Strong Oranje forgets to win

It’s now official (in case you didn’t know already): Oranje can impress against top nations, and usually disappoints when the bus is parked.

It’s not a new thing. Bert van Marwijk’s team struggled with it too, getting minimal wins vs the so called minions (1-0, 2-1) and even Louis van Gaal’s and Koeman’s teams struggled against compact playing opponents while picking off Germany, France and England on the turn-around.

So, in other words, qualifying for tournaments will be hell for us, but if we do get there, we can go far… Not a bad spot to be in. Better this than the other way around!

This Oranje team (selection) and performance surprised me, to be honest. I didn’t think Frank would come up with an innovative line up and I also didn’t think that Oranje would bounce back so strong as they did.

So Frank analysed Italy, he analysed our strengths and weaknesses and he came up with a Plan A and Plan B. He presented both to the squad and discussed with them, hearing their input and ideas.

And so it went: Plan A was the outcome. The players felt confident and committed to it. One downside, everyone’s favorite left footer (Steven Berghuis) ended up as the loser in this all. He played well vs Mexico, changed the game for us vs Bosnia Herzegovina and was a sure-fire starter for this Italy match, according to all the punters (including yours truly) but he lost out. The 3-1-3-1-2 system (say whaaatttt???) De Boer conjured up did not have space for an out and out right winger.

Very disappointing for Berghuis, but completely understandable from the tactical point of view. This system wasn’t a good fit for the Feyenoord captain.

We started with Ake, Van Dijk, De Vrij, with Frenkie in front of them, Daley on the left and Hateboer on the right, playing in his home stadium in Bergamo and Gini central. Donny played in front of them as a #10 and Memphis played from the left, with Luuk de Jong centrally. This allowed Hans Hateboer to play his marauding style without getting exposed.

The first 15 minutes were a bit untidy at times. A bit feeling into the game, trying to settle, with a high line that was regularly broken by the Azzurri. The goal after 17 minutes was the result of this high line. Not enough pressure on the ball, a brillian curling ball into Pellegrini and nothing Jasper could do: 1-0.

But Oranje didn’t let the shoulder slump. On the contrary! We seized control of the game and the likes of Ake, De Vrij, Van de Beek and Blind started to make themselves felt in the personal duels while Frenkie demanded the centre stage more and more. A great move, allowing Daley in the opponents box for a low pull back resulted in the fast equaliser. Memphis turn and shot bounced off some legs and ended up at the feet of Van de Beek who didn’t hesitate and finished the ball in the roof of the goal. The Mancunian’s first international goal!

And from that moment on, Holland dictated the game more and grew into the game.

Not much later, a tremendous break-out chance for Gini and Memphis, but the Liverpool marathon man picks the wrong pass. He could have catapulted Memphis alone in front of the goal but his lazy pass went straight to Chiellini. Another opportunity was squandered by Luuk de Jong, the header specialist, when he wasn’t sure if needed to head Memphis’ cross on goal or lay it off to Donny van de Beek. He did something in between. Gone was the chance.

Late in the first half, Cillesen had to act when the Italians took some pot shots on goal, but the Valencia bench warmer did well.

The second half started with a powerful surge of Oranje, winning corner after corner. From one of those, Wijnaldum had a shooting chance, which ricocheted onto the top of the goal. By then, irrate Verrati (Irrati?) was subbed. He had a yellow already and by then, fouling Frenkie was all he could do, as the Barca midfielder was bossing the midfield. Not much later, Memphis has a good chance, curling a low shot to the far corner, which Donnarumma could barely demote to a corner kick.

Hans Hateboer had his usual brain fart and completely got a back pass wrong, allowing Immobile to have a go alone at goal but Cillessen does what he is paid to do. The next opportunity is for Holland again, when Memphis spots the run from Wijnaldum, into the box. Chiellini is just in time to head the ball corner. In the 70est minute, Frenkie dribbles in JC style across the pitch, but his final ball for Blind was wanting and his cross didn’t reach Depay at the far post. Another corner, courtesy of Chiellini.

Holland has a number of break outs in the final 10 minutes, with chances to win the game, but Wijnaldum gets it wrong as he goes for glory, with Hateboer in acres of space who gets ignored.

After Poland’s win over Bosnia Herzegovina, our group is now led by Poland, with Italy one point behind and Oranje one point behind Italy. Italy needs to play Poland and Bosnia still, as do we. We might have to settle for spot 2 in this group…

All in all, a glorious come back by Oranje, which should have gotten more out of this game.

Personally, I like this system when we play strong opponents. I do believe Luuk de Jong might not be the best option for us, although his heading power and physical presence are important.

Frenkie de Jong was the outstanding player for me, but Ake and De Vrij deserve a shout out as well. Memphis was a busy bee again, but lacked his best form. Hateboer was weak, again. And I noticed he doesn’t have a left foot. He has a decent cross with his right, but whenever he had a chance to play the ball in with his left, he’d turn back and play a back pass.

Wijnaldum wasn’t great on the ball but we know he can do better.

I would have liked Frank de Boer to bring some subs sooner. I had the feeling some players were struggling a bit. Donny was pulling on his thigh, Hateboer and Wijnaldum had run miles and Luuk de Jong was moving slower and slower. Babel for De Jong was a logical change, but why so late? And why not use Malen? With his speed, we could have won this game.

Bergwijn, Malen, Ihattaren will offer more attacking options, but lets also hope Sam Lammers develops well at Atalanta. He might well be the #9 we need.

After the game, captain Virgil van Dijk praised Frank de Boer’s tactics and people management. There was relief and pride with the players, after the game. Some colour on the cheeks. Frenkie de Jong was happy with this system and was clear with his words: “This was great for me. Three defenders behind me, means I can take more risks and play a bit more forward.”

Roberto Mancini couldn’t stop praising Oranje and Frenkie. “This Dutch team has quality and they had the guts to take us on, which I respect. And their midfielder, Frenkie, he is probably one of the best on the planet right now. As a football fan, I enjoyed him immensely, but as Italy coach I wanted my team to do more. I do believe we should have won, with Immobile’s big opportunity. But it was a real match up and this is how football at the top is played.”

Frank de Boer was mostly relieved. “This will bring some peace and quiet. We need to talk about football and we were talking a bit too much about other things. I know I would have had lots of criticism if this tactics would have failed, but I was feeling this strongly. I felt we needed this. And sad for Berghuis, but I told him: if I play you as right winger, you’ll need to constantly track back with Spinazzola. And I need to be rational: do I play Berghuis and expect him to perform with his biggest weakness? Defending? Against this opponent, Berghuis was not the obvious choice. I am not happy with the result, mind you. I think we were better and could have won it. They played like wolves and I’m very impressed with this team. We can make it hard for any opponent with this mentality. And the next two games are must win games, so we’ll need that again.”

De Boer was very happy with what he found, in his first week. “I enjoyed this group a lot. They’re amazing. They’re all close and homogenous. They’re playing games together, and ping pong and all this and on the pitch you see the unity as well.” Asked if 3-5-2 was the new norm, he said: “No, I still believe strongly in 4-3-3 but in certain situations, you need to be able to adapt.”

189 comments

  1. Nice analysis, Jan, thanks!

    Most of all I found it finally entertaining again to watch Oranje play yesterday. And wow, how good is Frenkie… Really a joy to watch.

    I think above all we must give credit to de Boer. He had a very short timespan to prepare – and surely, some decisions in the first two matches weren’t the best, but I like to overlook the Mexico game and think of it as a literal test game. I really hope Frank can grow into the role and we can come really far with this team.

    Already looking forward to the next international break!

    1. I agree. The Mexico game was a monstrous piece of planning. all about money. Frank wasn’t happy with that.

      And Bosnia away could have easily be a win.

      Lets give the guy some credits.

  2. “All in all, a glorious come back by Oranje, which should have gotten more out of this game.” – glorious is a bit of exaggeration. We were due for a good game but again couldn’t win and very likely could have lost as Italy had more clear cut chances. A draw doesn’t do much for us and we will most likely lose out to Italy. But it is an encouraging performance.
    I want to say that Wijnaldum has been a near disaster during these last 4 games. It feels like he is not concentrated at all. Not sure what’s wrong but having an alternative ready wouldn’t be so bad.

    1. You are probably right re: the use of glorious.

      But after 3 disappointing matches and the criticism on the appointment of Frank and the early goal by Italy, I thought it was good to see how they straightened their backs.

  3. Nice analysis! I think we were on par with Italy. A draw is a fair result for both teams. That is a lot better than what I expected. I thought we would have lost badly against Italy. Indeed, we had a game plan and were able to execute that.

    We should look into competitive option for Wijnaldum, he hasn’t performed for us for the last few games. I think he will come back stronger but we should have another option to call into the game when he does not perform like Propper in for De Beek and push De Beek to play higher.

    If we go with 5-3-2, then Weghorst is an option, he does what Luuk does, his link up play is good and he provide aerial threat.

    Hateboer always has these moments, he should not be in the last man position ever. In the PSG game, he had two moments like those. If we stick with him, we should adapt and let him play further up.

    With 5-3-2, Ake will play more important role because of his speed. I feel like this is the go to formation at this time due to the available players. In the last year, our wingers did not progress as expected: Babel is getting older and does not have his magic with national team anymore, Bergjwin has multiple injuries, Dilrosun and Danjuma never had any consistent streak of playing time at top level. We had 4 strong CBs, there are some upcoming players like Botman, St Juste so it seems logical to play more CBs.

    1. “on par with Italy” only in that game. given how hateboer played if Insigne would have around he would have rounded up everybody in the backline. indeed a talking point if you compare the last fixture and plus, if immobile would have punished that Hateboer howler, thing would have been very different with respect to the critics. a big cheers to him.

      1. The same thing could be said about Italy. If Luuk or Depay did a little bit better, we could have won also. The game was somewhat even so i think it is fair to give De Boer credit for this game. There are multiple aspect that he need to get better though as others has pointed out below

    2. Exactly. Well said!

      I agree on Wijnaldum. I think Stengs or Ihattaren might be ready soon. Or Propper / Koopmeiners next to Frenkie and Donny on the #10 position.

          1. I understand that. But isn’t the NT looking for someone to be able to play next to De Jong? In a 4-3-3 certainly. But even in a 5-3-2, it can work as well. (Think of the 2014 WC set up.)

          2. Im thinking what happened to frenkie with busquets before koeman arrived at Barce. Or lets say putting jorginho with Frenkie. Its kind of gonna clash and thats what happened intially with frenkie under Quique seiten and which never really worked out in his favour. When koeman came in, busquets was on the list of players koeman wanted to get rid of. He has gone with double pivot which now is not working in Busquets favour.well he has no choice but go with what the coach wants.

            In NT, its remains to be seen whats gonna eventuate when both frenkie and koopmeiners are deployed together or whether FDB will be forced to change the formation to accomdate others.

  4. Great analysis as always Jan!

    I still think Frank was too late to take action during the match. He should bring on Berghuis earlier against Bosnia. He also should make changes against Italy after 75 or 80 minutes.

    Having said that, I think Koeman had better assessment during the game and with better substitutions we could get more points.

    1. Yes, I do agree with that. Around the 65th minute I was thinking: Come on Frankie, put Malen in or Berghuis. Luuk looked spent and Wijnaldum was not great.

    2. Koeman substitution is actually pretty good. He had changed the course of the game a couple of time with his subs. I agree that De Boer react to Italy tactical change is so slow. It took him sometime to put Veltman in because Blind was tired. And then he did not use any other subs when half of the team look out of gas.

    1. PSG made a easy meal out of 10 man Nimes. Eventually winning 4-0. Just gonna pick out areas where Bakker needs to improve. Concentate bit more on offensively especially going around his marker. He has a bit of that Blind syndrome. Going forward, when the momemtum dies, back pass.

  5. if Frank de boer wants 532 then he stick with a b grade player like haetboer who cannnot dribble,cannot hold ball on feet,poor crosss and pathetic first touch…..karsdorp would be deadly instead of pathetic hateboer…
    Veltman has no business in team..what was frank doing with him as Sub????patheic sub..
    Why luuk starting??????thats stupidity..
    We killed our potency with hateboer,veltman and luuk…also i would add Gini wijnaldum….koopmeiners and veerman ,gravenberch are better than him ATM….our impotency is also due to
    Gini..

  6. Alot of dutches featured for their respected clubs.

    Danjuma featured for Bournemouth from the Bench.the game vs QPR ended 0-0

    Wesley Hoedt and Anderson featured for Lazio but were thrashed 3-0 by sampdoria.both were subbed off just after HT

    Both Zeefuik and Dilrosun featured off the bench for Hertha. Hertha losing 3-0 to Stuttgart.

    Ake is featuring for City vs Arsenal. City winning 1-0 as I speak.

    St juste and Boetuis both featured for Maniz but lost to Sinkgraven and Leverkusen 1-0.

    Mike Van der Hoorn popped at Arminia Bielefeld and are losing 4-1 to bayern.

    Weghorst will feature for wolfburg in next hour so.

    Jeremie Frimgpo and celtic lost to Rangers 2-0.

    1. Wijnaldum was a late sub for Liverpool. Van dijk as mentioned was subbed of early with a suspected knee injury after colliding with jordan pickford.the game ended 2-2

  7. Was afraid of that when I saw the challenge on Van Dijk; a terrible play by Pickford.

    Wonder whether De Boer will continue with a back three. Doubt that de Ligt will be back by the next Nations League matches, but he should be available not too long after that.

  8. Very sorry for V Dijk! 8 months is almost a whole year considering recovery etc and at his age I’m afraid his career will be downward from this moment on. Bad for him, terrible for NT. Another Van Basten story. I am very sad for him. Pickford is a nutcase and I hope karma gets this pos. And I hope VD doesn’t play the good guy and slams that bastard in the media for that reckless intervention.

    1. You see this is what you always should be prepared for and luckily Ake is there to fill his void. Not to his capability but he is there. I think FDB should build the team here onwards on 3-4-3 or 3-5-2. Pwrhaps Botman should be called up in the next fixtures as well.

  9. These type of fragrant fouls shouldn’t go unpunished. There should be a rule where punishments can be given even after a game has finished.
    I don’t agree about results being decided beyond the official full time but FIFA should look at the possible of giving personal sanctions based on the severity of the incident and how it impacted the victim himself.
    What he did was criminal beyond reasonable doubt. And that game being a normal (opening season periode) game just made it even worst.

  10. Gravenberch 7.8
    Klassen 7.5
    Schuurs 6.5

    Veerman 7.3 his team lose 5-1 to ajax but still 7.3 awwwww

    Gapco 8.8
    Malen 7.7
    Dumfries 7.9
    Ihattrren back from injury and play 20 mins 6.00

    Buadu 6.4
    Wijndal 6.9
    Stings 8.2

  11. Im afraid and must say after watching Ajax vs heerenveen, that Veerman needs to prove himself off the ball as well and not only when he has the possession if he really wants push for a spot in NT. This was the type of game where he was suppose to lay his stakes and shine, (stats wise ) but couldnt.he was just a pedestrian during defense and looked totally stray.

    1. It so amazing to watch stengs and boadu play together. Boadu has everything to become a top striker but needs to stay more focused and probably work harder on areas where he currently needs to improve on. There was incidents in the jong orange camp where he was twice late for breakfast and was benched.

      On the other hand, You could tell the difference in his performance from previous week to this with stengs back after suspension. Hope to see this guy explode at WC Qatar and not going stray.

      1. Boadu must improve and focus on his finishing. That’s very important for a striker.

        I believe Stengs is more suitable for the role no 10 in NT. He’s not fast enough as a winger but has so much creativity and decisive passing.

        How do you rate Sydney van Hooijdonk? 7 goals in 6 games. If NAC promotes again to Eredivisie, he can prove himself on the bigger stage.

  12. I watched the replay of the second half of Zenit vs Club brugge just to see how Noa Lang featured.replaced Diatta around 78′ on the right wing. The game was locked 1-1 . Was bit suprised with that sub first of all as Diatta looked the most dangerous of all the brugge players. His only intervention came in the clubs winning goal where he was involved in the build up leading to winning goal. Nothing spectacular compared to Diatta who looked more threatening on the right but atleast he is getting the minutes. Zenit should have won the game but wasted alot of good chances and were wasteful infront of goal while club brugge made it count when they had the chance.

    Must say Vormer was in the thick of things for them and no wonder why he is the captain for the team. Provided the assist for the winning goal.

    1. The way I see it, the reason why Ajax released him is because he doesn’t specialize in any position . He is more a wing/ midfielder typo. In the middle, Something like Eric Lamela at spurs.

  13. Ok

    Az alkmar win
    Feyenoord draw
    Ajax and psv lost.
    We get 14 points till now. Which has 2.8 point totally for us.
    I think our 4 teams played their hardest game. Let’s hope we get 10 point for next week and Belgian and Russian and Ukraine teams loss more points.

  14. Hats off to AZ Alkmaar. Great result; well organized and they did the hard work. Bizot was excellent, Martins Indi had a strong game. Koopmeiner and Wijndal were good, and Svensson, the right back, was superb; he never stopped running. Question for AZ—if you’re checking in—how often does Stengs play the No. 10?

    1. @andrew, Stengs plays very rarely as #10. Last year he played 1-2 games, I believe.
      With respect to the game with Napoli, most kudos goes to Arne Slot for his ability to change his team mentally and structurally taking into account corona crisis that hit Alkmaar.
      Honestly, for past month I was so mad with AZ that I did not want even to talk about them. Let’s see how they play with ADO this Sunday.

      1. Thanks AZ. I was curious because he looked kind of unsure out there in the center of the field, hesitant and constantly looking over his shoulder; which is natural if he hadn’t played the 10 alot, and was used to playing on the wing where the defenders are only coming at him from one side. Agree on Slot’s preparation–the team looked committed to the plan,and they ran their hearts out all night long. Great win.

  15. That Karlsson guy looks good.

    What about De Wit as a striker? Has slot uncovered a new no 9.

    Also any thoughts on sergio padt and his recent performance if you are following eredivisie

    1. Karlsson indeed is a special talent. Cold as ice and great vision.

      Padt did well again for Groningen, but still prone to mistakes and still overweight. His whole body language is also against him as he comes across as grumpy and whiney.

  16. Bakker again started for psg. One assist and rating of 8.5. Again highest of all the backline and behind neymar and Sarabia.will be very disappointed if he doesnt get a callup in next fixtures for NT.

    Lammers also started for Atalanta. 1 good line break and 2 shots on target, one header and one shot which was blocked. Servicing was poor though, was subbed at half time and replaced by Zapata. Atalanta lost 3-1 to samporida.

    Kluivert too started for Leipzig vs hertha. Lasted 66′ and was subbed. zeefuik was came on for Hertha around 47′ and was red carded on the 50′. Dilrosun was late sub around 84′

    Jairo Riedewald started in midfield for Crystal palace and scored his first goal vs Fulham.palace wining 2-1.van annholt also made his injury cameback off the bench late in the game.

    Danjuma also featured for bournemouth after missing out on the last fixture. Suprising started on the right as a striker. Not sure whats happening there and he needs to be scoring if he wants to get back in to NT.

    Both Boetuis and St juste featured for Maniz but lost to Monchengladberch 3-2

    Wesley hoedt started for lazio and won vs Schouten and bologna 2-1

    1. I am worried about Frenkie de Jong. I think he is nothing special in the el clasico.

      I mean, his passing is average. The only thing he can do is side passing or back passing. No killer pass at all a la Xavi to the attacker or to the wide players.

      1. Thats where Joey veerman is takes the edge over him. The only thing that remains for veerman to showcase is how good he can be off the ball defensively.

      2. I agree bobotoh. Frenkie had a MEH game. I really can’t measure his quality anymore. Often he runs in circles, goes back, waists time etc. But worse than him is Koeman. Even when coached NT he was always late to react with subs but got lucky once and was hailed as very smart for reading the game. With Barca yesterday he inserts 3 attackers with like 8 mins to go or so. He got rid of Suarez but couldn’t do much with Messi who needs to go. Terrible team with a mediocre coach. He is nothing better than Settien and worse than Valverde. I will be shocked if he survives the season at Barca.

  17. Provisonal squad named by FDB

    Justin Bijlow, Tim Krul, Jasper Cillessen,Marco Bizot, Daley Sinkgraven, Patrick Van Annholt, Nathan Ake, Daley Blind, Denzel Dumfries, Perr Schuurs, Joel Veltman, Stean De Vrij, Owen Wijndal, Teun Koopmeiners, Frenkie De Jong, Davy Klaassen,Kevin Strootman,Pablo Rosario, Tony De Vilhnea,Georginio Wijnaldum, Ryan Babel, Steven Berghuis,Javairo Dilrosun, Donyell Malen, Luuk De Jong,Memphis Depay, Wout Weghorst, Mohammed Ihattaren, Calvin Stengs,Quincy Promes, Steven Bergwijn

    1. As much its good to some news faces but still rotten selection continues to be feature under FDB. check out klaassen selection, came back to ajax from Werder Bremen and red carpet is rolled over for him. this is what I have been talking about how the SYSTEM works. Anwar El Ghazi, Justin Kluivert should all come back to Ajax,the doors will automatically open for them in NT.

      Bakker ommission is a big disgrace. how the hell on earth you can not be selected when you are playing for PSG. I like sinkgraven’s selection but he is very injury prone and also defensively his light weight exposes his limitation during duals. I am trying to picture him against Traore. Dont know what to say.

      1. No Wilson you are the disgrace! Please stop calling for Bakker when the guy is an absolute insult to modern football. If you were telling me to choose Dest instead (unfortunately he will be playing for the US) I would understand but Bakker is a zero. So stop polluting the blog with your uninformed comments.

          1. Time for you to do something else. Clearly you know nothing about football. The mere fact you think Bakker is a good player says it all. I keep telling you that I have know Bakker for many years when he was a youth at Ajax. He is “slecht”, horrendous, terrible. Do you get it? He has no vision, no technique, no speed. Yet you keep insisting he is a superstar in the making.
            Then you ask about Blind. Blind has the anticipation and vision that are the envy of the world. He has so much to offer in terms of his passing that Bakker doe snot have and will never have.
            But I am wasting my time explaining things to you. You probably have never played football and you have no knowledge of the game. It is so apparent in 99% of your comments.

    1. Hey Wilson don’t listen to the troll, I agree Bakker should be in the lineup.

      Tired of seeing some of the old guard in here like Babbel, Blind etc. I have the utmost respect for what they’ve done but we need to move up and on .. and we keep regressing with these selections.

      Anyway it all starts with the coach!

      1. Im tired of hearing this argument. Jan and few others have said this so many times and I keep repeating this every time as well. Its all about creatung that healthy competition and a good depth in the team. Again Im repeating this, how on earth has other big nations surpassed NT where they were almost no 1 just last season out in Europe. Italy made almost made 9 changes when they played NT to the team that played Bosina. This is what Im talking about.

        Secondly its not about starting them for gods shake, its injecting them slowly and rotating them what I have been emphasizing on about.

      2. I am a troll? excuse me but I am as old as Jan and have been supporting Holland since the 1974 WC. I am an Ajax fan since 1971 and yes I repeat that Bakker is an absolute disaster. If you think Bakker is the solution at LB then it says everything about your concept of football.
        Watch him play and then get back to us with a detailed analysis. I would rather have Sinkgraven 1000 times over Bakker who has zero vision, zero ability, zero technique and can only pass the ball backwards.

  18. It is a bit frustrating reading all these messages about player selections. If we start a team with Noa Lang, Mitchell Bakker, Joey Veerman, Ryan Gravenberch, Anwar El Ghazi and Calvin Stengs, we may not even be able to beat Utrecht in the Eredivisie.

    I get it too, I like looking forward to the next talents and trying to spot them first, I played a lot of FIFA, where my average team age was 18, but we need to be realistic.

    If Joey Veerman was International Class, he would be getting signed by either a top Eredivisie Club or another European team. No one on this forum has better insight than the thousands of scouts out there, so if they don’t rate him, he’s probably not that quality.

  19. Ajax throw a 2-0 lead against Atalanta. This is a repetition of Chelsea game last year. Ten Haag did a good job in building a new team even when losing many first team players. However, if they want to proceed in Europe, they need to learn to defend and counter attack when leading. They have the game in their hand and could just pass the ball around and kill time. Instead they keep attacking and leave space behind for Atalanta to exploit. When you are up 2 – 0 or 4 – 1, you need to learn to kill the game by slowing the down the tempo. I feel so frustrated watching their second half 🙁

    1. Typical Ajax. Before the Chelsea match, the last year before, the same result in the CL semifinal against Hotspur.

      Ajax need to learn how to defend after leading.

  20. From champion league this week

    Netherlands  team get  1 point

    About our opponent:
    Russia     0 point     total 18
    Portugal   0 point     total 16
    Belgium    1 point   total 17
    Ukraine      2 point   total 18
    Austria       0 point    total  13.5
    Scotland   0 point     total    18
    Turkey   0 point         total    9.5
    Swiss    0 point         total     9.5

    Neterlands    1 point      total   15

    Scotland and Ukraine points r too bad for us
    .also u have to know scotland has two big team in uefa cups which get many points for them. Celtic and rangers.

    Feyenoord games are too important for us. Bcoz in their group is Russian and Austrian an ukraine teams. All of our opponent countries.  Their tomorrow game is too important far ranking.

    Psv has to get points for us. They has easiest group and really we need these points.

    Also alkmar play against Spanish team. Which is so hard but I hope they play like last week again.

    Hope points coming for us.

    1. In the domestic league they got a couple of red cards. And they don’t know how to play defensive once that happens. They always play open and offensive and expansive, so they get hammered when playing with 10. I think they’ll come good.

  21. My friends, I have a tech problem with the site and will have it resolved soon and then I will post again.

    In the meantime: Bakker shouldn’t be in the NT. Daley Blind is one of our best players and Klaassen is called up deservedly.

  22. From uefa cup this week

    Netherlands  team get 4 points

    About our opponent:
    Russia     1 point    total 19
    Portugal   4 point    total 20
    Belgium   2 point   total 19
    Ukraine    0 point   total 18
    Austria  4 point    total  17.5
    Scotland  3 point    total    21
    Turkey   0 point         total    9.5
    Swiss    1 point         total     9.5

    Neterlands    4 point      total   19

    Fortunately dutch back on table. We really need ajax point this week and also we need feyenoord points bcoz feyenoord is in most important group for us.

  23. My prediction for FDB and NT. His script has already been written and its gonna be same as Daddy Blind. The only difference is FDB has inherited the team which has already qualified.

    Im just looking at VDBeek and Bergwijn situation at both Tottenham and Man United. I said this before and it is unfolding. Both dont have the cutting edge and with the current competition level in their respective teams, both look frustated figures sitting on the bench and both have been selected in NT squad as well.

    VDbeek to Man United has already backfired and with the current pressure on Solekjaer, he is he gonna stick with his best starting 11 and only a major injury to Bruno Fernendes can give VDBeek a lifeline there.

    Putting this in to NT context,what changes in terms of upgrading in the team can you expect when these are the players that are regulars in the NT and are bound to be selected because of NT caps they have. They will continue to get selected, the team will continue to drag and like under Blind era, FDB will be also be shown the door.

    Klaassen selection was written all over the wall when he got transfered to Ajax. Seriously can you expect a player like klaassen to reinforce and upgrade the midfield. I just dont know what to make out of this.

    Looks like another blink future remains in the forcast.

    1. @Wilson,

      So, it seems like what you are saying is that Koeman did an excellent job; putting the players in a system that made the best use of their talents, and infusing a real fighting spirit into the team—getting the most out of the collection of skills he had available. I agree with that.

      But, as many others here have pointed out, there is a lack of talent in the offensive positions. They don’t have a penetrating winger who beats defenders one on one, (see, Overmars, Robben), they don’t have a natural No. 10 (a Van der Vaart, Sneijder type); they don’t have that Striker who puts the ball in the net (RVN, Kluivert, Huntelaar, RVP)…any one of these types would help immensely. But, with the exception of Depay, who is asked to do a little bit of all of these things over thecourse of any NT game these days such players are not there right now. I’d like to see Malen play more, but who else?

      In the future, maybe something will come from from: Brobbey, Hansen, Gravenberch, Simons (though I haven’t seen him as much as you), the young guy playing up at MC (can’t remember his name, but he was impressive at the U17). But these guys are probably too far from being answers this year.

      I don’t think its time to give up on the team, though. The effect of the Covid pandemic can’t be underestimated. I appreciate that these are professionals, and every team is dealing with it. But these guys are all so far off of the normal routine and rhythms of their entire careers, that I don’t think we’ll see what the norm is until after the New Year.

      At that point—when everyone gets back to normal, when players get healthy, if one or more of the younger players (Stengs, Malen, Boadu, Ihatteren) takes a big step— perhaps the Euro Championship team could reach the level that Koeman brought them to.

      With regard to Klaassen. I could be wrong, but I don’t think you’ll see him in the starting lineup for the NT.

      1. If you are putting up the Covid 19 argument than obviously NT is on the losing end. Other big team will continue to thrive because of the multiple players options they have got.again it all goes back to depth in the team , how the shallow the bench is for NT in terms of minutes they have played and player head to head.

    1. Wilson i don’t know if you have watched any Ajax games but Klaassen has been excellent so far worthy to be included in the national team. I must admit, at first I was skeptical about him as well but with his performances imo he has earned his spot. Personally I would start him instead of De Roon!

        1. He has already proven himself at Ajax. Good finisher and like VDBeek right place at the right time.

          He cant dribble,cant break down play and neither is good tackler for a CM.

          1. De roon cab drible or proper or who?? I think ihatteren can just dribble anyone. I don’t see it even in frenkie.

          1. I never watch any ajax games these days as there is no one to look out for there. Or unless if they playing against somebody whom im following.

            Being said this, why only klaassen and ajax, what about other potential players who are in the form right now and playing exceptionally well for their club.

            You see this is where im coming from. This is the time to invest in somebody who can take the team into future and not the other way around.

            I did look at his player ratings though, was around 6ish. Not sure whether this average or how you wanna interpret it.

      1. If u start klassen over De roon is fine…klassen is more creative but he should not play our no10…
        klassen>De roon>Strootman i agree 100…i think He shows better intelligence than Gini..
        But the problem is Davy propper,Frenkie,koopmeiners,Gravenberch,Bazoer and Vilhena are 1000 times better than klassen and Vilhena Got us to Nations league final…(Cross to Van dijk)…klassen farts when he gets real challenge..

  24. 4 games without a win for koeman with Barcelona

    It seems very very likely that koeman will get sacked before Xmas . That means de boer will be sitting in the job longer , and once de boer get sacked by knvb, koeman will be back again .

    By that time Van dijk and de ligt are both back too.

    1. His dream job will end soon. He come to Barcelona at the wrong time. They don’t have enough money to buy players.

      Velvarde is better. At least, they can win the La Liga title.

  25. Lille vs Lyon tonight. Curious to see how Botman comes up against Depay. Hasn’t seen a lot of how he plays, but noticed he is in the first eleven, and Lille been doing well this season so far.
    seems Schuurs is the more sought after than him. Anyhow, seems Holland defence is secured for the future. ????

    1. Richardley Bazoer is Wolrd class talent..He was spoiled mentally hope he is back mentally..The guy is stunner,He has exempeory vision,good dribbling,can shoot,can cross,sharp passer,tackler….He is complete package..His reading of game is exellent..i want to see him with Frenkie as starter for orange..

  26. VDB is warming the bench where players like McTominay and Fred are starting. No wonder MU is sitting 15th in Premier League. MU seems like a graveyard for good players in the last few years. I do not know why VDB join without any guarantee of first team experience.

    1. I am afraid that the move was driven by the fact that all of his team mates also made a big move: Frenkie and De Ligt. They are the best trio of Ajax.

  27. I am following karsdorp ,he has quality good crosss ,good ball control,venemous pass…should be ok if we play 343 not for 433..Karsdorp struggles phyisically,he looks exhausted at times..So Dumfries is the only option left

  28. We have quality midefilders in Van de beek,Frenkie,koopmeiners,Wijnaldum,Bazoer,Ihatteren,Gravenberch ,Joey veerman and DAVY PROPPER(Perhaps we are unthankful to him as i remmber him saving Nt agsint bulgaria and he gave us much needed venom and goals while klassen was F%^6king us left right.)

  29. 2 days ago was the 56th birthday of Marco Van Basten who has always been my idol and remains one the best attackers ever to grace the game. His tragic career ending at only 28 years of age was a very sad day for me. An autobiography book comes out Nov 5. I read an excerpt about the day he hung up his boots and almost brought tears to my eyes. In a short career he scored 1 golden boot and 3 golden balls. Best dutch player ever after Cruyff. I do not think I will ever again see a dutch player of that quality and brilliance.
    I hope Jan will dedicate some time to Marco at some point.

    1. He is really great player. I started following Dutch football after watching him play. Well in his short career, he was able to bring home the only trophy Netherlands got.

  30. Ajax’s squad has been hit by a number of positive coronavirus cases ahead of their crucial Champions League clash with Midtjylland on Tuesday.

    Klassen gravenberch stekelenburg onana
    Ajax has ti play with their 3rd goalkeeper

    Dying or hope

    1. I think it is the goal keeper situation that is the worst.

      I hope that they can still beat Midtyland. Ajax can still go through the next round as the number two in their group.

  31. Most of AZ players have recovered from COVID-19. My son also had COVID-19 and the course of the disease was not very easy. He recovered too but it was a bit nerve racking.

    1. I’m happy ur son has recovered my friend. My mom also had coud-19. In iran everything is awful and hospital didn’t accept u because they haven’t any empty room.my mon recovered now but it was really hard days.

  32. From Europe game this week

    Netherlands  team get 4 points

    About our opponent:
    Russia     2 point    total 21
    Portugal   3 point    total 23
    Belgium   0 point   total 19
    Ukraine  0 point   total 18
    Austria 4 point    total  21.5
    Scotland  1 point total    22
    Turkey   4 point  total   13.5
    Swiss    2 point total    12.5
    Greece  4 point    total 20.5
    Neterlands  4 point total   23

    Not good week for us but still we and austria and Greece  get more points than other countries dutch and portugal has most points on table. Next round we have 3 game in NT. We beat belgium in 8th place and now we r upper
    Netherlands   34.6
    Belgium    34.3 
    We need more points to beat belgium for sure and also russia . Also psv play against Greece team. What happens to them?  hope feyenoord get points bcoz they play against russian.

  33. Bizot was fantastic today. Real pressed hard AZ and it is mainly due to Bizot’s saves the score did not go beyond 1:0. Due to BMI injury, Koopmeiners was moved to central defense. As a result midfield got so light that Spaniards were freely moving through that corridor. I hope, MBI is back next week when we receive Real in Alkmaar.

  34. @AZ, Yes, I didn’t see the game, but noted in the starting lineups that Koopmeiner was in as a CD. Is there really no other viable option? They are a better team with him in the mf.

    1. @Andrew.Timo Letschert was an option to pair up with Panta but for some reason Slot opted to put Teun back to central defense. I am pretty sure that Slot knew what he was doing and perhaps Timo is not at that shape to be solid in defense yet. But our midfield was unable to stop Spaniards, it was a freeway. Teun occupies a lot of space in midfield so that opponents can not easily penetrate it. This creates a good buffer for the defense and Bizot. Today it was very tough. I hope BMI will be back next week.

    1. “Where you play matter” I mean.

      On serious note Im saying this if this trend continues, the NT will never win anything.

      This is the biggest draw back for the all those rotten F#ck heads in the dutch hierarchy and selecting panel. They simply fail to recogize/ identify the hidden talents.

  35. Sinful omission of Bazoer,Gravenberch,Danjuma,Shuurs,fosu mensah
    Shuurs for veltman
    Mensah for shitboer..
    Bazoer for klassen
    Wijnaldum needs a rest,he is pathetic now
    Gravenberch for Gini.
    Danjuma for Babel….
    these are all sinful mistakes…

  36. Hateboer, Veltman, Babel, Promes ..????????
    Surely there isn’t any harm in having a look at Hoever, Karsdorp, Danjuma etc.

    FDB should explain why ain’t he doing that, aside from explaining on Strootman omission.

    Jan, is the Dutch public questioning on similar to FDB? Just puzzled why these players are overlooked.

  37. another beautiful sensational goal from Danjuma today, the guy is a real talent!!!

    why is he not being included in oranje? because he plays in championship? oh true Babel plays for Real Madrid on the other
    hand 🙂

    1. It sucks right but this is a norm in dutch football and the trend is that they only start looking for the toilet paper when key players get injured and this is when they will start too look out of the box.

      Brutal fact or truth.however you wanna say it. The NT is all about Depay. If he is not there. They are f#cked.

      http://www.football-oranje.com/bijlow-replaces-injured-cillessen-in-netherlands-squad/

      http://www.football-oranje.com/weghorst-frustrated-after-missing-out-on-netherlands-squad-again

      1. @ Willson,
        How do you explain that, Klaasen fail miserably abroad then again he is now a starter at AJAX and back on the NT? Look how Vaan De Beek is struggling now at MU. I pointed this out to you because you’ve brought up all the Dutch player so call talent in reality they can’t play. Do you think MBappe would be a bench warmer in any club? Off course not! The dutch league is too weak. Klaasen spent years abroad on the bench and now he is a starter at AJAX. I don’t get this

  38. Heernveen – AZ 0:3. Two conclusions from this game
    1. AZ is on track. They will keep winning
    2. AZ without Boadu is much better team. More efficient and less wasteful.

      1. @Wilson, No I did not watch the game: too early for me to get up. The article in vi.nl says “AZ is convincingly cracking the Frisian Veerman & Veerman code”….Looks like they were not very effective

    1. AZ, I don’t understand how you can draw any conclusions from the game since you did not watch it. If it is to repeat what pundits in the Netherlands are saying then quote them. But frankly I am not sure what you post truly reveals about the game. Boadu? I have watched him play all season and he is so average. Hyped player in my opinion. Maybe you should start watching “your team” play!!!

      1. @Jeff,
        Do not teach me what to do and how to treat my team. Even if I watch highlights of my team I will have pretty good idea of how they played the entire game. It is really annoying habit of yours to jump on people and criticize them. First, you targeted Wilson, now it is my turn. Buzz off, man, and do not annoy me.

        1. Yes you deserve every word of my criticisms and so is Wilson. This is a free country (as far as I know) and I am not insulting you but simply trying to educate you. I reiterate what I said earlier ie that you cannot provide any meaningful comment on any team if you have not watched the entire game. A 3-0 score means nothing as I hope you know. Unfortunately, in your defense the game was not on ESPN+ so this is why you could not watch it. There you see I am defending you.

          1. @Jeff, appreciate your extreme urgency to educate me but honestly I will survive without it.

  39. Watched the 2nd half (replay) of Atalanta and Inter. Lammers came on around 76′ replacing zapata and was involved in the phases leading up to Atalanta’s equalizer. Did his job well I would say. Perfectly fits in Gasperini’s set up with either muriel or zapata as a rovering striker while lammers when he comes on takes the central role.

    Lets see how long FDB drags with Luuk.

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