Weekend Action…

@ferenc; i personally dont think so but im not sure … we all know that De Eredivisie is getting poorer each year… maybe its the same as with Alves; he was great in Holland but didnt make it on the really big level
strikers always need confidence and in Holland you get so much room and space that its not very hard to score a goal, with scoring goals comes confidence and cause of that even more goals

again; im not sure!

Posted from  Netherlands

Goose elaborate on the Koeman mistakes please – I think he wont last till Xmas but would like to know what were his big blunders. Never really thot he was a coach (like vB) but Oh what a striker of the ball.

Posted from  Singapore

Play Boulahrouz at right back and this can happen:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvuBs6QdIaU&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PiU0RaNBtM

Greg has to start there.

Posted from  United Kingdom

hey guys , ( i was busy the last week by exams !!)
i heard that Amrabat is selected in Morocco squad !! it will be bad if we let him to go like this !
boulahrouz is great as a RB , and as tiju said … he is more trust-worthy than heitinga
bouma and urbey for the left , weil and boulahrouz for the right !
mthijsen , heitinga , loovens and bommel for the center !!

Rob, in looking for a video where vdWiel didn’t look that bright either I didn’t even have to look that far. I would be a lot less ashamed of getting passed by Ronaldinho in his top years than by Dzsudzsak. Just look at 3:10 if you want to see it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrMfIpDcM_0

Posted from  Netherlands

Pff, that’s the first time I’ve seen those goals, thank god vdSar is coming back cause if we have to trust on vdWiel and Stekelenburg we’ll be lucky not to concede less than 2 goals against any nation equal or stronger than Hungary (Dzsudzsak is Hungarian).

2 goals by PSV could have easily been avoided if both of them had done their job against Dzsudzsak.

Posted from  Netherlands

I like de Jong’s build-up play lately, much better than last year. What a difference a quick turn and a few fast passes forwards can make to a team. Manch.C. just looks so much more offensive and dangerous these last few games compared to last year.

I’m not used to see such good build-up play by de Jong in addition to his usual good defensive work. In this game it really comes to the surface more and more.

Doing a little Holland-Argentina comparison again, Tevez finishing is as crap as Kuyt’s, his dribbling (or strength on the ball) is slightly better, Kuyt’s aerial strength and ball recovery is better. But man do both of these strikers lack in comparison to (looking at our biggest rivals for the WC) Torres, Villa, Fabiano, Rooney, Benzema or Trezeguet. They might still be slightly better or more useful than Gomez (is he Germany’s first choice?) or Di Natale, Iaquinta (Italy surely isn’t using Toni anymore are they?).

Posted from  Netherlands

@Sol Laqinta is way better than Toni….remmember Laqinta won the penalty for italy angainst Australia in 2006.(Eventhough it was not a penalty).
b/w kuyt is not a good finisher….he has proven that several times but he as a first time shooter he is good,most of his goals are from first time shoots.he cannt finish like RVN .RVN can take two diffenders and goal keeper and after two/three touches also he is able to score.,i think tevez is slightly better than him as a finisher.Both of them work their ass off for the team.
At present our worry is diffence and form of znijder and vaart.

Posted from  India

@Rob Bula may be a fool…but still he performes better than heitinga as rightback..thats it.We need a trustworthy diffender there,i dont care who it is, but the man should be trustworthy….if i was BVM will go with Zuiverloon only…then if more offence is needed i wll go with van der weil…(In my book we have only three diffenders those are Brapheid,Mathijensen,Bauma)we have to find another five????is nt it?

Posted from  India

Sol, yes you are right by comparing Tevez and Kuyt they are very similar. I think they are not of the level of Torres, Fabiano, Benzema, etc… because they can’t play alone as center forwards they both need 1 player next to them like Kuyt with Torres or Tevez with Adebayor.

Boulahrouz can’t play as right back. He is a good center back but as right back he is useless.

I’ve no doubts about Nigel he is doing great. His coach has already noticed and competition for spots at Man City will only make him better.

Bear in mind that De Jong was a creative, dynamic midfielder in his younger years at Ajax. He was a showpony and has great skills.

Jol tore him down at HSV, telling him he’s basically not good enough creatively to make it to the top, but he would be good enough if he’d bite himself into an opponent or into the game. A bit like Reiziger/Bogarde/Numan/Bouma/Cocu (they were all once wingers in the youth).

Davids also was a creative playmaker and dribbler in the youth until he realized he could use his energy in a different role.

Did Anybody noticed the performance of Ze roberto against bayern????????
He was all over the pitch and he played with a vengience…and he killed bayern.i would love to have him in orange..none of our holding mids are no where near to him.he is 33 and played like a bull dog..with superb trickeries and skills.

Posted from  India

If almunia played for Arsenal against fullham….they would have lost that game to fullham.
@wenger…..Almunia is crap…..beware…when ever you play against big guns(Manu,Chelsea,Liverpool,Mancity)plz use Ebue as rightback.Coz Ebue is much better in offence…and still you dont have a leader…Fabergas is not a natural leader…Vanpersie could be a better captain than him…….

Posted from  India

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Boula needs to reclaim his starting spot with Stutgart and play regularly, same with Bouma. Neither of these two is even close to the quality to come in “cold”. I would love if both are healthy Jan – June and play lots with their clubs. A healhy back four of Boula—Heitinga—Mathijesen—Bouma with VDS guarding the onion bag may be enuff to bring glory to The Oranje.

Yes, I must say our defence is shaping up quite nicely before the WC with vdSar coming back, Mathijssen performing the way he is, Loovens scoring another important header for his club (we need a Vermaelen type CB to finish those vPersie corners and free-kicks, otherwise they’ll just go to waste, remember, vPersie has more assists than goals, last year as well not counting penalties, he’s just more productive/efficient with his assists than his positioning in the box, but if there isn’t a tall guy in the box to finish his pass off and turn it into an assist…). vdWiel has had some good games for Oranje as well.

What I’m starting to worry about now is that partner for Kuyt up front that Miguel mentioned was needed. I agree, but right now, our only option is vPersie and like I said, his positioning in the box needs work, his teammates can’t find him enough on the important plays. I would say his finishing is good enough now, he’s ready for the WC in that regards. But because of his positioning as a forward striker, I still prefer to see him on the rightwing or nr.10. His choices for passing, shooting or dribbling are excellent now, so I would say his situational awareness is very good, which is most useful on those positions (he finds his teammates quite easily from there).

I hope de Jong gets some time off to work on his shot, he’ll score for us like Davids did from distance if he’s allowed some more training time to work on that part (he used to be much better at it, I have a feeling because he is more involved with defensive duties that part of him has been slightly neglected during training sessions and games).

@Tiju, we have a ze Roberto, his name is Elia and his mentor is, wait for it, ze Roberto. All we need is for Bert van Marwijk to realize that Elia can play that role as well and for everybody else to realize van Bommel will not win us this WC. But I’ll refrain from commenting any further on van Bommel’s abilities until I’ve seen him return from his injury and see how he does for Bayern in the Champions League and against the toughest teams in the Bundesliga.

Posted from  Netherlands

Oh, and when I’m talking about vPersie’s positioning, I’m particularly referring to the counters, where sometimes I just don’t see him at all, or not quickly enough at the right position.

Posted from  Netherlands

http://www.goal.com/en/news/10/italy/2009/09/29/1529330/serie-a-worst-team-of-the-week-round-6

Serie A Worst Team Of The Week: Round 6
Muslera
Motta – Bianco – Moretti – Molinaro
Vieira – Dzemaili – Ambrosini
Ronaldinho
Amauri – Huntelaar

Klaas-Jan Huntelaar (Milan): You can claim the Dutchman is deprived of service, but when he does receive the ball he does nothing with it. His early career with the Rossoneri has been extremely discouraging.

oranje should forget him. waste of time. not only bakkal but even koevermans is better than him – they are far superior to this overhyped player. the best solution is obviously rvn.
huntelaar is not only bad but he’s extremely ugly as well…

Posted from  Hungary

Sol always liked ur analysis…i think we dont have to waste elia in holding psoition…Deguzman and leroy fer can do the same work.i prefer leroy fer..
so how about
——————Vanpersie——————

Roban***————Znijder————kuyt

————Leroyfer———Dejong—————–

—Bauma——-Mathjenson—Loovens—-Vander weil

————-Stekel/Vorm/Velthuzen—————-
i think if we use kuyt in RW..then we can give the central postion to vanpersie…
Elia should be a substitute…for Roban….and Babel for Kuyt
I cannt see any difference in Vorm/Velthuizen and stekel,i rate them same..

Posted from  India

@Sol: Good analysis.

VanPersie won the game against Fulham for Arsenal (and obviously the goal keeping was out of this world for Arsenal, but you have to score to win).

He created that goal out of nothing, a sheer moment of brilliance. However, that was his only moment of brilliance. I think that is the main concern I have with VanPersie is that he drifts in and out of games, which do suggest that he should play a bit deeper and not be alone up front. He would look good playing just behind Ruud Van Goal.

Huntelaar is struggling in a big way. Don’t know what is wrong with him.

Sometimes players have difficulty adjusting to the serie A. I am surprised Huntelaar hasn’t scored yet, but I think he will soon enough. If he doesn’t, it’s only going to get harder and harder (especially if he starts losing self-confidence). I also think he’s gotten less ugly over the years.

Keep in mind he hasn’t played that many matches yet guys. I still see him as our striker for the WC. He is certainly the most natural striker (neither van Persie nor Kuyt really belong in that position) we have, after RVN.

Posted from  Netherlands

I’m afraid with that formation Robben might end up alone on the left on a lot of fast counters having to wait for Sneijder and vPersie to catch up to him (as earlier mentioned, both these players don’t look to bright on counters/turnovers lately). Elia can easily keep up with him and provide an interlink while at the same time providing time and space for vPersie and Sneijder to move into position. Normally vBronckhorst does this but as we all know, he ain’t the fastest anymore nor does he really provide a lot of dangerous chances on the left (by getting passed the defender for example). I can see Kuyt keeping up with Robben and possibly get some good positioning in front of the goal, but if Kuyt is all the way on the right, he’ll have too much distance to cover making it harder to execute a really lightning fast counter (and you’ll still need your nr. 10 there in time, even if it was just to draw some defenders out of the box and away from vPersie and Kuyt).

In terms of speed:
Robben > vPersie > Sneijder

So Sneijder will be last there, but he still needs to reach the edge of the penalty box for a possible medium distance shot (and drawing the necessary defenders to defend against that).

I guess it can still work, but it will depend on vPersie seeing the counterchance coming BEFORE Robben gets the ball and reacting in time (in a situation where there is space behind the defense, the situations where Robben shines).

If you put Elia in the mix, it becomes so much harder for the defenders to defend against that, cause normally, they can put an extra guy on Robben and not worry too much about vBronckhorst, but if it was Elia, they’d have twice as much trouble on their right (our left) leaving more space for Vpersie and Sneijder.

Naturally you’re giving up some defensive abilities vBommel has that Elia might not have, but I’m not sure if this really is a problem when you’re that dangerous (besides, Elia’s ball recovery is excellent and can be very useful on defensive midfield).

Posted from  Netherlands

I still say Oranje’s best defence when all are healthy is:
Bouma—Mathijsen—Heitinga—Boula
—————–VDS—————-
Gio, van der Weil, Braafied, Drenthe and Loovens backing up the back four and Steks / Vorm backing up Big Ed!

But I have said it before, Bouma and Boula HAVE to get their starting spots back at their clubs. Bouma is back to training but has not yet even featured on the substitute’s bench with Villa. I have no clue how close Boula is to regaining his Kannibal form.

If we went to South Africa today, I think the defence should be:
Gio—Mathijsen—Heitinga—van der Wiel
————–Steks———————-
Braafied, Ooijer, Loovens, Drenthe????