into this season. This was after three sesson since Linders departed.

  86. What about Gio Van Bronckhorst ? Was he a good manager at Feyenoord ? I mean he won the league after so many years. He was recently coaching in China Super League as well.

  90. Spain’s squad is not better than us but Enrique know how to build a team. FDB is clueless, every time he started Malen as the main striker and after the game, he threw Malen under the bus saying he should have finished the chance.

    Regardless of whoever will be the coach, this team should have no say in who the coach should be. 7 years of not showing up, i don’t know why they even dare to say who they prefer to work with.

  91. Current dutch star warlts has plenty of experience in failing including Depay.. Its high to think team with out gini, blind, klassen, even depay..

  92. like I said NT is in a tricky situation given the next three qualifiers. given the status of the team, its gonna be same as when Blind took over hiddink and then Dick from Blind. its always wobbly when there is change of coaches in the middle of qualification or without a good pre start. I cant see Van Gaal able to do much either if appointed. it just comes down to what I said about sacrificing the WC for 2024-2026

  94. Anyone still talking about talent or tactics after yesterday’s match ? 🙂

    Spain did everything they could. They outclassed Italy for most of the match, and yet Italy scraped through just like they did with Austria, this time on penalties. Just like when Holland lost in the SF against Italy in 2000, or in 1992, 1996, 2004, etc. etc.

    Is it shining talent or brilliant tactics that put Italy in the final ? NO, it was mentality, fighting spirit and LUCK. And that’s what it is all about at this level.

    1. What I can say is Spinszola’s injury has offset the balance of the team and this was forsaid before the game. If you look at all the itlay games then that Left flank was their corner stone for their attack.on the right Di Lorenzo is more a CB but after florezi’s injury, Mancini had no other option.

      With Emerson, Italy was always going attrack more pressure from the Spanish wingers because of his lack of pace and not being attacking minded like spinzzola. this further cut out insigne offensive plays and he had to drop deep in defense to assist Emerson. Can’t blame anyone here but again Mancini had a good depth in other departments and he made up for it playing more defensively and attacking on the counters. if it would have England they would have got thrashed.

    2. Here is an alternative version of yesterday’s game:

      One team did a zillion passes, which didn’t amount to much, and were relying on _a few_ genius strokes of Olmo.

      The other team gave up possession and was running after the ball, which didn’t amount to much, and were relying on _a few_ counter attacks.

      And the result was the predictably boring game that happens anytime Spain enters the pitch.

      This reminds me of a comment I saw somewhere about Spain having kept possession for almost 6 years straight (2006-2012).

      1. Honestly I can’t stand Spain and was heavily rooting for Italy but Spain was head and shoulders above Italy. They controlled the game as they wished and should have won by a good margin if they had a proper striker. Italy couldn’t even get out of their half for long parts of the game. They gained my respect and will repeat their success of a few years ago. Italy progressed on pure luck. They were inferior and so drained out of energy and ideas and it is not because of Spinazzola absence. I think Italy has reached above and beyond anyone expected and their real potential. And they have NO bench. When I look at Berardi and Belotti I see very ordinary Serie A players that are not national team material. Anything can happen but I don’t see them as having a chance against England unless somehow they at least they get their energy back. But I find it hard for Kane not to score a couple.
        Personally I am already feeling the hangover of the Euros end.:-(

        1. Agreed. I actually liked Spain back in 2008 (after we bombed out, of course, lol), but couldn’t stand them in the subsequent tournaments.

          Italy was extremely energetic in the previous rounds, and had Spinazzola’s crazy runs. We’ll see if they end up imploding in the final (against Denmark, lol) like in 2012…

  95. I am happy that Spain is out. I thought it was the game of two best teams in Euro. Do not get me wrong, I do not like macaronners either but Spain is another level of disgust. Another team that I have never taken seriously is England. In my view English team is a collection of boys in white that run back and force but they have no clue why they are running. That is my historical impression of England. I hope, Denmark will end misery of boys in white.

    2. I enjoyed Spain crash out..i wanted it badly…so much TIKFU$%%k talk..back pass– side pass-back pass then goes out..i still dont forget Puoyol gaols VS Germany at Euro and Wc semi finals and David Villa 1-0 goal victory…Too much fans for Spain in kerala,most doesnt have a clue abpout football and part time football lovers i mean watches only football when Euro,WC and Copa happends….Switerzerland was robbed by Spain..
      England is a Good team,they have a chance…YES Denamark is better than Orange under FDB..So its an equal game where endland plays at home..lets see..

  96. I think Italy’s run is being a bit over-rated because of the weak teams they played. They had issues against Austria, Belgium (partially) and yesterday were totally out-classed. Saw them against Holland in the Nations League as well, earlier this year. They were great in Holland, but in Italy we outclassed them for most of the match and it ended in draw. Don’t take me wrong, they are a great team … but I don’t think they can match England this time round.

    1. italy was always secured,there were some few sloppy moments but thats part of game…i knew italy would win from begining…italy has beaten some good teams like Blegium,Switzerland,Turkey,austria, while spain beaten a 10 men swiss,a slovakia…then acroatia with out defense..

  98. Interesting to see what Ten Hag said when asked about whether there will be changes in the Ajax squad this year:

    “We have old and young, a group with leaders with around South Americans adding mentality to this group. There are also young talents who are not ready to make the final move. With them I expect the core to stay together.”

    Interesting his comment about how the South Americans contribute to the squad – mentality. Shows that Ajax are aware that this lacks in Dutch players, and try to boost it with foreign players that have a lot of it. Unfortunately you can’t do this at international level!

  111. BREAKING NEWS: England’s chance to medal in the Olympics increase dramatically as Raheem Sterling expected to take on the role of national diving coach…

  112. Whether they could have or not, the Danes are punished for not playing for 15-25 minutes between the end of regulation time and the first half of overtime.

          3. Isnts VAR also concluded its was Legit pK. Im kind of feed up of the blame game.

          5. That’s fair; probably a healthier attitude…

            …still a soft penalty though! 🙂

    1. @AZ-forever Last Time AZ became eredivise champions in 2009 When king LVG was coach…Is there any chance they will become champs any time soon??if so which coach will step up??LVG is a stunning no nonsense coach…

  118. Suppose Netherlands can reach Semifinal (like original planned), what is our chances against England yesterday ?

    Can we do better than Denmark ?

    The England current squads seems different from the past, they always in control. From the group stages and in knockout phase.

    Even when Damsgaard brilliant free-kick to put England behind yesterday, they dominated the game.

    1. @Marvellin..Under FDb we had no chance against any strong teams yet alone England…otherwise it should be the luckiest day in our life…We had zero attack and we had a non creative midfield We survived due to some individuals like De vrij,Dumfries(I am not fan of him),De ligt(Till red card),Blind,Dejong, and o one game from Gini…We strggles to crate any even against czec…We had serious issues(which was hiden under some lucky gaols eg Penalty Vs austria)…everything got exposed…
      We need a coach who knows what is fitness,we need coach who can make a team, we need a coach who is tacticaly astute.LVG ticks all coloumns….Lets hope he takes and like he saved us from faart van disasster to WC2014 semi unlucky shoootout…Fingers croe\ssed.

      1. yes, I think LVG is the best option for now. The WC qualification is running and we already loss to Turkey.

        I hope he still can bring his magic like 2014, but he did not coached any real team since 2016.

        And he already announced his official retirement from football 2 years ago.

        1. if the players dont like him, whats the use of having him. Depay and Van Dijk were the big ones who expressed their dissatisfaction of him being the coach last time before FDB was appointed. I see Propper has already started making his presence felt at PSV. another flop on his way to become a hotshot in eredivisie after berghuis and Klaassen and this is what will be in store for NT under LVG.

  119. I sincerely doubt whether we would have won against both Denmark and England. Although every match has its own story, one cannot tell. We didn’t play well against Czech but we were unlucky as well … game could have gone either way.

  120. Last Thursday AZ emphasized once again that the club does not want to lose important players to competitors from the Dutch top in any case. I am very happy to hear that!

  121. I did not know that Khalid Boulahrouz will coach AZ Under-18s, he will also be involved in the A-selection helping Jansen. Interesting….

  122. Taking into account that Boadu was not part of the AZ preparation game against Top OSS and reading French media, I think the talks about his move to AS Monaco are progressing well. French League will be a good next step for Boadu and Stengs (Nice is interested in the latter).

    1. I was reading that article. Monaco has already got experienced strikers like Wissam Ben Yedder and Kevin Volland. I think they are eyeing him to replace Stevan Jovetić who is a back up striker to the two above. I think he should move to a club where he can play regularly. At Monaco he will have to step up and compete with the two strikers which at this moment would a big ask for him given moving from eredivisie. with bottom clubs teams he might end up scoring but with the big guns , not sure. Mean While Marseille is one club that has been active in this transfer window with loans of young talented players.

  124. Sadly, Diego Simeone had re-upped with Atletico. That’s another name off the KNVB’s short list 🙂

    If LVG is at the top of that list, ahead of Arsene Wenger, perhaps they should also be looking at Alex Ferguson, Arrigo Sacchi, Ottmar Hitzfeld, Vicente del Bosque and Fabio Cappello.

    Jupp Heynckes is probably still too junior for the role, but maybe in a few more years, he might be eligible for consideration, maybe for 2026?

  125. The runway is too short for a totally new person to be appointed, hence LVG with his familiarity with Dutch psyche and football culture is the best decision at this point. His assessment on the team performance though critical, is fair. I trust him to make the changes. Foresee the young players be given their chances, which most of us are glamouring for.
    Sept games are already make or break for our qualification for next year WC.

  126. I found it interesting that Liverpool and Dortmund are reported to be seriously interested in Malen. He didn’t exactly have a good euros, his miss against Czech..
    And likewise Everton’s interest on Dumfries. Didn’t showcase his defensive quality.

    Also, why are the players to say whether they prefer a certain coach, esp when they haven’t delivered anything at all. Never good to undermine the coach, in this case likely to be LVG.

  127. LVG has the skills and experience to manage this team. He also took a disbanded team in 2012 (after the poor Euro 2012 performance – much worse than Euro 2020 of course) and led them to a fantastic 3rd place in 2014 World Cup. He also is a great believer and great coach for young players and we need someone like this at the moment.

    His age is not concerning as long as he is motivated to do it. Portugal, France and other nations won tournaments with relatively old coaches as well.

    1. AZ, I think Chong shines shoes for Pogba and also keeps the team hydrated during practice. I do not think he is even part of the bench. We need to bring players who are first team participants in any league than someone who gets to cheer the others in a big club. I would rather use XYZ who plays every week for Feyenoord or even Herenveen than V De Beek who hasn’t played in what feels like 5 years for that big Man team.

  130. I hope LVG cleans house for those who do not support him even if it is Depay or V Dijk. To hell with them. This is your boss and you need to work for him, otherwise don’t let the door hit you on the way out. If VVD is so stupid to not understand he is close to end of his peak and doesn’t have many chances for success with NT then so be it. I won’t miss Depay either. LVG is head and shoulders above crap like FDB etc. and also better than Koeman in my view. I just hope he still has that famous ambition and passion regardless of age.

  131. Adoring fans! It’s great to hear from you. It is I, Aloysius, your once and future king! I appreciate you clamoring in support of my candidacy to become the national team coach once again!

    Given the current circumstances, I thought I’d return to this blog, to reward you with my temporary presence and to announce my triumphant intentions.

    As you may recall, a famous Austrian, Mr. Happel, previously led our side to a World Cup final. And so, I offer you three statements from another famous Austrian that should clarify my current intentions:

    1. I am the terminator of football dynasties. As I told Vicente during my previous reign back in 2014, “Hasta la vista, baby!”

    2. When you ask me now why I would return and what’s the best thing in life, I respond “To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentation of their women!”

    3. And finally, when Nico-Jan and Eric say to me, “Please Louis, please return as bondscoach”, what else can I say but “I’ll be back!”

  132. That is what I thought too. If no playing time for Chong in EPL why does not he move on. I know he is an employee and has contractual obligations but at least he could have asked his management about playing time else where. Maybe he has…who knows…

  133. Pavlidis (forward) was signed by AZ from Willem II. Knowing AZ’s careful hiring approach, I assume that the deal to sell Boadu is coming along well. I am not sure where Boadu will land but there have been two concrete options: Liverpool and ASC Monaco. With respect to Teun Koopmeiners, the negotiations with Atalanta did not yield any results. I think Atalanta could not match AZ asking price, as the former was ready to pay only 10MM Euros, whereas AZ was asking almost twice more. I think Teun will stay this season with AZ as his contract runs until 2023, so the same situation with Boadu, Stengs, and Wijndal.

  135. VI.NL wrote:
    If Steven Berghuis leaves for Ajax, Javairô Dilrosun must become his replacement. Feyenoord’s technical director Frank Arnesen is in conversation with the Hertha BSC winger and single international.

  136. Somenody should look at Richairo Zivkovic as well. He is china and his contract is expiring in December. Not sure about his salary demand though.

  137. Dont think so, at Sheffied United he was paitent and did work hard for minutes. Sadly sheffield United were at wrong end and couldnt utilize him much. He mught return ro Groningen if any unless he decides go after money again.if im not wrong he is earning 1 million a season in china but now has fallen behind the newly recruited brazilians in the team.

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