Sneijder: we are better than at the World Cup!

November 10th, 2011 | by: Jan |

babel braaf

With the qualifications behind them, Oranje starts their preparation for the EC next summer with two friendlies against Switzerland tonight and Germany on Tuesday.

This coming period will be a period of fierce competition for the question mark players in the squad. And Van Marwijk stating that even a half fit Afellay will be welcome to come to Poland/Ukraine means there is only so many spots left.

Edson Braafheid and Ryan Babel, for instance, made a move from respectively Bayern and Liverpool ( to Hoffenheim) to get more playing time and reclaim their spot in the squad. Ex Ajax striker Babel is back, as Braafheid is, and is proud that he convinced Van Marwijk again. “He told me straight, if you don’t get playing time, others ( Elia, Afellay) will surpass you. I understood that. I’m happy to be back now.”

Both players know that they won’t be starting eleven material. For the spots number 12 until 23 there are probably 20 to 25 players fairly close in quality vying for the nod. Van Marwijk was clear: “If possible, I will only take players with regular starting positions on the position I’m scouting for. Secondly, I will monitor if they can maintain the Oranje level. Being good at some mid-tier club somewhere is one thing, but being able to cling on to the high level we play is another. Thirdly, it’s the player’s mentality and personality. Being together for weeks requires a certain disposition.”

Van Marwijk will have to make tough decisions anyway, even with the starting eleven. When Robben and Afellay are back and everyone is fit, big name players (Van der Vaart? Huntelaar? De Jong?) will have to be disappointed.

Kevin Strootman, again starting against Switzerland, is down to earth in a typical Dutch manner. “If I’m benched, I don’t need to be sad, as I know a better option will be playing on that spot. It’s not about me. It’s about Oranje.”

Van Marwijk: “I need 23 top players for the tournament. And I can only play eleven. The decision will be based on form of the day, experience, dynamics with the others… Being a bench sitter at Oranje still means you are a world class player.”

Van Marwijk won’t take any risk with Huntelaar and also at Huub Stevens’ request will start Van Persie as center striker against Switzerland. Van der Vaart will play on the left while Boulahrouz will take Van der Wiel’s spot.

Probable line up Oranje: Stekelenburg; Boulahrouz, Heitinga, Mathijsen and Braafheid; Van Bommel en Strootman; Kuyt, Sneijder and Van der Vaart; Van Persie.

sneijder training

Wesley Sneijder is back with his Oranje mates and having fun. He’s got that twinkle in his eye and a smile from ear to ear. He’s free from the doldrums of Inter and enjoying the tremendous high level at practice.

“Here we play at Mach speed and hardly make any mistakes. Compared to the World Cup days, we have grown,” he says ( not referring to his personal height).

The 27 year old is Oranje’s conductor and aspires the same type of game Barcelona plays. Giving the opponent the idea that they left the box around the football boots. Whether it’s with left or right, Sneijder’s feet determine the rhythm with which the defence of the opponent will be torn apart.

bert wes

Without Sneijder, Holland still have a tremendous team but does lack a bit of magic, as the international games against Sweden and Moldavia demonstrated. Van der Vaart did well against Sweden, but wasn’t able to oblige in the Moldavia game. “I hear people say this and it’s putting extra weight on me. Because it’s not true. We’re all important, we all have our role. Van Bommel, Van der Wiel, Stekelenburg… Without any of them, the team would be different.” Modesty? “No, it’s not modesty. You know I’m not modest, haha.”

Sneijder knows what he can and can not do. “I love playing with Oranje. Lots of possession, putting pressure on the opponent. I love it. The bigger the opponent, the better. Switzerland will be a starter and Germany the main course. I love playing in a full stadium of Germans, who hate me. Hahahaha…”

Sneijder recently had some disappointing experiences with Inter when his former coach criticised Sneijder of not working hard enough. “We went through some changes post Mourinho. The football at Inter is different. Still, we won a lot with that playing style but it’s not like Oranje.”

With basically the same players as under Mourinho ( Eto’o is the only big name player who left), Inter is now the number 17 in Italy. “Yeah, that’s a disgrace. That is weird. We won more points in the Champions League than in the Serie A, that is downright crazy.”

“The difference between the regular starters and the bench is big at the moment. I’m playing in a pretty old team, the oldest ever to play CL football. Another record I can add to the list, haha. But seriously, once the injured players return, we’ll start grabbing results, I’m sure. And I’m still very happy playing there, so….”

Ex Feyenoord striker Luc Castaignos hasn’t made an impact yet. “Well, on practice he does. He’s amazing. He’s a natural goal scorer and he will succeed here. But it’s too early for him. He needs to bulk up a bit, and get used to the mentality and tactics of Italian football. In Holland, teams push up, here he needs to sort it out up front. But he’ll get there. He’s impressed all of us.”

NEWSFLASH: Inter is preparing an offer for Van Persie for the winter window…

What made Sneijder happy was the news that Bert van Marwijk extended his deal until 2016. “I think it’s good management. He knows how to motivate us and to reach us. Everyone would love to keep on working with him. We do repeat a lot of the practices but it works. You can tell we improve still. It’s great to be with Oranje. We know what we want, what we do, why we do it and how we do it. And I believe we didn’t do too bad in the last years….”

So, another World Cup and another Euro Cup is not too much. “Nah, we can say our farewell’s together, haha. No, this is grand. The whole group is super happy.”

bert wes2

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Comments

Displaying the most recent 25 comments from a total of 177 comments.

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By Mihran | November 11th, 2011 at 5:11 pm

well said Eric, agree with every single word

Posted from Kuwait

By Mihran | November 11th, 2011 at 5:14 pm

and damn, I am posting from Armenia, not Kuwait as this website tells

Posted from Kuwait

By AGerman | November 11th, 2011 at 5:50 pm

Nah we don’t hate the Dutch. Anyway, we played a weird new formation today with three centerbacks the whole game. Aside from missing 6 starters and having our 2 weakest players playing the most important role on the flanks we did manage to claw it back. We probably deserved to lose. Don’t worry though even if we lose next week we’ll be ready when it really counts.

Was Holland playing their best team or saving that for us? Please don’t play a B team against us.

By nad | November 11th, 2011 at 6:07 pm

Dont know why you all overreacting over a friendly. No one really wants to give 100% in a friendly game.

By Jason | November 11th, 2011 at 6:07 pm

You can’t win them all. if you look at the big picture, we stand to learn more from shitty friendlies like this one.

Posted from Canada

By Jason | November 11th, 2011 at 6:08 pm

@ aGerman,

Give me back my bike.

Posted from Canada

By nad | November 11th, 2011 at 6:17 pm

BTW. Holland’s biggest problem is that they can’t start attacks from the back effectively. The defenders and full backs and De Jong were so bad at distributing from the back effectively which cut the supply to the attacks for most of the game.

By AGerman | November 11th, 2011 at 6:24 pm

@Jason

Get your camper trailer off my road.

By Demi | November 11th, 2011 at 6:54 pm

>This game proved that Vdv cannot work with Sneijder. The game was flowing when he dropped off and supported but he disappeared when he pressed. Vdv is not a holding midfielder so either put him on a wing or bench him.

VdV cannot work with Sneijder or VdV doesn’t work at all for the Oranje ???? It is a personality thing. VdV could work in the soft “Oranje” of the past. He has great talent and it shows ONLY when everything going his way.. the wind, the sun, the stars.. he can’t turn around plays. Period. This is not to belittle him. It is a fact.

The great thing is that Stroot shows a lot of character and when he came onboard the Oranje shaped up quiet a bit. Very nice Stroot. Personalities, leadership matters the most at the highest level. VBommel in his worst day, he is still a leader. The Swiss took the center and parked the bus. Period. With VdV we couldn’t take the center back. End of story.

Let’s keep this as a lesson and move on to the next game. It is more important game anyway…

By Steve | November 11th, 2011 at 7:00 pm

apparently Bert has and agreement with Wenger to rest RvP in the Germany match, anyone know about this? I only saw this on goal .com though so who knows.

Posted from Canada

By primo | November 11th, 2011 at 7:57 pm

Van der Vaart and van persie will be out for the Germany game.

Van der Vaart didn’t have that bad of a game. He was no worse than anyone else on the team, except Babel who really was the best (and most motivated) player for me.

This game did not do any wonders for Dirkie Kuijt though. I think if everyone is fit Kuijt will be on the bench. Sometimes you just need more than a terrific work rate. Although if others had his we would win every WC and Euro Cup.

By primo | November 11th, 2011 at 7:58 pm

Whoever said that ‘this proves Sneijder and van der Vaart cannot play on the same team’ is an idiot. One game where everyone was shite and he gets the axe. As proud as I am to be Dutch, sometimes we are just the worst.

By van den Berg | November 11th, 2011 at 9:25 pm

It was a friendly game. Nothing at stake. No need to throw our hands up in despair.

By Keko | November 11th, 2011 at 9:29 pm

What a boring game. Three short notes:

– When we have the ball, Kuyt is absolutely useless. Today he didn’t do a single good thing. I hope Robben will be fit soon, because I can’t see this guy anymore, he destroyed every offensive intention that Holland had.
- Why VM is so fucking conservative concerning changes?. Even in a meaningless friendship he only made 2 substitutions!! and one of those was because Van der Vaart get injured.
- Mathijsen is getting too slow every day and Brafheid and Boula aren’t oranje material, they were a drama today
- For the upcoming game against Germany, we won’t have Robben, Affelay, Van der Vaart and Van Persie… Germany will Fifa us

By OranjeFan | November 11th, 2011 at 9:30 pm

Nothing went well today – seems the focus is more on Germany.

But – the Swiss play well, and defend like crazy – the result was about what we should have expected. I would have liked to see some of the chances of vPersie and Sneijder to have gone in… but they didn’t.

Oh well move along – we’ve a terrific group of players and I’m sure they will make us proud in the Euro

By Keko | November 11th, 2011 at 9:30 pm

But don’t worry, we’ll always have Kuyt

By hien | November 11th, 2011 at 10:07 pm

This is a friendly, not qualification. Perhaps the club managers insist that the players do not get hurt so they can return healthy to the club…

By oranje_crush | November 11th, 2011 at 10:14 pm

For all the Kuyt fans out there, you all need to justify why the guy sucks so bad today. As for BVM, why the hell would you play two conservative plays like Kuyt and N.d.Jong against a team like Switzerland? Absolutely horrendous!!

As for Sneijder, the guy has been losing his touch since the start of this season. He’s not doing well in Inter either, constantly losing possession. I can see his frustration very well.

By Jalepinho | November 11th, 2011 at 10:49 pm

like most of you said, its just a friendly and theres no need to panick… the same can also be said if we play poorly against the Germans

Posted from Hong Kong

By Jad | November 11th, 2011 at 11:44 pm

Guys, I dont know why some of us here are so pessimistic on Oranje,

Oranje will wine Euro2012 we have the best team…friendlies sucks, usually managers tries new things new systems we dont see…even players are not concentrated because of their local leagues load.

For Oranje to winn euro, they just need a fully fit 23 players..other than that thinks are so easy.they can play football.

By Jad | November 11th, 2011 at 11:45 pm

and van persie will not play against germany he is flying back to england for some rest.

By Pete | November 12th, 2011 at 12:13 am

@Keko well said. no speed, no skill and no possession with Kuyt.
But, don’t worry, I think we’ll see a sharper team assembled for the Germans. Oranje plays to win, friendly or not and this was a mess for Oranje…

If things are not going well in a friendly Van Marwijk still needs to switch things a bit especially in a friendly

By Miguel Rosado | November 12th, 2011 at 2:31 am

If that’s the case Van Persie should’ve rested last night and play the important friendly against the germans.

By Miguel Rosado | November 12th, 2011 at 2:42 am

Van der Vaart has played so many times for the national but has yet to secure his place in the starting XI therefore HE HAS THE NEED to demonstrate he deserves to be a regular.

He needs to kill himself in the pitch even if it’s just a friendly.

By Jan | November 12th, 2011 at 4:16 am

No one takes hikes here, Sam! Only the ones who say it.

To counteract the negative comments on Van der Vaart: he played with Sneijder in the best game Oranje played in the qualifications: against Sweden ( 4-0).

They demonstrated then and there that they can play together (as they have many times in the past) so anyone suggesting they can’t on the basis of one dreary friendly should count to ten before they post

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