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Dutch Press not amused

November 16th, 2006 | By: Jan | 18 Comments »

The Dutch press agreed. Oranje played poorly agains England and – which is even worse – nobody was surprised.

The AD found the game and the result symptomatic for this team manger. “The result was ok, the quality of play dreadful. An observation we made in 2005 and we also need to make now, at the end of 2006. Where’s the progression?”

Volkskrant used words like timid, insecure and fragile to describe the team. “Again, Oranje needed to show some fighting spirit at the end of the match, which was the only positive aspect to the game. Other than that, it was miserable.”

De Volkskrant did like the van der Vaart on the right wing move. “It’s hard to follow the team manager. The system used does not fit the players and the role vd Vaart had to perform was surprising. But, it seemed to work. He played well and the lefty right-winger did score the only goal.”

There was not a lot to cheer about, De Telegraaf analysed, although Seedorf’s name was chanted for the first time in many many years.
According to Trouw, Seedorf is the new salvador, the saviour who needs to help Oranje forward. “Dutch fans are so desperate for better days that any form of new blood, even if it’s an older and impopular player, will stir the blood of the fans.”
The AD cannot understand why van Basten took Seedorf back in. “What was there to do for Seedorf in this boring, slow paced team? Seedorf does not belong in Oranje, because he is too good! And why ask him now, 2.5 years later, to play a friendly against England? Why wasn’t he considered prior to the WC, when vd Vaart was injured and Sneijder lost his form? Our team manager is an enigma…”

Tags: Clarence Seedorf, marco van basten, The Netherlands

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Comments

By richard | November 16th, 2006 at 10:54 pm

I think Van Basten needs to settle soon on a lineup/formation and start trying to build chemistry and postive momentum for the squad. The coach seems a bit of stubborn hard-ass with a knack for alienating players–not a good thing. I didn’t see this friendly but I gotta believe Seedorf can help a midfield that was clearly weak in the WC. Here’s hoping for better things…

Posted from United States

By sk8erboi | November 17th, 2006 at 2:27 am

I think we need a change, two years since Van Basten took over and the team has not progressed a bit. We still have an average team, sorry, but we do.

I think that the biggest mistake is trying to stick with 433 or 442, I don’t think this will work out for oranje now. Something tells me that a 31321 would be better for oranje. Something like:

VanDerSar
Heitinga, Boula, Gio
Mathijssen
Vaart, Sneijder, Seedorf
VanPersie, Robben
Makaay (or Nistelrooy)

Wierd? May be even crazy, but why not? Marco has tried every thing that might make “sense!” but nothing is working! And all the madness about needing a creative/leader/controller midfielder madness should be thrown behind us. I think these are oranje’s best, and we should play them like this. We have nothing to loose.

P.S. am willing to leave Robben out and play a Makaay, Nistelrooy up front

Posted from Kuwait

By bodo | November 17th, 2006 at 2:28 am

The facts : fhe Dutch team is an eternal story : it is always the mess !!!
Cockiness and natural selfishness are the main cause.
Media forget the past and focus on the present.
I should not blame Marco for that situation as it always existed.
Be reassured : in friendly matches, the spectacle is often very poor as it was for France-Greece last Wednesday. Question of motivation.
Besides, I will never support Seedorf as he never convinced me in 10 years.
Who could be the inspirational boss on the pitch apart from Van de Sar !!! I do not see!

By sphinx | November 17th, 2006 at 3:36 am

sk8erboi
your proposed formation remind me dutch tradition 31213 from.
your’s lacking a tackler I feel,
vaart or Sneijder and Seedorf + a tackler like De jong or De silva would work.

Posted from Myanmar

By lars | November 17th, 2006 at 7:56 am

evryone on this site when they put down their preferred formation play boularouz at centre back! now why isnt van basten, matijsen is crap look at hamburg at the moment bottom of the league! van der vaary definatly worked down the right wing, he is a great crosser of the ball. we should play with 2 strikers and i fink they should be v.persie and nisterooy, kuyt plays 2 much like v.persie and it wont work, besides he still needs time 2 adapt 2 his new club. the three s”s should play in the middle sneider seedorf and schaars. i like schaars coz he tackles well and distributes the ball without much fuss, he complements sneider.

Posted from United Kingdom

By Sharon | November 17th, 2006 at 12:49 pm

I am from the Netherlands and The Kuip is near my house. And often people fight there because they think Van Basten is mad. They saying that Van Basten don’t make a good selection. But…… they are playing very well! This is my
viewpoint. And don’t lett on my orthography because I only have got 3 years English and I have to do 8 years. So.. if I have made a fault … sorry. I like English very much. It is my favourite trade.

Bye Sharon
From : The Netherlands
Place: Rotterdam

Posted from Netherlands

By simone | November 17th, 2006 at 12:52 pm

ik vind het jammer dat nederland de wereldcup niet heeft gewonnen maar ja ze doen goed hun best. maar van basten maakt vaak niet zo goeie selecties en daarom spelen ze ook onder stress maar…..

doei en groetjes van sharon

Posted from Netherlands

By jip jaap stam | November 17th, 2006 at 11:17 pm

the fact van the man scored 4 goals against osasuna and still cant get a place… honestly WTF…

Posted from Canada

By goose | November 17th, 2006 at 11:35 pm

think the critisism in the press is well put, ive been saying for some time now that im really getting worried about the lack of progress ive seen since vanBasten came on as a bondscoach.. its gone from bad to worse..

at first everybody was happy, after Advocaat it was a fresh start, a new beginning, with new faces and new dreams (getting poetic), the results were pretty good before the WC and therefor there was little said about the footballing performance which was pretty poor… at the WC the poor play held on, we never played one decent game (according to vanBasten’s fylosofy of attacking and pressing football) and almost as bad, vanBasten showed he lacked manager skills, that ofcourse is also a fault of the KNVB who hired (again) a bondscoach with zero experience as a manager!!! What a mistake to think that any brilliant footballer will make a brilliant manager…i dont say it istn possible but Oranje is no playground for (beginning)managers to learn their trade!!

JJSTam;remember that vanNistelrooy said no himself (altough vanBasten drove him away), i have this feeling that hell be back in Oranje next year..(just a hunch), but its very true that Ruud belongs in Oranje

skaterboy; have to agree with Sfhinx, dont think you can play vanderVaart and Sneijder in the same team (internationaly), how about this midfield:

vdVaart - Seedorf - vanBommel (left to right)??
not so sure about Heitinga, had real big hopes for him a few years ago but still think hes very insecure (even at Ajax)

@Lars, the thing with Kuyt is that there is no striker who works as hard as Kuyt and thats very handy when you have an insecure midfield who’ll leave a lot of space between the goal and the midleline,

maybe strange to say but i think Kuyt is more of a attacking midfield player that a real striker, he should not be ‘the lone striker’, thats more a vanNistelrooy thing

im still very sceptic, no progress, no results (WC) and it will go on till at least 2008!!!

Posted from Netherlands

By kervin | November 18th, 2006 at 11:28 pm

@goose
i’ve been thinking about
- - - - - sneijder
van bommel- - - -Seedorf

then vann der Vaart must have a fight for a place in attack. I am no manager and i dont know if it would work out, cos sneijder as a defensive midfielder(Pirlo type)as in the WC is a gamble…?

By sphinx | November 19th, 2006 at 5:51 am

If not Sneijder? is the biggest question to Dutch football right now. We are badly in lack of a holding midfielder at the class. Who ever you name, Lanzaart, Maduro, Schaars, de jong, Sno… no one came close to the level.
A defender or an attacking mid-fielder may be able to play in this role, like Zenden worked for DA. I don’t have any idea on Sneijder. Can anyone comments?

Posted from Myanmar

By Rami | November 19th, 2006 at 1:23 pm

Some of you think its about time we change managers now before its too late.. Just out of curiosity, who do you have in mind that is decent at least and not already committed??

btw did any of you hear that robben might leave chelsea if the latter move forward with their interest to purchase Lyon’s malouda in the January transfer window? I hope he does, but stays in the premier league.

As far as our midfield is concerned, I have no objection seeing van bommel playing instead of landzaat down the right hand side, but find it imperative to include seedorf in the lineup, along probably with vdv/sneijder and schaars.

vdv - schaars - seedorf - van bommel, with vdv moving forward to play also as a winger or left attacking midfielder if ud like next to van nistelrooy/kuyt and van persie (my ideal 442-433 formation). I think the best thing to do with robben is bench him and bring him sometime during the second half when opponents’ legs start go tired. I have a feeling he’ll be much more effective then with that flair and pace he has. Sneijder, huntelaar also would be excellent substitutes.

Posted from Russian Federation

By Misha | November 19th, 2006 at 11:36 pm

I agree with Rami on the use of Robben as a sub. Start v. Persie, Kuyt, and vdv; and sub Robben for vdv or kuyt. This makes sense on every level and would be even better if Ruud and Van Bommel were available.

By sphinx | November 20th, 2006 at 5:21 am

fine idea to bring in Robben only when they get tired. He got speed and flair but not much scoring power.
BTW Kuyt played rubbish against Boro. I don’t think he is a tipical standby striker like Ruud or Hunter. He’s been recgonized as hard working horse. Alittle bit withdrawn role could be more suitable with him. I don’t think he would shine at that new role.

Posted from Myanmar

By goose | November 20th, 2006 at 11:10 am

@Kervin, intersesting, think it depents what type of game you want to play…vanderVaart and Sneijder are both very simular (altough Sneijder is better with two feet), i think we all agree that they cant play together at midfield, mayve we could use Kuyt (or vanderVaart) as a link between attack and midfield (i know its a bit like Robben plays know but hes of no good when youre on defence, think vanderVaart or Kuyt (like sfinx said) could do that… we need to strengten this midfield in order to progress..
grtz

Posted from Netherlands

By kervin | November 20th, 2006 at 12:24 pm

@goose then u say play like milan with kaka behind two strikers, and in midfield seedorf, pirlo, gattuso. here it would be van Persie (or any1), and in midfield seedorf, sneijder, van bommel. very interesting! but it’s Mr Basten who takes the decisions.

By goose | November 22nd, 2006 at 6:54 am

@Kervin, haha, yes its vanBasten who does the picking!
im still thinking about the best positions in the team (in my view), want to use Kuyt and his running but really dont know were to put him..maybe on midfield? Maybe dont use wingers??Really a bit lost here

ill come back to this

Posted from Netherlands

By goose | November 27th, 2006 at 10:11 am

@Kervin:

here it is:

left to right:

Sar

de Cler - Mathijs. - Boula - Ooijer

Schaars - Seedorf - vanBommel

van Persie - vanNistelrooy - Kuyt

there should be space for running and changing positions, vanBommel can play more on defence if its neccesary(?) and Kuyt can play more of an attacking righ-midfielder…im very impressed by de Cler who is proven to be are best attacking defender (sorry vanBronckhorst), we can also change say Sneijder or vd Vaart for Seedorf..Kuyt and vanPersie can also change position… how about this one??

greetz

Posted from Netherlands

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