Josh Mol lists the 8 observations/opinions that he took away from Netherlands 0-1 European Championship qualification defeat against Iceland Thursday night.
- By Josh Mol
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- The start of Danny Blind’s tenor as Netherlands coach off to a disappointing start. It is hard to say how much blame from this loss can be placed on Danny Blind, but a certain level of criticism is justified. Danny Blind cannot be blamed for Arjen Robben’s injury and the foolishness of Bruno Martins Indi was in no way due to Blind’s direction, but nevertheless the Netherlands once again lost ground and now seem forced to play for third and hope to qualify for the for the 2016 European Championship via the playoffs. Whether justified or not there is blame to be placed on Blind and Sunday’s game against Turkey will go a long way in determining the future of this team under Blind.
- Bruno Martins Indi should no longer be a first team option for the Netherlands. The Netherlands are short on quality options at Left Centre Back, but Bruno Martins Indi should no longer start for the team. Martins Indi has a history of making key mistakes and his costly red card against Iceland made it extremely difficult for the Netherlands to gain a positive result in this key game. Martins Indi has always needed work on this tackling technique and has a history of being error prone, but this lapse in judgment should be the final mistake that leaves Martins Indi off the starting squad. Jairo Riedewald or Terence Kongolo could prove to be the future Left Centre Back for the Netherlands, but neither player appears to be ready to play at this elite level currently. The Netherlands will need to find a player that is capable of filling that role immediately and I no longer view Bruno Martins Indi as the best player to start alongside Stefan de Vrij.
- Daryl Janmaat should start over Gregory van der Wiel. I was surprised, like many people when Daryl Janmaat was left off the squad entirely for this game. Daryl Janmaat made a key mistake against Cech Republic last year and still appears to be penalized for it. Kenny Tete may have a bright future, but Janmaat is clearly the better player right now. The decision to leave Janmaat off the team was a foolish one in my opinion. Due to an Achilles injury van der Wiel missed some time for his club team and lost his starting position. Van der Wiel has a history of being inconsistent and many people view Serge Aurier as a better option at Right Back for PSG. Janmaat is more consistent and is a regular starter for Newcastle United. The result of the game against Iceland was based mostly on the key mistakes of Bruno Martins Indi and Gregory van der Wiel. I think it is time for Darly Janmaat to once again be the first team selection for the Netherlands at Right Back.
- Arjen Robben’s long history of injuries continues. When healthy Arjen Robben is undoubtedly the best player on the Netherlands, but remaining healthy is difficult for Robben. Prior to this match Robben was named captain of the Netherlands team and a great deal of responsibility was placed on his shoulders. Robben was confident heading into this game, but limped off the field after 32 minutes of action. Robben is the most important piece for the Netherlands, but since his fitness cannot be counted on that means that others players will have to step up in his absence.
- There is no replacement for Robben. Robben’s injury was far from surprising. The man is incredibly gifted and a unique talent, but his history of injuries is long. The Netherlands replaced Arjen Robben with Luciano Narsingh and winger Quincy Promes also got some playing time, but neither player impressed. Narsingh offers pace, but he never really threatened the defense and his final ball left a lot to be desired. Promes got ten minutes of playing time, but was unable to make any noticeable impact. The Netherlands will likely become accustomed to playing without Robben and unfortunately there does not appear to be a solid option to fill that role.
- Jasper Cillessen continues to struggle with stopping penalty shots. Jasper Cillessen was forced to face a penalty shot due to van der Wiel’s poor decision making. Cillessen has a reputation for being very poor defensively in penalty shot situations. This reputation is what caused Louis van Gaal to replace Cillessen with Tim Krul in the game against Costa Rica in the 2014 World Cup. Cillessen guessed the right way in this game and ultimately should have stopped the penalty, but failed to do so. The Netherlands has very little cause for confidence whenever Cillessen is faced with stopping a penalty.
- Danny Blind appears to have very little confidence in Robin van Persie. Robin van Persie lost his starting role to Klaas Huntelaar and Arjen Robben replaced him as captain. Neither move is surprising, but the decision to substitute Quincy Promes into the game instead of van Persie is a move that says a great deal about the confidence that Blind has in the former captain. When the Netherlands were reduced to ten men, Danny Blind decided to substitute Jeffrey Bruma for Klaas Huntelaar. The decision to play without a classic Centre Striker and play with players that are more athletic and versatile is an understandable decision when reduced to ten men. Late in the game the Netherlands were down a goal and desperately needed to score. The Netherlands had the national team’s all time leading goal scorer on the bench and decided instead to bring in Promes who has never proven to be a goal scoring threat at this level. This move shows that van Persie may not have a place with this team moving forward.
- Daley Blind is versatile, but his best position is not Left Back. Daley Blind has played Left Back, Holding Midfielder, and has seen time playing Left Centre Back for Manchester United. Although Blind can play multiple positions he has performed the best when playing as a holding midfielder. The injury to Jetro Willems made the Netherlands thin at the Left Back position and Blind has been given the job to fill that role. It wasn’t a horrible game for Blind, but he was not convincing in this role. Blind looked shaky on defense at times and had several bad passes coming from the back. When Jetro Willems returns to fitness it will be interesting to see what position Danny Blind offers his son.
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My name is Josh. I am an American with Dutch roots. I have always felt a connection with all things Dutch especially Dutch football. I love the strong rich history of total football and am a loyal supporter of the Oranje. My grandfather was from Rotterdam and for that reason I am also a big Feyenoord supporter. I don’t just love the game for its enjoyment factor, but I also love to study the tactical side of the game. I love watching the future generation and see the unproven players reach their potential.
Good article Josh. I agree with you that we won’t see much of Martins Indi in the future with Oranje. I’d like to see Virgil van Dijk get the start In the next qualifier vs Turkey. The Dutch golden generation is now old or retired and when Robben is done in another 2-3 years, it’s going to be a steep decline for my favorite team.
I am Dutch fan and I am very disappointed for these bad results . First it is the federation faults either for Gus hidding or Blind as Dutch coach. We saw the wrong decision for the coach yesterday. I am not optimistic for Euro 2016. Bring Koeman this is the only solution to qualify for Euro 2016 with all these players stars…
I was also surprised by the choice of Blind as head coach. He has a little experience as head coach with Ajax and was not good enough for them. There are some successfull dutch coaches, in the new generation of coaches, like F. De Boer, or R. Koeman who could be a better choice. From the more experience generation of coaches, Martin Jol or Huub Stevens were successful outside the Neherlands.
if/when Holland is officaly out of Euro 2016, we need to focus on building the team for the 2018 WC. It is time to replace the old guard and find the next gen. of players. RVP, Huntalaar, Sneijder, Robben, and Vlaar need to be replaced. All will be 34+ in 2018 and will not be on the team anyway.
of course the biggest area that needs to be fixed in the backline. there are a bunch of good young defenders that need to be put in the fire to see how they perform. Kongolo, Van Beek, Hoedt, van Aken, karsdorp, hateboer, van dijk, devrij, Janmaat, and others all need to start playing for the national team. Some will rise some will fall. But it is time to find out just who can handle the job.
Spot on my friend. Excellent points!!
1. It is very unlucky for Danny Blind to lose in his first match. Yes he has no control over robben usual injury and BMI foolishness. Now he have to strive harder to show and prove the KNVB made a right decision to appoint him by qualifying to the EUROS the hard way.
2. Every young player will make mistake ….some are foolish ones. Unfortunately this time it somehow contribute to the defeat. BMI is no exception but he is one undoubtly one of holland new generation good CB. Hope he will grow up and be one of the best.
3. I was too surprised by janmaat exclusion. For me VDW is still the oranje no.01 right full/wing back and janmaat the 2nd.
4. It was very unlucky to lose robben at a crucial match and against turkey soon. But I know the other option will step up their game to make an impact.
5. For me narsingh will be the next obvious one to replace robben. Afellay can too..having said that I personally think that Dirk kuyt should be called up to replace injured robben as kuyt will give determination & experience in the crucial turkey game and we need that now.
6. For me Cillesen did well overall in the game. The penalty he did went to the correct side but did not managed to save it. Krul is selected may save it but may lose out on open game balls. All GK have its adv/dis but for now Cillesen is oranje no. 1.
7. I also think that it was a tactical mistake frm danny blind not to bring in RVP. Yes we need him at that point.
8. I myself is confuse of daley blind best position. but it is very useful for a team to have that player who has that versatility. Maybe it’s in a dutch old skool total football DNA that a player can adapt naturally to different position when the time needs. Kuyt is one of them.
Thanks for the article Josh.
In response,
1,2. As De Graff and Borinho commented earlier, Blind’s selections were poor and imo naive. The first job of a coach is to make sure he gets his squad selection right. He must prepare for the type of things that happened against Iceland. He didn’t.
Firstly, when you go down to 10 men so early you have to be able to play counter-attacking football with at least one target man. RVP is not that man anymore. The better and most deserving options were Dost and L.DeJong. For me Dost would have proved the best option to take on the physicality of the Icelanders on his own, holding up the ball, laying off, drawing in players. That should have been his moment. What is clear is that Blind didn’t have the balls to drop RVP. The diving header against Spain is how we want to remember the man, not sitting on the bench offering nothing to the team.
Secondly, he substituted the fastest man on the pitch, Wijnaldum, when c-a was needed. WTF?
Thirdly, everyone knew before the match that BMI should not have been selected in the squad, let alone in the starting line-up. V.poor selection. Certainly, the selection of both Daley.B and BMI in the backline shows Blind’s lack of insight as a coach.
Could keep going, like why were Reidwald and Tete in the squad when they could of being playing for U21s rather than maybe getting a token 5 mins of football at the end of an easy win. They became instantly redundant after the red card, thereby weakening the sides potential. If for example, Reidwald was a realistic option then he should have been brought on, as a more defensive mid was needed in place of either DK, GW or WS. Imo, Daley should have been shifted to CB and Reidwald to LB with N.De Jong in DM. WTF?, NDJ wasn’t even selected, another player like Dost who would have been perfect to bring on in this type of match.
3. Van der Wiel selection was the right one. Janmaat’s last Oranje performance and his capitulation against Montero for Newcastle is not good enough to justify selection if the Oranje are to keep standards. What has come out of the Iceland match is the GVDW should not be selected in the next match. The decision is now on the coach to bring back Janmaat and have Kuyt on the bench as back-up or give someone else a chance.
4,5. Imo, Quincy Promes needs to move away from Russia and should be Robben’s understudy, filling in for him when injured and mentored by him. If Munich don’t want to sign him I’m sure VG would take them both on at United.
^
6. RVP should retire and come back if Oranje is desperate like what happened with Ruud. WS should play as a false nine or start on the bench, the 6,8,10 needs to be re-developed, re-balanced, rejuvinated.
7. IMO, Daley should partner DeVrij in CB. He is a much better option than BMI and can see him playing like Mascherano. He is not a LB, certainly not a Dutch style LB and while his awareness is good he will get found out by the best no.10s in the game.
I agreed with point 2, 3 and 6. BMI and VDW should be dropped. Janmaat should be called up. Van Dijk, Kongolo, Riedewald, Veltman should be ahead of BMI now. Perhaps we should start Krul over Cillessen in critical games where we have a much better chance to save PK with Krul.