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Oranje analysis: Midfield
Comments(72)
We continue our Oranje analysis and will focus on our midfield now.
The Holding Block
Mark van Bommel & Nigel de Jong. It was the fixed due Bert van Marwijk deployed. No questions asked. But also no prisoners taken. The lock on the door of the somewhat feeble defence. Chances are these two will not work together on the EC… Skipper Van Bommel merely needs to stay fit, but De Jong is being challenged by a number of rivals.
It was the last straw for Van Marwijk. After De Jong had received worldwide boos for his karate kick on Xabi Alonso’s chest in the World Cup finals, the Man City midfielders scored headlines again in the EPL, when he was responsible for Ben Arfa’s double leg fracture.
Van Marwijk decided to pass De Jong a bit, something the former Ajax player didn’t enjoy. The felt Public Enemy number 1. He said to the Volkskrant: “I felt like a war criminal. As if I committed a crime. I didn’t receive a yellow, the ref didn’t even call it foul ( the Ben Arfa challenge). The FA did an assessment and supported the decision. It was a tackle, and unfortunately he broke his leg.”
When De Jong returned, Van Marwijk gave PSV midfielder Kevin Strootman the nod. The youngster did well on Nigel’s spot during the summer tour to Brazil and with De Jong returning from injury, Strootman kept his spot. Two years ago, Strootman played Jupiler league level football with Sparta ( alongside Dries Mertens) and moved up to FC Utrecht and then PSV and Oranje without a problem. Inter Milan apparently is preparing an offer for the winter break.
Van Marwijk also has another option with Raf van der Vaart next to Van Bommel. The team manager will be hard pressed to pick this more attacking option however, as holding midfielders are supposed to be defenders first and attackers second. The Spurs playmaker lacks speed and defensive skills and with Oranje’s mediocre defence, Van Marwijk will opt for more certainties in midfield, if he can.
But then again: the attack is your best defence. That is a typical Dutch motto. A team with Sneijder, Robben, Van Persie and Van der Vaart should be able to play any opponent home. Even Spain and Germany!
And, Oranje’s best game of the qualification series – at home vs Sweden – was played with Van der Vaart next to Van Bommel.
Anyway, It’s pretty certain that Van der Vaart, De Jong, Van Bommel and Strootman will have a room in the coming summer in the Polish trainings camp.
The playmaker
We don’t even have to mention Sneijder. He’s the number 1 midfielder in Oranje. But what if Yolanthe injures him during a wild night in Milan? Who will replace him?
Van Persie and Van der Vaart can play the number 10 role, but so can Ibi Afellay. The Barcelona player is seriously injured though and it’s not even certain that he’ll be back for the EC. But I believe if he is good enough to warrant a little gamble, Marco van Basten style.
Stijn Schaars is most likely the victim of Van Marwijk’s selection policies. The Sporting midfielder does very well down south but will need to much better to force De Jong or Strootman out. If Van Marwijk would select an extra midfielder, he would be my preferred candidate.
Van Marwijk might stay on beyond the EC and youngsters like Wijnaldum, De Guzman, Fer and Clasie might become real candidates then.
Maduro, Theo Janssen, Urby Emanuelson, Royston Drenthe and Clarence Seedorf can start booking their holidays. These players will not be good enough for now, unless they develop tremendously ( Drenthe) or unless a number of players can’t go as a result of injuries ( Theo Janssen)…
Displaying the most recent 25 comments from a total of 72 comments.
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1) I agree it’s still too soon to say who will win the EC.
2) It’s too soon to know who will be in the 23 man list and who will be in the starting XI.
ALL I KNOW IS THAT WE HAVE THE TEAM TO WIN THE EC!!!.
Spain, Germany, England are great team as well and of course they can win it but WE CAN ALSO WIN THE WHOLE THING!!! why not???…we need 3 players to be fit Robben, Sneijder, Persie.
When we have Bommel and Nigel together we have great balance but we lack creativity.
Strootman is strong but he also gives great through balls and is a fast passer of the ball that helps our team to play real Dutch football.
when we play with kuyt,bommel and dejong we have more defensive solidity.but still it cannot save you coz once the opponent score goals we will get in trouble.its hard to stop ozil,ineasta,nani,cr7,jesus navas,gotze and muller for 90 minutes with a support of khedira,schweni,xavi,busquets,pique and raul meriels.but we can be happy about portugal and england .coz both coaches makes more mistakes than BVM.bothe are below par in terms of intelligence with BVM.but we must fear germany with clever gogi low and del bosque.
@Steve, he speaks dutch, that counts for something xD lol
Posted from 
Netherlands
I’m still shocked how many time we have to give our trust to babel but he never deliver, hopefully this time will be the last. I only watch Derk Boerrigter few times, but I hope he will be this friedlies revelation and solve our wing crisis since robben-affelay injuries. Hopefully he can deliver better than elia-babel-lens-drenthe-emmmanuelson , and hopefully BVM do something different against his ussual work, because I know he works on seniority, after robben-affelay there are always elia (who stay at home) and babel to play first, so I am pessimistic to see Boerrigter in the starting line.
Another player that I would not take is Anita, he is not orange material, I watched last few games in eredivisie & CL, he is actaully the weakest link in ajax team, how he was physically overrun by oppenent’s forwards, or perfomed late/ missed tackes, or even standing doing nothing when he should mark any oppponent. The funny thing is I have no choice to be happy with brafheid instead of anita.
Posted from 
Australia
LOL @ Vermeer. Two idiotic blunders. Wonder how much longer before Cillesen replaces him.
No question Spain and Germany are favourites, but Oranje will win. This team has proven that they have strong mentality and strong will to win, even winning ugly. When they are in the top form, they can beat any team.
There are many favourites but Holland is one of them.
Do you guys think Huntelaar, Robben, Persie, Sneijder, Kuyt, Afellay, Bommel, Nigel, Strootman, Heitinga, Stekelenburg and company have what it takes to win the EC???. I do! 
Just read that KNVB $ BVM are close to an accord for BVM to stay till 2016 !! Interesting 
Posted from 
Singapore
Like i said before… I think the key is hunter up front and Persie on the wing. I would also like to see schaars in the squad I think his proven himself at sporting and I think he is quite versatile.
Posted from Australia
What do you think about lens’ hattrick, suddently he’s motivated after being benched last few games
Looks like Hunter will be OK for the Int’l coming up. If I was BVM (and I am NOT) I would rest him for Swiss game – maybe give him 10min at the end. then start him against Germany.
Posted from Singapore
Also Wolfswinkel… Bit worried bout Castaignos at Inter hope he gets a loan spell in January… Maybe back to holland if not hope a middle table team in a big league where he’ll get good game time.
Posted from Australia
Not sure if anyone mentioned this but soccernet is reporting that Van Marwijk is “very close” to a new deal with Oranje till 2016. I certainly donot mind him leading the troops in the next WC.
Posted from 
Hong Kong
Name calling IS NOT accepted here…..!!!
Posted from Singapore
I do not mind BVM stays on. I just hope that he will experiment more young players in friendly games as well as adopting attacking football more often (like the game vs Sweden 4-1).
Robben has set to come back
http://www.goal.com/en-us/news/87/germany/2011/11/07/2747633/bayern-munichs-arjen-robben-returns-to-training-but-jupp
any new on Affelay?
pfff, even with all the underating of Elia apparently going on, he was still the one who saved us from an embarassing scoreline against Finland. 
He made that last goal possible, not Luuk de Jong (all he had to do was not miss a 100% chance). Elia gets dropped, de Jong stays in, Boerrigter gets added?! Seriously? Boerrigter?!
Or was there an “h” in that name somewhere? I’ve seen him for Ajax in the European games and he doesn’t have what it takes (to be useful against Germany or in the EC), at least not yet.
I would have preferred Drenthe right now (thinking about leftwing).
Also Babel, can’t say I’m happy with that development (scores a few goals and suddenly he’s back in? wonderful, we really can’t find anything better to face Germany? dammit).
Better choice would have been vWolfswinkel probably, try him out in striker position and move vPersie to his old rightwing, Kuyt takes his usual position at the left (usual of late).
ah, since I’ve come this far, my choice (considering the injuries I know of):
*****vWolfswinkel*****
Kuyt**Sneijder**vPersie
****Strootman**VDV*****
hmmm, Drenthe?Braafheid?help me on this one*Douglas*Heitinga*vdWiel
*******KRUL!!!(that should take care of the 0 )********
Posted from Netherlands
if you start off with Drenthe, than with 1 sub (if the new guy vWolfswinkel isn’t working out) you can change to this formation:
*******vPersie*******
Drenthe*Sneijder*Kuyt
***Strootman*VDV***
Braafheid*Douglas*Heitinga*vdWiel
*********Krul********
Posted from Netherlands
Normally bvm would prepare one starting
lineup for both games, based on seniority and current form, no fresh face in the first half, so i guess with the current injury, he will play this team:
Vpersie
Kuyt-sneijder-vaart
Strootman-bommel
Brafheid-mathijsen-heitinga-wiel
Elia was dropped because he kept getting benched at his club, same reason Babel was once dropped, since Babel is playing, and apparantly Bert has more faith in Babel and Boerrigter than in Drenthe or Beerens. And im sure he wants some fast players in his squad, he chose the last 2. Also, if Huntelaar gets the nod, he’ll probably start in central striker position with V.Persie on the right.
Posted from Netherlands
yeah, if Hunter is OK enough to play than the wingerproblem is solved for the most part with vPersie and Kuyt as experienced wingers. If Bert uses VDV on either of the wings that would be preferrable to me than players like Wijnaldum, Lens, Boerrigter and Babel.
What I’ve seen from Drenthe lately has impressed me more than any of the 4 names above though, just wanted to point that out as well. And since Kuyt is benched almost as often as Elia right now….all arguments about not-playing time are almost invalid (regarding Elia, unless you wanna argue that playing a few more minutes than the other -also thinking about Heitinga and de Jong- warrants dropping 1 but not the other, I guess you could argue the 100 or so minutes Kuyt played warrants his inclusion more than Elia not playing at all, that would be a reasonable argument I guess, still, Elia’s situation isn’t that much worse than the other 3 I mentioned).
Posted from Netherlands
kuyt,Elia doesnt start in their teams,next season kuyt will leave pool.may be to Rotterdam again.To get more playing time.Elia is no where near his old form.i think the guy lacks intelligence.its sad factor that player like Wolfswinkel,wijnaldum are getting robbed their playing time in natioanl team just because of seniority.
kuyt,Elia,Babel are better wingers than Jesus navas,Silva,Muller,Ozil,Nani and CR7,Ineasta.With kuyt we will have more creativity in left wing than persie or afaleey.and with kuyt we will have more creativity than Roben and Wijnaldum.kuyt is much more better striker than hunter, and Ricky.So he deserves a spot.Elia is flying high and albert einstein on pitch so how can we drop him?.Babel is a work horse and a complete professional.Never do rap.
Bert van Marwijk has a good chance to rest Mark van Bommel and use Nigel de Jong and Kevin Strootman in duo holding midfield in both friendly matches to keep Mark van Bommel fit and ready EC2012 squad,make Nigel de Jong and Kevin Strootman well organizated in their game . The rotation model will use in EC2012 tournament so it’s good chace to change and try another player to get the international experience and pressure for ready to play in EC2012 because in WC2010 , it shows Ibrahim Afellay (numberous chance to score but no score) Eljero Elia (a lot of watseful dribble but no tremendus threaten to the opposit ) even if Rafael van der Vaart( always loose the position ) not play in the extreme ability because of the WC pressure.Finally Bert van Marwijk will set the first 11 players in the EC2012 opener and main players in the EC2012 in numberous tactics ( highly defense with couter attack, 442attack style ,muchmore attack 424 and so on). RVP and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar should rest but I think Bert van Marwijk sent them both to play as much to keep their tempo but it risk to be injured )and try to use another young promising players Ricky van Wolfswinkel,Derk Boerrigter,Luuk de Jong to got the exerience and use the old horse Ruud van Nistelrooy that has a lot of experience to help the team esp in crucial time in the pitch.
Posted from 
Thailand
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Ferenc,
looking at the ages of the Oranje squad players, I think most players will be at WC2014 … Judging from the talent we have the chances are high that we do very well.
It is impossible to predict the future but the odds favor a great EC2012, WC2014 and if I may say so a great WC2018 as well. There is incredible talent in Holland right now and with the right planning we can dominate the next few years.
Confidence is building up, that’s a very important factor. When more people and players realize what the current generation can do, they surely can bring all the “lost” silver back…
I personally see it as another golden generation…