Robin van Persie, a cross between Henry and Bergkamp!

November 13th, 2009 | by: Jan |

robi

Arsène Wenger called him a cross between Thierry Henry and Dennis Bergkamp the other week. And that’s quite something. Henry was top scorer in the Premier League for 4 seasons and the regarded as the best foreign player ever in the EPL. Dennis Bergkamp was God. If a coach says something like that about his own player, it may be exaggerated, but Wenger’s remark didn’t come too far from left field.

The Football Professor said this after the 3-0 win over arch enemy Tottenham. Van Persie scored two of the three goals. It’s the fifth game on the trot inwhich the former Feyenoord enfant terrible scored. Robin played ten games in the EPL and scored seven goals, with six assists. This is no mere incident.

Last season, Van Persie’s credentials were imposing as well. He played 52 official games – for Arsenal and Oranje – and scored 25 times and had 16 assists. Van Persie’s stats can be compared with international top goal scorers like Torres, who played 40 games and scored 21 times and had 11 assists.

Wayne Rooney played 49 games and scored 19 goals and had 12 assists. Didier Drogba needed 50 games to score 18 times and deliver 9 assists.

In other words, Robin van Persie indeed is a top striker. And with these statistics he silences all his criticaster. In particularly in England, some people never saw him as a big player. He was the hot & cold player. The man of moments. A player with art in his feet but lacking the shoulders to carry the team weight. Wenger even subbed the Dutchman in big games.

And he isn’t without a history. Wenger said that recently: Robin used to have an “attitude”. Wenger: “But big players will be saved by their love for the game and their intelligence”. Robin’s ressurection wasn’t so much his new spot in the center forward position but his mental strength.

So when did Van Persie suddenly “get it”? At the 2008 EC in Switzerland/Austria, he was still arguing with Sneijder about who takes the free kick (against Russia). This was behavior that confirmed the prejudice about Van Persie’s character. A great player with an ego bigger than the team’s. And the numerous incidents from his past didn’t help rubbing that out.

As a youthful talent at Feyenoord, he once stole a free kick from the feet of Master Pi-Air van Hooijdonk. He missed a tactical talk by Van Marwijk (!) due to daylight-saving. He refused to warm up for the away game against Fenerbahce. But, another Van Persie emerged after the disappointing EC. And that was best demonstrated in the game against Japan, recently.

Wesley Sneijder disturbed Oranje’s balance by trying to find his own luck, but Robin kept on playing within his charter and scored that first goal. Robin van Persie is now 26 years old and has learned what it’s about in football. He wants to be remembered for the prizes he won, not just for his spectacular moments and goals.

Tags: Arsenal, Bergkamp, Group C, Sneijder, Van Marwijk, van Persie

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By Mario | November 14th, 2009 at 5:40 pm

It sucks that van Persie got injured. Very frustrating indeed and a headache for Wenger.

Well…In other topics related to today´s games I thought that Russia and Portugal would have an easy day but now they are in trouble. Portugal got lucky at the end when Bosnia hit the bar and the post at the final minute of the game. I would be very happy if Portugal is eliminated by Bosnia and if Russia is out…Specially if Portugal gets kick out and now that both of them have to close the play-off away then I think that they can struggle to get a good result. France is almost in…

By mzitdy | November 14th, 2009 at 5:45 pm

sneijder and robben-both selfish player.sometimes its good for team.sometimes not…need to hv team player in attacker playing with them.

Posted from Malaysia

By Mario | November 14th, 2009 at 5:46 pm

Guys:

Of course van Persie injury is bad. But the World Cup starts in seven months. Even though it´s a pitty he got injured when he was playing at his best. =(. F*%k Chiellini!!!

By Sol | November 14th, 2009 at 5:47 pm

I wonder what people would be saying about our defense if that first chance by Italy (the corner) had gone in and we lost 1-0.

Of course 1 really big mistake per game should be permissable. But there where more instances where Italy could have made more out of it.

In my opinion they did fine though, but again weren’t really tested by a good offense.

Posted from Netherlands

By Igor | November 14th, 2009 at 5:48 pm

haha i’m too slow of a poster, saw that now there’s been an update on rvp while i was writting my previous post.

Posted from Canada

By Mario | November 14th, 2009 at 5:49 pm

Sol:

And Italy is lucky that today there was no Robin, Robben, Wesley and Ruud…If not Cannavaro would have looked foolish and Chiellini would have to play with a knife.

By sonneveld | November 14th, 2009 at 5:49 pm

thanks finn I will be competing in on wednesday for sure

eljero elia=superb
i look forward to watching him again

my mouth waters at the possibilty of robben on the other side

By Alex | November 14th, 2009 at 5:51 pm

Well tearing his ankle ligaments would be really shitty for him, his club and oranje. Cause that means he’ll be out for months, plus he was in killer form, that’ll get a blow, and he’s one of the most important players for both club and country. Please, someone run Chiellini over with your car.

Heitinga > Ooijer, for sure, Italy couldn’t score with their feet or head. Only a few real chances for them.
V.d.Wiel, needs some tactical improvements, but other than that, doing good.
Gio R.I.P. well not liturally
V.Bommel, if you hate him you’d say he was bad, if you love him the opposite, i can’t say.

I now know a few things that I’d wanna see.
Gio-out
Ooijer-out for good
Babel-out
Vlaar-in

Posted from Netherlands

By Mario | November 14th, 2009 at 5:51 pm

Sonneveld:

I am a guy that thinks that Elia and Robben have to start for us always.Kuyt is a good player but Elia showed today how dangerous he can be.

By finnster01 | November 14th, 2009 at 5:54 pm

That is all true. But let us not forget there were also no Gattuso, Totti etc.

By Mario | November 14th, 2009 at 5:59 pm

@Finnster:

Who had the better guess???. I certainly didn´t. Hehe, but hey…I liked the results because Portugal and Russia are in danger zone. I don´t know about u guys but I want to see them both out. Specially I want Portugal out because although right now they are playing like crap in a World Cup they can grow and be a very dangerous team.

By Rami | November 14th, 2009 at 6:05 pm

Thank you all for agreeing.. with Gio out!!!

All in all, we have a great, with great potential and appetite.
We need better luck from now on. No more needless injuries.
I think we also need s better managerial performance than this. im really not impressed.
more experimentation than this. more options than this!!!

I absolutely do not think we needed to play this game vs Italy to realize that GIO IS DEAD football-wise.
Its been apparent and long coming. And he played today against Camoranesi, i mean cmon!!!

Posted from Norway

By ferenc | November 14th, 2009 at 6:08 pm

van persie’s injury sucks. especially in a pointless friendly. i read 2 months. he will be allright for the world cup.

Slovenia vs Russia 1-2
Ukraine vs Greece 1-1
Bosnia vs Portugal 2-2 (i hope 3-0)
France vs Ireland 2-0

Posted from Hungary

By Gerard | November 14th, 2009 at 6:14 pm

My random opinions:

Bert van Marwijk has got to INSIST that Huntelaar and Van Der Vaart move to clubs where they can actually play regularly. Vd Vaart is always skillful but they were both really out of their rythm. This situation right now is pretty unacceptable IMO. Also, why is Babel even stepping on the field? He’s done nothing to deserve being there. Emanuelson or Drenthe would have deserved that chance far more. I thought Heitinga and Mathijsen made a good pair at centreback. Stekelenburg was an absolute game decelerator with his distribution although he covered his angles well enough. And I have a really sour taste in my mouth toward the Italians about Van Persie’s injury not to mention their handball goal and Grosso’s disgraceful attack on Dirk Kuyt. Elia is just an excellent player.

Posted from Canada

By Rami | November 14th, 2009 at 6:20 pm

I absolutely do not think we needed to play this game vs Italy to realize that Sneijder, VdV do not provide enough playmaking options, And Seedorf would have been much more fruitful than Vdv or Allefay as playmaker.

I absolutely do not think we needed to play this game vs Italy to realize that VBommel is out of form, tired and looking a bit old, and any other option would have been very good to try.

I absolutely do not think we needed to pay this game vs Italy to realize that Huntelaar , Babel are comepltely out of it. Completely!!! Them coming on did not provide any enhancement to the team. And we should start looking elsewhere.

Those are things you’d assume BvM to know or have a hint about at least before this game took place and manage his team accordingly.
But no. We needed to repeat the same things that havent been working all over again. It is now to me as if this game vs Italy did not bring anything new to the equation, or allowed us to build on new positives.. The positives, we know them from long ago and are the same. So it would have been the same if this game did not take place altogether.

Actually, wait, now things have gone backwards for us because we lost VP to injury.

Great Night!

Posted from Norway

By Sol | November 14th, 2009 at 6:30 pm

I’m gonna take it up for Gio, I think he played cleverly but had no success because the rest of the team wasn’t playing that well (especially the 2nd half).

I doubt Braafheid would have done much better. I can’t pick anyone else as a better choice. Both Drenthe and Emanuelson aren’t really left-backs and I think they’re more risky than vBronckhorst.

We need someone who can handle things on that side without that many fouls though, especially against teams who excel at free-kicks/corners.

Posted from Netherlands

By Rami | November 14th, 2009 at 6:35 pm

Sol
Camoranesi is old and slow too..
Gio would have been devoured by a C.Ronaldo.. At least Braafheid can keep up with the pace of faster players.

Braafheid needs experience.. And we will never know if he could handle things well if we dont just give him the damn chance already !!

Posted from Norway

By Sol | November 14th, 2009 at 6:47 pm

@Rami: you’re right that BvM repeated the same mistakes he has made with his substitutions in the last few games. Bringing in Babel and Affelay AND taking out better players VDV and Elia, or in past games bringing VDV, Babel, Affelay and taking out Sneijder or Robben has worked out really badly.

And he keeps on doing it…

but somehow I feel like he has other reasons for doing it and he might be right about that since we don’t really NEED to win these friendlies. Maybe he can’t admit to intentionally making substitutions that aren’t based on winning the game but getting everyone ready for the WC. Personally I think he’s wasting his time on Babel.

Ah well, at least we saw something new, I thought we played rather well the first half. Especially Kuyt surprised me positively. His 2nd half performance still makes me prefer Elia and Robben on both wings for the WC though. But maybe that should depend on the opponent as well.

Posted from Netherlands

By Alex | November 14th, 2009 at 7:00 pm

Maybe V.Marwijk thought of protecting his second best assets Elia and V.d.Vaart from injuries after seeing how Chiellini went into that tackle.
Babel and Huntelaar might have gotten a chance from him to try and show something anyway since it was a rather boring, and not important friendly already.

Posted from Netherlands

By fares | November 14th, 2009 at 7:42 pm

i think that this line up will not be too different of what will be in the wc (doubts over vaart and kuyt positions)
stekel:7.5 very good no errors
vander wiel: 6.5 yes now i agree he must be number1 (although i am sure that zuiverloon is better unfortunately he will not be there)
heintinga: 7.25 very strong game
mathijsen: 7 it is mathijsen
gio: 7.25 he will definitely stay as nb 1 no braafheid no drenthe (who are subs in their clubs) no emanuelson ( a winger)
de jong-van bommel: 8 i could never imagine replacing any of them with the non class and rubbish schaars (completely desappeared against england)
vaart: 8.25 classy player
kyut: 7 hard working
elia: 7.75 superb
huntelaar: 0 zero (denis olish who scored today with keynia against nigeria is by far better than this ‘player’)
…

By Alex | November 14th, 2009 at 7:56 pm

That ratings might have applied if we’d won 2-0, a bit too high for some of the midfielders, Gio and a bit low for Huntelaar

Zuiverloon vs V.d.Wiel, I don’t know about that, V.d.Wiel has 2 years on him, and I haven’t seen Zuiverloon since last season in PL.

Posted from Netherlands

By Sol | November 15th, 2009 at 4:29 am

I don’t think Zuiverloon is even in the picture but with the performance by vdWiel yesterday I’d say it should be an easy choice in favor of vdWiel. He is our Maicon and I believe that we can train him to be less selfish than Maicon (allthough I’ve seen Maicon change his game in the last 2 games at Inter in favor of teamplay as well).

I particularly like to mention one exquisite cross into the box just after vPersie’s injury. Too bad we had no forward striker on the field at that time (Hunter hadn’t entered the game yet).

The way vdWiel was present in offensive actions and the way he tracked back with his speed whenever he had left a gap (too be more present in offensive actions) was impressive to say the least. He also got passed his man on quite a lot of occasions, in that regards he was so much more effective than Kuyt on that side, but Kuyt was useful in his own way.

Most of this is based on the first halve though, cause the whole second halve was played with less interest to win it seemed (by both teams). But it was mostly vdWiel in the second halve who saved us from some dangerous situations.

Posted from Netherlands

By Sol | November 15th, 2009 at 4:35 am

And de Jong of course, can’t believe I didn’t mention him in any positive way. He really recovered a lot of balls and prevented counters from getting going. But that’s de Jong the way we’re used to him. I’m almost taking it for granted now. For me he was man of the match for Oranje going through all the players performances in my head.

Posted from Netherlands

By Sol | November 15th, 2009 at 4:43 am

de Jong only needs to learn to get on the good side of a referee. Don’t look so mean whenever you make a foul. Just smile and act like nothing is happening.

Maybe he’s less prone to get yellows if his body language and facial expressions don’t match his actions and playing style and confuse the referee that way. Who knows… right now he’s like Attila the Hun! out there.

Posted from Netherlands

By Sol | November 15th, 2009 at 4:54 am

Although of course the yellow he got was a stupid mistake on his part, that could have been avoided alltogether, the foul was a bit unnecessary. Referee’s make mistakes, accept it, never answer it with a hard foul, you’ll get a yellow, simple as that. He could have known that (and probably did but didn’t care anyway, he felt like making a statement, something he really shouldn’t do in a similar situation at the WC).

Just leave that (statement-) stuff to vBommel, he’s more devious at it.

Posted from Netherlands

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