Champions League: Matchday 2

‘pool and Kuyt made PSV look like men against boys today. Getting really worried about the quality level of Dutch domestic football if this is the best they can produce. Just awful.

On the international front, a little bit of fresh news from Norway. Norwegian newspapers are again piling pressure on the existing coach quoting Heerenveen coach Trond Sollied as being very interested in becoming the next head coach for Norway. He also said that he thinks Norway will have big problems finishing 2nd (behind Oranje) but thinks that Norway right now may be better in defense (yes, Einstein) but also up front than Oranje (is he on drugs?)…Norway has John Carew upfront which is clearly legit, but Oranje has 10 offensive players in the same or better category.

Something tells me that Hereenveen will be without a coach soon, as he will jump on the Norway job by the look at things.

I am worried. 10-15 years ago we had great teams and our clubs were very competitive, I know the Bosman rule had a huge impact but if the Dutch league keeps this poor level it will affect very much the development of new players.

PSV was playing with very little confidence. From the opening whistle there was no attack and no real belief that they could win. You could see it in everything they did. The loss was purely due to attitude and poor tactics.

I imagine that it has to do with history but really does anything in the past matter more than what happens today

Posted from  Canada

PSV really lost their defensive strenght with Alex and Gomes, Isaksson and Brechet are almost nothing compared to these two. It’s a shame that a club like PSV has to let these kinds of players go, if they had had the money, they would have bought Alex, Gomes would probably still have left(all that bs with Reeker), but think about it, what a team has left PSV over the last years.
V.Bommel, Vogel, Robben, Alex, Gomes, Farfan, Kone, Bouma, YP Lee, JS Park and talents V.Aanholt, Da Costa, Aissati. And they would probably have signed Mexican Guardado

let me mix this with their current selection and put this in a possible selection if PSV would have like, two or three times as much money, and a better competition to play in.

GK-Gomes
GK-Isaksson(second goalie)

CB-Marcellis
CB/LB-Salcido
CB-Da Costa
CB-Alex
LB/CB-Bouma
CB/RB-Rodriguez
LB-YP Lee
LB/CB-Pieters

CDM-V.Bommel
CDM-Simons
CAM-Afellay
RW-Farfan
ST-Kone
CA-Guardado
LW-Robben
CM-Bakkal
CAM-Amrabat
LW-Dszudszak
CAM-Reimond Manco
ST-Nijland
CM-Wuytens

I think the message is clear, if PSV would play in a bigger competition, they would have all the possibilities of competing with the european topclubs.

Posted from  Netherlands

even forgot to mention Park and Kezman in the selection

Posted from  Netherlands

The point with PSV is though, they don’t have anything to fall back on.

What I mean is this: the fact that Dutch clubs need to sell talented players is a given. Saying that “if this and if that” isn’t helping. Ajax (some time back at least), Feyenoord (due to necessity) and AZ (due to Louis’ vision) play a certain style of football that can take on the big clubs if everything gels together on the night.

PSV tries to play the European top team way of football (4-4-2; tight defense and some hot strikers) but if you don’t have the talent, you end up a bland and cowardice team like they demonstrated yesterday. They don’t have the youth development to fall back on (Afellay is the only youth player to come out of their own system) and now “Dutch school” to fall back on. They reigned for 4 years and made money in the CL. Now, what have they done with all that? Zilch!

psv are becoming ajax, that’s a good thing because ajax have chance of winning the league this season.
plus psv is a young team, give them time to grow.

Posted from  United States

PSV was pretty bad last night, but I don’t think it’s a signal for a complete Dutch crisis. The Dutch league is not a top league (obviously), and Dutch teams in the CL are never going to be top dogs anymore, but it doesn’t mean that we will never compete again. I remember about 3 or 4 years back PSV making it to the Semi’s and putting up a hell of a fight against Milan. That was only a few years back guys. The team is not great right now, but that doesn’t mean that they won’t become a competitor again in the next few years (or Ajax or Feyenoord for that matter). Teams tend to have an ebb and flow in their quality… now they are in the ebb part of the cycle.

PSV has kind of lost it’s way in the last couple seasons, resulting in little youth development and a non-Dutch style of play, but they do have some bright prospects (Afellay, Amrabat, Marcellis). What they really need is a lethal striker. I also think that Ajax might have a future ahead of it again, assuming Marco can get things together and the club can sort out their youth programs.

Posted from  Canada

What PSV really needs is a bigger stadium and more money

Posted from  Netherlands

Carlos Vela was the Mexican kid, Jan. One definitely to watch.

Posted from  Spain

It’s all about money. If you don’t have it… well, the dutch teams don’t have it. Simple as that. EPl-clubs, the Spanish League-clubs, have alot of money to spend; they can buy players whom ever they want and in no-time players like affellay, marcellis and others will join the major leagues of spain and england; and if Real Madrid is willing and able to pay a salary (fee) of 1.5 million Euro’s a year for a benchwarmer like Royston Drenthe (of all people)… How you are gonna expect a Dutch club will pay such amount of money for a player who has still alot to prove?
It is obvious that top-leagues like England and Spain do have a broader market; the Anglo-Saxon world and South-America; merchandise and stuff. Do you really believe that a common football-supporter overthere is interested in the Dutch domestic league? No, they want to see the topstars and topstars go where the money is…

Posted from  Netherlands