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Nigel de Jong, our new Jan Wouters?

June 15th, 2008 | By: Jan | 38 Comments »

It was eleven months or so ago, when Nigel de Jong sat down to have a good talk. With himself. “This has to be your year,” he said.

He had just made up the balance so far of his career and he was not impressed. He made his debut for Ajax just 17 years old. But his definitive breakthrough never happened. He played Champions League football for Ajax and scored a beauty against Arsenal. Thierry Henry looked him up after the match to switch jerseys. The two talked and Henry said: “You’re young. Don’t get carried away by it all, my friend. Keep focused and keep working.”

He moved to HSV Hamburg when he couldn’t settle in Ajax’ starting line up but in the first season he couldn’t convince. “So, I said to myself: what do you want? Be a wanna-be? Play at a mid-tier club somewhere? Or reach the top? So, I started working my arse off. It was now or never. For me at Hamburg and Oranje.”

De Jong started to live for his profession and invested more and more in himself, with the help of his coach Huub Stevens.

Stevens told him De Jong should focus on the holding midfielder position. “He called me and said, I’ll turn you into a type Jan Wouters. A good player, with skills and vision but who works his arse off for the team. He told me I had the qualities for that and taught me how to approach that role. That’s how it came to be.”

De Jong reinvented himself in the Bundesliga and became a servant. An indian instead of a chief. “At Ajax, you were never really challenged in the youth competition and every Ajax player wants to be the playmaker, wants to give the decisive pass. I have now learned that that is not important. It’s a team effort and you can’t win with eleven technical players. Others are better than me in giving the decisive pass. You also need work-horses who can read the game and control the balance. Jan Wouters and Edgar Davids have shown that indians can also be decisive for the team. We have a rich history of players like that. Johan Neeskens, Jan Wouters, Edje Davids, Willy van der Kerkhof… If people will name me in the future among those players I’d me very very proud.”

“People in Holland remember me as the wild runner, the blind opportunistic and naive playing Ajax schooled larrakin. I can’t be compared to him anymore. I am much more conservative in my play and I’ve put my ego aside.”

De Jong presented himself as a starter in the warm up against Wales. He played one half and Van Basten was impressed. “I knew I would get one chance. And I needed only one. When I could play against Wales, I knew…this is it! Now go for it.”

He played holding midfielder against Italy, against big names like Gattuso, Ambrosini and Pirlo. “After 30 minutes you could see their gaze going down. We knew then, this is the moment to go for glory. That was a wonderful feeling.”

“But, we’ve only started. Believe me, we didn’t come to spank the world champions. We came to win this EC!”

“We have an incredible strong group. If you look at the options Marco has up front. Unbelievable. The players we have on the bench! And then Mark van Bommel and Clarence Seedorf who aren’t even here! And we talk about these things. We all have the belief: now is the time!”

Consistency is key. “It can go so quickly. Before the EC, people were critical and negative. Now, it all falls together. On the training, we play it very very tough. That’s maybe why sometimes you hear about little injuries. We want to train like we want to play. That is 100%. We feel we need to to stay sharp. Don’t forget, Romania beat us in the qualification. There are no weak teams at this EC, but….if you want to win this tournament, you should be able to beat them all. Simple.”

Tags: Basten, Cruyff, Euro 2008, Group C, Holland, Kuyt, Neeskens, Nigel de Jong, Oranje, Persie, Sar

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Comments

Displaying the most recent 25 comments from a total of 38 comments.

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By goose | June 15th, 2008 at 12:38 pm

@M-O; jerry deJong did play a few times in Oranje (think it was in his PSV time)..did you know he played for MVV Maastricht and was caught stealing stuff from the lockerroom and was fired!?

i think thats why vBasten doesnt bench Nigel deJong..hes afraid that Nigel will sneak into the lockerroom and steal everything

Posted from Netherlands

By goose | June 15th, 2008 at 12:40 pm

@M-O; think its best to just ignore Menotti…

Posted from Netherlands

By Michel-Olivier | June 15th, 2008 at 12:49 pm

@ goose
“i think thats why vBasten doesnt bench Nigel deJong”
hahah very funny

Posted from United States

By Dominic Menotti | June 15th, 2008 at 12:50 pm

¨¨whole europe thinks that americans r asssholes”
my friends and i went to italy last year and the italian people treated us with respect, also the italians girls are good in bed too. i go to europe every year and if i meet someone like you on the street ill kick………..¨¨
the cheek of the american thrash..well this is net..the only place u can be brave..it is a common sight in the streets of Roma and Brsecia to see drunken american thrash who make a spectacle of themselves..as for ur assumption that u will kick me if u meet me, i think u need to climb a ladder to reach me..iam 6 foot 4, 23 year old and dont have bellies like u fat americans have..italian people dont treat americans with respect dont try that one..u have no culture or heritge or class, ur ancestors fled to america because they were flops in the holes where ever they were..fact..period..it is net..so i guess a little american can talk loud after a few drinks of Jim Beam…another thing..No real Italian girl would date an American thrash..lololol..i bet u had some Puttana, or u r imagining Missus palm for an Italian girl..
grow up u little american

By Dominic Menotti | June 15th, 2008 at 1:05 pm

Troynew, hats off for a great confident post..that is the way it should be..
i congrajulate u for a real nice post and that is confidence..if the dutch do replicate their magnificent start until the end, i will be the first one to be in awe and congrajulate u..
cheers
PS..thanks many a times for being POLITE..lololol

By tjeerd | June 15th, 2008 at 1:24 pm

@menotti

“seven goals……fluke results”

My (Italian American?) friend, one or two goals are luck, seven goals against two word powers are a result of hard work and quality finishing, all part of the game. If you want “luck”, I will refer you to the Italian victory over the US, and the Australians in the last World Cup.

By bunchapooha | June 15th, 2008 at 1:53 pm

Duo Penotti, go cry your eyes out man. You need it.

Fluke.. DON’T MAKE US LAUGH. PFFFFF.

First alitalia is going bankrupt after Dutch interference, now the whole of Italy has been brought down to it’s fundations by a couple of “lucky goals”.

I don’t know wether to laugh or cry at your pigheaded ignorance. Face it buddy, you guys should’ve paid the referee like Juve did in the nineties, fucked Ajax over hard back then.. Or can Italy not cough up the money anymore after buying the last World Cup, eh?

That’s right, if you’re gonna sting, I will fork you in the eyes.. Please just give it a rest. Go away. Complain on the Italy blog about what happened, it’ll be fun, really.

Posted from Netherlands

By Prabal Rakshit | June 15th, 2008 at 2:00 pm

Dominic Menotti, I think it is time to get some perspectives right. You can use whatever logic you want to trash the goals scored by the Dutch, but the fact remains that they were perfectly legitimate well-deserved victories. I will tell you why:
- Ruud’s goal was not an offside as per the rule book. This has been clarified by UEFA. Even some vey senior official for the Italian referee association has confirmed his agreement. This was posted in this blog before. I am sure you would not be singing this tune had Luca Toni or natale scored this.
- Sneijder’s goal, well that was because all the Italians were at the other end!!! My friend, who had asked a defence consisting of Materazzi, Panucci and Zambrotta to leave their posts and stand crowding the pitch at the other end? If some of the best defenders in the world are outpaced by a 35 year old van Bronckhorst, and then a series of neat passes are threaded between him, kuijt and Sneijder, the entire thing cannot be a fluke. I still emphasize that Italians have one of the best defences in the world.
- van Bronckhorst’s save and again a counterattack and the goal from rebound. You feel that the Dutch were lucky!! Come on..do you expect San Marino or Malta to score a goal from that situation? the Dutch scored because they were faster on the counterattack. The rebound falling on the feet of Kuyt is lucky?? In that case why could Buffon not hold on to the subsequent header? He had ample time to go back and mark Gio.
- Kuyt goal from an innocous corner , because of malouda’s foolishness…Now it it not Dirk Kuijt’s fault that Malouda was late to react. He had given his best in heading the ball and it was truly a deserving goal for one of the hardest workers in the side.
- Van Persie’s penalty – yes I give this to you, but Ruud’s backheel!! Cut us some slack. There were France’s defensive mids and the full backs there in the pitch. Robben was fast enough to prevent a serious build up of defese in front of the goal. If van Persie is left unmarked by the French defense, it is not his fault.
- Robben, yes he may not score at that angle ever. You might be completely right. But does take away any credit from what he did? He is not primarily meant for scoring goals. His real purpose is to push back the defence and land crosses for Ruud/Huntelaar. In 2006 WC, both he and Van Persie failed to realise this. Now the work is more balanced. More cosses are landing for Ruud and he himself is engaging the defenders more.
- Sneijder’s goal: You are absolutely right. this goal was a stunner.

I am sure you will understand that in a game involving two reasonably strong teams, each team will have its moments. That may be due to sheer individual brilliance or due to opposition mistakes. Any sensible football coach/player/fan realises that the team which uses its moments the best, is the team that wins.
The Dutch played like a bunch of nincomcoops against the Azzuri in the semi final of EC 2000. They completely messed up their moments in a way that makes even schoolboys blush. But does that take any sheen away from what was a clear Italian victory?
Francesco Totti’s controversial penalty won the Round of 16 match for Italy against the fighting Australians. Does anybody mention that fact that Italians did not deserve the victory because it was just a lucky penalty?
Paul Breitner in 1974 and Andreas Brehme in 1990 won two WCs for the erstwhile FRG through penalty kicks. Does that make the German team any less deserving candidates for the World Cup.
The moral of the story is that a victory can come because of complete individual joga bonito and also some mistales from the opposition. If the opposition consists o pedigreed teams like Italy and rance, then taking advantage of thenir minor slip ups is also a major credit.

I am no sure why you always have to trash somebody else to make your point. If you cannot respect the sanctity of a public forum (like several other bloggers here), please keep your opinions to yourself. Calling someone a murderer just because he is an American, caling things like American trash etc.etc. is nothing but racism. Would you like it if people start caling you an Italian mafia stooge, just because they have watched a lot of Coppola/Scorcese movies on Italian gangsters? You would not like it…because nobody like negative stereotyping.

BTW I feel in spite of several blemishes, the American society is a wonderful melting pot. The strength of american society is its ability to assimilate people from various cultures and ethnicities. Just wonder whether a concept like Silicon Valley (an amalgamation of various people from various nations) would have ever worked in any other country? Please don’t just trash something because you want to put your point across.

By goose | June 15th, 2008 at 3:20 pm

amen Prabal

Posted from Netherlands

By Caleb | June 15th, 2008 at 3:34 pm

Guys, let’s just ignore this jackass. Most of his opinions are laughable and don’t even deserve the time it takes to answer them. Maybe if we stop responding to him he will stop trolling and hating on our excellent team. And then hopefully he will just go away.

By alaa | June 15th, 2008 at 4:04 pm

some people post things bad about our beloved orange, i totally understand them, i feel bad for them , getting humiliated 3-0 or 4-1 is tough and very hard to be understood, quit life losers!!!!!

de jong-sneijder-van der vaart, i love our three guys in the middle, all 1984 or 1983 class, niceeeeeeeeeeee!!!!! and then our wings robben , van persie, afellay, kuyt and babel, man this oranje team makes me really happy!

Posted from United States

By Jelle | June 15th, 2008 at 6:21 pm

Dominic, I can see it hurts you badly and we are just getting started. Oranje is giving you the ole 1-2 teddy!

Posted from Netherlands

By Robert | June 15th, 2008 at 6:31 pm

This thread is supose to be about Nigel de Jong. I think it would be good to note that he did play 2 very good games. I have noted before that when we got into trouble in the game against France a lot of that came from pressure on the holding midfielders. Where Engelaar had some problems with that (I didn’t think that was that surprising; this was a very good French team) de Jong cooly worked his ass off. If van Bommel was here that would likely have been his role. There has been a lot written on this blog about how he should have been there but I can remember way too well his les than stellar play in the WC. It is refreshing to have someone simply play that role, (which will never earn a lot of recognition) do it well and do it without demanding the spotlight.

As far as 7 goals being a fluke; guys that kind of drivel is simply not worth talking about. When things like national pride come into play there is often no reasoning with people. Let it be. The score in both games probably did not reflect the balance on the field but the bottomline is that Holland has a lot of players that are exceptional in finishing on the one hand a a very good keeper on the other hand. Those two things can give you a good edge on the scoresheet. Here they did.
I would be fearfull of having to play either of these matches again in the semi finals but any France or Italy suporter that wouldn’t be fearfull of the same has his head in the sand. In tournament play anything can happen, just ask the Portugese about the last time they were in this event

By Jan | June 15th, 2008 at 7:13 pm

Robert, you beat me to it. Wise words (on that fluke goals stuff). I fully concur. It’s drivel. Football is a game of mistakes. Simple. If no one made mistakes, every match would end 0-0. Holland made less mistakes then France and Italy. Happy?

I think I’d prefer this Nigel de Jong to Mark van Bommel. Mark is too much of a leader at his club to be able to come to Oranje and become a servant again. It’s how it works in football. In 1974, Haan and Krol and Nees were servants to Cruyff and later on Haan became a leader and so did Krol. Speaking of balance in the team, that mindset may be the balance Marco was looking for as opposed to the offensive-defensive balance. Same with Clarence. In this Oranje, every one is a servant and everyone is a leader. And almost everyone is a goal scorer too .

I like the humility in De Jong’s approach when he realizes he should wise up and start acting like a pro. Well done Nigel!

By alaa | June 15th, 2008 at 9:22 pm

you know what worries me now;

finally we found the balance and the good group(rarely we have it with the oranje), and after all of that marco is leaving the team after this tournament is over. we don’t want marco to leave any more, i fear that with the new manager we wil lose this spirit, and maybe he will try to get van bommel back to the team. to be honest with you, i don’t like to see seedorf and van bommel with the team anymore!

did you guys start thinking about this? soon we start the qualifications for the wc, so there is no time for more experiments with the new manager, and then when you have sneijder, vdv, and de jong, you don’t need players like seedorf and van bommel.
what do you think?

Posted from United States

By Jan | June 15th, 2008 at 11:13 pm

I agree with you Alaa, I am pondering that same question. It’s a tad too early now, but I will definitely get back to this issue with a separate post.

Posted from Australia

By Carlos | June 15th, 2008 at 11:35 pm

After this article I am happy that after singling out de Jong as my MOTM followed closely by Ruud, most people now also see this guy as an unsung hero.I have now watched the France game 4 times (yes can’t get enough) and I swear de Jong gets better and better. Sometimes I couldnt identify the player breaking up the attack or intercepting an time and again it was de Jong. Kudos also to Ooier and Boulah in that department.

Posted from Singapore

By Carlos | June 16th, 2008 at 12:39 am

Alaa, I think many of us have memories of 1988 – We were going to be 1990 World Champions. On a player rating we had 5 of top 10 players in the world. Milan trio Koeman Wouters. Holland had already printed postage stamps proclaiming us as Champions – then of course we had those horrible egos of players and coaches that were not respected an each player knew a better way of playing than the other.
I think the players revolted against the coach Librechts and Leo Beenhakker took over with little success. Marco did not score and Gullit was injured, Rijkaard red carded…. disunity and disaster.
Anyway you have a VERY valid point which I also worry about. Maybe we should put Marco on stand by if we qualify which we should from an easy group.After all his club will be taking a break.

Posted from Singapore

By Dutch | June 16th, 2008 at 5:37 am

Dominic Menotti

You really shouldn’t be talking about correct “grammer”…

And the way Italy is playing now I can’t imagine losing to them anytime soon.

By Dominic Menotti | June 16th, 2008 at 5:50 am

dutch, ur imaginations will be just imaginations..so keep on imagining..results count not ur IMAGINATIONS..if Imaginations were to count, lots of dutch over the years have had IMAGINED a lot but all those IMAGINATIONS turned out just IMAGINATIONS after all…
About my English, well..iam the first one to admit that it is not perfect, iam an apprentice…English is my ThIRD language and i definately see it as a feat, i mean about me conversing in English because iam uneducated(never been to school), but i can speak and write Italian, Spanish, English, a bit of german and French..Not bad for a carpenter, that too a succesful one at 23 years of age ehh??
keep on imagining, thats what you are good at..ZERO world cups for all ur imaginations..sigh..sigh..if imaginations were to be real..sigh..sigh

By Dutch | June 16th, 2008 at 5:58 am

Dominic Menotti

Uneducated seems to be the right word to describe you indeed.

And yes: results count, not imaginations. But so far it seems like we have results, while Italy has “but….but we kicked butt years ago, surely we can still kick butt today!” imaginations that haven’t been come close to proven. So let’s stick to results and keep your dreams to yourself.

By Caleb | June 16th, 2008 at 9:36 am

Dutch – Just ignore him. He’s not even making any sense anymore. Don’t give him the dignity of a response.

Posted from Canada