Tag: Scotland

by Jan

Oranje ready for Scotland

The jersey numbers were presented for the Oranje squad. And with Jasper Cillesen out of contention due to Corona, Maarten Stekelenburg got the #1 jersey, while Tim Krul has his favorite #13. The jersey numbers don’t say much about who starts. De Boer said he wasn’t sure which goalie would be his new #1, and the coming friendlies will probably give us more insights.

Luuk de Jong has his number 9, a number previously held by Ryan Babel. But it doesn’t mean that much, it’s not the first eleven numbers that will play, as Frenkie has his fave #21 and Daley Blind his usual #17.

Frank de Boer already announced he will be playing a 5-3-2 against the Scots. He wants to spend more time perfecting it, as most of the players are well versed in 4-3-3 and 4-2-3-1 already. “Most players have this experience in playing with 3 at the back, but for some it’s years ago so we want to work on it. It also happens to be a good system vs Scotland, by the way,” according to the coach. He also said Marten de Roon will start against the Scots, but that was all he was happy with sharing.

De Boer: “We want to dominate the game but we don’t always have a lot of possession. With this system you can dominate the game without the ball. We did this well vs Italy away, with a good sense of discipline and work rate. Now, we need to add more when we do have the ball. Our key players know how to play in this system. Daley Blind, Mathijs de Ligt, Frenkie, Memphis, it’s not new for them. And I do hope the jigsaw will fall into place quickly, I think it can. And if not, it’s easy to re-shape into a 4-3-3.”

Cillesen not being able to play and train with the group was enough reason for De Boer to give clarity about the goalie. He’s not longer needed. “It’s deep deep disappointing for him and for us, but we can’t start with a player who is not fit. We can’t practice with him, he will miss at least one match and I think it means we can’t use him. I only need players who are 100% fit.”

He did say some highly positive things about his new lads, Timber and Gakpo: “I am really impressed with them. The pace is high with Oranje and so is the intensity, but these two didn’t have any issues getting on the proper level. Don’t think for a moment these guys are just here to make the squad full. We will probably need the depth of this squad.”

Bookmark and Share
by Jan

Oranje steals the win in Scotland

If FIFA would have organised a losers Cup to be played parallel with the World Cup, for instance in Andorra or on Malta, with nations like…eh…Andorra, Malta, Finland, Luxembourg, Greece and Narnia, surely Holland would have an outside chance of winning that.

We stole the win in Scotland. Against a willing but mostly unable young Scottish team, also under care-taker manager, the Dutch got one real opportunity and took it. On the counter. Typically.

Well worked, I have to say, but also two hints of offside. The turn around moment came, Memphis set the attack up, willing runner Wijnaldum was on his bike, he found Babel on the right in an offside position and he crossed the ball hard onto the hardworking Depay who cushioned the ball into the net.

gini scot

That is basically all there was to say about Oranje’s attacking prowess in this friendly.

Otherwise, it was brave Scotland. And a 90 minute explanation of all that is wrong with this Oranje.

A coach who now only cares about statistics. No Van de Beek, no Berghuis, no Frenkie de Jong, just the usual suspects with too many missing players, not enough confidence and no consistency or patterns… Just making sure we fulfilled our obligation to play this friendly.

The players worked hard for it, they were probably motivated enough, but the lack of system, confidence, automatisms…it resulted in another poor display.

All Oranje’s shortcomings were clear in this game.

Ake scot

We should forget about this one (and the Romania one most likely, as I don’t see Dick coming up with anything other than this) and pray for the Dutch Lion turning into a Phoenix (ashes etc etc).

Even the post match comments of the players and coach made it clear that they too, want to see this vacuum period end quickly, so we can move on to better things.

I won’t go into the individual performances too much. Cillesen was uncertain at times. Blind – who played central mid vs Sweden and did so splendidly – was forced back into defence too often. Memphis worked hard. The forwards weren’t found. Our defenders (Ake, Rekik) threw everything at it and Wijnaldum showed glimpses of his Liverpool class.

Let’s move on.

goal memphisBookmark and Share