Netherlands coach Danny Blind has defended his side after they struggled to a 3-1 win over Luxembourg on Sunday
- By Michael Bell
- Follow Michael on Twitter
Netherlands were far from convincing in the World Cup qualifier, with Luxembourg netting a late first half penalty to level the scores at half-time. Eventually, in the second-half Memphis Depay netted a double to seal victory for Oranje, but that hasn’t stopped the Dutch media for criticising the national team for another underwhelming display.
Afterwards, Danny Blind defended the display to NOS, “We faced the best Luxembourg ever,”
“Sweden only beat them 1-0, they drew with Belarus and Bulgaria only won 4-3. We have to remain realistic. Luxembourg have a decent generation with players who ply their trade in Belgium and Germany.
“They might not be one of the teams that will qualify for the World Cup, but they are developing. That is why it was important not to slip up. Luxembourg are no longer a team you beat by seven or eight goals.
“We won the game and achieved our goal. Of course, there is room for improvement, but the win matters most. Let’s not forget that we were possibly without 10 players or so due to injury.”
Follow
Follow @Footballoranje_ on Twitter
Bring Koeman or Van Gaal. Shoot even president Trump can do a better job. You’re fired Blind
Blind is not a head coach. He is a good assistant. De Boer is a better choice. LVG is done. The future is De Boer, Koeman and Cocu. The only one available is De Boer and the KNVB is foolish not to ask him to help out. There is no other choice. At least give him the option of refusing and if he accepts and the Dutch fail to improve De Boer just moves in. It’s not that difficult.
Don’t use the 10 players with injury as an excuse! You should always have a plan B! Use squad depth! There were other players to choose from as well!
we have a lot of good players who can play at the very high level like van dijk, de vrij, blind, robben, strootman, sneijder, janssen,Memphis. I think the only problem is the manager. danny blind should go and someone as you mentioned should be replaced him. just look at the results which Netherlands had in his time. we only won against Kazakhstan, Belarus and Luxembourg and against good teams we didn’t perform well. so the thing that KNVB can do is a change in coaching staff unless we won’t qualify for WC in Russia.
Yes you are right “We have to remain realistic” so again please leave Netherlands alone. There are many names that can do better Job than you. First you didn’t call Robin Van Persi who is coming back to normal. And you always try to find excuses blaming the luck, the official, the injuries, and exaggerating the strength of the opponent. You are not coaching Ajax this is Netherlands and its far away from being the Dutch team that everyone knows.
Blind says that de roon is to flat in possession and dosnt demand the ball, but I his case it’s a good thing! The dutch lose the ball to much in the mid- field and someone who sits behind klassen and wjnaldum and can win the ball back is desperatly needed! In short de Roon should be one of the first on the team sheet!
Best line up possible right now, providing that robben is injured for long: steckelnberg, karlesdorp, van dyke, Heodt, blind, de Roon, klassen, wjnaldum, memphis, van persie, robben,
What a ridiculous remarks. As I said before …..blind was a good oranje player but he has proved to be not a good oranje head coach. van gaal should be the the technical director of KNVB and De boer to replace blind.
I can see that on the field he might not ask for the ball as much even when he’s (de Roon) open. Yes, he’s the defensive minded mid we may be missing, but he also has to know when to push up. That comment might be what he needed to evolve his game further. I still think Cillessen over Stekelenburg as well!