Dutch results in Europe: a mixed bag…

March 11th, 2011 | by: Jan |

twente

Football results are one thing. How they were achieved another. Scoreboard journalism is not my thing. I won’t say to you that Preud’Homme is a great coach because he won and De Boer is crap because he lost. (Are you paying attention, Hoeness, Rummenigge, Kahn, Beckenbauer?).

Anyway…. PSV couldn’t get past Rangers. Ajax lost at home. Twente impressed against Zenith.

I saw all three games, but delayed hence my late post.

PSV couldn’t impress. A football law says that big players show it in big games ( the Kuyt – Van Persie debate??). If that’s the case Toivonen and Berg should pick themselves up. In a game where a mediocre Rangers fought for all they had, it was only Lens and Dszudszak who tried. Every time one of them had the ball they looked up, forward and tried to accelerate. Not always making the right choices, but attempting it. I read lots of comments here how Lens is crap but he’s not. He is not Messi. Or Robben. Or Kuyt. Or Elia. Or Castelen. Well, forget Castelen ….

But he needs more movement around him and Berg and Toivonen and sleepwalkers. Toivonen is skilled alright and like Ibrahimovic potentially wonderful but he watches the ball too much and lacks Litmanen’s work ethics. Berg… What to say about him? Bland. He can do it all but he does it all at a pedestrian level. Great striker for Vitesse, NAC, Groningen but PSV should let him go and invest some cash in players that will do the job. With Reis injured, PSV has Berg or Koevermans… Ouch!

Rutten will have it tough in Glasgow to beat the Rangers, but I do believe they can. Any next success will depend on the will and desire of the team on the night. PSV needs to strengthen the team at a number of places ( Engelaar is a question mark too, with his one-pace lazy football)…

dszud

Ajax- Spartak. Wow, Ajax impressed with their typical style in the first half. Or did they? Was Ajax that good? Or was Spartak a bit too impressed? Sulejmani? Yes… Focused, motivated, skillful, working hard. But lacking at crunch time. Ebicilio? Young, very skillful, very confident but not making the right choices at the right time. Siem de Jong? Invisible. See above: great players bringing it in great games.

Midfield was too weak too. De Zeeuw is a good player but lacks the work ethics of – say – Nasri, Iniesta, Schweinsteiger or Afellay. De Zeeuw relies too much on his skill and it’s not enough in these matches.

Anita played a great game on the number 4 position (old Van Gaal terminology) but the highly rated Christian Eriksen ( the new Sneijder? The “I only go to Barca” Eriksen) doesn’t do it for me. What has he demonstrated to earn that? He’s good. Sure. He’s with Ajax. They’re all good. But his free kicks, his corners, his passing, his dribbles…. It’s lacking. Messi at 19 years old. Rooney at 19 years old. Robben at 19 years old. Wijnaldum at 19 years old ( he’s not there yet ). But Eriksen needs to pull his head in and play football for a while because the old Ajax virus ( “we are soooo good” ) could ruin De Boer’s plans.

Ebicilio taking a shot from all angles? Vertonghen playing the ball too far ahead of him every ten minutes and then raising his studs? Van der Wiel cutting and threatening and then playing wide again?

Not impressed. Just like De Boer may regret taking his fight with El Hamdaoui too far. This was a game where he needed a scorer. Huntelaar isn’t in Amsterdam and Siem de Jong may not have it. He had three decent opportunities and failed all of them. De Jong had a number of shooting opportunities against PSV and none of the attempts hit the mark or made the goalie work.

El Hamdaoui needed to be disciplined alright. When De Boer told him at half time against RKC to play the ball more often, he shouldn’t have said: “Oh yes, do you want the ball, trainer?”. Stupid. But against Spartak Moscow, you need your best players.

I was happy with Ajax’ overall game and I’m sure they have a good change still, but Ajax’ weaknesses were so apparent and so predictable and so “deja vu”. 34 shots on goal vs 2 and still losing…. Ouch. Been there before, Frank! It’s mentality. It’s not skill. It’s the way Alex was not defended. It’s how Eriksen and De Zeeuw do not pressure the ball. It’s how Siem de Jong does not score half chances. It’s how Ebicilio doesn’t make the goalie work (only the ball boys).

ajax

In De Boer’s support: he admitted after the game that he’d love to have El Hamdaoui in the squad for this game…

And on another note: Olympique Marseille seems to have their sights set on Vernon Anita.

And on yet another note: Aissati, the former PSV and Ajax prospect is on De Boer’s radar. The little dribbler is on loan in Arnhem but De Boer admitted he’s following the creative midfielder.

And Twente… Ah, you gotta love ‘m. It could have been 3-3. But Twente has the wind in their sails. And they have Luuk de Jong. Who is a goal scorer. A killer. A Huntelaar like player. Half a chance = GOAL.

And they have Theo Janssen, who can cross a ball in like a rocket from almost standing still position.

But…..Zenith still have 90 minutes….

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Comments

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By OranjeFan | March 13th, 2011 at 11:43 am

Arguing online is like competing in the special Olympics. You might win, but you are still retarded.

LOL

OJF

Posted from Canada

By OranjeFan | March 13th, 2011 at 11:50 am

(finn, tiju, and ference – sorry about that last quote copy — but it was just so damn funny!)

@Alex: yes I did see the replay – wow what a show Robben put on !

After Robben had finished with HSV I think they just quit on the match…

When he is in form Robben has to be the most dangerous player in football !

Can’t wait for the next Oranje match.

OJF

Posted from Canada

By Harold | March 13th, 2011 at 12:28 pm

Tiju Iam with you here..
These guys just wait for a game where Van persie doesn’t score and then start berating him… By the way Van persie did well had it not been for VDS. Plus Arsenals midfield aside from Wilshere was pathetic to say the least. Diaby is a big flop and I blame Wenger for always playing him.
To prove them wrong Van persie is ending up among the top scorers at the end of the season despite his long injury lay offs

By Jalepinho | March 13th, 2011 at 1:09 pm

ajax wins while psv ties which means ajax are 3pts behind the leaders! go frankie!

guys, remember all the hype that bergkamp wasn going to assist frank de boer and all that good stuff? and Cruyff wanting blind to be technical director? any update on this? no one has been talking about this anymore…

Posted from Canada

By OranjeFan | March 13th, 2011 at 1:56 pm

Yeah – Jan what is up with Ajax management? Any news?

OJF

Posted from Canada

By Jan | March 13th, 2011 at 3:43 pm

For starters:: let’s keep it civil here.

I don’t want to lose any punters here due to the lack of respect for one another.

Let’s stop the senseless bickering over individual likes and dislikes. Apparently Gullit, Van Basten, Van Marwijk. Benitez, Dalglish like Kuyt.

And so do 100s here. Except for Tiju. What does that tell you, Tiju my friend? You could see it wrong.

I’m happy for people to criticize the same player as long as it’s based on a game he just played and offer some insights and analysis.

It’s stupid if I go back to blaming Frank de Boer for the 2000 loss against Italy every post, isn’t it?

Ajax management posts coming soon. JC is working at governance level and in the technical advisory committee. More news later.

Apologies for my bias but I am biased. I simply don’t know when in this post I even mentioned Feyenoord .

At club level, Feyenoord is as big as AJax. At team level today, look at the standings

By susanne | March 13th, 2011 at 4:30 pm

Every post I mime about the missed penalties of Frank the Boer against Italy though

Posted from Netherlands

By susanne | March 13th, 2011 at 4:30 pm

“Frank the Boer”… I’m so international.

Posted from Netherlands

By Dirk | March 13th, 2011 at 4:40 pm

Haha I was going to mention the special olympics quote. Good stuff. Arjen showing his versatility with 3 goodies. As far as current Dutch internationals. All have been playing well and many are performing now in the tougher end of champs league/Europa league. I hope emanuelson can find more playtime at ac an that vdw can regain form. Same for Elia. Anyway, happy to be watching my dutchies every weekend. That’s why we post on here right?

Posted from United States

By OranjeFan | March 13th, 2011 at 4:44 pm

@Dirk

Right!

OJF

Posted from Canada

By Petrovic | March 13th, 2011 at 4:48 pm

I really hate Guardiola recently for not playing Afellay,or giving him any time to prove himself! Friends told me he would become the new Hleb at Barca,and I was afraid of that.
Now that its comming true…

By Alex | March 13th, 2011 at 7:39 pm

@ Petrovic, we should hate Afellay for going to Barca when they still have Bojan, Pedro, Messi, Xavi, Iniesta, n more…

Posted from Netherlands

By Finnster01 | March 13th, 2011 at 8:28 pm

@Alex: Totally agree with you. But I guess the old Mr Wallet has quite a bit to do with it also.

By van den Berg | March 13th, 2011 at 9:17 pm

Poor Ibi. I am just delighted when he can come on with 5 minutes remaining in a game. That being said, he is the new guy, he has only been there two months, so perhaps by this time next year, he will be a starter? Injuries are bound to happen, he will get his chance, I hope.

By van den Berg | March 13th, 2011 at 9:19 pm

@ Finn, Mr Wallet has the ability to drown what Mr Common Sense is saying out.

By Tiju | March 14th, 2011 at 12:36 am

@finn @ ferenc, ok buddies- we will stop kuyt-Persie war here.
@jan i heard that JC said about kuyt that he worths equal amount of gold.and i think if mardaona and pele are king and wizard of football,JC is the einstein of football.My point is we can like and dislike any players and that is immeterial too.i beleive that big tropheis are won by talents.i want orange to win,ajax to win ,barca to win and manu to win and arsenal to win.kuyt doesnt belongs to this talented pool.i fear that his presence will affect to play fluid football.i would nt have been complained about him if he was a holding mid.i had stopped rants on him months ago and again started coz of RVP bashing.end of the story and i am stopping here.

By ferenc | March 14th, 2011 at 4:31 am

the positiv side of affelay’s position: he’s already before jeffren and thiago alcantara. i would like to see him more often,for ex. yesterday he could and should have replaced villa (who’s not in great form) around the 60th minute,but pep had different opinion. i’m sure he won’t become the new hleb,and in 1 year he will be closer to the starting eleven (like maxwell,adriano,keita,mascherano,bojan).

Posted from Hungary

By Oranjeman | March 14th, 2011 at 5:33 am

Excellent. At bloody last. A sensible discussion…..
Will wonders never cease?

I’m quite prepared to take a hit here. Paint me as the bad guy – oh no, someone on the interwebs doesn’t like me…. boo f*cking hoo! Hahahahaha …muppets.

I did however dangle this important issue (at hand) into the water and it seems you have all taken the bait. Wonderful. It’s about time someone did something. Thank you. And thank me.
Now, whether you like it or not, you WILL THINK before you post in future. Mission accomplished.

Jan – keep up the great work. You, sir, are a superstar. A true legend. This site is, and must remain, bigger than any petty disagreements.
Steve – bigot hey? Hahaha. Well, I did miss an apostrophe due to typing at speed. It happens. What’s your excuse for missing so many commas? Ooops, upside your head. You don’t seem very smart. That must be very frustrating for you in the real world and you have my sympathies, whether you want them or not.
Finn – I’ve personally never seen any ‘RVP bashing’ from you that wasn’t at least provoked, balanced, considered and humourous. Power to your pen, sir.
Tiju – I’m sure you are a nice guy (hey, I like RVP too, and in another life we could have shared this common passion), but …just stay away from a PC. Please. As far as I can tell you bring absolutely nothing to this site but childish bitterness. You are welcome to your factually unfounded and woefully biased opinions about Kuyt. Revel in them. All I have asked is that you STOP POSTING THEM HERE EVERY SINGLE DAY. I am truly sick of reading them. We got your message last year. We don’t agree with you. We will never agree with you, no matter how many times you repeat it. DO YOU UNDERSTAND?? There is no ‘kuyt-persie war’ here, just you spouting inflammatory nonsense to wind people up. And it worked. Funny that you don’t like it when I turn it back at you though, huh? Think about that. Get over yourself. And. Learn. To. Spell.

By Petrovic | March 14th, 2011 at 5:33 am

He will be closer to the starting eleven in 1 year IF Barcelona doesnt buy any new players. And I think that Barca plans to buy Fabregas and another midfielder/winger…I heard many players are on their list to buy this summer.

By Petrovic | March 14th, 2011 at 5:36 am

Oranjeman,you dont need to write such posts…

By ferenc | March 14th, 2011 at 5:45 am

@Petrovic: in my opinion barcelona don’t need to buy too many players,especially not attacking midfielders or strikers (i don’t understand the fabregas obsession,he wouldn’t be in the starting eleven). they should buy some central defenders,and that’s it. but this is my opinion. it means affelay will have much more chance to be close to the starting eleven.

Posted from Hungary

By Petrovic | March 14th, 2011 at 6:00 am

Ferenc,I also think that they dont need to buy any players,and I hope they wont,but they will. And that will be a problem for Afellay… If they buy anyone who plays his position and was expensive then maybe it would be better for him to look for another club..
We will see what happens,maybe someone will stil get injured this season (because only then he will play),and he gets his chance. I dont want to judge everything based on two months,but I am worried for him..

By Jan | March 14th, 2011 at 6:03 am

I believe Oranjefan and Tiju are actually the same poster….

By Tiju | March 14th, 2011 at 6:19 am

@jan its orangeman not orangefan,no buddy is impostering me as of now.

By Tiju | March 14th, 2011 at 6:21 am

Guardioyoal is not blind man afaleey will get chances and he should grab it…that is up to afaleey.its totally depends on his overall intelligence and performnce in the feild.it is too bad that he has to compete with wizards.

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