Goosebumps: Marco and John coaching

It seems this team has grown a lot. We have the quality and the talent but sometimes we had lack the hunger, passion and union. In this Euro those things we had against Italy and if we continue with them we will be champions.

A Dutch team with hunger is unbeatable if not ask Johan´s Ajax, van Gaal´s Ajax or the Dutch team of 1988. And we still have Robben,van Persie, Afellay and Huntelaar to play more at this tournament. Hopefully the defense can stay as concentrated as they were against Italy.

Now Holland are favourites but they should stay calm and think that before the tournament no one thought about them so they should believe that one game doesn´t make you champions. There 5 more finals to come specially the 3 games after the group stages that I truly believe we will go trough. France and Romania will be desperated for points and Oranje showed how lethal can be on the counterattack.

I would maintain the same team perhaps benching Boulah and introducing Heitinga and if Robben is fit I would play him instead of Kuyt. Seems Robin van Persie will have to fight hard vs. van der Vaart but if van der Vaart keeps playing like that Robin will have to be on the bench because he is not 100% fit. And if we have trouble we still have Hunter boy and Hesselink…anything else?

HUUUUUUUUUUUP HOLLAND!

I want to say keep the same team but:

I agree about changing Boulahrouz. I think the French will play with more width and either Heitinga or Melchiot should be used – they have better pace and Boulah can be a bit of a donkey in the position.

I also think Ooijer should be changed for Bouma, Heitinga or Boulah, he conistently lost his man Toni and I think Benzema’s athleticism will give him big problems.

I don’t think Robben should start – much as I think Kuyt and Van der Vaart aren’t as good as Robben and Van Persie, they played exceptionally against Italy and deserve another chance to prove it wasn’t a one off. Kuyt was noticeably very good in the air – that’ll really help us. I do think Robben and Van Persie should come on – they will destroy a tired Abidal and Sagnol – no probs.

Posted from  Japan

Never change a winning team!!

keep Boula on, keep Robben benched, let vPersie come on at a later stage in the game…

lots of games still ahead!

Posted from  Netherlands

agreed. don’t change anything. especially defense. We all thought toni was going to make ooijer and mathijsen look silly but that certainly was not the case. i was very impressed with boulah. leave him in there. Benzema was fu*k all against romania – wouldn’t be too worried.

Posted from  Germany

Odd thing about Kuyt seems to be that some people really likes what he brings and others immediately think he is the one that should sit in favor of van Persie or Robben. The number of talented players that could take those 3 spots is a nice problem but I would suggest Kuyt should be the last one you sit. The amount of running that guy does is amazing and the energy he brings I think is something that is essential. No way does he have that talent or skill of the others but what he brings is IMO just as important. I wouldn’t want to be the guy that has to mark someone like that. I think you start the same group and bring Robben and van Persie in as subs or drop Wesley to a controling position in place of de Jong to make room for van Persie. But Kuyt’s passion is not something you put on the bench.

Toni had plenty of chances – free headers, completely beat the offside – they were almost always Ooijer’s fault. Boulahrouz wasn’t tested by anyone dribbling at him on that wing all night – if he plays there Domenech can stick Evra and Ribery on the left flank and Oranje will be ****ed.

I know what you lot are saying, but the fact is that France are a very different team from the Italians and play in a very different way – it would be a bit naive to set up against them exactly the same.

Posted from  Japan

I just heard on the duth tv news that klaas jan huntelaar is injured. I was hoping he could play maybe as a sub.

Posted from  Netherlands

Another injury in practice? What is going on here? Please someone steal the keys to the practice field and throw them away. I have never seen or heard anything like this from any team in any tournament as long as I can remember (which is pretty far by the way)

Posted from  United States

Play Robben instead of Kuyt–that is crazy talk! Kuyt is one of the most underrated guys in the tournament; he is all over the field, assisted on two goals.

Posted from  United States

You can’t bench Kuyt after that. Running up and down, closing the lanes for the Italians, yet prividing two assists. You don’t get relegated to the bench after a performance like that.

I agree, never change a winning team. However, if you want to tweak something, maybe Ojier. He is slow and old, and against a young Benzema that may be a bit of a mismatch. However, experience counts for a lot and given this is Benzema’s first tournament, maybe that will equal things out.

I think Benzema will settle, he is one of the top young striker talents in the world in my opinion, and I do not look forward to facing him.

Also as different as France play from Italy, we still need a Kuyt type to run crazy and hassle Ribery in the midfield so he can’t provide any service.

If I was MVB, which I am certainly not, I would not change a thing until it would be clear that the current formula was not working. In a tournament, momentum is everything. Right now we have it, lets not mess too much with that. It will only introduce insecurity in the team and right now the confidence in the Dutch team must be extremely high.

Posted from  United States

Putting heitinga in for Boula? are you crazy, that guy played an awesom match man, leave the defence as it is, maybe chance matthijsen for heitinga, but keep boula on? And why would you put kuyt instead of robben on the right side, robben usually plays left? and sneijder is playing a great game there with van der vaart as number 10? why change, maybe the defence a little bit, put bouma and heitinga in for matthijsen and ooijer, but keep boula on. And klaas jan Huntelaars injury isnt bad, he got the day of today, he’ll be fine. I still think they should play van nistelrooij one half and huntelaar the other.

Posted from  Netherlands

martijn – playing strikers a half each is not a good idea at all. Strikers need to stay on to get into the game and Van Nistelrooy in particular is the type of player who needs to play almost all of the match because he is a player that can score completely out of nowhere.
It’d be nice to see Huntelaar play but I think he just has to wait for his time to come.

About the blog video, it’s nice to see Marco showing emotion and getting into it. Much better than his cold, aloof nature from before. Looks like the team atmosphere is good. He does look a little wild sometimes when he’s yelling and showing his teeth though – my girlfriend was watching the game with me and she said he looked crazy!

Posted from  Canada

the team should stay the same, kuijt deserves a lot of credit instead of being the first one chosen to drop to the bench to make room for our still recovering robin and robben. he closed space down very well disrupting the italian buildup and should evra play on friday i know that i’d rather match him with kuijt than robben. if any change is required, i agree that the only guy who had a so-so performance against the italians was oijer, i like the guy but he looked vulnerable, lost his man a few times and was generally a step to slow to block attackers.

Posted from  Canada

I’d keep Kuyt as well and bench Ooijer. Boulahrouz taking his place and Heitinga or Melchiot as right back.

@Robert: Wesley to a controling position, no way men!!!. Sneijder played awesome and Marco has to keep playing him as a creative midfielder he was always a threat besides Nigel did very well.

Arjen, Persie will get in when needed. We must give these lads another go because they showed they played as a unit. I only have to say that Ooijer didn’t perform that well and he has to be benched.

Kuyt is active on both ends of the pitch, and he’s got some some size and athleticism that, for example, van der vaart does not have. He’s strong on the ball. Van der vaart worked hard and fairly well against Italy but I’d sub him out before Kuyt. I think we’ll see more of Van Persie as the tourney unfolds, so some interesting decisions await the coach. The Dutch have a surplus of talent up front–even without Babel (whom I’m eager to see play).

Posted from  United States