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Van Marwijk: some players need to watch it!

February 7th, 2009 | By: Jan | 12 Comments »

Stijn Schaars in 2006

Right after Van Marwijk was appointed Oranje’s team manager, he said he wanted to work with a fixed group. Players who disappoint in some games or don’t play regularly at their clubs do not have to worry. Not immediately.

But, Van Marwijk also has his limites. Next Wednesday, Oranje will play it’s first game of 2009 and Van Marwijk gave out a sign. “I’m not too happy that some internationals hardly play at club level,” the team manager reacted to question on Huntelaar’s and Van der Vaart’s situation at Madrid.

“They do train daily at a very high level, so it won’t be a problem yet. We’ll continue the qualifications against Scotland in March, that’s only six weeks. We’ll survive that period. And I want players to actually feel my confidence in them. But, the closer the WC comes, the more it counts to have a certain rhythm. I understand that some coaches use the roulation tactics and all that. When Arsenal play six games, Robin will be rested at least one. That’s all good. But with Vaart and Hunter, it’s a different situation.”

Oranje played six internationals under Van Marwijk. Van der Vaart and Huntelaar played 5 times together, as playmaker and as central striker. In Tunesia, Van der Vaart will be Oranje’s skipper even, because Gio is out with an injury. Sneijder does play his games in Madrid but he himself doesn’t feel he deserves that (see below).

Two regular subs have already been ousted. Boulahrouz and Engelaar aren’t playing too often over the last months and are replaced by Gregory van der Wiel and Stijn Schaars.

Van Marwijk is very content with the development of the young Ajax defender and AZ’s skipper. Van der Wiel is a multifunctional defender, in his eyes, like Twente’s Braafheid. “They can play on the flanks and centrally. A great moment for both to experience the shenanigans at Oranje, now Gio and De Cler are injured. One of them could even make his debut.”

Schaars played his last international in November, 2006. Against England (1-1) under Van Basten. Van Marwijk followed Schaars from the first day of his Oranje job. “The first game I saw as team manager was AZ. I wanted to see Schaars. One of our most interesting players, playing at one of today’s most important positions.”

“Schaars needed a lot of time to get back in rhythm after his long injury, but now he’s back you can see his extraordinary qualities. He is very motivating withing the team and has a special eye for the through pass. If you want to create that “team-feel” you’ve got to take players like Schaars into account.”

Maarten Stekelenburg and Arjen Robben are also back in the squad. Stekelenburg will keep the full game. “I already said Stekel is my first choice, and that’s how I deal with that. We won’t take three goalies. And my choice for Timmer is also straightforward. I want experience in the goal. But young guns like Vorm will definitively stay on the radar.”

Gregory van der Wiel had a weird Friday training session. In the morning, disappointed fans to a hold of the pitch and some time later he was told he was selected for Oranje.
“This is such a big surprise for me! I wasn’t eve part of the preliminary group. I’m very happy. I always played as center back but Van Basten uses me as right back and that worked out very well. I can also engage myself upfront and my coach thinks I do that very well. This is all too good.”

Oranje played twice against Tunisia. Oranje won once, in 1978, with Dick Nanninga scoring twice, Henk van Leeuwen and Pierre Vermeulen scoring once. In 1994 Holland drew 2-2. Rijkaard and Ronald Koeman were the hitmen then.

Tags: Braafheid, Group C, Robben, Schaars. Van Marwijk, Sneijder, van Persie

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Comments

By ClockworkOrange | February 7th, 2009 at 10:35 am

Great interview with RVP in the Mail today…

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1138300/The-Saturday-Interview-Robin-Van-Persie–artist-draws-best-Arsenal.html?ITO=1490

Posted from United States

By finnster01 | February 7th, 2009 at 1:51 pm

Andy Johnson really doesn’t have a lot of hair does he (see photo)?

Speaking of hair, with some notable exceptions like Jaap Stam etc., is it just me being bored at ‘pool half-time or has Oranje always seemed to have players with a lot more hair than your average European team?

Just like England must be on top of the bald list (and WC1974 Poland clearly must be in front on the mustache list. I remember collecting football cards as a kid and literally every single Poland player in the entire 23 man squad except 1 had a massive identical Saddam Hussein mustache).

Then you had the entire Romanian team showing up blonde after group play in WC1998…

By sonneveld | February 7th, 2009 at 2:37 pm

sneijder robben and van der vaart all start for madrid! this is a great chance for them

By Caleb | February 7th, 2009 at 3:22 pm

Lol @ the Polish mustache team!

As for the Dutch team usually having more hair, I think I’d probably agree usually (especially thinking of the 70’s era of big wild hair), but our team now has our share of players without a lot of hair – Robben, Sneijder, and even Kuyt all have receding hairlines. I remember Sneijder and Robben before they cut their hair real short, you could really see it. Good decision by them to buzz it off.

@Sonneveld – you beat me to it. Gago is out today so Vaart gets a chance to start, and he’s actually doing pretty well so far. Almost scored a couple goals already. Robben is doing well of course(even though he was sick all week).

By Michel-Olivier(Slider) | February 7th, 2009 at 3:30 pm

@Caleb
de cler, ooijer, de zeeuw and heitinga

Posted from United States

By Tomek | February 7th, 2009 at 4:33 pm

That Poland team kicked the Dutch team’s ass with 4-1

Too bad those were also the last decent Polish players

Posted from Netherlands

By Alex | February 8th, 2009 at 7:27 am

positive news
Robben once again one of the best for Real madrid, together with Higuain
(1-0 win). Didn’t score but was a real nightmare for the I think it was Racing Santander defence. Also V.d.Vaart and Sneijder were in the starting line-up and i heard positive things about them from a lot of fans, Sneijder is starting to look like himself again and V.d.Vaart did better then before. Although all three were subsituted, they did reasonably well with Robben shining again.
Kuyt saved Liverpools game together with Torres. They were on the bench in the beginning but came on in the second half as Benayoun, Babel(striker for once) and N’Gog or something? struggled to score. Very shocking, with BBC review it showed Babel really lacks good positioning skills, hope he realises that and starts improving. Kuyt scored the equaliser and Torres the winner.

Posted from Netherlands

By finnster01 | February 8th, 2009 at 11:59 am

I watched ‘pool as I do every week and the game should have been over by half-time. They were outplaying Pompey like nobody’s business. Babel was shocking though, missed a complete sitter, the starting lineup was a complete mystery classic Rafa style which does not surprise me anymore (I think actually he is legally mad), Pepe Reina let in a soft goal, but in the end Teju’s favorite player and Torres the Saviour completed the day.

Babel kept just running into trouble. trying to cut inside dribbling with 4 people around him. I don’t care who you are, you are not going to come out with the ball at that level. He really acts like he is not a team player, which is kind of disturbing. I don’t know what is wrong with that lad. One day he shows promise, next day he is having a nightmare. Kuyt on the other hand…enough said

By Miguel Rosado | February 8th, 2009 at 3:40 pm

I’m very glad that Schaars got selected. I haven’t seen him play that much but I’ve seen how many people regard him as a very good prospect for the national team so I’m looking forward to see how he develops with Orange.

By Caleb | February 9th, 2009 at 10:58 am

@Finnster – you’re absolutely right about Babel, sounds exactly like what I’ve been saying. Not a team player, keeps running himself into trouble, etc. And that goal he missed… my 80 year old oma could have scored that!

As for Liverpool’s formation, I can understand Rafa trying to rest his players… but resting all the big names at once? Perhaps a little extreme. They were playing quite well though, lots of good passing – they actually looked like an exciting team, which is not typical Liverpool They just couldn’t score anything.

Posted from Canada

By richard | February 9th, 2009 at 8:35 pm

Kuyt played outstanding after coming in second half. Liverpool had not scored by that point, Torres was still on the bench, and when Kuyt came in the British announcer made a somewhat disaparaging comment, saying that while industrious, Kuyt probably wasn’t who Liverpool fans were looking for at that point (meaning Torres). Immediately, Kuyt sets up Babel for an easy goal–but Babel whiffs on the ball in front of the net; then Kuyt scored but was questionably called offside (probably not); then he scored the equalizer very late in the game with a great kick.

As for Vaart, I’ve never been impressed by his international play—some playmaking skills, yes, but he is small and I’ve NEVER seen him make a real mark on a game—but I guess I’m alone with that viewpoint since he is playing at Madrid. Robben playing again? Great–but he’ll yank his hammy in two weeks and be out for another six months!

By Carlos | February 9th, 2009 at 11:26 pm

Richard I agree about vdV with you, have never seen Raf dominate a game recently. Not since his hey days with Ajax where he absolutely out shone Barca and Arsenal and was named Man of the Tournament. I think he is still living on past glory.

Posted from Singapore