Comments on: There is news!!

By: Igor

Igor — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 18:29:12 +0000

what i find frustrating about marco is the way he tries to impose his system on the team instead of creating a strategy that makes the most of his players’ strenghts. now i’m a fan of 4-3-3 but why did marco use that system against russia when he did not have a single winger at his disposal which forced kuyt and van der vaart to play out of position? i would have thought that the injuries to robben and v. persie would have provided an opportunity to try something different and play vaart in a free role behind the two strikers. i also feel that we are missing a holding midfield player that is comfortable on the ball. what do you guys think about playing sneijder there? he’s not very physical and it might constrain his creativity and shooting a little, but it would be way to effectively use both sneijder and vaart in the same line up. i also agree with misha that it would be great to have stam back, but unfortunately he already has declined marco’s invitation to come out of international retirement.

By: bodo

bodo — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 20:02:04 +0000

Definitively Sneijder is a great player, so strong with his two legs.
He is special, I do not see with whom I can compare him.
The Dutch team offered us some good moments. But as you say, friendly matches are often poor.

By: Misha

Misha — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 21:47:18 +0000

Hi Jan, happy New Year! Why is there no option to leave comments on the new posts? What happened anyway? was the site attacked by hooligans? Should we start our own “firm”? I have been blaming the problem on the Portuguese football fans otherwise known as delusional sporters of womens apparel. I think I may be alone on this one, but I really prefer Vennegor to Kuyt. Kuyt is good but lacks the finesse play of a bergkamp or the finishing eye of kliuvert (when he was good). For the type of game Kuyt plays (bread and butter, with more effort and determination than finesse and skill) I really think Vennegor plays the same role with more polish. What is the Hiddink suit all about, sounds to me like tax issues, that is the thing they are most likely to throw you in jail for in Netherlands. Maybe there is some way to persuade an audit on Van Basten? Sounds like the team is not playing any better despite the lopsided score against Russia? I agree with your assesment of sneijder being more important to the mid-field than Seedorf. In my opinion Clarence plays better in Milan because of the chemistry that he has with that team. To Ac Milan Seedorf is essential and the team does not work right without him, but for Oranje I’m afraid he will play as he always has, MEDIOCRE at best. I certainly don’t want to make him the central architect of play for Oranje but this is his role in Milan, so unless all play runs through him what real use is he to us? Robben will monopolize the ball on the left wing and Seedorf will just get frustrated and accomplish nothing. Why not just bring back Davids instead, he is a better two way mid-fielder and can play without being the central focus. If Seedorf does not play the role he has in Milan, it is only logical, Davids was always better. Anyway, the personnel on Van Bastens team changes so much that in 3 years they have not developed any re pore as a team that complements one another or anticipates each others moves. If Marco wants to bring back old timers I vote for Jap Stam. As far as I can see we could use a center back that kills attacks dead; an imposing physical presence in the back seems to be lacking. We have enough passing play makers, like gio and Heitenga, but no bruts like Stam to close down attacks and get in the way of oncoming strikers. It just seems like there are holes in every department of the field, nothing in the Van Basten team is good enough to leave alone and move on. The defence is questionable, the mid field is unable to set up strikers or close down attacks, and the strikers are constantly changing; so they have no chemistry together and have trouble starting pressure, never mind finishing. I think Bergkamp may make a good coach one day, personality wise he seems like a better fit than ego van basten. And he was instrumental in helping Van Persie flourish in Arsenal. Too bad about the flying thing but it would not affect the Euro competition. Right now our team is as bad as England but our fans seem to be more tolerant? KNVB must be thinking about Van Bastens replacement by now, if all of us can see the writing on the wall they must be looking beyond the Euro’s too? I mean thats their job, right? I don’t think we can blame the players, the talent is their in abundance, but we just don’t have a team. We need management that can galvanize this generation into a group that plays collectively. All I see now is a bunch of players running around like it’s their first time on the pitch together? No one is playing to each others strengths and the result is a collective weakness. At the center of the sh*t storm sits Marco Van Basten, claiming that he is making good progress. I wonder how the players feel about the job he is doing? I know how I feel.

By: Igor

Igor — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 16:53:35 +0000

glad to see this site is up and running once more. i was starting to go through withdrawals, especially since knvb.nl is no longer providing video feed of the games. did anyone catch the friendly against russia?

By: Misha

Misha — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 04:51:31 +0000

Hey are comments back in business? Does anyone have details of friendly with Russia? Are we playing better?

By: goose

goose — Sun, 24 Dec 2006 12:35:46 +0000

its about time Robben showed some decent performences; its been a while…

btw; there are some serious discussions in the dutch media about vanBasten and vanGaal… you know vanGaal is commentotar on the dutch tv when oranje plays and ofcourse he has a lot of criticisme; and hes right ofcourse!! Now vanBasten starts to cry like a little baby saying vanGaal should mind his own bussiness and saying vangaal was the worst bondscoach ever… he then phoned all his 1988 friends (Rijkaard, Koeman, Kieft) who start to pick on vanGaal aswell (Rijkaard was almost crying; haha), pathetic this vanBasten.. first he trys to be mister Cool who doenst really care .. but then some critisme arrives and he behaves like a little baby calling his friends to help him

there was a survey yesterday in de biggest dutch newspaper De Telegraaf which showed that 80 percent agree with vanGaal, and 65 percent rading vanGaals opinion on football higher than vanBastens!!!

vanBasten is strating to really annoy me!!!

btw; read some brilliant statistic. Every time a new guy plays James Bond, a dutch team wins a european cup!!!! This is really true!!!! hahahha, maybe AZ

grtz and happy holidays

By: Hup

Hup — Sat, 23 Dec 2006 23:30:56 +0000

2 more goals for Van Persie, Robben nets the winner for Chelsea in extra time. Good day for the dutchmen.

By: JVB21

JVB21 — Sat, 23 Dec 2006 08:29:11 +0000

The problem, in my opinion of course, seems to be the fact that Van Basten talks a nice talk, but currently offers little more. He knows the rhetoric by heart but is unable to put it into action and this is simply an extension of his inexperience as a coach. He pulled, what 2 dozen new players up for a run initially, a shrewd tactical move for popularity, and admittedly I was excited with the prospect of fresh hearts and minds. But he failed to find a balance, and to compound this his ego sabotaged his relationship with the more sensitive “stars”.

The Dutch talent pool is no worse then any other top national team, perhaps we don’t have the depth of Brazil, but even their talent has failed them. The failing obviously is the ability to play as a team. The WC was painful, I half expected it, what with the youth of the team, but the selfish awkward play made my eyes hurt, and screamed of poor coaching. RVN I’m sure has his personality quirks, but the way he was treated by VB overstates my point. VB needs to go back and reconsider Rinus’ idea of each players “kingdom” and then learn to walk the walk as a coach.

I’m with goose and his prediction. The talent will get us out of the group stage, but the lack of leadership and team play will prevent much more. I really don’t want to be negative about all this but beyond individual “wow” moments from certain players there is little else to be optimistic about at this point.

By: Hup

Hup — Fri, 22 Dec 2006 20:40:48 +0000

I think Van Basten is as biased to his players as Luis is to Ronaldo.

By: Samuel Knight (Oudegeest)

Samuel Knight (Oudegeest) — Fri, 22 Dec 2006 15:11:50 +0000

I’m not going to agree that Van N was at fault at the World Cup. How many passes did he get? How many crosses? Almost none. Van Baasten threw out Van P, Robben and Van N, made no provision for the fact that their styles weren’t meshing – and then blamed Van N for it.

That was complete BS. Van N had nothing to work with. And Kuijt found himself in the same position against Portugal.

Van Baasten failed at the World Cup because he just wanted to ignore the tough choices – and he didn’t have the subs lined up.

Similar with Van Bommel. He didn’t play great, but didn’t appear that Van Baasten left him with much to work with either.

BUT – it does appear that the rookie is learning. Seedorf, talking to Van N. All good.

Merry Christmas! And may your New Year be Oranje!