Johan Cruyff is losing it!
I don’t know… I mean I just finished writing the pun on JC being diagnosted with dementia and read some more stuff in the Dutch newspapers.
And apparently, JC said the following in his CL analysis on national television, after the Real Madrid – Olympique Lyon match (for all of you who just returned from a deep-space mission to Pluto: Ruud van Gol gave the assist to Raul and scored the winner himself, his 50-est in the CL):
“Well, Ruud van Nistelrooy is a limited football player. He lacks skill, he can’t finish with his left…he is the type that is always at the right spot to score his goals, really. I mean, he is like Inzaghi or Der Bomber, Gerd Muller….”
And Johan said this with dry eyes. Serious. And no one stopped him! No one in the Studio Sport studio said: Johan, here’s your warm milk and your cookie, mate and please…stop embarrassing yourself. Why don’t you take a bit of a break, ok? We’ll catch up soon… We may want to ask another ex-player to do some analysis here. Maybe someone a wee bit younger… Like Wim Kieft or Ronald de Boer… Yeah yeah, both only mediocre strikers Johan, we know…
My God, Ruud has scored 50 goals in the CL, most winners too. He won championships with PSV, Man United and now Real Madrid. He won the CL with Man United and many many other titles, cups and records.
I mourned the fact that one of my fave players, Marco van Basten, lost the plot recently, but now I also start to question the sanity of my all time fave player of all time…
Is it me??
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Displaying the most recent 25 comments from a total of 29 comments.
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what’s wrong with cruyff in these days? ok maybe rvn is limited. but let’s say we can approach maradona too because his tackles wasn’t too fantastic or edgar because he doesn’t score too often or messi because he’s not too good in defending.
bullshit johan (who is my all the time fave player too)
Posted from
Hungary




Cruyff’s been sprouting absolute bullshit for a long time now.
Ruud may not be the most technical player out there, but his records say more than words ever could! And I’ve seen him score goals that did require a fair amount of technique, he’s better than the likes of Inzaghi in the technical department, but he’s no Ronaldo of course.
Ruud knows his weak points, but he knows his strong points even better and exploits them as best as he can, with the aid of his incredibly driven personality. So what that he doesn’t do stepovers, dribbles and scissors? He hates doing those things anyway!
Oh and by the way, Ruud did not win the CL with United! United won the CL in ‘99, when Ruud wasn’t in the picture yet….
Posted from
Netherlands




agree that Cruijff is still on some Holy War against anything that isnt Ajax, 4-3-3…
altough i agree with his analyse on Ruud he should say also what a lethal striker he is
to be honest; i have had my moment of doubt when it came to Ruud but he proved me very wrong!!
think part of the succes is that Ruud knows his limitations like Leonie says…other than f.i. Kluivert he had to work his way up form humble beginnings (FcDenBosch)
but yeah; Cruijff should stop bashing all those non-Ajax players like Ruud, Mark etc.. but you know Johan; he would rather drink his own piss than to admit him beeing wrong
Cruijff needs this 4-3-3 attacking system to work cause it makes his own legend bigger..remember they didnt win in 74 so they need at least the system to have won
Jan, i knew there was a little portuguese in you!! hahah
grtz
Posted from
Netherlands




Great comment Jan,
Tell JC to commment on Dirk kuyt,denny land saat, tim de cler,,kew jaliens,haiselink(van bastens favrs)




agreed ruud left is weak right is lethal so totally he is aleathel weapon for us.still i belive (if he played portugal matchwc06 we would have won bye minimum 3-1




Very perplexed by what my fav all time player is saying as well.
Of course JC thinks Ruud is limited, but Ruud has never wanted to be super all-around midfielder like JC. He’s a striker. Of course he’s always at the right spot to score his goals, cause where he is positioned when he scores a goal is where he wanted to be.
Anyways, I don’t have anymore to say except that Ruud scores a lot of goals, and not a lot of them are boring. I don’t know what has gotten into JC, but I think Jan might be right, the “I’m always right” mentality is acting once again.




Well JC, if you say that then take the national team, call some skill players and win EU or WC.
Posted from
United States




Ruud reminds me of Hockey legend Phil Esposito of the Boston Bruins. Feed him the puck in front of the net and he finds a way to put it in.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Esposito
Ruud has a nose for the net, and scores goals. That is something that you cannot teach.




I reading all of the email responses to Jan’s blog, I am left wondering why, with all due respect, anyone cares what Cruyff says. He was an exceptional player, a bright but flawed coach and for those accomplishments, we all admire him. However, simply because of his successes, he does not obtain God status. He is like the rest of us–he has an opinion. Some of us agree, some do not. The subject, gentlemen, is football. This is not about world peace, or any life or death issue. Let’s enjoy both Johan’s opinions, for what they are, and Ruud’s achievements for what they are now.
Posted from
United States




Man, didn’t Ruud win the CL with ManU?? Am I that wrong? Sjikes, I’ll sit at the table there in the corner with Johan and Marco
.
Good comments all… And Bob says it the best: why bother what JC says. By reacting like this we actually empower JC… Good point.
But again, football is about scoring goals. Not about trickery, running fast, jumping high or doing backflips.
So, look at Ruud’s statistics and then tell me he is a “limited” player…
Oh, and Goose, according to the stuff JC says, he is already drinking his own piss
Posted from
Australia




Guys:
Johan is saying so many stupid things in the last few years that it is no sense to listen to him. Ruud limited??? His only weakness is that he doesn´t use his left as he uses his right but who does???. Maradona was a leftie and was great, Pelé hit the ball more with the right foot and Ronaldinho doesn´t use his left foot just to get into the bus.
What can you tell about Messi or Robben???. Very lefties…
I mean, I think Cruyff is to perfectionist and thinks everybody should be perfect but Ruud is not limited as footballer. In fact, I agree with Jan as I believe he is a truly talented player that can decide a game on his own. You are not gonna do that by being limited!
I am also starting to think after reading Cruyff´s statements that he recommended Marco to bench Ruud vs. Portugal due to the problems he had with van Basten and because he thinks he is limited.
Johan Cruyff is doing a lot of damage to Dutch football saying bad things about Oranje´s best players and although he should be respected, he is not always right and definetely this statements that he made about Ruud are ridiculous.




Jan:
hilights from last weeks Roda Feyenoord game, you gotta love de Guzmans first goal. Left foot shot!
http://www.dailymotion.com/search/feyenoord/video/x2zo8w_16092007-roda-jc-feyenoord-13_sport




Thanks Tjeerd! I hardly seem them play these days… Great link.
Posted from
Australia




Ruud is a limited player. I agree with Cruyff. Ruud is totally useless when not served with the rights ball, which was not the case with Patrick Kluivert, or even with Jan VoH, Kuyt or Pierre.




“Listen, it’s like saying a Ferrari is a limited car because the trunk is too small to fit in a lot of suitcases and you can’t tow a caravan…”
Haha, great comparison Jan! I like what you said about giving JC his warm milk and cookie.. his opinions seem to be more damaging than helpful to dutch football nowadays.
Lerkot – You’re right, if Ruud doesn’t get the right ball he is useless, but his range of “right balls” is so large that it makes up for it. Meaning, he can take even bad passes and turn them into goals. Also he scores a lot of goals just by being in the right place at the right time (rebounds, etc.). I’d take that lethal finishing over players who can create chances out of nothing but miss half of them any day.
Posted from
Japan




There are times when JC’s Yogi Berra-esque ramblings are insightful, this isn’t. His comments serve no purpose other then to stroke his own ego and further his relationship with Marco.
Ruud wins games, scores vital goals and injects a team with a winning mentality. He’s the most dangerous striker we have right now regardless of his suggested short-comings.
Posted from
Canada




Well said JVB21!! I wish I could be so efficient with words. But this sums it up quiute nicely.
Posted from
Australia




Cruyff is saying bull shit abour this issue. It isn´t an issue, everybody knows the talent Ruud has!.




I have seen Ruud score with his left many times and some pretty goals as well.




How can anyone say that Ruud is a limited player?, it is a huge insult to say something like that. He is an incredible player who can win a game in a second as he did with Albania, Germany and many many other times.
He is one of the leaders of Real Madrid and no limited player could do that.




Ruud is two-footed




Irony time, here.
Das Bomber beat Oranje in 1974. He was limited but determined. And Oranje did NOT accord him the respect he deserved.
Ruud can’t do everything. But what he CAN do is extra-ordinary. In the box he somehow gets the ball on net. And he’ll hustle like crazy to make the play. Can’t do lots of things – but very few footballers can.
One of the keys of any sport is figure out what your players CAN do and set them up to do it. Lot more productive than wishing that everyone was a superman. They aren’t – and you’ll never win by just wishing that all your players are supermen.
However, still very revealing – because Das Bomber is very similar to Van N in my mind. Cruijff might just still be annoyed at that. But I was so much better than he was! Yeah – but he scored twice, Oranje scored one – and thus lost.
Posted from
United States




Nice piece on soccernet.com
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=465535&root=euro2008&cc=5901
Posted from
United States




interesting a true article but unfortunately marco won’t read it
Posted from
Hungary




Who saw the Chelsea – Man U game? The obvious big buzz is Jose, but did anyone notice who was sitting behind Abramovich? Mr Marco! I had to do the double check. Some media types have picked up on this and followed with the obvious speculation, while I’d like to offer my own I’m saving my energy for my bed time prayers. “Footy Gods, if you’re just and kind would you please, please inspire Marco to trade his old puppet master JC for a new really rich one.”
Posted from
Canada


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