Nigel de Jong: in service of a Sheik

I would say that Schaars, de Jong, and van Bommel are of a higher level than Engelaar, and much higher than de Zeeuw and Maduro. However, van Bommel is a risk to have in any team because of his attitude. I am just not impressed by de Zeeuw at all so far. You don’t notice him on the field with Oranje, while de Jong is everywhere at once it seems. Schaars I am giving the benefit of the doubt, because I think the best has yet to come from this young man who is already quite good.

Posted from  Netherlands

apparently van bommel is taller than oijer! maybe he could play in defense to make room for schaars.

If their was a Dutch League All Star team who do you think should be in it

Sonneveld great clip..did you put the background music in ? Thats John Lee Hooker right? Nigel will be a cult hero among the light blue Mancunians I am sure….
OK we all seem to agree…drop vB one level back and bring in Schaars next to de Jong. Jan can you make the call to Bertje ?

Posted from  Singapore

the funny thing is out team now has 5 players playing as midfielders and 2 defendres that are midfielders

kuyt

robben van der vaar sneijder

de jong de zeeuw

gio mathijsen van bommel de jong

stekelenburg

mathijsen and stekelenburg the only none midfielders in the team

two de jongs?

@sonneveld wat do you want to fuck dutch team in knockout stages,
Gio is so poor man,so huge gap in diffence
PLease the matches of us against portugal06,italy06,england05,the way kuyt fucked us was terrific,if you want include kuyt into the team take tim as rightback,holding mid or right winger,where is muchneeded schaars man?look at AZ with schaars and without schaars that will tell you the truth

Posted from  India

My fav will be
Vanpersie
Castelen-vaaart-Roban
Schaars-De jong
Bouma-Mathijenson-Heitinga?(no other choice looking a tall couargaeous diffender like douglas)-Marcelis
Stekelenburg
captain -schaars coz this guy has more real courage than van bommel
My super subs will be hunter,Babel,Znijder

Posted from  India

Tiju, hava you seen Castelen playing in the last 6 months? Because I haven´t neither heard or read something good about him. I don´t know if he is injured and although I think he is a good player, he has not had a good impact at Hamburg or perhaps he is injured but now he is out of the window I think.

@everybody
Plz try to see the games of us against italy 06 feb or march,portugal06wC,England05 and many other matches when kuyt played as a central striker.

Posted from  India

@dear mario castelen played well for hamburg for 13 matches and he won the fans there along with rafa and dejong. after that he was unlucky and he never played a single game coz severe injury on knee,but now he started training and soon will be bcak on hamburg starting eleven.

Posted from  India

match against italy,finland,england all these matches casteln was a constant threat to the opponent,he was highly rated player in all these matches,only the thing is he is bit small in size but speedy boy like roban with smae skills of roban.
the following quatrets will fearsome if they get chance togather with support of de jong and schaars.
——Hunter—–
Castelen-vanpersie–Roban

Or
——Vanpersie—–
Castelen—vaart–roban
Otherwise
——dutch kaka—-
dutch Ribery—dutch fabergas—Dutch Messy
with our top world class holding mids -dejong-schaars-vanbommel-mendes da silva

Posted from  India

Tiju, we can use good wingers, but with Hunter, Kuyt, Van Persie, Robben, Afellay, Vaart etc I really think Castelen will need to prove himself first. Getting fit is one thing, getting match fit is a totally different ballgame. Good luck to him. Once he shines in Hamburg, he’ll be on the radar.

Newsflash Boulahrouz getting more games now, and looking more confident and better for Stuttgart. Overall i’d say dutch defenders had a good weekend. I thought Heitinga played well, despit the 3 goals conceeded. Zuiverloon is playing a lot better again and i would hope he can really grow in PL next season. Donk did well too. Maduro regular now for Valencia, but on different places, did best as rightback though.
De Jong and V.Bommel are, based on performance, reputation and competition our two first options for holding midfield. BTW don’t underestimate De Zeeuw. Schaars and him really excell with AZ. Engelaar is good but, Schaars, De Zeeuw, Mendes da Silva and even Maduro have more potential left than him.

Think Boulah not in his best form yet. So I’d say
Heitinga-V.Bommel-Mathijsen-Bouma
would be the best backline at the moment. But we should thank god that we finally have a decent list of good defenders coming up with especially Braafheid, Marcellis, V.d.Wiel, Zuiverloon, Vlaar, Donk, Luirink and Loovens. And there’s even a decent list of possible talents just under that: J.Drost, Koenders, Kruiswijk, Verhaegh, Janmaat, Janse, Bruma, V.Aanholt, V.Eijden, Luijckx, Pieters, Tiendalli

Hope Gijs Luirink can make his return for AZ, i liked him a lot for oranje U-21 but constantly plagued by injuries. I’d like to see how this AZ squad holds up in CL too. I would love to have a dutch team impress again.
That would be a unbelievably crazy stunt, V.Gaal winning CL with AZ

Up front, Huntelaar, V.Persie, Kuyt and Robben do best right now on a high level as well, and that’s the only way we should judge dutch players. cause everyone here knows Sneijder, V.d.Vaart, Afellay, Babel, Castelen(him too), Elia, Beerens, Amrabat etc. are good attacking players as well.
Conclusion: the same as last time, with only Stekelenburg and Bouma(cause of his recent injurie and lack of rythm) questionable .

———–Stekelenburg/Vermeer
Heitinga-V.Bommel-Mathijsen-Braafheid/Bouma
———–De Jong-Schaars
Kuyt———-V.Persie———Robben
————-Huntelaar

Also possible to play somewhat different, but always with the possibility of Kuyt, V.Persie and Robben switching positions.

——–De Jong
Robben—V.Persie—-Schaars
——Kuyt-Huntelaar

Posted from  Netherlands

@jan i why i prefer castelen over ibiafalleey coz he wont dribble unnecessarily like afaleey and he is more a team player like kuyt,i think we need him badly,he is the dutch Ribery

Posted from  India

@alex i think the ultimate message of your comment is you dont have trust in our old diffenders isnt it?
i would love to see Rovlaar-Gijs luirink conquers our central diffence like BIGWALLS IN china

Posted from  India

Alex – good round up mate ! Keep us informed – I am now also more impressed by de Zeeuw, however give me your views (and Goose). Demi is one of the holding mids at AZ, but time and again I see him going forward a la Sneijder and doing one touches with players as he moves upfield.
Is he now consider more of an attacking midfielder or is he still a defensive midfield. I compare his style similar to Tim Cahill of Everton. Your thoughts (and everyone else ?)

Posted from  Singapore

@ tiju
romeo is gone

Posted from  United States

Castelen had some very good games in 2006, I remember he played very well against England. He could be an interesting option for the right wing but he needs to play regularly with Hamburg because at the moment we have many players who can play in that position.

Thanks Alex! Good stuff man!!

@ tiju, I wouldn’t put it as black and white as you do.
I don’t trust Andre Ooijer, and Gio anymore and De Cler remains an average player. Now I do think Bouma is a much better defender than those, you can all laugh if you want, but I he would fit into some topteams just fine, Bouma is in my eyes at least equal or better than for example Heinze, O’Shea, Abidal, Boumsong, Grygera, Chiellini, Brown, Clichy, but already 30 years old.
Now Heitinga is 25 and has big potential, he started out very well partnerring with Ujfalusi, but then Atletico fans and spanish football fans saw him making a number of shaky performances, cause 3 penalties and conceede quite a number of goals with Atletico. And the new coach drew his conclusions from that, I hope he won’t turn into another Boulahrouz/Metzelder/Ben Haim who didn’t really get the time and opportunity to adjust/fit in comfortably and prove themselves with topclubs due to injuries and what not. Still think Boulahrouz in form is a very good defender, an Italian club would suit his style best I think.
And Mathijsen, is a good defender, but no world-class, and that’s what I want to see again. Where Bouma/Heitinga/Boulahrouz in my eyes have the quality to be a steady regular for a big club, Mathijsen has reached his peak at HSV.
That leaves only Boulah and Heitinga with possibiliies for a real topclub(is Atletico one? i truly ask? ), but yet again age might be the problem as Boulah is already 27 and for him to make the step to a bigger club or something he would have to prove himself again in 1/2 seasons.
So that’s why I turn to up and coming defenders, cause Heitinga is only one player and for reasons above we need reinforcement.
That’s all
I do agree that we could use some tall guys > Donk/Vlaar/Luirink/Loovens/(Maduro?)

Posted from  Netherlands

@Alex: I totally agree with you about Bouma. He is a very good defender who can also attack some times.

@Alex; Jeroen Drost?? think he is pretty afwul

Posted from  Netherlands

@Alex, not sure what to think of Maduro at this point. He’s playing pretty consistently on the backline these days. Last week he played rb, but that was a bit of a mirage because, Valencia’s left back attacked up the field most of the time. Maduro stayed at home, and so it was more of three man back line. He seems a little languid in his movements, but I couldn’t tell whether he actually is a little slow or that it is a combination of his size and the way he moves. If it turns out he could be an effective stopper, he could be a plus because he plays the ball out of the back well.

Posted from  United States

Reminds me of Rijkaard…Maduro. When JC put a young Rijkaard as center stopper there was lot of criticism: too slow, too stoic, too laconic… Rijkaard took some time to grow into his role and Maduro isn’t different, I think. Frank walked away from Ajax, had an embarrasing fling with PSV and then decided to play his football for a Portuguese club, I believe and then shortly in Spain before AC Milan snatched him up. And it was there, when Frankie got the respect and admiration that seems to be the norm now when talk about his career. But in those days, I remember well how he was doubted by most…

Frank walked away from JC swearing he would never play under him again at Ajax. He was signed by Sporting Portugal but signed too late and was then loaned out to Real Zaragoza (very embarrassingly). But he was the “Defender of the 88 EC” and his 2 mates secured his services for Milan.
The rest is history for our “Llama”. Liked him a lot as a player in fact ALL 3 at Milan were Demi Gods ! Every Dutch (and many German !) kids wanted to be like them at Milan.Saw this program many moons ago about a poll in Germany (1989) where 9/10 kids polled said their favourite player was either one of the Magnificent 3.

Posted from  Singapore