2010: New Year’s Resolutions….

@Alex: Ha Ha ha. Excellent. In fact, I think he looks like Bruno

@Keko – Van der Hulk?! Seriously? His name tells me he’s destined to be awesome.

Posted from  United Kingdom

@rob ,
haha , yeah . I think it’d be nice to see a dutch player called Van pire ( vampire )

Carlos: Poor Scousers just got beat by Reading !

me: You’ve seen the Reading game and still believe in Kuyt as a starter on the right wing?! Or a starter anywhere?

I think that game showed exactly what I just meant in my earlier reply a couple of days ago about Kuyt (the positive and negative remarks) like not being creative or skilled enough to create a chance that is not there in the first place (I used different wording but Tiju nicely filled in the blanks by saying Kuyt isn’t able to get passed a defender. He often doesn’t even try anymore. This game he tried only once or twice and failed miserably against 2nd league defenders. Then towards the end he became more useful again (just like I said) when all those high balls were coming in from the back and every now and then a bit more physical strength was needed to either keep possesion of the ball and keep the attack going, or physical strength to brake through the wall of defenders (pushing your way through even though you’ve basicly run into a dead-end, so to speak), or running speed to get into the right position to prevent a counter or receive a (high) ball from the back. But Kuyt was out of position to be really effective in the box like that cause he was hanging a little back on the right wing (undoubtedly for preventing counters with his workrate) instead of going into the box (allthough he did do both but not as often as I’d hoped).

My conclusion, Kuyt is most effective in a 4-4-2 system so he gets to share the box with someone like Torres. For Holland our system could probably be turned into a 4-1-3-2 at the end of a game where we are behind if we want to use Kuyt. As a right winger he just isn’t productive enough, only standard crosses (with the defender still in front of him) and he can’t create space for himself or others the way Robben or Elia often do (1 defender is usually enough to deal with him, unlike those other 2).

Posted from  Netherlands

His shot on goal towards the end was also pisspoor, but I’ll write that one of to desperation and frustration and I won’t link it to his abilities, cause I know he can shoot better than that.

Posted from  Netherlands

@Sol: You can’t blame Kuyt for the Reading loss. That is a bit of rubbish. He is struggling with a patch of poor form at the moment, I’ll give you and Tiju that. Maybe too many games. Nobody at Liverpool has played more than him this season except Pepe Reyna. Maybe he needs a bit of rest.

Anyway, since when did Robben last a tournament or 6-7 games in a row without injury? You can’t build a team counting on him being around and Elia is still unproven. The only thing you can count on is Kuyt.

I mean, that little unimaginative back and forth passing between him and I believe it was Insua (RB?) or Ngog towards the end on the right side when they had plenty of counterspace and Kuyt had a 1 on 1 with a defender while the box was almost completely devoid of defenders for me says everything.

I hope some of you remember what I’m talking about, it’s hard to explain it.

Kuyt pushing his teammate towards the cornerflag with his pass, only to get it back again cause there was no chance of creating anything from that position for Insua/Ngog (the defender had plenty of time to follow the ball, and because of Kuyt’s delay, Kuyt got marked by another defender).

Second example, the attempted 1-2 with Benayoun that was so clearly NOT on, even my mother would have seen the 1-2 was NOT on, and even if Benayoun could have miraculously gotten to the ball, it would have been impossible for him to get anything out of it, again showing that Kuyt had no vision or creativity in that instance and all he seemed to care about was to get rid of the ball as quickly as possible before he lost it. The right tactic in that instance would have been either to try something himself (like create some space by doing a short dribble, or trying to turn, SOMETHING) or just hold on to it and wait for another teammate to play to.

And those are just examples, I can’t go into every detail.

Posted from  Netherlands

And with no creativity I primarily mean that I know exactly what Kuyt is going to do 2 seconds before he does it, and if I know, so do the defenders (apparently including 2nd league defenders).

Posted from  Netherlands

Take that 2nd example, when seeing Benayoun play into Kuyt, I immediately thought to myself, NO!NO!NO! Kuyt don’t do it!

Guess what, he still did it.

Posted from  Netherlands

Actually, I though the exact same thing with that first example when he got the ball. OK, gonna stop multi-posting now, you get the idea.

Posted from  Netherlands

Q: Anyway, since when did Robben last a tournament or 6-7 games in a row without injury? You can’t build a team counting on him being around and Elia is still unproven. The only thing you can count on is Kuyt.

***

OK, but that’s a different question, are Robben and Elia going to be fit. Of course Kuyt still needs to be selected. But what I’m saying, that he should be the back-up and ELia and Robben the starters. Not like it is now (Kuyt has started for Holland when both Elia and Robben were fit).

Posted from  Netherlands

And to me at least, Elia has proven his worth and ability to play tough games. Primarily based on his performance in an European topclub.

Posted from  Netherlands

Torres out for 6 weeks with knee surgery
Gerrard out for at least 2 weeks with a hamstring
Benayoun out 3-4 weeks with a broken rib

And just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse for Liverpool

Well, the upside is I guess Babel will get his last opportunity to show what he can do

Against Russia in 2008 we also wasted the entire first half with Kuyt on the field. Scoreline 0-0. That’s what I’m trying to warn about. And don’t say that’s too long ago, cause the exact same thing happened against Japan, scoreline 0-0 and half-time with Kuyt on the field (you would probably argue it wasn’t Kuyt’s fault, but I would disagree if you look at the details of the game).

Ok, really going to stop now.

Posted from  Netherlands

Sorry to Kuyt, I still like him.

Posted from  Netherlands

A mini WC2010 update on Denmark. They are just about to go to Thailand for 2 weeks with a B-team consisting primarily of players in their domestic league (which is off at the moment). They will play in a tournament against Poland, Thailand and Singapore.

The other news is that their main keeper, Sorensen at Stoke, is on his way out after Stoke is supposedly about to sign David James from Portsmouth on a season long loan and an option to buy. Sorensen is being linked with several German clubs.

didn’t see the reading-’pool game, but I disagree on kuyt’s contribution in the Russia game. I thought that he was one of the few players that was sticking to the game plan of “pass and move”. He retained posession well and didn’t give the ball away and played for the team. Many other players in the first half were simply sending long balls toward RVN which wasn’t working at all and actually was pretty much gifting posession back to the russians, and later the so-called creative players didn’t fare better, trying to dribble their way through numerous defenders instead of playing quick passes. Not to mention that Kuyt performed well in his other games (2 assists vs italy, 1 goal vs france).

I’m not saying he should be a guaranteed starter, far from it, as the lineup on any given day should also be decided on based on form, the opponent, strategy, etc. But having the ability to dribble past defenders is only one aspect of an attacker’s game and surely there must be games where you feel that having one good, speedy dribbler on the wing (Robben/Elia) is enough and that kuyt would provide another dimension on the opposite wing.

Posted from  Canada

By the way, Kuyt has played 37 games already this season (since August). May explain why he needs some rest.

come on guys ! I think that if someone who doesn’t know kuyt reads your comments , most propably he’ll think that kuyt is one of the worst players in the history , First of all , to be realistic .. We should know that kuyt will be selected in the dutch squad , wether we like that or not ( unless he gets injured ) .
i think , in my humble opinion , that kuyt is a must in the oranje . He is not skillful , not a creative player .. But he is the best dutch player in these points :
- he has the best winner mentality in the oranje
- The best fitness in the oranje
- verstile player ( SS , RWG , CF )
- the best stamina
- excellent in defensive tasks .
- leader character
well , i think those 6 reasons are fair enough to make him in the squad , may be not always as a starter , but there are some teams like Denmark , cameroon , italy , england , germany ( high technical teams ) .. We’ll need to start with kuyt against those teams . May be when we face teams like japan , paraguay , brazil , argentina , spain .. Players like robben and elia will be better options as starters .

also i think kuyt benefits from playing with oranje and is more effective more them rather then liv’pool, because at liverpool hes expected to be the creative player, which is not really his forte. However for oranje he fits in much better with the team because he provides balance for our creative players (and van der wiel who i think will start for oranje, yes?), and also he does the dirty work, goal vs France and the header down to Wes was beautiful cause he also ran the full length of the pitch. but yes if we are stuck in a game vs Japan or Denmark or we need a goal back i vote for elia/robben

Posted from  United States

Haha….the Kuyt debate is on again

it never dies does it? i for one would take a team of 11 kuyts over a team of 11 robbens and not just because that match would have to be played 11 v 8 due to all of the injuries in team robben

Posted from  Canada

…which doesn’t really mean much except that Kuyt is a more versatile player with good work rate and mental toughness. In reality a team with a specialist for each of the different positions should be better than a team of all-arounders.

Posted from  Canada

If only we could fuse Dirk Kuyt and Arjen Robben, to form Dirk Robben, indistructible, hard working, fast, flashy winger with a killer dribble and defensive qualities as well.

Posted from  Netherlands

Eh, I like Kuyt very much!
I mean, he is not the most skilful player on earth, but hey, he knows how to play good football, how to pass the ball, to retain the ball and to open spaces. If you are a defender and you see this super blond, 1.84 meters tall guy running at you, you just ‘know’ you have to go and try to stop him.
He obviously wont start every game, but with Van Persie injured, Huntelaar playing 5 minutes every two weeks, Babel being shitty, he is more important than ever. And he is the kind of player that will be fit and going during the whole world cup, and that is very important for a competition lasting one month.
Plus, he is a very nice guy outside the pitch, who does not have an ego as big as an Aribus A380 like others..