Afellay and Landzaat back in orange

Since its a friendly you can bet you won’t see van der Sar playing, and bet most of the players will. I’m guessing he’ll start Stekeleneburg, Heitinga, Mathijsen, Bouma, and Emanuelson in defense. Seedorf, van der Vaart, Sneijder, and van Bronkhorst in midfield. Huntelaar and van Nistelrooij as strikers. But at the half, both strikers will be replaced by probably Koevermans and either Kuijt or Vennegoor. He’s likely to make a lot of changes to the midfield, but I can’t really imagine who. I think van Basten will probably switch Heitinga for Melchiot, and Bouma for Ooijer, and maybe Stekelenburg for Timmer.

Knowing the things our coach does though, he’ll probably give Maduro a starting spot, just because of his new contract. Netherlands 1-1 Croatia. Eduardo will kill our defense, and i think one of our strikers will get a late goal.

Posted from  Canada

I forgot to mention that he’ll probably use Babel as wide midfield, due to the fact that we can only field two strikers. Unless of course he switches up the formation.

Posted from  Canada

Landzaat has done a good job in Wigan this autumn so I guess thats kind of well deserved.

I’ve never even heard of engelaar. :S

How decent is he?

My formation: (4-4-2)

Edwin

Heitinga, Bouma, Mathijsen, Gio/Emanuelson

Seedorf, Maduro/de Zeeuw, Sneijder, Vaart/Babel

Ruud and Huntelaar

no boulah? i understand that he has hardly played a game but with our caliber/depth of central defenders, i’m still surprised he didnt even make the preliminary squad.

i’d also like to see bouma play in a central role (he has plenty of experience there too) to make room for de Cler/emmanuelson at left back.

Posted from  Canada

Boulahrouz is unfortunately still suffering from a muscle injury.
Our defense isn’t as bad as people think, i feel some defenders made bad decisions for example Melchiot had the option to go to french champions Olympique Lyon and Italian AS Roma. Atletico Madrid are interested in Heitinga and a few years back Barcelona and AC Milan.I believe Bouma could have gone to Arsenal when he left PSV. Emanuelson is still by most scouts considered as one of the most talented leftbacks in europe. Mathijsen is one of the most important players of HSV and his club is competing for the German title. Kromkamp from PSV was a highly rated rightback a few years ago but he had a rough time with injuries and not a lot of playing time at Villareal and Liverpool.
And Ooijer and De Cler are decent defenders , as well as Barry Opdam that could have gone to bigger clubs but didn’t. Jaliens i think is a nice player as reserve.
Don’t forget there is big group of talented dutch defenders: Ron Vlaar, Arnold Kruiswijk, Serginho Greene, Edson Braafheid, Ryan Donk, Milano Koenders, Gijs Luirink, Kees Luyckx, Gianni Zuiverloon, Royston Drenthe(can play left-back), Erik Pieters, Calvin Jong-a-Pin, Dwight Tiendalli. Also Patrick van Aanholt is a left-back and captain in the Chelsea youth department.

Posted from  Netherlands

guys were not gonna see that 4-4-2 shit against craotia and im so glad of that. Van basten talked about “4 defenders 2 holding midfielders 3 creative players and one deep striker”. I thnk hes gonna start using this to practice for the euro. my formation:

——————————stekelemburg———————————-

——-heitinga———-matijsen———-oijer———–melchiot———

—————-vbronkhorst—————-maduro————————–

——–sneijder————–v.vaart——————babel—————

—————————-v.nistelrooy———————————–

that seems like a pretty strong squad dispite the absence of van persie and robben. i thnk van basten should give drenthe a chance on the left bnack position. screw lanzaat and seedorf… we dont need them. hope it all goes well ttyl peace

Posted from  Switzerland

its pretty bold to say “screw seedorf.. we dont need him”.. id use him instead of babel, and have babel come on as a strong dynamic sub; but we definitely need seedorf’s experience from the start.. and honestly, as it stands today i’d take landzaat over maduro any day..

also u have two right backs, heitinga and melchiot.. And Ooijer is horrid, with respect to anybody who thinks he’s decent.. go with bouma or heitinga instead.

—————–stekelenburg——————
—melchiot— mathijsen—bouma—emanuelsson— (heitinga)
———–landzaat——van bronckhorst——— (de zeeuw)
——sneijder——–v.vaart———seedorf—– (babel)
——————v nistelrooy—————— (huntelaar)

i think we should start taking games seriously.. enough of endless substitutes just to make everyone play, and instead work on achieving decent play for 45-60 mins at least.

croatia are gonna be tough…

Posted from  Canada

by the way.. has anyone noticed that melchiot has been made captain at wigan..?
im not sure if that started before or after bruce came.. but i do think its a pleasant improvement.

Posted from  Canada

@Marc; forget about Drenthe, maybe will see him in a few years time, maybe will never see him again (hope the former)

@Alex’very true on the mistake career moves, well spotted (tough i still think our defense is pretty bad, esp. in building play from the back

think Ramy is spot on ,,

but remember people; it will just be another crap game by the boys in Orange!!

Posted from  Netherlands

@ramy…. well i was a lil cruel but i thnk that seedorf is past his time and that he is too old and not as fast as babel. babel can run and dribble as well as penetrate the opposing defence. lanzaat plays in a very modest club compared to maduro who just signed at valencia.maduro will have a lot more high level competition once it comes to the euro. apart from that i agree with u

Posted from  Switzerland

van Basten will probably use a lot more than three subs, he tends to in friendlies. But I think Ramy’s line-up is the most likely, with the except of landzaat being replaced with de zeeuw in the starting line-up. Anyone else want to try and call a score. I think 1-1, from Eduardo da Silva, and van Nistelrooij/Huntelaar.

Posted from  Canada

Does anyone know when the new home kit comes out. I know they’re not playing a home game until May, but they should still release it, because it is 2008. I really want to buy one.

Posted from  Canada

Don’t know but will check the KNVB site for ya…

Posted from  Australia

I’m sorry, couldn’t find anything on it. KNVB site is not that hot to be honest…

Posted from  Australia

Boulah sucks!