Netherlands

Van Hanegem: Huntelaar can’t go to the WC!

Willem’s column in the AD:

“What annoys me most about these friendlies Oranje plays, is that there isn’t any experimenting. It seems it’s all fixed already. Everyone knows his place and in order to change something, a lot needs to happen. Or so it seems.

The regulars will be very happy and content. Maybe it’s the ideal way of motivating our top players to perform at their peak at the WC, all this confidence. But I doubt it. Van Marwijk wanted to experiment with Van Persie, I know, but that singular test failed due to his early injury.

But I seriously doubt this change. Van Persie is the center forward at Arsenal and that works out well, but at the Gunners they have players like Fabregas, Arshavin and Rosicky playing around him. Lots of movement and constantly players supporting him in the box. Van Persie benefits from that.

He will become one of the world’s best players, thanks to that system. But that won’t work in Oranje. Our midfield excels in controlling, with lads like Van Bommel and De Jong. So when Sneijder isn’t on deck, the center forward is isolated. But I’m not sure if I would be proven right. We won’t know on the basis of this game against Italy.

I wasn’t too happy with Oranje’s game. In the second half, Italy pressured more and we got in trouble. The pace went up and we needed to play good football, with precision and we didn’t manage to do so. 0-0 is an ok score against the world champs, but what have we learned? Isn’t that the idea of these friendlies? To learn something?

I was shocked to see Huntelaar struggle. Everything he tried went wrong. Kuyt wasn’t too good either, but Huntelaar was really unacceptable. He made a number of bad career choices and this is the result.

I hope he’ll find himself in Milan, because he’s a pretty good striker. But the way he played against Italy… I don’t think you’ll need him in this form at the WC. Van Marwijk always said that players without rhythm aren’t welcome at Oranje, but he keeps on selecting Huntelaar and Van der Vaart so apparently Bert doesn’t see a lot of options.

Personally, I think it might be a tad too strict to say things like that. Maybe Van Marwijk should simply think it, but not say it. Now he has to budge his principles and the fans don’t like that. Now the media will question him and that will take up quite some energy. I do hope the team manager will start looking elsewhere now.

This Oranje needs fresh blood. We need some fighting spirit in the team. Players need to worry about their place, and particularly in defense. Why weren’t Vlaar, Drenthe and Pieters not welcome to come along to Italy?

I’m happy that Brama was able to taste the vibe around Oranje. I would have picked Ron Stam as well. It’s about time this lad gets picked. We have sixxor seven months for this Oranje to become strong, fiery and hungry. We need more players than the fixed group I keep seeing.

I actually pondered all that when I saw Russia play Slovenia. Guus Hiddink keeps developing with his team and keeps on trying new blood. His team has a high level of good football and he’ll probably get a ticket to the WC. Watching Russia play football is fun and that’s a compliment.