With the danger that comes from vPersie in the box and the lurking threat Sneijder imposes by staying at shooting range outside the box, space should become available for Kuyt to move in (if Kuyt is picked up, he’ll still have a chance to get ahead of his defender and more space for Sneijder’s shot as well, Sneijder will have to drop back a bit for even more space). That could be a really effective play and it’s about the same way it works at Arsenal (I’ve seen them score more than once that way).

de Jong + de Zeeuw (or if they have much height in that area I’d use vBommel, which I don’t think they have, I’d have to check)
Robben + Sneijder + Elia
vPersie

Bring Kuyt if you have difficulty scoring for de Zeeuw (perhaps even if you’re only 1-0 ahead, bring him IMMEDIATELY when you go 1-0 behind, don’t wait till the second half or 60th minute, which is such a stupid standard practice, probably straight from the rulebook of coaching).

Against the more effective goalscoring nations (Brazil, Spain, etc.), I’d simply start with Kuyt there.

We simply don’t have the quality in the back to “get our defense straight up” as you put. So why even try? Just do what van Basten did in 2008 and go for it. Maybe it didn’t work out against Russia, but we DID get the equalizer, so I’d say it worked. We were just not attentive/concentrated enough after the equalizer to control the match, perhaps we were too worried about having to go to penalties and were taking unnecessary risks. But I think it was more that the Dutch players weren’t expecting Russia to come right back at them and perhaps a subconscious thought after the equalizer that they had the game in the bag.

Naturally there were other factors at hand but I wouldn’t condemned a certain strategy if you’ve only lost 1 game with it. Especially the way we lost it.

I do agree that Sneijder’s qualities are being done most justice by having him in the nr. 10 indeed. But if there’s no room in the team for vdV and/or Elia, I’d rather shift some people around than playing vBommel over an in form vdV or Elia. That’s a much better solution in my eyes than the substitutions I’ve seen made by BvM by replacing Sneijder with vdV, or Kuyt with Affelay, Robben with Elia. So in short, our best players must be allowed to play TOGETHER, instead of one after the other, or trying to fix things that aren’t broken, which is basicly how I feel whenever Sneijder and Robben are taken off to make room for players like Elia, vdV and Affelay. If that means that will cost us in defense, than so be it, we’re not going to avoid Spain, Brazil, Portugal or Argentina to score against us anyway, not even with 12 vBommels, forget it. Just outscore em.

But that’s exactly why I’m suggesting Kuyt there, that way, you might not give up that much in defense plus you will have a lot of possibilities when going forward.

Contrary to your belief, in my view, the 2 holding midfielders (Van Bommel, De Jong/De Zeeuw) are IMPERATIVE if Oranje wants to have any chance to go deep in the WC 2010. I said this because the current Oranje back four (and the GK I might add) is very fragile. In fact, it’s probably the weakest of all legitimate contenders. There has to be an extra layer of protection in front of them, otherwise the defense would leak goals left and right. And btw, the game these days is won by defense (ask Greece of 2004 and Italy 2006). Get the defense straight up first, then think about scoring. By no means I suggest for negative football, knowing that with the qualities of Sneijder, Robben, Van Persie, and Vaart, I have no worry about building up attacks. Any of those players have enough creativities to create openings. And I should mention that Van Bommel is an under-appreciated passer, yet another attacking means in Bert’s toolbox. Final point, having two DM’s closing down the gate gives the two wings backs a security blanket to come forward and support the attacks. This is good news because by Oranje’s wingbacks (whoever that may end up) are all attacking-minded, and not always the cleanest when it comes to defense.

Think of him as filling the same role Fabreguas fills at Arsenal. Fabreguas goes into the box on a lot of occasions when there’s a possibility of a cross coming in. He has already scored many goals that way. OF course Kuyt is not comparible with Fabreguas, but who would you rather have coming into the box that way, vBommel or even Sneijder?

These guys don’t have the physical ability (as well as speed) Kuyt has to get ahead of defenders and score a goal (sort of like the first goal by vPersie last weekend) or has his aerial strength for high crosses coming in.

The reason why Schaars and vBommel are often preferred over de Zeeuw is probably the aerial strength factor of having both de Jong and de Zeeuw in that area. This is not an issue with Kuyt.

The only question is, how good will his passing/build-up play be. So far at Liverpool I’ve seen that he handles that pretty well especially on counters. I’ve seen him pick out the right people with some decent passes, long and short. But when you’re playing def.mid. you’ll need to be able to do that when there’s no space as well.

Hmmm, come to think of it, I believe I already DID mention all of this earlier. But now that I’ve seen Kuyt struggling lately on the wing as well as CF, I’m starting to believe that here he might actually be more useful to the team and perhaps even start scoring again, at least at Oranje. And it will allow for a REAL goalscorer to be added, or a real winger, like Elia or RVN (vPersie moves to the wing if RVN or Hunter can get in form, only then this is an option, otherwise Elia is the only option, in which case I prefer Robben on the right, but they can switch around as much as they like of course).