I am sorry guys, I am making up excuses for having abandoned you. I feel like Darth Vader. Using Oranje’s defeats as an excuse is lame.
But there is no excuse. It is just life. I suppose the high of the WC2014 left me in a slump. We could have won it in Brazil. Robben should have scored against Argentina. But he didn’t, so we didn’t. And then Louis went and Guus came and we have to play Iceland and Andorra and Kazachstan and Liechtenstein again….
I am a slow starter, just like Oranje under Hiddink.
I am also a bit concerned with the fate of our lads in Italy, Portugal and England. I am not 100% convinced of Janmaat, De Vrij and Blind I suppose.
They were great under Louis. Because Louis is like an omnipotent Demi God who gives our players wings. From Depay to Fer to Janmaat to De Vrij. They all added 20% to their usual game thanks to their coach. Add top notch players like Nigel de Jong and Arjen Robben to the mix and you have a winning team.
But can Guus? His style is different. Totally different. Where Louis even determines the brand of the sugar lumps used during the press conference, Guus might not even show up for them as his Harley Davidson took him on a detour and he’s enjoying a fine wine in Tuscany with an olive skinned local….
Danny can do what Louis does. But do Robin, Klaas Jan and Nigel really listen to him like they did to Louis?
So it is one of those “we are focusing on settling into our clubs” phases where Oranje literally comes third. First career/club, second family (settling in, language courses, what not), third Oranje. “Because we will qualify anyway.”
The Kazachstan game was as to be expected… They defend. We try and break down. These games take time to go in the right direction. Why? Because this Oranje is not yet a footballing machine, with Van der Wiel back, Afellay back, Van Persie lacking form, Blind not playing his usual spot etc. So the 3-1 was actually exactly the scenario one could expect. A typical FrankdeBoertje by Martins Indi. A lucky goal. Us chasing the win. More fire power with a totally psyched up Huntelaar. A bit of venom between Hunter and Robin van Persie. And the dream story of the Lost Son making good (Afellay, in case you were wondering).
And we snatch the points up. The first one is down (the first win I mean). Guus can breath. The team can go back to normal and from now on it will be smooth sailing.
Still, heaps of question marks for Guus but not all very urgent. Relevant yes, urgent not so much.
For instance: what system to play? What to do with Van Persie (Van Gaal might ask the same question). How will Blind fair in Manchester and who will take his role on the left full back side?
All in all, Guus will slowly make the changes. The Dirk Kuyt exit wasn’t too clean, I don’t think. But Guus at least is clear. Kuyt saw an important role for himself in Oranje, still. Guus didn’t. Dirk was part of Louis’ inner circle (with RVP, Sneijder, De Jong, Robben) but under Guus he won’t be. No more vice captain. So Dirk decided to go. Rafael van der Vaart may not wear the orange much either and should Guus shift systems again (as he is prone to do), who knows what Robin’s role will turn out to be.
Hiddink did make a comment on that rift between Van Persie and Hunter and what he said was telling. Where both Hunter and Van Persie downplayed the incident as something that always happens in the heat of the moment, Hiddink said he didn’t even want to talk about it. “But I will say this: Robin should have passed that ball”.
So this is clever Guus. He says he doesn’t want to say anything about it, but he does say something about it and he shoves his captain under the bus.
Watch this space, as we will see some fascinating developments for sure, as the players slowly realise it is now up to them to step up. There is no more all encompassing Van Gaal taking the flak and making the decisions.
Good points? Afellay! Huntelaar!
There is absolutely no reason not to be positive about our future and as Sneijder said so tellingly: “We have done well in the last 6 years but coming second and third is not the same as winning a trophy. We want to win a trophy!”
First, thanks for coming back Jan. I have been looking for a new home without much success as sadly this space has been occupied by some sort of …… people.
About the game. I was nervous that Guus would break all negative records starting with losing the 1st home game since 2000 and also losing to the 147th team in the world. Luckily this didn’t happen. I say get rid of RVP, ASAP. He is not only in a fast decline, he is also a bad character. It is close to a tragedy that Hunter has been sacrificed for so long in favor of RVP. Afellay was MOTM and he has proved me wrong. I was one of those who thought his career was over. Robben excellent but kinda looking like his old selfish self. Blind sucked…badly. Guus sucks and I have no faith in him, I badly miss LVG. We will have a hard time qualifying out of this group even though we don’t lack players.
No I don’t think so as I have mentioned there are many other players who are still knocking the door and once given the chance they will grab it with both hands.
I’m talking about the likes of Van Dijik,PVA,Buttner,Rekik,Bruma and also when strootman and Van GInkle when they come back from injury.
Imagine a midfield trio of strootman,van ginkle and afellay and not forgetting sinkgraven and Ake who could be in their prime in 2018, I think with few changes we will be ok
I think hiddink has to act fast and make necesary changes. Sneijder,BMI,Blind should be benched. Blind is the weakest link in a 4~3~3 formation.vs france he was rooted upside down but he still getting the starting spot . jus watch when man united will play chelsea or man city.as the teams gets tougher his back passing also increases. he jus cant take players head on one on one.
I feel so happy that it has taken so long but at last people have realized hunter was always the best but yet he was never seen as the true #9.you jus need to feed him and what afellay did and that’s what sneijder couldnt do all this time. I’m sure with players like van ginkle,clasie,afellay whom are precise. with their delivers hunter can be unstoppable.jus let him start over. RVP
With this I think Iceland is good team especially their forwards
our backline needd to be focused especially in the wake. of the loss we suffered from Czech republic.
Game with Iceland will be much more difficult than with Czechs. Our central defense is not very solid to cope with skillful Icelanders. BMI is especially vulnerable. Political situation is not very stable in Dutch camp. RvP vs. Huntelaar rivalry slowly fires ups. Will old Guus have enough backbone to handle political instability in the team?. In 1996 he was unable to do that…It is going to be very difficult qualifying tournament….
Bit upset as with hiddink as to ehy selected u21 guys when they were not used and rather would have featured against portgual.
What was the formation when huntelaar in? 4-4-2?
4-2-4
I think it is actually for the good of the team that Kuyt retired. If you are past a certain age, you should let new players into the team. I think that applies for everyone, even Robben after the 2016 tournament!
I was very pleasantly surprised at Afellay. I think if he plays hungry and shows some balls, he can be one of our most important players on the pitch because he has the technical ability and the vision. All he needs is energy and determination, which I always found lacking in him.
I think overall the Dutch side played a lot better than in the last game. The ball moved faster, the was a sharpness to the game that I haven’t seen in a long time. Let’s see if they can hold this up against srtonger opponents.
As for Van Persie… I just don’t know. Many countries would kill for a pair of strikers like him and Huntelaar, but we’re given this riddle how to use one without damaging the other or using them both… so far neither hasn’t really worked out that well.
It’s about time you are back Jan…..we all miss your column. Well, it was a frustrating and disappointing match. But we did get the needed 3 points right..
Our performance and the way we play in general was not ORANJE true standard especially against a very minor team….way far apart from our ranking.
Nevertheless, I was happy afellay is back and he score!
HUP HUP ORANJE !!!!!
Also, did you notice whose fault the goal was, who was completely oblivious and failed to mark his man in the box?
Martins Indi.
That guy is a tragedy waiting to happen, every game. Why is Vlaar not playing? Where is Rekik, or Bruma? Why is this guy still a central defender for us?!
Most other blogs don’t have the same feel as this one. Thanks Jan.
Vlaar injured.
RvP totally in the wrong. His response was of someone who has no defence. So sad to see his demise.
Clasie would have been nice to see.
Anyone have link to download full match of netherlands last game?
RVP acted like a selfish pussy,which is not a good quality for captain.He must be benched at any cost at least, and he lost his stamina and urgency,he lost speed and stamina.He must be dropped and stripped off from captaincy.
BMI,RVP and Blind must dropped immediately.
Hi Jan,
Why don’t you promote some other users to be admin? Say with 3 admins, we could have more posts peer week and more users come to the site. DBR is a good candidate but I am not sure if he follow the blog anymore.
I know that there are some other users with knowledge of the game reading this blog without posting. Maybe, you could ask for some volunteers.
I like that idea. We talked about it before. Why not give it a go. I will post a post soon with the formal request for you to think about this….
Jan, you can let bunch of guys write example articles on a specific subject and then choose the best 2-3 that you think would be good for this site.
what is this spat going on about Hunter and RVP. If it wasn’t for the penalty RVP would have cult hero for NT, either way was voted the worst player. his statement of a bizarre outings but was overall happy was also ridiculous. classic evidence of why they shouldn’t play together.This is where I think Hiddink should stand his ground and make some tough decision. This is a good time to inject a new CF with 2018 WC in mind. with Both Hunter and RVP together it will be very hard to make way for new Striker and if we wait until after 2016 EC time factor will be of a Constrain for baptizing new strikers within that time frame, not knowing what form both Hunter and RVP will be in 2018.
A perfect case scenario is Elvis Manu whom KNVB is now racing against time to secure him for international cap and knowing the fact that he has kept his options open for playing for Ghana.
Hopefully with weaks teams in the qualification group Hiddink will do this.
why is Van Dijik still on the bench.drives me insane.com on Hiddink what you waiting for. Afellay was really the missing puzzle in the mid field, jus hope his injuries injury curse evades him and he can raise to his old form.
still cant figure out the formation used when hunter came in for De Jong and Fer for BMI?
There is many things that i didn’t like in the game against Kazakstan. First things first BMI should sit on the bench against Iceland if we want to take a positive result from a team that looks very strong so far. Since the World Cup BMI is a completely different player, a lot of mistakes and many bad decisions, not the same player that played for Holland in the qualifiers of the World Cup. I think its time for Van Dijk to show us what he can do until Vlaar comes back. The second big problem with our team is Van Persie. He isn’t the same and just like BMI he needs to get benched asap. Its not only that he is out of shape but its that selfish way that he plays that pisses me off so much. I mean the team is struggling and he gets a chance to score from a difficult angle but instead of him passing to the wide open Huntelaar he chooses to finish himself and waste a big opportunity for the team to draw level. For too long now Robin has been a problem for the team (WC 2010 we were playing without a striker since he was nonexistent, Euro 2012 the big arguments between Van Persie and the other players which led the team to a humiliating tournament and finally the WC 2014 where he only played the first two games cause in the other ones he was the worst player on the team). Guus needs to realize that being too nice with these guys will lead you nowhere since the Dutch players have a reputation of doing whatever they feel like. Another player that has no place in the starting-11 at least for now is Sneijder. I was always a big fan of him since I’m an Ajax supporter but he just doesn’t help the team anymore. Klaasen or Clasie would be a better option against Iceland. The last player that i would not like to see start the game tomorrow is Lens. The guy is just not good enough. The entire first half against Kazakstan he was awful not like he was better in the second half but at least in the second half he beat he’s player a couple times and tried to create something. Personally though i don’t see much in him at all. Promes looks a lot more promising and I’m sure he can be more productive than Jermain.
Tomorrows game will be very difficult and with what i have seen from Oranje so far i just don’t think we can win it. I hope I’m wrong though and we take all three points….HUP HOLLAND HUP!!!
thumps up mate…..but you forgot about Blind. Hiddink has already dropped Pieters which means Blind will again start at LB.
Cillessen
Weil – Bruma -Van Dijik – Blind
Afellay -De Jong – Clasie
Robben – Hunter – Promes
this team will rip Iceland apart.
This is the confirmed line-up? Looks great on paper if true.
the international break is timely for Van Ginkle in his bit for recovery from his ankle injury
When does Strootman return? What does that change?
December jus around when the transfer will open. to be honest I’m not a very big fan of his but I hope with van Ginkle and now afellay very much in the picture strootman should be centralized deep in the midfield.
Well, gents, I also completely understand that RvP, BMI, and Lens have to be benched. However, from what I see, Guus is not going to change anything. RvP and mafia will be fielded again. With respect to Hunterlaar, he will be again on the bench and Guus will let him play only in case of emergency. Out-of-field influence of RvP on a team and management is very strong, and Guus will not dear to break it. To me, that is the biggest problem, when coach falls under the influence of a player and the latter starts indirectly defining team’s strategy….I hope I am wrong….
Another question is how long will it take for Strootman to regain his former top form…
Despite all critics, no changes in Dutch eleven. Last game losers: BMI, Blind, RvP and Lens are all in starting line-up. I am pretty sure Icelanders will leverage with 100% accuracy BMI’s deficiency….