Tag: Frenkie de Jong

by Jan

The Road to Qatar: Jurrien Timber (and bro)

It’s virtually impossible to do a story on Jurrien Timber without also covering twin bro Quinten. If the expression “two peas in a pod” had a face, it would be theirs. Even their brothers have had trouble identifying who is who. Brother Chris: “It happened often in a game where I would say “wow top pass by Quinten” and then mum would say “it’s Jurrien!”… Now, their heads are a bit different and their hairdo as well but back in the day, when they played together it was hard. Thanks God for squad numbers.”

Mum Timber came to the Netherlands as a professional dancer and ended up staying in Holland after she met the dad of the boys. She raised her 5 sons alone though and has done a marvelous job indeed! The oldest apparently had the most talent, according to Quinten. He lacked the ambition though and plays at amateur level now. The second oldest is the manager of his pro brothers. The youngest of the brothers is in the FC Utrecht academy.

The two Timbers in the youth system

Jurrien and Quinten, true identical twins, were selected in their first amateur team at 4 years old! Their youth coach at amateur club DVSU: “It is not really possible to have 4 year olds as club members, but their two brothers were members and playing together in a team. Jurrien and Quinten were always around and they were so gifted, we couldn’t refuse them. We allowed them both to play in the same team as their brothers but I always made use two of them were on the bench. Unless for games which really mattered, hahaha. If we could win the title, I did play them all four. I always told the boys to pass the ball, but when we were behind in a title deciding game, I did say to them: whatever you can do, win this game for us. And there they’d go, taking on and passing 4 or 5 players and scoring. Jurrien was more the organiser, the thinker. Quinten was the artist. Dribbling past 5 players and lobbing the ball over the goalie. Typical Quinten.”

“They looked adorable and they were so small. I heard many parents from visiting clubs comment on how cute they were but within 10 minutes all of the Timbers would be on the score sheet and the parents didn’t think they were so cute, hahaha.”

Brother Chris: “Justin and Quinten are indeed adorable and cute. Off the pitch. When mum was busy she’d put on the Lion King for us. My younger brother Dylan would walk off within 30 minutes, bored. Justin and Quinten were so easy, if the movie had ended, they would just sit there. Waiting for mum to spot them and offer them something else.”

When they turned 7, Feyenoord scouted them and brother Dylan. The contrast was enormous. The twins would be sitting close to the bus driver, polite and quiet, whereas Dylan was always getting in trouble.

Timber bros with mum

On a typical day in their amateur club, the Feyenoord, Ajax and Utrecht scout were watching together. Ajax offered the twins a move to Amsterdam, but Feyenoord also wanted Dylan. When Ajax told the family that they wouldn’t be able to pick up the boys for training and matches, while Feyenoord offered a bus service, it became Feyenoord for the three brothers.

The twins had to let their social life go. It was sleep, school, travel, train, travel, sleep. Dylan couldn’t do it, he missed the social life. “But they had each other. They were a unit, they ate the same, they would sleep in the same room (and still do!!) and they’d watch the same stuff. They were both Messi fans and this would have helped them to enjoy their life at Feyenoord.”

At a young age, the two were disciplined. If there was a movie on but the clock said 9.30 pm, they’d get up to go to bed.

Life was good and Feyenoord did ever so well with the Timbers, who played in a team with Wouter Burger (Basel) and Summerville (Leeds United). But when Feyenoord claimed they wanted to turn Quinten into a central defender, the family started to have doubts. “We saw players like Sergio Ramos, John Terry and Vince Kompany as central defenders but Quinten was of a different build. When Feyenoord also couldn’t assist us financially with transport costs when the boys went to high school we decided to have a look around. Ajax had the best pitch, so the boys decided to move to Amsterdam,” says their mum.

Timber family with their first trophy

The move to Ajax was highly publicized. As if the family had gone for the money. And Timber Traitors and all that jazz. But mum is adamant: “Ajax was always the first club to come around for them and every season I got a call from the Ajax youth academy. They were truly interested in the development of the boys and money was never a reason for us to switch.”

In the first seasons, the Timbers had it tough in Amsterdam. Not in terms of football. They were simply the best of their generation, but mostly due to their growth spurts and injuries. Eventually, they managed to learn to deal with the physical side of the game and they even were able to organise a gym at their home.

When Jurrien broke through into the first team, coach Ten Hag suggested a loan for Quinten, as it would be key for him too to play under pressure, week in week out. FC Utrecht was the candidate, but they were also keen to simply sign the midfielder. Ajax allowed Quinten to go and the rest is history. The midfielder is now back at Feyenoord as one of the key players in Arne Slot’s set up.

Jurrien Timber developed into a fine central defender who already had to brush off interest from Italy, Spain and England and seems to have taken the RCB spot from De Ligt and De Vrij. Quite an achievement. Not the top defenders of Bayern or Inter but that kid from Ajax will most likely take that spot.

His team mate Nathan Ake: “It’s amazing right? He is a super talent. He plays with a maturity I haven’t seen in a kid his age. I mean, it took me a while. And he’s also that type of guy off the pitch. A quiet guy, with focus on getting better and living like a pro. I can also see him deal with all the media stuff and he’s simply unfazed.”

Last summer, the Eredivisie Ltd and ESPN picked him as Holland’s Best Player AND Greatest Talent. Quite unique. Even Van Dijk was surprised: “When I look back at where I was at that age, wow… I only have good things to say about him. His potential is just mindboggling. I am sure he will not get derailed. He won’t allow it.”

Frank de Boer used Timber as a stand in for De Ligt, when he suffered a groin injury, but used the Bayern man when he was fit. Not Van Gaal. The veteran coach recognised the quality of Timber and placed both De Ligt and De Vrij solidly on the bench. Timber solidified his spot in the Nations League matches.

Daley Blind: “Wow, it goes so fast with Jurrien. We saw him develop last year in our CL campaign and he keeps on going. He works hard and truly a sponge, with his ears and eyes open to learn. He is always himself, a very steady guy.”

Skipper Van Dijk: “Everyone knows his role in this squad. When you play, you play and the ones who don’t play will be the support act, so to speak. I know it’s not easy for Mathijs and Stefan, but they deal so well with it. They will always be ready to help Jurrien or any other player. They are key too and it’s great to see these dynamics in the team.”

Lewandowski defeated

Jurrien Timber himself: “Yes, it’s true, we are a tight unit and I feel supported, also by my direct rivals, so to speak. It’s not easy to get into this team, everyone gives 100% to get in and we all deal with this professionally.”

His faith is important for him. On match days, he will post Bible verses. “Faith is my grounding. I study the Bible every day and it strengthens and grounds me. I notice that people respond to the posts I make on the Bible verses and I love that I can bring that message across.”

Against Poland away, he played against arguably one of the best strikers of the world. Lewandowski got 1 touch in the Dutch box and had zero shots on target. Timber had the most contacts of all Dutch players (97) and the most passes (82) and the highest pass accuracy ( 96%). He had the most interceptions (3) and the least number of possession losses (3).

When he was complimented on this after the game, he was very cool about it: “I don’t do this by myself. It’s a team performance. I love the challenge to play against Lewandowski, but he wasn’t the only one with quality. We dealt with Zielinski, who knows how to play and later Milik also came on. Also a monster of a striker.”

Hazard defeated

He also dealt with Eden Hazard and is looking forward to the World Cup. “When I played my matches at the Euros, I really noticed the difference in intensity. I remember thinking “Pfff this is tough”. It was a surprise that I played there and it was amazing. This World Cup will even be bigger. I will do what I can to be part of it.”

Time to reflect is not available yet. “I don’t have time, I need to go on. Another match soon! I am not ready yet.”

And Nathan Ake summarised it all very well: “He is a top talent and a great guy. He deserves everything coming his way.”

by Jan

Oranje in stats…

The Dutch National Team has reached the Final Four of the Nations League. A view on the stats tells us that the full backs were instrumental in the group stages.

The Mainstay

The only player to play in all Nations League games is Steven Bergwijn. The 24 year old had the most shots of all Dutchies (13 shots, 2 goals) and had the most successful dribbles (9). He also created 8 opportunities for other, but none of these were converted into goals. He is the man who had the most assists, without these ending up as actual assists…

The Topscorer

Memphis Depay only played 46% of all possible Nations League minutes and he missed a penalty versus Poland but he is still the key man, with three goals and one assist. He needed 12 shots for his 3 goals, with a total Expected Goal value of 2,5, the highest xG of all Oranje players.

The Creator

Cody Gakpo created in total 14 chances for his team mates, five more than any other. Twelve were from open play and two came from corners. Despite all this creativity, he only had one assist, the corner which Virgil converted versus Belgium at home. The PSV forward was also the strongest in duel power. Of all internationals with more than 10 personal duels, his win percentage is highest (65%).

The Playmaker

It’s no surprise that Frenkie is the engine of this team, with the most touches (325) and the most successful passes (259). He was also involved with most attacks from open play ( 192). These stats tell us how important he is when Oranje wants to move forward. Once the ball gets there, Frenkie’s work is done. He had zero shots on goal and a low number of touches in the opponent’s box (3).

The Victim and the Perpetrator

Denzel Dumfries was involved with 3 goals, two scored by himself and one assist. The right back had the highest expected assist value of 1,7 and he was the biggest victim (fouls against him 9) and the biggest perpetrator of fouls (11) in the squad. Dumfries has the highest number of personal duels won (33, 10 more than any other player).

The Servicemen

Oranje scored 14 goals, of which 11 were assisted. Daley Blind and Vincent Janssen have the most assists (2 ). Blind had two within 4 minutes versus Belgium away. Janssen had an assist versus Wales at home and in the Poland away game, for Bergwijn.

The Wingbacks

With Blind having the most assists and Dumfries the most expected assists, it clearly shows the hand of Louis 5-3-2 Van Gaal. The impact of the full backs is also visible in the xG Chain stats. This is the sum of the total xG (expected goals) values of all attacks in open play and all players involved, for instance as scorer or as pre-assist giver. Blind leads this table, with Dumfries as #4.

The Visionary

Jurrien Timber has grown to be a firm starter in Van Gaal’s Oranje and will probably start at the World Cup in Qatar. The Ajax defender “saw” the most passes by an opponent and intercepted 8 forward passes.

The Nihilist

Guus Til played one minute versus Wales and was on the pitch when both Wales and Holland scored late in the game. He himself had only one touch. His impact was truly minimal but he still had some share in reaching the final four.

The Creative Goalie

In the list of players who created a chance, Mark Flekken is also present. In the away game versus Wales, he had a long pass to Gakpo who almost scored. Flekken ( 1 in 180 minutes) created just as many chances as Davy Klaassen (1 in 244 minutes).

The Benchwarmer

Kjell Scherpen was with the group 3 times, just as many as Virgil van Dijk. But he didn’t play a single minute for Oranje. He is the player topping the list of players who were present but didn’t play a minute.

by Jan

Oranje press conference Poland

Van Gaal’s pressers are usually interesting. He can be funny, over the top or very agitated.

Frenkie de Jong was with Louis, this time.

Frenkie, how did you manage the difficult transfer period, which was pretty intense?

“Well, I knew what I wanted myself. So I didn’t suffer much from all the mayhem. The media were constantly talking about it, but it wasn’t tough for me. Simply, I knew what I wanted. Sometimes the club wants something differently than the player, it’s a fact of life. I can deal with that. But I’m very happy that it went as it went, and I am playing again so, all good.”

Frenkie, what does lack of match rhythm for you?

“It’s more a physical thing, a strength thing I suppose. It’s not like you suddenly can’t play. It’s not a technical thing, but a physical thing. I am pretty fit and I think I have a good match rhythm. Maybe if you don’t play for months on end, you may lose some of the technical skills, but usually it’s not about that.”

What can you tell the defenders about Lewandowski?

“I don’t have to tell them any thing. Our defenders are very experienced and all top notch quality. They know exactly what to do and how to play a striker like Lewandowski. The key is that as a team we defend in such a way that he won’t get too many chances.”

The coach said you haven’t executed his tactical plan too well as yet. What is your opinion?

“I think so too, we have reached a good level in parts of the games, but we can definitely get to a higher level, and we need to work on this. I think the Belgium was good, the second half versus Germany too.”

And with this Frenkie left the presser to go back to the team activities.

Louis was very complimentary about Frenkie and in particular the way he handles interviews and media, in this particular case.

Louis, were you able to do all the things you want to do, in this busy week?

“Yes, of course. Football is key and priority and I made sure I was able to do what I wanted to do. The rest has been planned around it. The lads were very good, they are committed and they take responsibility. And the players understand that all these fringe things are also important. It’s not too distracting, because we mix it up. Only last night was the first night they were able to do something for themselves. And our team manager has been amazing with the planning, when to do the blood tests, when to try the new kit, when to see the dentist, etc etc. The penalty test results are not yet done so I can’t say much about this.”

How do you see this Poland versus the Poland we met in Rotterdam?

“Lewandowski. He is playing from the start and he wasn’t there in Rotterdam and he is the best striker in the world, so that is a true test. We scored enough, but we also conceded too many goals and with Lewandowski in their team, it will be key to work on that. We did an 11 v 11 match on training. We had the A team playing our so-called reserve team who played as Poland. It was a very good practice session, but sadly we didn’t score. But… we didn’t concede either. 0-0. But we should have won. By the way, that Szymanski midfielder, the Feyenoord player, he’s also special. I like him.”

There is a great hierarchy in this team, what does that mean exactly?

“Well, it’s a logical thing right? The older players are the leaders and the younger players follow. We don’t have young players rebelling against the older ones for instance. Players like Taylor and Rensch are youngsters and know their place.”

You said you wanted to work towards a firm starting eleven. How far away from this are you?

“That is not handy to say publicly, because I want to make sure all players will have a drive, a reason to ask 100% of themselves. And obviously, there are key players whom have performed always in Oranje, who are the pillars. I will not name their names, but you will know who they are.”

Louis, did you always believe penalties are trainable?

“Yes, I have always known this and still believe this. Sure, you cannot emulate the pressure of the moment or the sound in the stadium, but you can automate your kick. If you train the kick constantly there is a level of consistency you can work with. And also, we can teach the player how the opponent’s goalie can try and influence him and for them to try and overcome this.”

How do you compare this squad with the 2014 squad?

“I think this squad is better than the 2014 squad. That was more a transition team, with an older trio or quartet of older stars and a number of younger players, less tested. This team is more balanced in age, and in experience. We have players in top teams again and I think the fight in this team is better and the team dynamics are fantastic as well.”

Tim Krul will not be part of the World Cup squad. The Norwich goalie didn’t want to come to the penalty test day in Zeist, for whatever reason, and this decision means Van Gaal will not invite him to Qatar. Van Gaal understands the reasons Krul gave and is a bit disappointed in that, but he respects Krul’s decision. Van Gaal also conceded that interestingly enough, Krul has the best penalty killer stats.

Five Oranje players need to watch themselves for a second yellow card: Virgil van Dijk, Steven Berghuis, Steven Bergwijn, Frenkie de Jong and Teun Koopmeiners. After this group stage, the yellow cards will be scrapped.

With Wijnaldum not part of this squad, we see a huge gap between topscorer Memphis and the #2 goal scorer, Davy Klaassen.  Memphis has 42 goals, Klaassen has 9 goals!

38 year old Pasveer can become the second oldest debutant in Oranje, behind Sander Boschker who was 39 year old. Barry van Galen is then third and Henk Timmer (goalie as well) would be fourth.

Daley Blind will get close to 100 international games. If Oranje reaches the semi finals, we will probably have his 100rd cap. If he is rested one match, he might play the World Cup final in his 100rd cap for Oranje. He’s currently the most experienced Oranje player in the squad.

When LVG speaks of his key players, I think it is fair to say that Virgil van Dijk, Denzel Dumfries, Daley Blind, Frenkie de Jong and Memphis Depay are clearly in that little group.

I can imagine Jasper Cillesen and Steven Bergwijn will join that group and as he believes Koopmeiners is a bit like Van Gaal, I expect Teun also to be part of that elite circle.

For the Poland match, I think we’ll see:

Pasveer

Rensch – Timber – Van Dijk – Ake – Blind

Taylor – Frenkie – Koopmeiners

Memphis – Bergwijn

I expect us to play 2-2 versus Poland, with Memphis and Koopmeiners scoring.

by Jan

Dutch devour Turkish Delight

What a night. We had early goals before (WC finals 1974 anyone?) and it hasn’t always resulted in greatness. This time, things seem different. An early goal. Another goal in the first 15 minutes and a very energetic and focused performance.

Things are taking a turn for the better in LVG’s third spell at the helm.

And what a quality goals they all were! Amazing to see how “question marks” like Berghuis, Klaassen, Dumfries and Bergwijn stepped up to the plate and played their key parts in this wonderful win.

The line up was logical. Van Gaal only put experienced Blind back in for Malacia and used Bergwijn in place of Gakpo on the left. He is clearly cementing his favourite eleven (or fifteen, rather) and slowly but surely his go-to guys are making their mark.

Justin Bijlow will be the new #1, hopefully for years to come. Stefan de Vrij was picked ahead of De Ligt and again he was one of the Men of the Match. De Vrij was solid on the ball, focused in his defending and overall Mr Cool at the back.

Frenkie showed his class as did Memphis again and the Oranje right flank, wanting versus Norway, impressed from the start with Dumfries and Berghuis demonstrating their connection.

But it helps, a goal in the first minute of course. And a quick second – also a beauty – helps even more. Oranje demonstrated their swagger without becoming arrogant.

The pace was good, the creativity was visible more and more and the workrate was just outstanding. If the Dutch can keep this mentality up, we are definitely back!

The criticasters on this blog will probably point out Dumfries “hard feet”, or Berghuis’ risky passing, or Blind’s one moment of lack of concentration (letting the ball slip), but overall, I think we can be happy with the step up Oranje made.

There was one moment in the 65th minute which will have made Van Gaal pissed off. Berghuis has the ball in midfield, there is no movement whatsoever. Dumfries is walking, no runs or options. The ball stays there in that zone. Koopmeiners comes to help, Van Dijk comes to help but between the three they suddenly lose the ball for no reason. We tidied it up, without a problem but that little moment must have angered the gaffer.

Being 4-0 up against 10 men, and then exchanging key players (Frenkie, Wijnaldum) never helps the flow of the game of course but these are little moments that need to be ruled out.

Two more goals (subs Til and Malen) and a horrific scare in the last seconds, when goalie Bijlow makes his only mistake in selling Van Dijk short, allowing Under to score a consolation goal, and an annoying knock for Captain Van Dijk. Van Gaal will not be happy (and neither will Klopp be).

The attacking play was excellent. False striker Memphis was everywhere again, Berghuis and Bergwijn played disciplined on the wings. Dumfries was marauding as per usual and Frenkie and Gini kept ticking things over.

A solid performance allround with some incredible moves and exciting play.

Captain Virgil was happy with the performance. It all seemed to fall into place: “This is what we wanted, and the early goal helps a lot of course. We played with intensity, with focus and it’s wonderful when it all clicks.”

Hattrick hero Memphis was less positive. “I think we did well but I think we have room to grow. And I am talking about myself more than anything. My first touches were poor and I feel there is more in us than we showed. And even though we score 6 and I score 3, we need to keep on focusing on improving because we want to do this against the top nations as well.”

Coach Louis van Gaal was beaming from ear to ear: “We have seen an outstanding performance. This group is so good and so great to work with. They have an opinion, they operate as a group, they welcome new players, it’s quite impressive. This is the best group I’ve ever worked with. And sure, I can see room for improvement. We lost the ball too often and we also didn’t play in a very high pace. Against 10 men you need to up the pace and find the free man, but overall we did play some good football and we scored some amazing goals!”

Van Gaal deserves the Man of the Match award, he clearly did everything right. But of the players on field, for me, Klaassen, De Vrij and Memphis (again) were the pick of the bunch.

by Jan

Dutch NT Managers – pt 2

And as the KNVB is closing in on a deal with a certain Louis van Gaal for his third stint as NT manager, the time seems right to focus on Part 2 of Dutch NT Managers… 

And on we go, into the era that most of us you will remember more vividly…

European Championships 2000 – Frank Rijkaard

The tournament was in our own country (and Belgium) and as a result, we needn’t play any qualification games. Only friendlies, with the 5-5 vs Belgium a truly fun one (with an outstanding Davids). The Euros themselves were fine. We grew into the tournament. We got lucky vs the Czechs but demonstrated our great form later on in the tournament. Playing Italy in the semi finals was something to look out for. The team in form got Italy a red card early in the game and with the tremendous domination we had, it seemed only a matter of time, before…. but no. We missed all the chances, including two penalties and also went on to miss more of those in the shoot out. A crying Rijkaard was seen sitting in the bus after the tournament. He immediately resigned from his duties and disappeared to Spain via Sparta Rotterdam.

Frank may not have won anything as a coach with Oranje, but the dynamics in the group were great and we did play some exciting football. Once can only imagine what would have happened if he stayed on…

World Cup 2002 – Louis van Gaal

It wasn’t easy for Louis, to pick up the disappointed and somewhat ageing squad after the Euro2000 debacle, also with heaps of injuries and absent players, but the experienced coach should have done better. He failed to qualify with a top notch squad and really overplayed his hand in the Portugal away game, where he ruined our chances. The press antics of the man are a disgrace too, with his pathos and drama and crocodile tears. He’d go back to Barca and would eventually leave there with a lot of commedia dell’ arte as well. 

Based on this tournament alone, Louis would be the worst NT coach ever.

Euros 2004 – Dick Advocaat

Someone felt it was best to pick an experienced coach to pick up the team and work with it towards the Euros in Portugal in 2004. As we did have older players retiring and a bunch of new kids (Sneijder, Robben) getting into the limelight, an innovative and young coach would have made more sense.

There was a lot of push back in the media: why pick another former NT? Why not a younger coach? Dick reluctantly took the job and immediately picked Willem van Hanegem, his good friend, as assistant coach. The idea was to use the highly popular legend to deflect criticism away from Advocaat, who is famously suspicious of criticasters and media.

We ended up going with an impressive squad: Sar, Stam, Cocu, Davids, Kluivert, Van Nistelrooy, Van der Vaart, Makaay, Sneijder, Overmars, Robben, to name a few. And Paul Bosvelt, yes.

Advocaat didn’t want to use too many new talents. Robben (returning from injury, of course) and Sneijder were benchwarmers. Van der Meyde and Zenden, to name two lesser players, started. We ended up losing the semis against the host country Portugal. That didn’t hurt that much. We had just beaten the Swedes on penalties (finally!!) which was great, but the main damage was done in our second group match vs the Czechs.

The story is famous by now. We drew against the Germans and the second match vs the Czechs, we had a recovered young Robben on fire. He was unstoppable by the opponent. But Advocaat decided to stop him. He took Robben off after an hour of play, at 2-1. The Dutch, incl Robben, were dumbfounded. A controlling mid (Bosvelt) for an attacker in fine form. 30 minutes later, Oranje had lost the match. Everyone wondered why Dick made that change.

Advocaat decided to let Van Hanegem do the press conference, fearful as Dickie was for criticism. When Van Hanegem was asked about the change, he also expressed bewilderment as to why Advocaat would have done it. Asked what Willem would do next time Dick attempts to do something like this, Willem responded: “I will knock him unconscious!”.

That caused a rift between Dick and Willem and a rift between players (who all favoured Willem) and Dick. The game vs Latvia was won and because Germany beat the Czechs, Holland went through. The loss against Portugal was not necessary but on the day, it was justified. The biggest talking point was and still is: Robben’s substitution.

Dick again demonstrated to be less “Dutch” in his coaching than his players or assistant. Lack of courage, lack of tactical insights. He will never really do something overly stupid (like Van Gaal did in the 2002 campaign vs Portugal) but he will also never dazzle. This can be seen even today, as he currently is Feyenoord’s coach.

World Cup 2006 – Marco van Basten / John van ‘t Schip

When another experienced coach disappointed, the KNVB this time did go to see Cruyff for advice. By then, JC had retired and suffered a heart attack before, so he wasn’t going to pick up the baton. But he did have some advice. Like he presented Rijkaard as a candidate to the Barca board, he now opted to have his other protegees (Van Basten/Van ‘t Schip) to take the job at the KNVB. Quite interesting, as both never coached a first time at that stage. Van ‘t Schip and Van Basten, in that order, were head and assistant coach at Young Ajax, and were impressing there. So JC decided that these two could manage Oranje. Based on San Marco’s name and image, it was decided that the roles would be reversed: Marco was to be head coach and Johnny was going to assist him.

Initially, the duo impressed. We won the qualification (12 matches), only dropping four points. We drew vs Macedonia in the last game, when we were already qualified and we drew against them early on away from home too.

The player selection was typical Van Basten: he basically didn’t select Clarence Seedorf because “he didn’t like him”. That was not the official reason of course, but Marco did mention many times – with a wink – that Clarence was “too much work”.

The Group stages went well. Bolstered by youngsters like Robben, Sneijder and Van Persie, the NT won their first two games vs Serbia and Ivory Coast, leaving the final game in the group of Death as a non-decider: losing or winning vs Argentina, it didn’t really matter. We ended up drawing which meant we finished second. And suddenly we realised it did matter: now we had to face angstgegner Portugal! And we got ousted after what was called the Worst Game Ever in a World Cup! Refereer Ivanov (retired after this game) couldn’t handle the battle of Nuremberg and ended up showing 16 yellow cards and four red ones! Overall, the opinion was that 1) shenanigans in the Dutch squad between Van Nistelrooy/Van Bommel and the coaches had brought an edge to the Dutch players and 2) the referee made some early mistakes which allowed for this game to explode even further. Boulahrouz had an early kick onto C Ronaldo’s knee and should have been red-carded immediately. The ref didn’t pick up on it and his yellow fuelled the anger of the Portuguese. Portugal won 1-0, while Cocu and Kuyt had huge opportunities to score, but missed. The rift between Ruud van Nistelrooy, Mark van Bommel and Van Basten overshadowed most of this World Cup for us, and we were tarred and feathered by the international media.

Van Basten did come up with some positives, besides the afore mentioned clashes. His relationship with Van Persie, Van der Vaart, Sneijder, Robben and other young talents was very good and during the qualification matches for the Euros 2008, he patched things up with Van Nistelrooy (not with Van Bommel though). The qualification matches didn’t go that smooth this time and we placed second after Romania, having lost points versus Belarus, Bulgaria and Romania…

We ended up in another Group of Death, with France, Italy and Romania. The latter was stronger than us in the qualifications, while France and Italy were the recent World Cup finalists. We tend to do well under pressure.

We impressed with stunning wins over Italy and France, with the usual suspects delivering big time (Robben, Van Persie, Sneijder, Kuyt, Van Nistelrooy). Van Basten played a compact, fast counter attacking game with the speed, guile and technical skills as main weapons.

Khalid Boulahrouz played an interesting part, this Euros. He wasn’t part of the pre-prelim squad. But while Maduro, Emanuelson, Jaliens and Koevermans were axed from the pre-lim squad (and Seedorf decided not want to be selected), Van Basten did select Boulahrouz in his pre-lim squad. He would be the last player to be dropped from the group. However, when Ryan Babel got injured and had to miss the Euros, Van Basten didn’t call another attacker but picked Boulahrouz again.

His wife, pregnant in her sixth month, would deliver a still born baby, only a couple of days before the quarter finals vs Guus Hiddink’s Russia. The bond between the players (Boulah was close to Van der Sar, to Van Nistelrooy, Van der Vaart and others) was hurt, as the players spent hours with Khalid at the hospital and were in mourning. The game against Russia was a heavy-legged affair. Oranje lost its spark and the shrewd Hiddink was able to bamboozle Holland with his tactics. We lost in strange circumstances, as the ref decided to red card a Russian player for a foul, but he decided to cancel the red card and allow the player on the pitch. After 1-1 in normal time, the Russians were fitter than the Dutch in the extra time and beat us: 1-3.

Van Basten / Van’t Schip gave us memorable games. Some of them for good reasons ( WC 2006 vs Serbia, and Ivory Coast, all group games in the Euros) and some of them for bad reasons (Portugal 2006, Russia 2008). But overall, the experience was good. Van Basten decided he wasn’t a head coach, many years later. He blamed the pressure and media stuff. Part of the problem was Marco’s lack of man-management skills. He could act and communicate as a cynical player does, calling out players who make mistakes publically. His relationship with Van Bommel never really recuperated (as it did with Van Nistelrooy).

World Cup 2010 – Bert van Marwijk

Van Bommel’s future in Oranje suddenly looked positive when his father in law Bert van Marwijk was the shoe in for the NT coach job.

Van Marwijk had impressed as coach of Fortuna Sittard, a lowly club usually at the lower ranks of pro football but with the likes of Bert at the helm and young talents like Wilfred Bouma, Kevin Hofland and in particular Mark van Bommel, they did ever so well. Bert was a talented left winger whose career got stalled due to a terrible knee injury. He made his way from the local amateurs, to Fortuna, than Feyenoord at a certain point the Dutch NT. Bert is a no nonsense manager. He loves creative football but he absolutely adores winning. He further perfected Van Basten’s 4-2-3-1 and with Nigel de Jong and Mark van Bommel as partners in the engine room, Oranje did lose some magic but they gained grit. And after a record breaking qualification series with some amazing football, Oranje went to the World Cup in South Africa. That generation was at its peak but for some reason, the tournament started for Oranje with some figthing games more than actual creative, dazzling play. The Denmark game was a typical example of how we had to battle for results and somehow we forgot to play good football but turned into a street fighting team, almost. Rafael van de Vaart and Eljero Elia were subbed for gritty players like Kuyt and De Jong, but hey…we kept on winning. The low point being the finals vs Spain. We never got into our groove and disgusted the world with our aggro play, symbolised by Nigel’s flying kick on Xabi’s chest. Yes, it was an accident, but it looked terrible. Robben could have turned it into a victory story though, but Casillas’ toe had other plans.

Bert won silver with Oranje which puts him right next Michels and Happel.

Euros 2012 – Bert van Marwijk

This tournament ended up being a footnote in our history. Van Marwijk declined several offers from clubs to move on with Oranje with the aim to win this trophy. Gio van Bronckhorst retired after the World Cup and Mark van Bommel got the armband (he was skipper at Bayern at the time as well). The qualifications were a dream again, with wins over San Marino, Finland, Moldavia, Hungary and Sweden. We did lose the last qualification game but that was without any consequence. The home game vs Sweden (4-1) is considered one of the best matches Oranje played under Van Marwijk. 

That team had Rafa van der Vaart as one of the holding mids, a spot he should have had at the World Cup and at the Euros. Afellay was also impressing in these qualification matches as was Erik Pieters as left back. Some other names used by Van Marwijk: Hedwiges Maduro, Vernon Anita, Emanuelson, Stijn Schaars and Edson Braafheid.

We won that qualification tournament easily. But at the Euros, we came crashing down. The reasons were quite simple. Both Van der Vaart and Huntelaar felt they belonged in the team. Huntelaar had scored 12 in the series and Van der Vaart was amazing as holding mid. But at the Euros, Bert went back to his trusted engine rooms with two defending mids, while the more talented Van Persie was giving the #9 role. 

Erik Pieters got injured before the tournament and Van Marwijk opted to take the 17 year old Jetro Willems. The young PSV player who joined the club from Sparta only a year before would become the youngest player ever at a Euros. Vlaar played for the injured Mathijsen and Huntelaar and Van der Vaart started on the bench vs Denmark.

The crazy thing: we played Denmark off the pitch, but we didn’t score. RvP specifically seemed to have the boxes still around his boots and when the Danes scored, we couldn’t turn it around. 

For the second game, Bert started with the same eleven but had to sub his captain in favour for Rafael van de Vaart who couldn’t hide his disgust for being left out again. Same as Hunter. The rifts were becoming clearer, the second match was lost as well, vs Germany and we have one more game in which we could salvage our tournament. Both Van der Vaart and Huntelaar started and it was the former part Spanish, part Dutch midfielder man who scored the first goal, but C Ronaldo on fire turned the game around. Holland went home, with zero points on the tally. Forgettable.

Bert didn’t manage this team well enough, overall. After the World Cup, the team needed something different. But how, what and when is a different matter.

Bert deserves a statue in the Zeist statue park of Oranje, he got us silver, but he was also responsible for one of the worst Euros we ever played…

World Cup 2014 – Louis van Gaal

After Bert, in 2012, a number of players were slowly losing their spot in the team. Louis van Gaal got the job as a more disciplinarian was needed, the KNVB felt. Louis introduced some new players, such as Martins Indi, Luciano Narsingh, Jeremain Lens, Ruben Schaken all along the players who did remain, such as Sneijder, Van der Vaart, Robben and Van Persie.

Louis coached us through the qualifications without a worry. One draw, the rest wins. With Robin van Persie as top scorer in the qualifications, with Rafa van der Vaart and Jeremain Lens as runners up. Daryl Janmaat, Stefan de Vrij, Jonathan de Guzman and Stijn Schaars were other names that made their way into the squad.

After a friendly, Louis realises that the traditional 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 wouldn’t work with the issues we were facing. Robben, Sneijder, Van der Vaart and Van Persie were still super key, but lacked the legs to play a modern game of football in a swelty Brazil. Our back line was futhermore quite inexperienced and had a certain Daley Blind as key build up man, but as well know, Daley also lacks speed.

So Van Gaal introduced the 5-3-2. The Dutch purists, still recovering from Van Marwijk’s “anti-football” in South Africa, got their panties in a knot but Louis used the pre-World Cup period to perfect the 5-3-2. Overall, it wasn’t always successful but beating Spain the opening game 1-5 resulted in the silencing of the criticasters.

Not without luck (Australia, Mexico), Oranje sailed through the tournament and Van Gaal further made name for himself with the smart goal keeper change in the Costa Rica match, when penalties needed to decide the winner. Krul came on for Cillesen, not because Krul was a recognised penalty killer so much (Krul has more reach than Cillesen) but as a psychological move. The Costa Ricans immediately thought that Krul was brought in as a cert to stop penalties and guess what: he did stop two, and Oranje went on to play Argentina in the semis.

Van Gaal ended up bringing the bronze back to Holland, after a good win over hosts Brazil but the 5-3-2 criticism did prompt the KNVB to bring a more fatherly coach back who was instructed to bring the Dutch school back in to play.

Louis didn’t qualify for the 2002 World Cup, which was a huge embarrassment. But he did win us the bronze medal, so he’s now on even keel with… the other 15 million NT managers in Holland. He will need to win something now, in order to top this list!

Euros 2016  / World Cup 2018 – Guus Hiddink / Danny Blind / Dick Advocaat

Well, this must well be the worst period in Oranje’s existence. Worse than the drought in the early 80s and the miss of 2002… Because those misses were all related to lack of quality, motivation and emotional intelligence of the players and coaching staff. Back then, the KNVB was a hands-off kinda admin office. But after the bronze medal in Brazil and the tremendous criticism on Oranje’s playing style by icons like Van Hanegem and Cruyff, the KNVB decided to step in firmly with some strong directives! 

The KNCB Ceo was on top of the world and made some “technical” decisions he should have left for others to make: 1. Guus Hiddink was to return to the NT because “the players needed a soft touch, after dictatorial Louis”, 2. Danny Blind would be his assistant and his replacement after Hiddink would retire, 3. the NT was told to return to 4-3-3 and 4. the KNVB would install a technical director and work on a strategy moving forward (the “Winners of Tomorrow” report).

Well, we are six years later, that KNVB Ceo has been promoted away to some vague job somewhere. Hiddink was fired, just like Blind after him. TD Hans van Breukelen was tarred and feathered after his abysmal handling of the selection of the coach to follow Blind and the Dutch missed two major tournaments.

Yes, we lacked quality maybe in that post WC 2014 period, but I still believe that even with a younger squad with Janssen, Blind, Wijnaldum, Dost, Strootman and De Vrij we should have qualified for both the Euros 2016 and the 2018 World Cup.

The World Cup Blues set in, right after the successes in Brazil which cost us points in the first qualification games. The injury woes and aging of Robben, Sneijder and Van Persie didn’t help. Strootman’s post injury form was pretty bad and some of the decisions made by both Blind (De Ligt v Bulgaria) and Advocaat ( Sneijder and Van Persie vs France) were atrocious. As was the decision by the ref in the Sweden away game, to cancel Dost’s header, which would have seen us go to the World Cup 2018. A horrific time.

Guus’ wonderful 1998 campaign got tainted by this. Danny Blind was already a question mark as he does have limited head coaching experience and resorting back to Advocaat was also a debacle as everyone knows Dick doesn’t deal well with stress and is a defensive coach. 

Nations League 2017 and Euros 2020 – Ronald Koeman

Koeman did something that should have pushed him straight to the top of our list. He brought swagger back. He relocated the Dutch back to the private forests of Zeist in stead of the beach promenade in Noordwijk. He tested the 5-3-2 and abandoned it swiftly and most importantly, he let the team win games again. Sure, the entrance on the big stage of Frenkie de Jong did a lot for the team as his confidence and skill pushed the Dutch forward, as did the leadership of Van Dijk. We almost won a trophy (Nations League) and qualified without too much issues for the Euros. Well done Ronald.

And then he decided to jump another train. He left PSV for the Valencia train (and that train crashed) and he did the same now for Barcelona. Do we sympathise with him? I guess we do. But surely, if he won the Euros with Oranje, Barca would still have been an option for him. But him running to the exit a mere 9 months before the Euros has tainted his name (for me) and Koeman will not make it to the top spot. 

Euros 2020 – Frank de Boer

He cut a sad figure. Imagine, you’re a winner. You won a lot as a player. You were a leader. A warrior. Gifted with a magical left and a strong header of the ball. You played for Ajax, Barcelona, Oranje… You are a legend. Then you become the Ajax head coach. And in tough times you win the domestic title 4 times, almost 5 times… 

You go to a big Italian club. And you fail. Then you got to the EPL. And you fail again. And sure, he was lured in with the request to bring “Ajax style continental football” to those clubs, but he wasn’t able to persevere. It took Inter three coaches before they got it. Atlanta was a better choice for him, at least he won trophies and stayed long enough to unpack a fresh pair of socks. His return to Oranje was not a good one. He was not candidate #1 (he was #5 or so). He was also told to be “like Koeman” and he was told that he had to work with the existing backroom staff. Louis van Gaal would have declined.

He decided to place all his chips on zero (meaning: 5-3-2) and go down in flames or up in a blaze of glory. After a series of guffahs and mistakes (Cillesen, Donny’s statistics, El Ghazi’s sms message) and underwhelming friendlies, Oranje did manage to win the group games and end up as group leader. The road to the semis seemed relatively easy for the Dutch, but they tripped dramatically in the first knock-out game against a sturdy and tough Czech Republic. Did we lose that match as a result of wrong tactics, or the wrong players? I don’t think so. We lost due to lack of quality, lack of execution of the tactics, sluggish players and personal misses/mistakes. But the overall picture was clear: Frank failed to ignite this Dutch team. He failed to imbed that new playing style and didn’t find the solution in the squad he needed. The role of Memphis, his striking partner, the use of the left wing back, the choice of goal keeper… too many questions. Before the KNVB was able to do a proper evaluation with De Boer, he resigned.

Conclusion:

Well, it seems every coach we had has either failed or has succeeded AND failed. 

Hiddink, Advocaat, Michels, Van Marwijk…they all had glorious days, followed or preceded by debacle. Yes, Michels won us a trophy and a World Cup silver medal and a Euros bronze medal (?) but he also stopped us from getting Cruyff as national coach – twice- and he was responsible for the atrocious 1990 World Cup. So no, Michels is not my all time best NT Coach.

Frank Rijkaard is the man. He coached Holland to what seemed to be a sure fire Trophy in 2000, only to be outfoxed by….. Frank de Boer (missing two spot kicks).

The football under his leadership was pretty good fun and open and deserving of applause and kudos. Frank is my main man!

by Jan

Stars aligning for Oranje?

For many days, the overall view was that poor Oranje was having to slug it out with Portugal or even Germany in the first knock-out game. But it seems the football gods are with us… Even better, our march to the finals will actually be not that dreadful, considering Belgium, France and Italy – generally seen as the three favorites – are in the other leg of the draw.

It remains to be seen whether this is a good thing though. Traditionally, Oranje does well vs stronger teams. Remember the group of death(s) in 2006 and 2008? We obliterated the competition (well…) and got in trouble the next knock-out stage. Oranje now also play well versus teams that consider themselves stronger. Once an opponent parks the bus, we will find it tougher to break them down.

But, the stars in the sky might have aligned, it also seems the stars on the pitch have. The vibe in the squad is very good, players who tend to be a bit narcy when they are not the dominant player appear to remain calm ( Berghuis, Koopmeiners) and Frank de Boer is demonstrating day in day out in his interviews and press conferences that he grew as a coach. He’s likeable, he jokes, he laughs and analyses with clarity.

Malen and Memphis have produced some nice interaction. Add the quality, movement and silky touch of Wijnaldum and there is our holy trinity. Frenkie and Gini have a good understanding, as do Stefan de Vrij and Mathijs de Ligt. These two actually became firm friends in Italy and spend a lot of time, with the families together.

The PSV contingent (Malen, Dumfries, Gakpo, Memphis) work well together, as do the AZ and Ajax team mates. Berghuis might well feel at home with the Ajax lads…

I am loath to be too positive and chirpy, but I can see that with the right focus and the right line up / system, Oranje can indeed power forward.

it was quite eventful for Oranje, this past week. The group win was great, Memphis’ signature under a Barca contract clearly gave the mercurial forward a boost, but the loss of Luuk de Jong, who had to exit the camp with a nasty knee injury, means Plan B doesn’t exist anymore. And it also automatically means that Wout Weghorst will be relegated to the pinch hitter role.

Another player we will need firing on all cylinders is Frenkie of course. The player with the most successful dribbles in the Euros until now.

Playmaker, play accelerator, conductor, dreh-und-angelpunkt, we have had so many names already for the midfielder. His passing is usually mentioned as his key strength and this is indeed a highly important aspect of the game. But another aspect might need a bit more spotlight: the dribble. No one dribbles more and better than the Arkel born lad.

Goal.com asked Antoine Griezmann in 2019 which player was the toughest opponent for him and he immediately said: “Ajax’ De Jong! I tried to put him under pressure in the Nations League games with France and it was impossible, I never succeeded. He’s so slick, he just slips past you as if you’re not there.” Not much later, they became team mates.

Four players had 17 dribbles in this Euros, so far. Our Frenkie, Denmark’s Maehle, Switzerland’s Embolo and France’ Mbappe. Frenkie had 13 successful ones, compared to 8 by the others.

This is here is key moment. Holland is under pressure from Austria. Weghorst passes to Wijnaldum, who gets two opponents on his toes. Gini dribbles quickly to the side line, knowing that loss of possession is less dangerous there. De Jong gives him an option, on the side line and he has four Austrians putting pressure on. Sabitzer in front of him, Laimer and Hinteregger are lurking close while Schlager joins in as well. Most player would pass the ball backwards to Dumfries or De Vrij. But that would not solve the problem. We would still be locked in and under pressure. This is a typical ideal pressure moment for Austria.

Frenkie oozes confidence on the ball. He doesn’t panic and the four Austrians are hesitating. De Jong sees the hesitation and decides to use it. He sprints through the pressure with the ball in close control and it fits like a glove. Not only does he alleviate  the pressure, he turns defence into attack as he turns the situation in a 6 v 4 situation, what with Daley Blind and Pat van Aanholt immediately breaking out too, joining Frenkie, Weghorst, Memphis and Wijnaldum in attack. This move ends with a failed pass from Van Aanholt to Weghorst.

Another typical moment, also demonstrating the partnership in midfield. Holding mid Marten de Roon has the ball and almost stands still. Wijnaldum drops back and offers an option, leaving a gap in front of the Austrian defence. De Roon points to it, even, and Frenkie runs into that space and receives the ball.

He looks over his shoulder and sees that Laimer is too slow to react, so now Frenkie knows he can turn the player and get into a 1 v 1 situation on the edge of the box. He passes to Memphis whose shot is blocked. Another example where the obvious option would have been to pass the ball back.

The third example is in the North Macedonia match. Obviously, the pressure was off and Oranje was further helped by the offensive tactics of North Macedonia. Their pressure play resulted in space for us. Here is an example.

De Ligt has the ball and is pressured by Elmas. The ball goes to Daley Blind and Pandev is putting pressure on him. De Jong offers Blind an option, and while the ball is traveling, he looks over his shoulder, twice. Once right, once left. Before he has the ball, he knows the Macedonian defence is not pushing forward. He turns, he accelerates and he releases Van Aanholt. Wijnaldum could have done better from that Van Aanholt cross.

This type of play by De Jong makes it hard for opponents to press. A hesitation or a slow reaction and he is off and away. De Jong’s dribbles are as lethal as his passing. He can create something out of nothing. He doesn’t have a lot of assists or goals to his name. His forte is the pre-assist. His accelerations offer space and time to his team mates.

De Jong’s qualities are hard to express in statistics, although Opta Sports was able to somewhat approach it with their carries-stat. This demonstrates the ability to see a gap and the skills to carry the ball forward into that gap. The number of meters you carry the ball with your feet, basically. It’s not a surprise that the wingbacks score hight in this category as they usually have the flank at their disposal, where it is less busy. Carrying the ball forward through the spine is tough. There simply isn’t much space. De Jong is a maestro. He showed it at Ajax, now at Barca and at Oranje. Only Mateo Kovacic and the Spanish Barca colleague Pedri are able to show similar stats. But they tend to carry the ball backwards a lot too.

When Opta filters the stats in terms of carries forward, than Frenkie is the only midfielder amongst defenders.

The most important thing is, that Frenkie is completely convinced of his own playing style.

His response to a comment after the Real Madrid away game in 2019 says it all. Ajax won 1-4 but Frenkie had a difficult moment vs Benzema, when he tried to take on the French striker just outside his own box and lost the ball to the predator. This resulted in a big chance for Madrid.

Sports commentator Van Gelder: “I have a strong heart, but can you please never do that again?”

Frenkie: “No, I disagree. I think I need to do this again, but do it better. I made a good turn, but when I wanted to accelerate I got cramp in my legs and had to try and keep the ball…”

I think I need to do this again but better…. That is his mindset and that is why he can be of great value in the knock-out games. This mix of uninhibitedness and precision is exactly what we need. This puts the fear into our opponents, the knowledge that one little mistake can mean Oranje is thundering forward. De Jong’s dribbles give Oranje time and space, it also gives us a signature style of play.

by Jan

Is Oranje good enough…?

In the past weeks, we saw some negativity posted here about the team which prompted me to respond. There were so many things said, that I felt a counter-post was warranted. I mean, Wilson and Tiju tend to vent their frustration with certain players and coaches here, but Jean Venette took it to a whole other level.

In general terms: you don’t need a team of world class players to win trophies!

For every France 2018 or Spain 2012, there is a Greece 2004 or a Leicester City 2016.

You need the best team to win trophies! And a bit of luck. I could end this post right here. Point made.

But, below I will quote Venette (and others) and respond:

“Jan is gonna write his opinion tomorrow and trying to convince folks that this team is good. HAHAHA”

I don’t do this. I am usually trying to explain why a coach does what does and why I think it might work. You can say a lot about our coaches from the past, but they all have a good pedigree and considered to be experts in their fields. We did have inexperienced coaches, but I am not 100% sure you can blame Van Basten for our exit in 2008 or Rijkaard for the dreadful misses v Italy in 2000…

What I do do, and what I do believe in: as a fan you need to support your team. You can be critical of your coach (I am), but the players deserve support. Yelling from the stands “Wijndal, you suck, you don’t deserve to be in this team!” is not my type of supporting.

And lets face it: how often did this group of followers here criticised players… Van Bommel, Nigel de Jong, Dirk Kuyt, Daley Blind… Every player less than Cruyff, Van Basten, Bergkamp or Sneijder gets insults, at times (on this blog).

“This Dutch team isn’t going anywhere. The team is suck….. Berghuis is suck and again he is a starter. LOL Most of these players as sucks.”

I don’t know why I would respond to this. Sounds like a spoiled kid criticising his dinner ( “this meatball sucks, this spinach sucks, I don’t want to eat this!”). The team doesn’t suck. This team (with Virgil) beat France, Germany, England and drew Italy away. So…

I think people in Lyon don’t think Memphis sucks. People like Pocchetino and Klopp don’t think Wijnaldum sucks. Apparently, Frenkie de Jong is the highest valued player in Spain now. So no, we don’t suck.

“You have a bunch of players in this squad that are bench players in their clubs or went abroad and could not perform.”

Someone remembers a certain Marco van Basten, in 1988? He didn’t play. He was not considered first team material by Michels.

The reason that Donny van de Beek doesn’t play at Man United is not hard to fathom (if you follow football, you’d know).

“You have to admit that this generation is suck except for a very few.”

We all know that Spain and England and France are stronger in terms of individual quality and options on every position. That is sadly the fate of The Netherlands. Small country. Less options. England has 5 top right backs, we only have 1 (in my opinion: Karsdorp). This is true. But having said that: how often did England win a big trophy in recent decades?

If you understand football, you know it’s not about the individual players. How many big trophies did C Ronaldo win with his country? Only the last Euros. When he was 33 years old. How many World Cups did Leo Messi win again?

Belgium has been playing several tournaments now with a top notch team with “world class players”. How many trophies exactly?

We have two of the top defenders of the Serie A. We have a true class act in Daley Blind. Frenkie de Jong is top notch. Wijnaldum is a world class player, anyone who begs to differ is not paying attention. He won heaps of trophies at Liverpool, played practically everything, scored key goals in the Champions League and at 30 could sign at PSG, Barca, Bayern or stay at Liverpool.

For me, Liverpool is World Class. So any Liverpool Legend must also be world class.

We have Memphis as top attacker and players like Gravenberch, Timber, Malen, Gakpo will surely follow suit. We don’t need a team of super stars. Those teams never win trophies. We need players like Klaassen and Weghorst who will put in a shift and help support the stars.

“Any tactical decision wouldn’t make any difference.”

Tell this to the German coach who won the Euros in 2004. Tactics are there to allow the players to play at their best level. Did you see the tactical change Koeman made at Barca? And the impact his shift to three-at-the-back made?

“If Berghuis was good enough he wouldn’t be in the Eredivisie by now.”

Why wouldn’t a player be able to decide to stay in Holland? Danny Blind never left Holland. He is considered one of the greatest liberos. How well have some players done when moving abroad (your own observation). So some move abroad and get criticism if they don’t break into a big team right away (Bergwijn, Van de Beek, Kluivert). Others stay in Holland and shine every week and then they get criticised for that?? That is not fair. Berghuis made a transfer to Watford. He decided to return to Holland and play weekly. He was offered a massive pay-check at Feyenoord and decided he wanted to be a big fish in a little pond. But don’t worry, there were more than enough suiters for Berghuis and he’ll make a move, for sure.

I compare him with Ziyech. Elegant technicians, with a tremendous left foot and great vision. But Ziyech is wasted in the high octane style of Tuchel (sadly) and Berghuis was wasted at Watford. I think we should be grateful that Berghuis stayed in Holland.

“For me I think we have to accept the fact that we have failed to produced talented players that we use to and figure out where and how we fell short and look into the future.”

You are behind the times. This process started in 2016 already (actually, after 2012’s debacle) and since, we have started to produce a lot of great talents… De Ligt, Gravenberch, Stengs, Malacia, Lang, Timber, Rensch, Ihattaren, Gakpo, Bijlow, all these names are coming through now and some hav established themselves (De Ligt, Gravenberch, Bijlow), others are on their way after suffering some setbacks (Gakpo, Lang, Malacia) and others struggle a bit with that last step up (Stengs, Ihattaren, Boadu)… The future is quite bright. Wijndal has indeed not progressed enough, I agree with that, but that is normal with young players. That last step is huge.

I pointed out that in The Netherlands (and I was there before the 74 World Cup and the Euros 1988) and before most tournaments, the overall attitude is shifting between “what the F are we going to do there” to “we’ll win this”. And everytime we believe we’ll win it, we go home disappointed (1990, 1996, 2002, 2012) and everytime we believe we have nothing to win, we do exceptionally well (1974, 1978, 2014).

Before the World Cup 1974, the expectations were truly low. We had qualified as a result of a referee blunder (Belgium had an onsite goal ruled out!) and we were missing all our central defenders.

In 1978, we didn’t have Cruyff and Van Hanegem.

And back then, players like Haan, Rijsbergen, Jansen, Jongbloed were not considered World Class.

And like with the criticism poured over Bergwijn, Van de Beek and co: Rep, Jansen, Suurbier, Rijsbergen and others did not have a glorious career abroad. Wim Jansen played in Japan and the US and returned to the Eredivisie, for instance. Rijsbergen made a name for himself at New York Cosmos but that was never taken as a serious team.

Wim Suurbier, party animal

In 1978, we had Poortvliet, Wildschut, Van Kraay, Nanninga, Brands…definitely not world class players.

In 2014, we played with a back 5 of all Eredivisie players. Except for Vlaar, who was playing relegation football with Villa.

In 1988, we had elegant and skilled players galore ( Van ‘t Schip, Vanenburg, Mario Been, Frans van Rooy) but Michels opted for a balanced squad with hard working players (Erwin Koeman, Suvrijn, Bosman, Wim Koevermans, Sjaak Troost) as he understood that these players would not upset the apple cart if they wouldn’t play.

But Van Basten was considered not match fit and Vanenburg was forced to play in service of the team, while 37 year old Muhren was brought in to add some experience and intelligence to the team.

And were we really brilliant? We lost our first game. We won vs England, but with luck.

So why would we now suddenly need 11 world class players??

In 1998, we had a very strong squad. Didn’t win. In 2002, we had one of the best coaches of Dutch history and amazing players. Didn’t even qualify.

“The world will not be talking about these players in 30 years time. Wijnaldum isn’t no Iniesta, nor a Donadoni, Enzo Scifo, Franchescholi, not even an Edgar Davids.”

I think you are wrong. Wijnaldum is on his way to play 100+ caps for Oranje. If you manage that, you will be considered a legend, whether you like it or not :-). He’s been exceptional at Liverpool, much loved there and respected and with a full trophy cabinet.

Memphis is a very colourful player. His foundation work, his clothing line, his funny hats and outfits, and mark my words, he still has his best years in front of him.

Daley Blind will go into history as one of the most gifted left footers we ever had. Frenkie de Jong will become one of our best ever midfielders. I think that in itself is already something to be happy about.

The thing is too: players are considered TOP after winning a big trophy. So, should Holland manage what Greece did in 2004, players like Weghorst and Klaassen and Dumfries will be considered “European top” suddenly.

I think we all have subjective opinions about coaches and players, and we need to accept that there is no such thing as “the truth”. Vincent Janssen is now somewhere in Mexico. Off the radar for most. If he would have picked another club than Spurs, who knows, right? He played 62 games for Monterrey, and scored/assisted 23 times. Which is one goal/assist every third game. Those are way better stats than Luuk de Jong. Janssen could have been on the radar if he would have chosen to play for Gladbach or Mainz or Club Brugge.

Frank de Boer is considered “a loser” but I think that is truly extremely harsh. Sure, his communications is not every enticing. It’s monotonous, he drawls a bit and has a lot of uhs and ohs and ahs… It’s like Emery when he was with Arsenal. He came across as a joker. But despite that, Emery is definitely a top coach, with trophies to prove this. De Boer won the Dutch title 4 times in a row. That is not bad, considering he coached Ajax in a period where they struggled.

He went to Inter, because they wanted to change from a negative, catenaccio style to a more dominant attacking style. The player revolted and the Inter board lost their spine. It took 3 coaches since De Boer and the appointment of Conte to change this. And guess what: Conte is out already, because according to him, the Inter board is constraining him too much.

Same story at Palace: the owners wanted a continental style football. De Boer could have had results in his first four matches but bad luck resulted in a ridiculous loss late in the (fourth) game, which meant the Palace owners shat the bed and chucked him out. They got Yoy Hodgson in and he went back to typical counter football. De Boer was sacrificed to appease the fans and some senior players.

His Atlanta gig can not be seen as a failure. He was there for a good spell and won trophies. What more did they expect?

I remember constant criticism on our teams and players. In 2010, Bert van Marwijk was considered a cautious coach. Our defenders were considered mediocre (Mathijsen, Ooijer, Heitinga). Before the tournament, our two friendlies were considered shambolic. In 2014, no one had any confidence in what Van Gaal was doing. And the story goes on and on.

As for the development of players, look at the 2016 squad and lets look at some names of exciting players who played for Oranje then:

Karsdorp – got seriously injured and missed two whole seasons

Fosu-Mensah – never was able to deliver on that wonderful promise

Hoedt – had a great spell at Lazio but had to re-invent himself after his Southampton move

Jetro Willems – got seriously injured and is now on the prowl for a new club

Bazoer – lost the plot and is now rebuilding his career

Davy Propper – got injured this season and struggled to get back into Brighton, after a solid spell there

Bart Ramselaar – never cut it at PSV, is now back at Utrecht

Van Ginkel – dramatic series of injuries, might return next season (PSV)

Vilhena – great move to Krasnodar where he is one of the key guys, but off the radar a bit

Obviously, Hakim Ziyech should have been on this list too, but his heart decided differently.

As a European football nation expressed in terms of population, we are 8th on the list. Poland and Romania have more people than us. But in terms of football ranking, they are way below us. The top 6 are: England, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Poland.

It is logical that these countries have more talent to pick from than we do.

Only Portugal is way below us in terms of population, while being able to beat us regularly. All other nations below us (Belgium excepted at the moment) should be considered nations we can beat.

In conclusion:

We don’t need 11 world class players to win a trophy. We don’t need to play well in the pre-season friendlies. Even worse, we don’t even have to play great games in a tournament to win it.

Lets get some comments in on this topic (with respect please).

by Jan

Serious questions for Dutch football

In a world that has increasingly become more and more convoluted, with heated debates between Conspiracy theorist and Complicity theorists, democrats and republicans, blacks vs white, Jose vs Pep and as a result the world become harder to understand…

The same applies to our world: the world of football.

What is happening with Liverpool and Van Dijk? What is going on with Man United? Why doesn’t Van de Beek play?

Or in the Dutch competition. Why would Berghuis consider a move to the US? Why is Ajax bringing Klaassen back? At the expense of Noa Lang? Why did the KNVB pick Frank de Boer, not Ten Cate? How did AZ give another big lead away? 0-4 to 4-4 in a spectacular game vs Sparta. Why is Schmidt at PSV trying to break Ihattaren?

These last transfer days are always annoying, hectic and filled with opportunistic knee-jerk deals. Rekik to Seville? Interesting. Lang to Club Brugge? Might actually be good if he gets playing time. Wesley Hoedt back to Lazio? Good!! At the same time, I expected Danjuma to make a move and Tim Krul too for that matter.

No matter. The games can really start now.

Ronald Koeman is impressing at Barca (or is it the 17 year old Ansu Fati??), who had some critical words for Frenkie, after their last Liga match.

Excited to see Koopmeiners with Oranje, I think the 22 year old could be a strong contender for the pivot spot next to Frenkie de Jong. Marten de Roon gets flustered when he has to take the playmaker role, should Frenkie be marked, something Koopmeiners won’t be suffering. Davy Propper still being injured, I would love to see Teun play in the next friendly.

Also interested to see how Sean Klaiber will fair at Ajax. I do rate him, he’s a hardworking atacking right back with a nose for goals and assists. And a pleasant guy too.

There is some debate in Holland re: Ihattaren and his selection for Oranje. A player who doesn’t play usually isn’t invited, unless he had a strong position in the Oranje hierarchy and has earned that spot (Strootman?).

My opinion is that, it was wise to keep Mo engaged. He’s a young raw talent, who happens to be the victim of Roger Schmidt’s alpha male “I am the boss” approach. As if the German decided from the start to pick on the club’s talisman and hope for the future, just to make a point. As Willem van Hanegem said: “if you have a talent like Ihattaren, the last thing you want is to hire a coach who wants him to play in a straight-jacket”.

I’m off the same opinion, of course (Willem and I hardly ever disagree) and I believe the kid needs playing time, he needs coaching, he needs guidance. He doesn’t need public humiliations. And by keeping him with Oranje, De Boer might win his heart really quickly and give him the positive vibes he probably needs.

It does seem he might have slight injury, actually and it remains to be seen whether PSV will release him.

OK newsflash! Both Bergwijn and Ihattaren are out due to injuries. Calvin Stengs is called up as replacement.

Frank de Boer as a team manager for the NT might be a good thing. He has a number of plusses: he had a stellar career as a player, he was brought up with the Ajax DNA ( = Oranje DNA), he is Dutch, he can work with young talents. The negatives: his coaching career is a bit up and down. He did well in Holland, and he didn’t do well outside of Holland. This means he might actually fair well with Oranje and Dutch players, who share his direct mentality.

Another negative, is that like his master Louis van Gaal, De Boer might be tempted to get players in the squad with an Ajax background: Klaassen, Bakker, Al Ghazi (kidding), ….

At the same time: I wouldn’t put it past Frank to sacrifice Babel and Strootman which is probably needed. Both are past their prime and we do have better options today ( Malen, Gakpo, Berghuis, Danjuma for Babel and Joey Veerman, Koopmeiners, Gravenbergh, Rosario, Bazoer for Strootman).

Speaking of Bazoer. He played CB in the PSV youth. He didn’t want to and coveted a place in midfield, so he went to Ajax. Now at Vitesse, he is centre back again and he was amazing in the game last weekend, with two exquisite long passes for two amazing goals. Top performance by him.

The next couple of days, we will focus on the NT, with matches against Mexico( friendly), Bosnia Herzegovina and Italy on the roster.

by Jan

Oranje candidates – Part 1

Well, taking a break from blogging about football didn’t result in any good outcomes for the Dutch clubs in Europe! Oranje is still asleep – friendlies coming soon! – and despite Memphis posts positive messages on his return to fitness, we needed more than that to keep us happy. And AZ and Ajax weren’t able to deliver in Europe. Feyenoord’s incredible ressurrection is fun to watch, but at the same time just scraps to feed on…

Cillesen benched. Frenkie not used in the right way. Injuries for Danjuma, Malen and Memphis.

Still there is hope. Ajax might lose on an off-day vs Getafe. AZ might run out of steam. PSV might still be in slight trouble (they could beat Feyenoord this weekend and get back in the heat of things). But we still have some exciting prospects to look out for.

De Ligt for instance, is increasingly becoming important at Juve. Hateboer, De Roon and Gosens impress in Italy. Weghorst keeps on being a key player in the Bundesliga. Kluivert scored in Europe. Propper and Ake are revered in the EPL and youngsters Chong, Zirkzee, Ihattaren and others keep on knocking on the door.

Lets look at some potentials for Oranje…

Bobby Adekanye – Lazio Roma

The 20 year old globetrotting striker scored his first goal for Lazio some while back. He’s been playing two handful of games for the Romans and his coach Inzaghi is a fan: “Bobby is a true professional, he deserved his chance.” It’s not easy for young prospects in the Serie A. Bobby sits on the bench a lot, but he’s one of the youngest benchwarmers, which does say something. And by now, he’s got one goal and one assist. Bobby was born in Nigeria and moved to Holland as a kid. In 2007, Ajax signed him and he left Amsterdam for Barcelona as a D-junior. He excelled with Ajax at a youth tournament and the Catalonians couldn’t resist, something they’d regret a lot. Bobby was part of the bunch of players signed “illegally” resulting in a transfer ban for Barca and a playing ban for Bobby in Spain. Adekanye was loaned to PSV but when he returned to Spain he still couldn’t play for 2 more seasons. He left Spain and went for Liverpool. Another big club on his resume. Initially, Liverpool sees in him a potential first team player and presents him with a good plan. Four years later, it’s still but a plan and Bobby decides to leave England for Italy. Lots of his Oranje rep mates already started to play minutes in the first team. This prompted Bobby to find his fortune elsewhere. Arjen Robben is his big idol and he has that classic Robben move in his repertoire ( threatening to go outside, cutting inside and finishing in the top corner).

Oranje Potential?

Bobby is on the radar of the KNVB of course, but a ticket to the coming Euros seems far fetched. He can still play for Young Oranje for which he played one friendly. Competition is killing at the moment for him, with Bergwijn, Promes, Babel, Berghuis, Stengs, Kluivert, Danjuma and Dilrosun all battling for a spot. Should Oranje never need him, he still can select Nigeria as his country of choice and become an international there.

Daley Sinkgraven – Bayern Leverkusen

Daley – son of Harry Sinkgraven, former FC Groningen forward – started life as a skilled winger / forward for Heerenveen. He made his debut at 16 and was destined for great things. Ajax picked him up and cherished the young talent who struggled with many injuries as he wasn’t fully grown yet when he was playing senior football and his body protested regularly. Peter Bosz transformed the creative player to an all round full back in 2017 and it seemed he found his role in the successfully marauding team Bosz moulded. But another injury was the end of his career at Ajax, who decided to buy this young, aggressive Argentinian left back. It was time for Daley to move on. Bosz, in 2019: “I think he could grow out to become the best left back on the planet! He has everythng for that role. I would not go back to midfield, if I was him.” And Bosz got a hand in that by signing him from Ajax, where he was surplus. At Bayern Leverkusen, he plays as a wingback, or a real left full back or at times as a third centre back. Bosz: “What makes him special is his intelligence, his vision, passing range and his ball control.” Bosz didn’t pick up those skills in relation to the full back spot himself. Former Cruyff assistant and super scout Tonnie Bruins Slot saw Sinkgraven in his youth already and later told Bosz: “He is the ideal full back. Put him there.”

Oranje Potential?

Hell yes! As long as he stays fit (which he has been now). The left back position is not an easy one in Oranje (not as bad as the right back one). Daley Blind is the obvious choice, but Wijndal might not be ready yet, while Pat van Aanholt hasn’t been overly convincing in Oranje. The 24 year old Sinkgraven might well be the ideal stand in for Blind.

Jairo Riedewald- Crystal Palace

Some young players gel into the first team without a hitch… Sergio Dest, for instance. Or Kokcu at Feyenoord. Ihattaren at PSV. Riedewald is not one of them. His problem is his ability to play at so many different positions. His coach at Ajax, Frank de Boer, used him as a stop gap. His debut was like a rocket and reads like a teenage book. Ajax was trailing against Roda JC and needed goals. With only minutes to go, De Boer selected him to go and make war in the box of the opponent. Minutes later, Ajax wins 1-2 with two Riedewald goals! That was his debut. But he never got a firm starting spot. He never could settle in. He played as central defender, as midfielder and left full back and when he got injured, he’d never play for Ajax again. Bad luck followed him to England, where he signed to play for De Boer’s new club: Crystal Palace. But the management lost patience after only 4 games and axed Frank de Boer. Riedewald was his signing and initially new coach Hodgson ignored the Haarlem born player. In the first 15 games this season, Jairo doesn’t get a look in but when Van Aanholt gets injured, the former Ajax player is used as his stand in and gets plaudits and praise for is games. His stats tell the story. Riedewald is the fourth in passing accuracy as a back, just behind the Man City, Liverpool and Arsenal full backs. Not bad! Which has all to do with his education at Ajax. Riedewald never gets nervous on the ball, even under pressure.

Oranje Potential?

Well, he did play 3 caps in 2015, as left full back and he did ever so well. It’s going to be tough to get a look in for central defender or midfielder, but as said above as well, we don’t have too many good options for left back. Obviously, he will need to keep on making minutes and with Van Aanholt back at full fitness, that might be an issue.

 

Tim Krul – Norwich City

It’s 2015 when Cillesen gets injured and Tim Krul takes the #1 jersey for Oranje. The Newcastle goalie is knocking on the door for some time but his dream match in Kazachstan becomes a nightmare! His injury means the end of his Newcastle career and when Ajax gets him in as a loanie, his lack of fitness sends him to the bench, where he can watch the emergence of a new goalie, a certain Andre Onana. He would play half a season for AZ and would move back to England to be second goalie at Brighton & Hove Albion. The Canaries were able to sign Krul on a free and it’s with Norwich City where Krul finds his joy and successes again, winning the promotion back to the EPL. And even though Norwich is hard on it’s way back to the Championship, Krul made headlines with glorious saves and stopped penalties. Should Norwich indeed get relegated, it might well mean that Krul will return to the highest level.

Oranje Potential?

Of course! He used to be a mainstay in the squad and achieved hero status in the WC2014 when Van Gaal brought him on, just to stop some penalties and get us into the semi finals. Koeman is following him but up until now, Ken Vermeer and Jeroen Zoet were the ideal second goalie, with Bizot the young turk third in line. But with Cillesen benched, Vermeer in LA and Zoet at Utrecht, I believe Krul deserves a spot in the squad!

Davy Klaassen – Werder Bremen

Klaassen had his best season under Peter Bosz at Ajax, as a number 10. He has the technique to play out of difficult situations and the nose for space, the legs to get into that space and ice in his veins to be a goal scorer. Koeman signs him for Everton but he never settles there and leaves the club via the backdoor. At Werder Bremen, he reinvented himself as a leader and in a new role. Forget the number 10.

Werder Bremen moved mountains to lure Klaassen to the Bundesliga. They really courted him, sent him videos and pushed a strong delegation on the case. Finally, Klaassen caved and left Everton. He is immediately made part of the players’ council and is promised a starting spot. His role changed though. The attacking box-to-box player is no more, he is now more the holding mid and the leader on the pitch. But he still runs. He is the player just behind Joshua Kimmich with the most kilometers in the Bundesliga. Last season, many clubs from different competition enquired about Klaassen’s future, but he stayed loyal to Werder.

Oranje potential?

Yes, in principle yes. I believe as a holding mid, with the experience he has now, he could well be an Oranje player. Sadly for him, it’s crowded in midfield. Wijnaldum, Frenkie and Donny van de Beek will be certainties. Davy Propper and De Roon will be as well. It won’t be easy for Davy Klaassen to wiggle his way in between them and Strootman, Vilhena and Ihattaren… But who knows. There is also that possibility that Koeman and Klaassen had a bit of a falling out.

In Part 2, we will look at more potential candidates!

In the meantime, gimme your names in the comments below!

by Jan

Oranje hungry for trophy

After being in the doldrums for years, the Dutch are back at the top. We beat World Champions France, 2014 Champs Germany, we took on semi finalist England… And now we’re about to take the scalp of European Title holder Portugal. Again.

Our lads are on a roll! Led by experienced Ronald Koeman – the timing for him to be our NT manager is now, is just perfect – and further inspired by Ajax’ and Liverpool’s successes, this team marches on!

What a game we saw them play again! I think you’ll have to watch it again to realise what a massive match it was.

Sure, England didn’t play their best team against us, due to the CL finals. But this is still a top notch squad we were up against and yet again, England played second fiddle to our boys.

And we ruled. We controlled the match and we set the tone. And ended up winning 3-1, although it could have easily been 6-2 for Holland. Memphis could have had a hattrick (like C Ronaldo in the Portugal semis vs Swizerland) but the Lyon forward was “unlucky”.

Strong Daley Blind: never in trouble

Interesting to see too, how some people keep on believing Daley Blind is the weak spot in the team. Not only did he play 66 matches this season, most of them really good too, he was one of the top performers for Ajax and played another strong game vs England.

Our weakest spot in the team is still the right back role. Janmaat seems to be struggeling with fitness, Tete was injured and Rick Karsdorp need to make a move away from AS Roma (apparently Peter Bosz’ Bayern Leverkusen is in the market) and play more matches. Today, Hateboer and Dumfries are the choices we have and both are vulnerable in defence. I think Hateboer is a perfect wingback, while Dumfries has wonderful moments and woeful ones…

A world class striker

Somehow, the English commentators started to put a thought in the Dutch minds. They said Holland had the midfield and the defence to win the World Cup, but needs top forwards to actually do so. (They also said the exact opposite of the English team, by the way).

I don’t buy into it. I am fully on board with what Koeman is doing. Memphis has demonstrated to be able to score. Over and over again. He’s one of our current top scorers, he creates and scores for Lyon and will never unlearn this. Babel, Bergwijn and Promes are also players who usually are prolific and Weghorst and L. de Jong are perfect pinch hitters.

And don’t forget, Memphis is Oranje’s Most Valuabe Player under Koeman by a country mile! With 8 goals and 7 assists (15 in total) he is number 1, with Mathijs de Ligt (2 goals, 2 assists) and Virgil van Dijk (4 goals) as number 2s.

And yes, wouldn’t it be awesome to have a new Van Nistelrooy or Van Basten sometimes soon? Of course. But we will be able to win trophies with the current forwards, as this team is currently demonstrating! We also have Danjuma and Dilrosen still, Sam Lammers is coming along as is Donyel Malen, FC Utrecht and AZ have some young strikers in their midst, and don’t forget Redan at Chelsea.

Against England, our forwards were not as sharp. It happens. Bergwijn had two massive opportunities he scoffed. Memphis could have had 3 goals. Babel was not in great shape, but we all know he can score and head a ball too.

Don’t be surprised to see Promes start for Oranje instead of Babel vs Portugal. The three mercurial forwards Bergwijn, Promes and Depay need some time together and they will tear opponents apart. For me, Donny van de Beek would be the perfect offensive midfielder to join in and play his Jack-in-the-Box role, with Frenkie and Gini as controlling mids. Davy Propper being the perfect stand-in for either.

Speaking of Propper, you know I am a fan. He demonstrated in the short spell he played that he can do what Frenkie does, too. He has always been a more humble guy and maybe was told in the youth system to not take risks, but the way Frenkie de Jong plays is an inspiration to the others. I saw Propper turn away and move forward on the first pass he received and Marten de Roon also found some confidence in his build up play, seemingly comfortable being played in with two opponents close by.

It is no surprise Ajax will be making a play for the midfielder, to replace Frenkie de Jong in midfield.

I really think we have more than one player in midfield who can make a difference and I’m excited with players like Cokcu, Gakpo, Ihatarren, Stengs and Carel Eiting coming through too.

The English Lessions

1 – Details

“I was already looking over the ball to see where I wanted to pass it. That was not smart.” The 19 year old Ajax skipper made two mistakes. The first is a mistake a player can make, and will make. Whether he’s 19 or 29. It happens to every defender every now and then. Play 40+ matches in a season and you make 3 or 4 mistakes. The second mistake was De Ligt gliding in, where he could have tried to stay on his feet and block the shot from an acute angle, knowing the goalie was there still too. But De Ligt took it on the chin and ended up playing a superb match, with a stunning header goal to boot. It’s the big lesson: make one mistake and the opponent will hurt you. One wrong pass. One wrong touch. It can be the difference between winning or losing. De Ligt is learning and he’s learning fast!

2 – Effectiveness

“We were better most of the game, but sloppy with the final ball. We went to quickly to the flanks which played into their hands really. And we had a number of opportunities which should have been converted into 100% chances. We were too sloppy.” This is Koeman’s analysis of the game. Yes, Holland was better. But we simply didn’t create real chances in the first hour. Bergwijn had a big one. He created it himself and he ended up destroying it. Memphis had a good one after a break, with Wijnaldum playing him in. Memphis fluffed his lines. And also in the second half, in the last minutes, he couldn’t sort his feet out properly on a break with Promes… He did get a good diving header in and was simply unlucky with that one. With Babel, Bergwijn and Memphis, Koeman gambles on their speed, trickery and creativity. Bergwijn played a good game, but Memphis and Babel didn’t reach their usual level. Weird, as Memphis assisted all three goals basically, but he also had many howlers, bad touches and bad decisions. And should have scored three times, in my view. Our attacking play needs more effectiveness, as we won’t get 9 opportunities to score against other big nations (Portugal, anyone??).

3 – The strength of the squad

We can leave Wout Weghorst at home. Bas Dost decided to call it a day himself. As Ajax demonstrated this season, it is possible to keep 16 players happy as you can use them all in a campaign to something special. Davy Propper, Quincy Promes, Donny van de Beek… all three added flair to the game when they came on, with Promes basically scoring twice! With the likes of Jeroen Zoet, Kenneth Vermeer, De Vrij, Ake, Vilhena and Luuk de Jong, we have more players who can come onto the pitch and make a difference.

4 – Setpieces

With 17 minutes to go, the Dutch supporters cheered as if we scored: we simply got a corner kick. But with Memphis or Propper on corner taking duties and De Ligt and Van Dijk in the box, you know you have a real chance. De Ligt: “I train these situations every second day. I work on my jumps, on my timing… And if the corner is perfect, as it was, and the block works, as it did, it becomes easier for me to finish the ball off.” Holland has a plan for set pieces and it paid off.

5 – Physical strength

For decades, we had to hear that Dutch footballers are physically speaking less than the Germans, Italians, French and English players… Not anymore. Daley Blind played 66 games this season. Against England, he was capable of playing full throttle for 120 minutes and also delivered the pass of the match, with his outside left. And he’s not alone: Wijnaldum, Van Dijk, De Ligt, Frenkie de Jong, Memphis Depay, Denzel Dumfries…all powerhouses of guys. Holland was physically better than England. Quite a new statement to make.

6 – Hungry for trophies

“When you win, you won’t feel the fatigue” is a oft used saying by coaches. Even after conceding an unfortunate goal, Holland kept believing and diligently continued hunting for that equaliser. Never in haste, never erratic. The team excudes enthusiasm and joy to play, and demonstrated resilience and hunger. There is unity for all to see and Koeman created a foundation for the individuals to shine and excel. This spot in the finals might be a first in a series of many…