The pressure has been piled on Netherlands coach Guus Hiddink as his side were beaten 2-0 in Iceland to move six points off the top in Group A of the European Championship qualifiers.
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Against Kazakhstan on Friday a defensive error put the Dutch under pressure, before they eventually laboured to a 3-1 victory over the ten men. Hiddink decided to stick with the same eleven from that match to face Iceland, and stressed to his players that this was a much win game, with concentration and focus required.
However this message clearly didn’t reach the players as after nine minutes Stefan de Vrij needlessly tripped Theodor Bjarnason in the box, after two attempts to clear the ball failed, and the referee pointed to the spot. Jasper Cillessen guessed the right way for Gylfi Sigurdsson’s spot kick, but his reaction was so slow that the ball was already in the net by the time he had made his dive.
The goal woke Netherlands up, with Robin van Persie latching onto an excellent pass from Arjen Robben, but he could’t beat the goalkeeper from a tight angle. Minutes later an excellent cross from Daley Blind found Arjen Robben free in the box, but the winger could only head wide.
Three minutes before the break Netherlands were once again guilty of a lack of concentration, as they allowed a corner to bounce in the box, and after a scramble Sigurdsson volleyed into the roof of the net. Iceland were 2-0 up at the break and on verge of their first ever victory over Netherlands after ten previous attempts failed.
Hiddink brought Klaas jan Huntelaar off the bench at half time and went with two up top for the second half, but strangely decided to bring off Wesley Sneijder instead of the more defensive Nigel de Jong. Without Sneijder Netherlands seemed to lack ideas in midfield, and although they had two strikers on the pitch, the Dutch caused the Iceland backline no problems.
It was the home side who should have added more goals in the second half, but a last ditch challenge from Martins Indi prevented the scoreline from being even more embarrassing for Netherlands.
The defeat leaves Netherlands six points behind both Iceland and Czech Republic, but more worrying for fans of the Oranje was the performance that they witnessed, with the Dutch seemingly without a game plan. The midfield seemed to lack any ideas and were constantly forced to pass backwards instead of trying to unlock the Iceland defence, and even Arjen Robben seemed starved of any inspiration.
Questions will now be asked of the leadership of Hiddink, who was chosen to lead the Dutch ahead of Ronald Koeman in the summer, and if Netherlands fail to record victories in the two home matches in November against Mexico and Latvia, his position may become untenable.
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Hiddink OUT, please !!!
And who will you bring instead? I’m disappointed from Hiddink as much as everyone else, but It’s not like we have a better available option. Van Gaal won’t come back as long as he is in Man U, Koeman and De Boer won’t quit their jobs at Southampton and Ajax in the near future. Are you suggesting that we should promote Danny Blind from assistant to manager already? Are saying we should bring a Foreign manager (a friend of mine suggested Jupp Heynckes… yeah, bringing a German to manage the Oranje, won’t cause any uproar at all…)?.
And who will you bring instead?
Me? You? Anybody would do better than this idiot.
hiddink trying to be oversmart and try out unorthodox moves to try n be the GENIUS like LVG…but showing how much of a self centered idiot he really is!
I predicted this,the signs were clear and hiddink did nothing but got everything worse.rvp should have been benched with huntelaar playing instead.cant understand why martins indi keeps playing,he is a disaster.
I saw that Oranje played very poor against the Iceland, they seemed like nowhere to go and do not have any creativity in the midfield. I really think Sneijder should not be out in the second half, because in the first, he delivered few amazing passes which was unpredictable by Iceland defense. We should remember also when Robben ran through Sergio Ramos in the famous Oranje win 5-1, it was Sneijder’s pass who found Robben, so i think Robben and Sneijder are undispensable member and should not been replaced at any time during any match except due to injury.
I suggest Cillessen should be replaced in the next match, as i review in any Oranje matches, he has very slow response, never saves a penalty, never had any spectacular diving save, he only managed to save ball which are directed to him unintentionally.
In the central defense, i think Martins Indi had not showed any quality capable, must try Virgil Van Dijk or Jeffry Bruma.
in the midfield, hopefully Kevin Strootman can be fit in the near future, and perhaps Hiddink should give the chance to young blood who had fine form in the club, such as Elvis Manu, Daley Sinkgraven, or Richairo Zivkovic.
Hiddink must keep Afellay in the first team, Nigel De Jong should be off and replaced by Strootman as soon as he fit. In the striker, Hiddink must try young man like Luc Castaignos into the team if Van Persie and Huntelaar is out of form.
Above all, the poorest player that should be out in the next match are Jasper Cillessen and Bruno Martins Indi, they both are terrible and never lift up the expectation. Should give first team to Tim Krul as he already proved his skills by saving two penalties of Costa Rica in Brazil.